Verbal Reasoning Test: True/False/Cannot Say

A verbal reasoning test gives you a short business text and a series of statements. For each statement you decide whether it is true, false or cannot say, based only on the text. Employers in banking, consulting and graduate schemes use it to check how precisely you read under time pressure. A typical section has 12 to 18 statements in 6 to 9 minutes, so you get about 20 to 35 seconds each. This guide covers the decision rule, the two layouts you will meet (single scrolling passage and multi-tab company file), the traps that catch most people, and 16 original practice questions with worked answers.

Key facts

What it looks like

Layout 1: a passage in a scrolling box

This is the classic format, and cyquest uses it. A passage of four or five paragraphs sits in a box with its own scrollbar. One statement appears below it, then three buttons. The instruction amounts to "check how far the statement can be concluded from the text". Untimed examples come first, then two texts with six statements each.

The trap is physical, not logical. When the passage is longer than the box, the sentence you need may have scrolled out of view. If a statement is about the first paragraph and you are looking at the last one, you will think the text says nothing about it. Scroll back before you answer.

Layout 2: a company file across several tabs

Aon's verbal test (observed in German in a 2026 application round, with "wahr / falsch / unbestimmt") presents one fictitious company. The information is split across six icon tabs, such as Structure, Strategy, Principles, Products & Services, Locations and Board. Only one tab is visible at a time. You open a tab by clicking its icon, and some tabs scroll as well, with the last line fading at the bottom edge.

Below the text sits one statement out of 18, with the counter "n/18". Arrows move you to the previous or next statement, and a checklist icon opens an overview where answered statements carry a tick. You can go back and change answers while the 6:00 countdown runs. In the observed sitting, one full pass took a little over three minutes, which left about two and a half minutes for review.

The difficulty here is finding the right tab. The evidence for a statement is often on a tab that does not look relevant at first. A claim about a product division, for instance, may be settled on the Structure tab rather than on Products. If you answer from the tab that happens to be open, you will choose "cannot say" far too often.

A similar three-way format also appears in chart-based numerical items. One eligo battery, for example, labels the options "true / indeterminate / false". See the numerical reasoning guide.

The decision rule

For every statement, ask in this order:

1. Is there a sentence that makes the statement necessarily true? → True. Paraphrases and synonyms count.
2. Is there a sentence that rules the statement out? → False. You must be able to point to it.
3. Neither? → Cannot say, however plausible the statement is.

Three refinements decide most close calls:

• The text is the whole world. Outside knowledge is not allowed, even when it is obviously correct.
• Partly false is false. If any factual part of the statement is contradicted, the answer is False.
• True fact + unstated reason = cannot say. If the fact is right but the statement adds a cause, motive or detail the text does not give, answer Cannot say.

Practice set A: single passage (6 questions)

Time yourself: 3 minutes.

Shared desks at a regional insurer

Since last spring, the fictional insurer Brightwater Mutual has replaced assigned desks with shared desks at its two largest offices. Staff book a desk through an app up to a week ahead. According to the company, average desk occupancy at those offices had been below 50 % before the change. The freed space on two floors has been sublet to a software firm.

Employees in the claims team, who handle phone calls all day, may keep a fixed desk if they ask for one. A staff survey found that most respondents prefer the new system, although a minority complained that they could not sit next to their own team.

1. Before the change, more than half of the desks at the two largest offices were empty on average.
2. All Brightwater Mutual offices now use shared desks.
3. The company sublet two floors because it needed extra income.
4. Every member of the claims team now has a fixed desk.
5. Some survey respondents complained about not being able to sit with their team.
6. Staff can book a desk up to seven days in advance.

Answers to set A

1. True. Occupancy below 50 % means more than half of the desks were unoccupied on average. This is a restatement in reverse terms.

2. Cannot say. The text only covers the "two largest offices". Nothing says the other offices do or do not use shared desks. This is a quantifier shift: two offices become "all".

3. Cannot say. The subletting is stated, but no reason is given. That is the unstated cause trap.

4. Cannot say. Claims staff "may keep a fixed desk if they ask". The text does not say that all of them asked. If it said some had chosen shared desks, the answer would be False.

5. True. "A minority complained" means some respondents complained.

6. True. "Up to a week ahead" = up to seven days in advance. A synonym is still evidence.

Practice set B: multi-tab company file (10 questions)

This set mirrors the tab layout. Read each tab once and quickly, then answer. In the real test you would see only one tab at a time, so for each answer, note which tab holds the evidence. Time yourself: 4 minutes.

Tab 1, Profile. Marlow & Finch (fictional) is a kitchen-appliance maker founded in 1987. It has three divisions: Cooking, Cooling and Small Appliances. Cooking is the largest division by revenue. Small Appliances is the smallest, but the group intends to keep it because it brings customers to the group's online shop.

Tab 2, Strategy. Over the next three years the group plans to grow its online shop and to cut the number of product variants by about a fifth. Two brands bought in Poland last year will be merged into the main brand. Savings from the variant cut are to be invested in energy-efficient compressors for the Cooling division.

Tab 3, Locations. The group manufactures in the UK, Poland and Mexico. Cooling products are made only in Poland and Mexico. Some of the countries in which the group sells cooling products also receive its small appliances. Its largest site by headcount is in Mexico.

Tab 4, Leadership. Chief Executive Ana Ruiz joined in 2019 after eight years at a Spanish electronics retailer and four years at a German tool maker. Finance Director Tom Okafor previously led the group's internal audit team.

Tab 5, Policies. All divisions and all country subsidiaries follow the group's supplier code. Under the code, any supplier contract above £1 million must be approved by the Finance Director. Suppliers must report safety incidents within 48 hours.

1. Cooling is the group's largest division by revenue.
2. Some of the group's cooling products are made in the UK.
3. The group keeps the Small Appliances division because it attracts customers to its online shop.
4. If the Finance Director approved a supplier contract, the contract was worth more than £1 million.
5. If a country subsidiary of the group signs a £2 million supplier contract, the Finance Director must approve it.
6. Before joining Marlow & Finch, Ana Ruiz worked for a German electronics retailer.
7. The group may sell small appliances in some countries where it sells cooling products.
8. The group sells small appliances in Mexico.
9. The savings from the variant cut will fund new compressors because energy prices have risen.
10. The two brands bought in Poland will continue to be sold under their own names.

Answers to set B

7. False (Profile). Cooking is the largest.

8. False (Locations). Cooling products are made "only in Poland and Mexico". This is a classic wrong-tab item: someone who reads only the Profile tab, which names the divisions, will answer Cannot say.

9. True (Profile). This is a paraphrase of the stated reason.

10. Cannot say (Policies). The rule runs one way: contract above £1m → approval needed. Nothing says the Finance Director approves only large contracts. This is a reversed conditional.

11. True (Policies). The code binds "all country subsidiaries", and £2m is above £1m. You have to combine two sentences on the same tab.

12. False (Leadership). The retailer was Spanish and the tool maker German. The details are swapped. Test makers normally key a swapped detail as False.

13. True (Locations). "Some of the countries … also receive its small appliances" makes the "may" statement true. Watch the hedge word: compare with question 14.

14. Cannot say (Locations). Mexico is a production site. The text never says which countries buy small appliances. Without "may", the hedge that made question 13 true is gone.

15. Cannot say (Strategy). The investment is stated. The energy-price reason is not.

16. False (Strategy). The brands "will be merged into the main brand".

Scoring: 15–16 correct means you are test-ready. 12–14: re-read the trap table and redo the set in two days. Below 12: slow down and say aloud which sentence proves each answer.

Traps and how to avoid them

How to prepare for a verbal reasoning test

One-week plan (30 minutes a day):

Test-day technique:

1. Map first. On a tabbed test, click through every tab once before the first statement (about 30 to 40 seconds). On a single passage, read it once in full.
2. Spot the signal word in each statement: a quantifier, "because", "if", a number, "may".
3. Go to the evidence, scrolling back or switching tabs, and compare word for word.
4. Apply the rule. If you hesitate between False and Cannot say, ask: "Can I point to the sentence that rules it out?" If not, choose Cannot say.
5. Use the review option if there is one. On Aon you can go back, so flag doubtful items in your head and return to them.

Setup: use a laptop or desktop with a large screen, so that more of the passage is visible without scrolling. Keep the browser zoom at 100 % and close other tabs.

Sources

• Aon, "Practice Tasks – verbal" (official practice sheet showing a Cannot say item)
• cyquest, QualiMatcher product page (text analysis module: statements judged true, false or not derivable)
• Practice Aptitude Tests, "What is a true, false, cannot say verbal reasoning question?" (format description used across vendors)

Scritto da

Adrian, Specialista

MSc Psicologia, 7 anni di test fatti.

Ultimo aggiornamento: Oct 1, 2026