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I hate verbal reasoning tests - because they are wrong!

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Reply 20

maxmadx

is it aht any number negative or positive ^ 0 = 1? but why?

Reply 21

The Dark Side

I will try and demonstrate why: take an example, say -5^2. -5^2/-5^2 gives you 1 as 25/25 is 1. -5^2/-5^2 is the same as saying -5^(2-2) (check the laws of powers if you are unsure of what I'm on about here) which is 5^0 and from the previous result we already know the answer is 1.

Reply 22

maxmadx

ok i get it, thanks a lot mate, did you do undergrad maths or something?

Reply 23

The Dark Side

No I am actually a high school student and my A-levels include Maths as well. :smile:

Reply 24

DarthVader

I've never seen a question like that in a numerical test anyway. It's usually about deducing things from graphs and such like with a wee bit of number crunching here and there.

Reply 25

mendelssohn

Tbh, with the first verbal one I would have said cannot say, for the very reason you did. So don't feel too bad about that one in particular.

Reply 26

flugestuge

maxmadx

I applied for a grad scheme and did poorly on the verbal reasoning test (bottom 25% actually)
An example of an anwer I do not agree with:

The idea is not to agree.
It is to get the right answer.

Reply 27

flugestuge

maxmadx

hehe i am dong a postgrad in maths believe it or not! lol (PGCert) that is.

Hmm..
You are training to become a teacher or an accountant and cant do GCSE maths ? :rolleyes:

Reply 28

DarthVader

People don't have to be good at maths to be accountants. They've got computers to do the bean counting these days. :wink:

Reply 29

The Dark Side

Hmm, at least i would say being comfortable with numbers can help. That's a thing i learnt from my summer internship with a local accountant last summer. :smile:

Reply 30

maxmadx

flugestuge

Hmm..
You are training to become a teacher or an accountant and cant do GCSE maths ? :rolleyes:

Thats quite a generalisation don't ya think!? I did do GCSE maths, and I might have seen the rule for power 0 before, however now that I understand the 'why' as darkside kindly explained, I am unlikely to ever forget again!

But yeah, maths hasnt been my strongest field, I am basically just following my new found interest in it having done my degree in Finance. Also, since starting this maths course I have felt much more confident in numbers, and after the next set of exams, I will feel much more confident to start training as an accountant where 'basic' maths is obviously required.

btw, my uncle is an accountant and he is worse at math than me (in the general sense) so there is hope for us all!

:eek:

Reply 31

maxmadx

flugestuge

The idea is not to agree.
It is to get the right answer.

What do you mean by that?

I meant I dont agree with the answer that was given, not that I dont agree with the question.

Reply 32

maxmadx

mendelssohn

Tbh, with the first verbal one I would have said cannot say, for the very reason you did. So don't feel too bad about that one in particular.

Cheers m8! :biggrin:

Reply 33

Barny

The answer is true.

Enticing people to choose a bus over their car is difficult. Governments have tried by improving comfort and frequency of public transport.

This means that they have tried to entice people to use public transport over their cars by improving comfort and frequency, hence implying they believe that improving the comfort will mean more people use public transport.

Reply 34

flugestuge

maxmadx

But yeah, maths hasnt been my strongest field, I am basically just following my new found interest in it having done my degree in Finance.

my uncle is an accountant and he is worse at math than me (in the general sense) so there is hope for us all!

You also seem to be crap at the verbal test.
Oh well, you dont really need any brains to be an accountant.
You should fit right in.

Reply 35

Eternal Dreams

Agree totally with you regarding the tests as the whole point of them is to pick up on subtleties and they just don't seem to correspond half of the time.

http://money.guardian.co.uk/work/psychometrics/0,1456,589733,00.html

This one demonstrates it exactly where the answers are complete nonsense and at times actively disagree with the text!

However I would not worry too much as the ones given in the actual tests as stated earlier are by the professional companies who are far superior and generally actually make sense. That said I ran into the same problem as you are and was still getting the vast majority right and think that bottom 25% definitely need more practice!

Reply 36

potatoman

I know this post is old but it struck a chord with me concerning the verbal tests. I would've answered true in that question but the one thing I had to question when reading it (which is slightly different to your query) was who does "government" refer to when it says "government believes"? In the passage above the statement, it talks about how governments (plural) have tried to entice people to use buses but this could mean the Spanish, French and German governments. This also suggests that perhaps some other governments may not have done this. The singular term "government" used in the statement that follows the passage seems to suggest ALL governments have tried to promote the use of buses or perhaps the current government of your particular country.

The reason I would've answered true is that I know what I've just said is reading too much into the question but I still think it is a relevant point. People who are genuinely good at analysing the meaning of words are at a disadvantage cos they notice the slight nuances more than those who set the questions

Reply 37

Malia

Its really easy, if you simplify the expression, you get something like:
0+4-20(power0) +10(power 2)

now 20(power 0) =1

so 0+4-1+100 = 103

sorry if i have repeated an alreadya nswered question..

Reply 38

raffer1970

AB = 5 X 0 = 0
EE = 2 X 2 = 4
(ED) ^ B = (2 X 10) ^ 0 = 1 (any number raised to the power of zero = 1)
(AC) ^ 2 = (5 X 2) ^ 2 = 10 ^ 2 = 100

Answer = 0 + 4 - 1 + 100 = 103