Exam guide
General Ability — the reasoning section
“General Ability” is the part of a scholarship exam that tests how a child thinks — with words, numbers and patterns — rather than what they've memorised. It is rarely taught at school, which makes it both the hardest part to face cold and the most trainable.
Where General Ability sits in each exam
| Exam board | How reasoning appears |
|---|---|
| AAS | One integrated, fast “Reasoning & Problem Solving” section (around 60 questions) that blends verbal, numerical and figural/abstract reasoning. |
| Edutest | Two separately-timed “ability” sections — Verbal Reasoning and Numerical Reasoning. |
| ACER | Reasoning is embedded — verbal/critical reasoning inside the Humanities domain, numerical/logical reasoning inside Mathematics; some sittings add a discrete abstract-reasoning component. |
Structure varies by board, year level and year — confirm the format for your target school's exam.
The question types
Reasoning looks mysterious, but it recycles a small set of recognisable types:
- Verbal — analogies (A is to B as C is to ?), odd-one-out, word codes, and logical deduction from short statements.
- Numerical — number series and sequences, missing-number puzzles, matrices, and multi-step quantitative reasoning.
- Abstract / figural — pattern series (“what comes next”), grid/matrix completion, rotations and reflections, and odd-one-out among shapes.
Because the questions repeat a handful of types, the fastest gains come from recognising the type instantly — then applying a rehearsed method. This is exactly why reasoning is so coachable, and why an unprepared child loses time simply working out what each question is asking.
How to prepare
- Build a toolkit by type. For each pattern (series, matrices, analogies, odd-one-out, codes, rotations), learn a one-line “how to crack it” method.
- Untimed first, then timed. Practise for correctness and a repeatable method, then add the clock to build speed.
- Train scanning and elimination. Look for the single attribute that changes (shape, shading, rotation, count) and eliminate options fast.
- Mix the types in one session to mirror the way the real test switches between verbal, numerical and figural.
- Review the misses. The engine of improvement is going back over the questions a child got wrong and writing a “next-time” rule — not grinding endless new questions.
- Practise pacing. Many reasoning sections are deliberately set so few students finish; banking the easy marks quickly is worth more than any single hard question.
GA course — coming July 2026
Find your child's reasoning level
We provide an exam-style reasoning assessment across verbal, numerical and abstract questions. Your child sits it, we mark it and return detailed feedback — so you know their starting level and which question types to train first.