Type 2 Verbal Reasoning refers to the batch of questions in the verbal reasoning section where you have to read a passage and choose the most suitable answer from a range of 5 possibilities. In its essence, you must be able to grasp the context of the passage and its overall key points in order to answer the question.

The biggest difficulty most pupils will have is time-management. Should you read the passage fully or should you read the question and then skim read the passage for the answer? In truth, it all comes down to personal preference, and a little combination of the two techniques.

If you feel confident on time, you should read the passage in full, creating a mental map of the key points and where they lie in the text – the most crucial thing you should pick up is a summary of the passage in your own words (or in one direct quotation if you can find it!).

However, if you are short of time, or you feel your reading and comprehension skills are not strong enough to read the full passage in time, we recommend you do the following:

• Read the question first; understand what is being asked of you and embed that into your mind (each question is explained later in our blog).
• Skim-read the answer options so that you have them roughly in your head – remember, there are always ways of eliminating answer options so try to do that whilst you follow the next bullet point.
• Use a combination of skim-reading and in-depth reading to find your final answer. Skim-read the passage until you find a sentence or key-word that you think could be relevant to the answer. Then, read in-depth the adjacent sentences and try to collate an answer together.

Here at JobTestPrep, we have summarised the main questions that come up in this section into four main groups. In this blog, we will explain what each of the questions is assessing, and therefore what you need to be thinking when you look for an answer.

In this question, you should only be concerned with the OPINION of the author of the passage. We are not interested in facts, figures or data unless the author has expressed an opinion on them. In this question, you must pay close attention to qualifiers (see our online packages if you are unsure on what these are) and small phrases that will portray the author’s opinion.

In short, this question is looking for the most discussed trend mentioned by the passage – this could simply be the topic that is mentioned the greatest number of times, or it could be the topic that discussed in greatest depth. To put it another way, if you were to give the passage a title or heading, this title or heading would be that most discussed trend – i.e., the claim which is best supported by the passage. Note that this has nothing to do with the author’s opinion.

This is a simple and self-explanatory question – you are looking for the overall message of the passage. Does the author lean for or against a specific topic? That is your conclusion. Be aware that the conclusion will not necessarily be at the end of the passage – the author may choose to mention his or her conclusion in the first sentence, and then spend the rest of the passage justifying or explaining his conclusion.

This question is very similar to question 2 above, but there is a crucial difference; here, you must make an inference as to what is probably the most accurate answer. This means that there will be more than one correct answer, but you must select the MOST correct answer. To do this correctly, you must pick up crucial sentences from all over the passage and link them together to create your own judgement – in essence, this question tests your ability to understand what is being said in the passage and select a suitable synonymous answer option. Remember not to use your own knowledge!

This short blog has outlined the crucial points of the Type 2 Verbal Reasoning questions. It will help speed up your work, eliminate incorrect answers quickly and accurately, and increase the likelihood of finding the correct answer. For a more in-depth examination of the techniques and tips for the Verbal Reasoning section, visit our UKCAT section and sign up for our UKCAT online packages (notes, explanations, and thousands of questions).