CCAT Verbal Reasoning

This section usually consists of 14 questions spread across 3 question types:

• Analogies (5 questions)
• Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words (7 questions)
• Opposites (2 questions)

Verbal Reasoning: Analogies

For these questions, one analogy, between two words or phrases, will be given. A set of options with five other analogies will also be given. The correct answer is the option which is closest in relationship to the analogy in the question.

For example:

PHONE is to CALL as …

1. THUNDER is to RAIN
2. LAMP is to DARK
3. CHAIR is to WOODEN
4. KNIFE is to CUT
5. WINDOW is to SHUT

The best way to answer these questions is to identify and articulate a relationship between the words in the question, in this case PHONE and CALL. The relationship is often referred to as a “bridge”.

In this example, we can form the bridge:

A PHONE is used to make a CALL

Which of the answer options would fit into the same relationship, or bridge?

The only one is the fourth one:

A KNIFE is used to make a CUT.

Hence, Option 4 is the correct answer.

Sometimes, more than one answer option will satisfy the bridge. In this case, the bridge must be refined to make it more specific and restrictive.

Verbal Reasoning: Sentence Completion

In the CCAT, this type of question will be phrased like this:

“Choose the word or words that, when inserted in the sentence to replace the blank or blanks, best fits the meaning of the sentence.”

Generally a sentence will be given with either one blank, or two blanks. You will need to figure out which of the given answer options will best fit into the blank / blanks to complete the sentence.

To answer these questions, in some cases, it may suffice to just try out each answer option in turn and see which one fits best.

Q1: The dedication and ______________ exhibited by the athlete as she came back from a serious injury was an inspiration to her teammates.

Options:

1. Independence
2. Determination
3. Insubordination
4. Elation
5. Perfection

Answer:

Here, you can try out the various answer options. It is quite clear that the missing word should be a word with a meaning similar to “dedication” and thus “determination” is the best fit and hence the correct answer.

With more complex sentences, a more formal approach may be needed:

1. Skim over the sentence to broadly understand what it is trying to convey
2. Pay attention to what the mood of the sentence (positive/negative, optimistic/pessimistic, congratulatory/accusative etc) is
3. Pay attention to some keywords: although, despite, and, not, even though, however, without, not even etc. These tend to give clues of what the missing word could be.
4. Now, try to fill in the blanks on your own, and see if any of the answer choices match yours
5. Or, try to now fill in the blanks with the provided choices and see what fits best

Verbal Reasoning: Opposites

This question type would be phrased: “Choose the word that is most nearly OPPOSITE to the word in capital letters”

A typical question would look like:

Q. Choose the word that is most nearly OPPOSITE to the word in capital letters.

ERSATZ

1. exorbitant
2. artificial
3. reconditioned
4. genuine
5. exaggerated

Answer:

It obviously helps if you know what the word (or phrase) in the question, here “ERSATZ”, means. But what if you don’t? In that case, look for two answer options that are opposite of each other. If there exists such a pair, it is likely (but not always necessary) that one of them will be the answer. In this question, the options “artificial” and “genuine” are the opposite of each other. You can just guess one of these and move. Incidentally, “Ersatz” means “fake” or “artificial”, so its opposite would be “genuine”, which is the correct answer.

Conclusion:

The Verbal section of the CCAT (14 questions, or 30% of the paper) should be doable quickly. There are no lengthy calculations or analyses to be done. In most cases, you either know the answer or you don’t, and there may not be much to be gained by lingering on a question for too long.

If you know the answer, just mark it and move on. But make sure that you have read the question correctly. You cannot afford to make silly mistakes in this section.

If you don’t know the answer, what should you do? There are possibly two reasons why you don’t know the answer:

1. You don’t know the meanings of some of the key words
2. You know the meanings generally, but the question calls for a deeper, nuanced knowledge of the words

In either case, try to eliminate some choices and make a calculated guess.

Coming up next: CCAT Wrap up

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