
Competitive exams frequently test logical and analytical reasoning skills through diverse question patterns. This overview focuses on key reasoning topics, including analogies, coding-decoding, directions, blood relations, number logic, and classification. To help you master these concepts and improve your problem-solving speed, using a dedicated UPSI Reasoning 2026 Practice Set 2 is essential. Mastering these strategies is a crucial step for achieving success in exams like the UPSI Reasoning 2026.
This section explains the relationship between a professional and their primary tool.
Example: Sculptor : Chisel :: Taylor : ?
First Pair Analysis: A Sculptor is an artist, and a Chisel is the primary tool used for carving. The relationship is Worker : Tool.
Second Pair Application: A Taylor sews clothes. The primary tool a tailor uses is a Needle.
Conclusion: The correct answer is Needle.
This problem type identifies synonymous relationships.
Example: Guide : Direct : Reduce : ?
First Pair Analysis: Guide and Direct are synonyms, both meaning to provide direction or instruction.
Second Pair Application: Reduce means to make something smaller or less. A synonym for Reduce is Decrease.
Instructional Caution: Avoid options like "Give up," which means to quit, as it is not a synonym for "Reduce."
Conclusion: The correct answer is Decrease.
This method finds a word's code by identifying common elements in different coded statements.
Problem: Find the code for the word "luci."
Method:
Locate "luci" in the given statements. It appears in two coded phrases.
Identify the word common to the corresponding code sections for those two phrases.
The common code word for "luci" is "all."
Conclusion: The code for "luci" is all.
This involves identifying a letter-shifting pattern and applying an efficient checking strategy.
Problem: Given the code for AMBER, find the code for a word starting with 'L' and ending with 'G'.
Logic: The pattern is a +1 letter shift (e.g., A → B, M → N, E → F).
Solution Strategy: Instead of decoding the entire word, check the first and last letters.
First Letter: L + 1 = M.
Last Letter: G + 1 = H.
By checking that the coded word must start with 'M' and end with 'H', the correct option can be quickly identified.
This section provides a shortcut for distance problems involving right-angled triangles.
Problem: A person walks 9 km South-East, then turns 90° left and walks 12 km. What is the minimum distance from the starting point?
[Memory Tip] The "G.R. Star" Shortcut: When a right-angled turn (90°) occurs and distances form a known triplet, the hypotenuse can be found without complex calculations (recognize Pythagorean triplets like 9, 12, 15).
Formal Derivation:
The two movements create a right-angled triangle with sides 9 km and 12 km.
The minimum distance is the hypotenuse.
Using the Pythagorean theorem (a² + b² = c²):
9² + 12² = c²
81 + 144 = c²
225 = c²
c = √225 = 15 km
Conclusion: The minimum distance is 15 km.
This explains a shortcut for finding the final direction by canceling opposite movements.
Problem: A girl facing North turns right, then left, then right again, and finally left. What direction is she facing now?
[Memory Tip] The "G.R. Star" Shortcut: Each Right turn cancels one Left turn (identify and eliminate opposite turns).
Applying the Shortcut:
Starts facing North.
Turns: Right, Left, Right, Left.
One Right cancels one Left. The remaining Right cancels the remaining Left.
Net change: Zero.
Conclusion: The girl is still facing her original direction, North.
This demonstrates solving "pointing" type blood relation questions by breaking down the statement from the speaker's perspective.
Problem: A man, pointing to a woman, says, "She is the only daughter of my maternal grandfather." How is the man related to the woman?
Step-by-Step Breakdown:
"my": Refers to the man speaking.
"My maternal grandfather": The man's mother's father.
"The only daughter of my maternal grandfather": The only daughter of his mother's father is the man's own mother.
The woman being pointed to is the man's mother.
Conclusion: The man is the woman's Son.
This covers solving complex coded blood relations by decoding the expression and drawing a family tree.
Problem: Decode the given expression to find the relationship between S and P.
Decoding:
P is the mother of Q.
Q is the father of R.
R is the daughter of S.
Synthesizing Information:
From (2) and (3), if Q is the father of R and R is the daughter of S, then S must be the mother of R.
This implies Q and S are a married couple.
Tracing the Relationship (S to P):
P is Q's mother.
S is Q's wife.
Therefore, S is the wife of P's son.
Conclusion: S is P's Daughter-in-law.
This problem involves a logic where mathematical operations are performed on the digits of a number.
Problem: Find the result for the number 37 based on a hidden pattern.
Correct Logic: The operation is to multiply the digits of a number and then add 1.
Pattern: For a number 'AB', the result is (A * B) + 1.
Applying to 37:
Digits are 3 and 7.
3 * 7 = 21
21 + 1 = 22
Conclusion: The answer is 22.
This problem requires classifying geometric shapes to find the one that does not belong.
Options: Trapezium, Parallelogram, Rectangle, Circle.
|
Classification (Odd One Out - Geometric Shapes) |
|
|---|---|
|
Shape |
Properties
|
|
Trapezium |
A quadrilateral made of straight line segments (sides). |
|
Parallelogram |
A quadrilateral made of straight line segments (sides). |
|
Rectangle |
A quadrilateral made of straight line segments (sides). |
|
Circle |
A curved shape with no straight sides. |
Conclusion: The Circle is the odd one out because all other figures are polygons constructed from straight line segments.
This problem uses number theory, specifically divisibility rules, to identify the outlier in a set of numbers.
Problem: Find the odd number out from a given set (e.g., numbers including 32, 498).
Logic: The rule tested is divisibility by 4.
Divisibility Rule for 4: A number is divisible by 4 if the number formed by its last two digits is divisible by 4.
Application:
For 32: 32 is divisible by 4 (32 ÷ 4 = 8).
For 498: The last two digits are '98'. 98 is not divisible by 4. Therefore, 498 is not divisible by 4.
Other numbers in the set are implicitly divisible by 4.
Conclusion: 498 is the odd one out.
Other Divisibility Rules:
Rule for 8: The number formed by the last three digits must be divisible by 8.
Rule for 3: The sum of all digits must be divisible by 3.
This section provides a step-by-step algorithm to find the day of the week for any given date.
Algorithm Components:
Date: Day of the month.
Month Code: Specific code for each month.
Century Code: Code based on the century.
Year: Last two digits of the year.
Number of Leap Years: Number of leap years within that year.
The sum of these five components is divided by 7. The remainder determines the day of the week.
[Memory Tip] Month Codes:
The codes for the 12 months are: 1, 4, 4, 0, 2, 5, 0, 3, 6, 1, 4, 6.
144 → 12²
025 → 5²
036 → 6²
146 → 12² + 2
[Memory Tip] Century Codes:
The pattern repeats every 400 years. For recent centuries:
1600s: 6
1700s: 4
1800s: 2
1900s: 0
2000s: 6
[Memory Tip] Day Codes (Remainder Mapping):
1: Sunday
2: Monday
3: Tuesday
4: Wednesday
5: Thursday
6: Friday
0: Saturday
Date: 25 → Remainder (25 ÷ 7) = 4
Month Code (Dec): 6
Century Code (2000): 6
Year: 26 → Remainder (26 ÷ 7) = 5
Leap Years: (26 ÷ 4) = 6
Sum of Remainders: 4 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 6 = 27
Final Remainder: 27 ÷ 7 gives a remainder of 6.
Result: A remainder of 6 corresponds to Friday.
Date: 15 → Remainder (15 ÷ 7) = 1
Month Code (Aug): 3
Century Code (2000): 6
Year: 26 → Remainder (26 ÷ 7) = 5
Leap Years: (26 ÷ 4) = 6
Sum of Remainders & Simplification: 1 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 6. (1+6=0, 3+5=8 => 1; 1+6=7 => 0) = 0
Final Remainder: 14 ÷ 7 gives a remainder of 0.
Result: A remainder of 0 corresponds to Saturday.
The final step in finding the day of the week is to interpret the remainder (number of odd days). If the total sum of odd days is 7, the remainder after dividing by 7 is 0.
Day Code System:
Sunday: 1
Monday: 2
Tuesday: 3
Wednesday: 4
Thursday: 5
Friday: 6
Saturday: 0
Therefore, a remainder of 0 corresponds to Saturday.