Bird & Bird Post WG PFO. Quite gutted as it was the only good piece of news I’ve had since starting this journey.
Does anyone have any good tips for tackling the WG? I’ve been practising but clearly not enough
Hi @SamiyaJ
Sorry to hear about the rejection – it's definitely frustrating, especially when you’ve been putting in a lot of effort to master this aspect of the application process. The Watson Glaser test is tricky for many, but I think with the right approach, you can definitely improve your performance on these.
Understand the style of reasoning required for each section: As I'm sure you already know, the Watson Glaser test covers five areas: inferences, recognising assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation of arguments. While doing practice tests is a great start, it's far more important to fully understand the subtle differences between these question types. One thing I've noticed is that many applicants often struggle to understand the difference, for instance, between deductions and inferences. Doing successive practice tests without understanding the type of reasoning required of each section could ultimately frustrate your efforts. So the first thing I'd suggest is really taking time to think about what the section is asking for and why certain answers are correct or incorrect.
Identifying Premises and Conclusions: A particularly helpful strategy is learning how to break down passages into premises and conclusions. This skill is crucial because once you’ve identified the premises (the supporting facts or evidence) and the conclusion (the main point the premises are trying to establish), you can then better identify the assumptions, deductions, or inferences that relate to the passage. Many questions in the Watson Glaser test revolve around how the conclusion is derived from the premises, and spotting this relationship will put you in a much stronger position to answer correctly. I would REALLY REALLY encourage getting into the habit of breaking down anything you read into premises and conclusions. That way, if the question asks about assumptions, you can think more clearly about what's missing between the premises and the conclusion. If it’s about inferences, you’ll need to assess whether a conclusion strongly follows from the premises. For deductions, the conclusion must be an inevitable result of the premises.
Learning Resources: There are great short textbooks that can help clarify the underlying logical concepts and styles of reasoning, and I'd be happy to share some with you. Do let me know. For a more affordable approach, though, you can just use ChatGPT. For instance, you could ask it to provide more examples of each type of question, explaining why a particular answer is a deduction, inference, or assumption. ChatGPT can also help break down the difference between styles of reasoning, helping you understand the difference between, say, a deduction and more probabilistic forms of reasoning. This makes it a useful tool for both learning and practising critical thinking in a more interactive way.
Practicing Under Timed Conditions: Finally, once you feel more comfortable with the test, start practising under timed conditions. Some Watson Glaser tests are timed, so developing both accuracy and speed can be important. But don’t worry about speed in the beginning – focus on getting the logic right first. For some firms, speed will play an important role in determining your percentile score, while others may weigh certain sections or types of questions more heavily.
Overall, it's important to remember that logical reasoning is a skill that we develop, much like any other skill. It will take time, but I've got faith you can do it! Let me know if you have any other questions, and I'd be happy to assist!
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