FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation – Tips and Tricks | Oliveboard

FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation: FCI released the FCI Manager 2022 Recruitment Notification on the 24th of August, 2022. The online registration process for the same opened on the 27th of August and will close on the 26th of September, 2022.

FCI conducts its Manager recruitment in two phases. Phase I is a general test that covers English, Quantitative, Reasoning, and General Studies. Phase II is a post-specific exam with either one of two papers depending on the post.

The Reasoning section is one of the sections that candidates may find the hardest to crack. This is because the logic for each question varies and needs time to figure out. However, that need not be a worry. With enough exposure to questions, practice, and mock tests you can surely ace the reasoning section. Hence, we’re sharing some useful tips and tricks to keep in mind for your FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation.

FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation: Syllabus

The syllabus for FCI Manager’s Reasoning section is no different from most banking and government exams. The topics are common topics covered for all exams. These are:

Arrangement and Pattern	Direction and Distance
Analogy	Inequalities
Classification	Puzzles
Series	Verbal Reasoning
Coding and Decoding	Input-Output
Blood Relations	Order Ranking
Seating Arrangement	Syllogisms
Alphanumeric Series	Logical Reasoning

FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation- Important Tips

Reasoning as a section can be scoring when you get a hang of how to solve the different types of questions. That proficiency comes with regular practice and exposure to a variety of questions of each type. Because this section is so dynamic when it comes to questions and their framing, doing maximum questions is your only way to go.

Here we’ll detail some general tips to follow for the section as a whole and some tips specific to the topics with higher weightage to make your preparation easier.

General Tips

• Proficiency in this section will come only with practice. Practicing enough questions will help make spotting patterns and breaking down questions into simple parts a lot easier.
• Make sure to learn as many tips and quick tricks as possible to help save time.
• Time is of the essence. Make sure to do enough questions so you CAN recognize the lengthier or time-taking ones. This way you can keep those questions for later or move past them and do the easier ones.
• Similarly, accuracy is important. Candidates should aim at striking a balance between accuracy and the number of questions solved.
• Keep in mind that there is a negative marking. Blind guessing is not recommended as this could backfire and cause you to lose marks.
• Practice as many mock tests as you can. Not only do these help with practicing questions, but you also get a hang of the exam atmosphere and how to perform under the stress of time constraints.

Topic-Wise Tips

Puzzles

• Puzzles usually make up a good part of the section’s marks. Make sure to practice these as much as possible.
• Puzzles have seating arrangements mostly- these can be linear, circular, or even square or rectangle-shaped arrangements.
• These are the questions that take time. So make sure to only attempt if you’re confident.
• Practicing these questions will certainly give you a lot of exposure to the different ways in which seating arrangements can be solved.
• Particularly keep in mind the direction the people/objects in the arrangement face. Whether they’re north, south, etc.

Inequalities

• Inequalities are some of the easiest and most scoring topics of Reasoning.
• All you have to do is figure out the sequence and arrange it in that manner to solve the questions.
• Keep in mind that inequalities can also be coded with the >,<, and other comparison symbols being replaced by different signs. The meaning of the signs will be given.
• For these coded inequalities, make sure to note down which coded sign corresponds to which comparison sign. For example, the question may say that @ means less than, so make sure to note that down so as to not get confused.

Syllogisms

• Another scoring topic that requires pure logical reasoning.
• There are mainly four different types of statements in syllogisms. These are the Universal Positive, Universal Negative, Particular Positive, and Particular Negative.
• For easy solving of such questions keep the AEIO rule in mind. Universal Positive- A, Universal Negative- E, Particular Positive- I, Particular Negative- O.
• Also, keep in mind the following points-
  • If there are two particular statements, the conclusion cannot be universal.
  • If there are two positive statements, the conclusion cannot be negative.
  • If there are two negative statements, the conclusion cannot be positive.
  • Two particular statements will give no conclusion unless one of the statements is a particular positive statement.

• Another way to solve these questions easily is by using Venn diagrams. Venn diagrams can help represent exceptions, combinations, and hierarchies in the statements well.

Data Sufficiency

• Data sufficiency is pretty easy. It consists of questions where you have to figure out if the given statements are sufficient to answer the question.
• You may not even need to solve the whole question in this case.
• You need to read the question, check the statements and see whether one, both, either, or neither of the statements are sufficient to arrive at an answer.

Blood Relations, Directions, Coding-Decoding, Ranking

• Blood Relations require quick thinking and concentrated reading like most of these questions. Making a diagram may help a lot in figuring these questions out. Also, be aware of the different relations to not get confused.
• Direction sense, ordering, and ranking is questions that depend on how well you orient yourself and figure out sequences.
• Coding-Decoding mainly involves figuring out the pattern being followed in the set of numbers/words/letters and decoding them.

FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation: Exam Pattern

Phase I

Sr. No	Name of the Test	No. of Qs.	Max. Marks	Duration (minutes)	Medium of examination
1	English Language	25	25	15 minutes	English
2	Reasoning Ability	25	25	15 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
3	Numerical Aptitude	25	25	15 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
4	General Studies	25	25	15 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
	Total	100	100	60 Minutes

From the exam pattern, it is seen that the Reasoning Section is of 25 questions of 25 marks total. 15 minutes is the time allotted.

Phase II

Phase II has 4 papers. Depending on the post, the candidate may have to appear for one paper or two papers out of the four. A candidate can apply for three kinds of Managerial posts:

• General (Manager- General, Depot, Movement)
• Technical (Manager – Technical, Civil, Electrical & Mechanical)
• Hindi (Manager – Hindi)

You can read about the exam pattern across posts for Phase II here.

The Reasoning section is asked in Paper I mostly. General Intelligence in Paper III may also cover a bit of Reasoning. The following are the exam patterns.

Paper I

Sr. No	Name of the Test	No. of Qs.	Max. Marks	Duration (minutes)	Medium of examination
1	English Language	25	25	20 minutes	English
2	Reasoning Ability	25	25	20 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
3	Numerical Aptitude	25	25	20 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
4	General Studies	45	45	30 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
	Total	120	120	120 Minutes

Like with Phase I, the Reasoning section is of 25 questions and 25 marks total. However, the time allotted for the section is slightly higher at 20 minutes.

Paper III

Sr. No	Name of the Test	No. of Qs.	Max. Marks	Duration (minutes)	Medium of examination
1	General Hindi	20	20	20 minutes	Hindi
2	General English	20	20	20 minutes	English
3	General Awareness	20	20	20 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
4	General Intelligence	20	20	20 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
5	Computer Awareness (with specific reference to MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and the Internet)	20	20	20 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
6	Current Affairs	20	20	20 minutes	Bilingual (English and Hindi)
	Total	120	120	120 Minutes

Paper III has general intelligence which may cover basic numerical aptitude and reasoning. For Paper III basic revision of the Phase I syllabus will suffice.

FCI Manager Previous Year Analysis: Reasoning

If you’re confused about how to prioritize your preparation for Reasoning, first figure out your weak areas and focus on practicing them. Other than that, you can also study the weightage for different topics based on the previous year’s paper. Here we have provided a shift-wise breakdown of the number of questions from each topic for your ease of understanding. This way you can understand which topic to prioritize in your learning.

Shift 1

Difficulty level – (easy-moderate)

• Inequality: 5 questions
• Syllogism: 5 questions
• Alphanumeric Series: 1 question
• Miscellaneous(Blood Relations+ Directions+ Data Sufficiency): 4 questions
• 4 Puzzles ( Seating arrangement + Circular arrangement+ Age based+ Box based): 20 questions

Shift 2

Difficulty level – (easy)

• Puzzles (Linear+Stack based): 20 questions
• Inequality: 5 questions
• Alphabetic Series: 1 question
• Syllogism: 5 questions
• Miscellaneous(Blood Relation) – 4 questions

As you can see, the maximum number of questions has come from Puzzles. Out of the 35 questions that were asked in Reasoning at the time, 20 were exclusively puzzles. So for the best performance, it would be advisable to practice puzzles and arrangements as much as possible. Ignoring this topic will only lead to the loss of a chunk of marks which is best to avoid.

FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation: Books to Refer

Having a few but good quality study material goes a long way in making your preparation efficient. Here are a few recommended books to have at hand as you prepare for the Reasoning Section of FCI Manager.

Book Name	Author
Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning	R S Aggarwal
A New Approach to Reasoning	B.S. Sijwali & S. Sijwali Arihant
Analytical Reasoning	M.K Pandey
Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency	Arihant Publication

Conclusion

While reasoning may seem like an intimidating section to tackle, it is actually quite fun and easy if you figure out the patterns and logic. The only answer to that is practice. Regular, dedicated practice balancing different topics will provide an all-around preparation for this section. You can further look up tips and tricks for Reasoning on your YouTube channel!

Best of luck!

FCI Manager Reasoning Preparation: Frequently Asked Questions