MBA Exam Preparation 2018: Verbal Ability Question Types

Preparing for MBA exam this year? Here’s a gist of verbal ability question types, one of the most important sections of MBA syllabus that will help in your MBA exam preparation. Let’s have a look at the verbal ability syllabus first.

Verbal Ability – Syllabus

• Reading Comprehension
• Parajumbles
• Grammar & Sentence Correction
• Vocabulary/Phrasal Verbs
• Critical Reasoning
• Paragraph & Sentence Completion

Reading Comprehension

A few of the common question types include:

(i) Specific Detail: These are the easier type of questions and possibly less frequent as well. You are asked a direct question based on the data/information provided in the passage. Eg: Which in the following is mentioned by the author?

(ii) Idea: Here, the main idea or an implied idea of the author needs to be identified. These require a good understanding of the context and the author’s point of view. For eg: What is the main idea expressed in the passage? The passage implies that…, The author uses the passage to state that…, It can be inferred from the passage that…

(iii) Tone of passage: Here, the tone of the passage in the passage needs to be identified. Most students falter over here as a good sense of language plays a vital role. Merely learning the different words associated with a tone will not help.

(iv) Application questions: These are similar to implied idea questions but unlike the latter, the former requires you to apply information or ideas used in the passage. For eg-  The author is likely to agree with which of the following statements?, The passage is mostly taken from…etc.

Parajumbles

Questions of Parajumbles in MBA exams involve ordering a group of sentences given to form a logical paragraph. Largely three types of questions are asked in Parajumbles:

(i) Reorder a given set of 4-5 statements that form a part of a paragraph.

(ii) First and last sentence of a paragraph are given, and you need to reorder the other set of sentences given although this has become less frequent now.

(iii) A set of four jumbled sentences is given wherein three of them are part of the same paragraph. You need to pick the one that is not part of the paragraph. This is a newer type of question that has been appearing in recent years.

Grammar & Sentence Correction

Two types of questions are generally asked in sentence correction questions.

(i) Four distinct sentences or those part of a paragraph are given and one needs to identify the sentence which contains an error.

(ii) Correct a portion (or whole) of the given sentence using the options provided.

Vocabulary/Phrasal Verbs

Questions on Vocabulary generally consists of a word being given, and the word is used in different sentences. One has to generally identify the sentence where the usage of the word is inappropriate.

Critical Reasoning

Typical question types include:

(i) Inference: A short passage is given and a question on what can be inferred from the passage is provided along with four options. A variation of this can be a passage which asks for strengthening and weakening arguments although they are less common.

(ii) FIJ: Here, a set of 4-5 statements is provided and one needs to classify the statements as Fact, Inference or Judgement (FIJ).

Paragraph & Sentence Completion

Sentence Completion questions generally are of two types:

(i) Completion of a sentence with two blanks:  A sentence with two words omitted is provided and four pairs of words are provided as options. One needs to pick the option that best fits both blanks.

(ii) Paragraph Completion: Was a very popular question type until 2014. Here, a paragraph is provided with the last sentence missing. One needs to read the paragraph carefully and based on the idea presented, the appropriate concluding line needs to be selected.

Hope this helps!

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