Wonderlic Scholastic Level Exam (SLE)

Symbolic reasoning requires you to identify relationships between elements and apply those relationships to new situations. This skill underlies many verbal questions, including analogies, pattern recognition, and logical deduction.

The key to symbolic reasoning is recognizing that symbols (whether words, letters, numbers, or images) represent concepts, and the relationships between symbols follow consistent rules.

Analogies are the most common symbolic reasoning questions on verbal sections. They present a relationship between two terms and ask you to identify a parallel relationship.

The basic structure is: A is to B as C is to D.

To solve analogies, identify the relationship between the first pair, then find the answer choice that creates the same relationship with the third term.

Common analogy relationships include:

Synonyms: happy is to joyful as sad is to melancholy. Antonyms: hot is to cold as light is to dark. Part to whole: page is to book as key is to keyboard. Whole to part: tree is to branch as hand is to finger. Degree or intensity: warm is to hot as cool is to cold. Function or purpose: knife is to cut as pen is to write. Characteristic: sugar is to sweet as lemon is to sour. Category membership: rose is to flower as sparrow is to bird. Cause and effect: rain is to flood as spark is to fire. Creator and creation: author is to novel as composer is to symphony. Tool and user: hammer is to carpenter as scalpel is to surgeon. Object and action: ball is to throw as arrow is to shoot. Symbol and meaning: dove is to peace as heart is to love. Sequence: Monday is to Tuesday as January is to February. Location: fish is to water as bird is to sky.

When facing an analogy question, create a sentence that expresses the relationship between the first two terms. Then test each answer choice by inserting it into the same sentence structure.

This sentence method helps you precisely identify relationships and avoid superficial connections.

Some Wonderlic questions present symbols that represent words or operations, asking you to decode a message or complete a pattern.

For example, if you are told that @ represents "and," # represents "or," and * represents "not," you might be asked to interpret a symbolic statement or identify which real-world statement matches a symbolic one.

To solve these questions, substitute the meanings systematically. Write out the translation if needed, using the scratch space strategy discussed in the next chapter.

Pattern recognition questions present a series of symbols (letters, words, or abstract shapes) and ask you to identify the next element in the sequence or the rule governing the pattern.

For letter sequences, look for:

Alphabetical order (A, B, C, D) Reverse alphabetical order (Z, Y, X, W) Skip patterns (A, C, E, G — skipping one letter) Alternating patterns (A, Z, B, Y, C, X) Repeated patterns (AB, AB, AB) Growing patterns (A, AB, ABC, ABCD)

For word sequences, look for:

Semantic relationships (dog, puppy, cat, kitten) Phonetic patterns (words that rhyme or share sounds) Length patterns (words increasing or decreasing in letter count) Alphabetical first-letter patterns (apple, banana, cherry)

Some verbal questions incorporate symbolic logic, requiring you to evaluate whether conclusions follow from given premises.

The basic valid argument forms include:

Common invalid argument forms (fallacies) include:

Conditional statements (if-then statements) appear frequently in verbal reasoning. Understanding their logical structure helps you evaluate arguments quickly.

The original statement "If A, then B" has three related forms:

Converse: If B, then A. (Not logically equivalent to the original.) Inverse: If not A, then not B. (Not logically equivalent to the original.) Contrapositive: If not B, then not A. (Logically equivalent to the original.)

Only the contrapositive has the same truth value as the original statement. This is critical for evaluating logical arguments.

Verbal questions often include quantifiers: words that indicate how many members of a group possess a characteristic. Understanding quantifier relationships helps you evaluate statements accurately.

Universal quantifiers (all, every, each, any) indicate that a statement applies to every member of a group.

Existential quantifiers (some, at least one, there exists) indicate that a statement applies to at least one member of a group.

Negating quantifiers follows specific rules:

The negation of "all are" is "some are not" (or "at least one is not"). The negation of "none are" is "some are" (or "at least one is"). The negation of "some are" is "none are." The negation of "some are not" is "all are."

Venn diagrams visually represent logical relationships between categories. Understanding Venn diagram logic helps you evaluate syllogisms and categorical statements.

Two overlapping circles represent two categories that share some members. The overlapping region contains members belonging to both categories. The non-overlapping regions contain members belonging to only one category.

For statements like "All A are B," draw circle A entirely inside circle B. For statements like "No A are B," draw circles A and B with no overlap. For statements like "Some A are B," draw circles A and B with partial overlap. For statements like "Some A are not B," ensure part of circle A lies outside circle B.

The Wonderlic SLE includes questions asking you to identify proverbs with similar meanings or to interpret idiomatic expressions.

For proverb matching questions, focus on the underlying message rather than the literal words. Two proverbs may use completely different imagery but express the same wisdom.

Common proverb themes include:

Prudence and foresight (planning ahead prevents problems) Persistence (continued effort leads to success) Caution (act carefully to avoid harm) Value of experience (wisdom comes from experience) Social cooperation (working together achieves more) Acceptance (accept what cannot be changed) Patience (good results take time)

For idiom interpretation, identify the figurative meaning rather than the literal meaning. "Raining cats and dogs" means heavy rain, not actual animals falling from the sky.

Some questions present coded information and ask you to deduce relationships.