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Clerical Aptitude

Reasoning · Verbal Reasoning

8 Part1 worked examples5 practice questions

What is the daily work of an office clerk? Filling names and addresses in registers, keeping files in order, matching two lists to see that no letter or digit has gone astray. This job needs attention more than knowledge. That is why exams have questions on clerical aptitude — they test not your intelligence but the speed and exactness of your eye.

The good news is that there is no formula and almost nothing to memorise. It is only a matter of a method and practice — the method is in what order to move your eye, and the practice is to make no mistakes within the time limit. The chapter has five kinds of questions: matching names and addresses, comparing codes and numbers, counting, the order of files and the classification of news.

How to use this chapter

  1. Read — each part first explains the idea and then the method.
  2. Study the solved example — in the boxes marked “Example” the full solution is open, step by step. At every step ask: why was this step taken?
  3. Try it yourself — in the “Try it yourself first” questions the solution is hidden. Here match with a finger or pencil first, then choose an option. If stuck, take the hint, and open the solution only at the very end.
  4. Know the level — every question is marked Basic, Standard or Advanced. Make the basic ones solid first.
NoteAll the answers were worked out by machine, character by character, so you can trust them. In this chapter keep an eye on time, as in the real exam: usually 30 to 40 seconds a question. The questions you solve are remembered in this browser.
1

Foundation — the art of matching

How to move the eye and which mistakes to avoid

What the exam tests, the part-by-part method and the list of look-alike characters and digits.

What the exam tests

Speed + exactness + patience

The five types of clerical aptitude questions, the time per question and the golden rule of checking.

The questions of this chapter usually come in these five forms:

FormWhat the question saysWhat it tests
Matching name and addresspick the entry exactly like the given onechecking every letter
Comparing codes / numbershow many pairs are alike; which is differentspeed of the eye
Finding differenceshow many mistakes in the copyexactness
Counting in a sequencehow many times such a pair or letter occursattention and patience
The order of filesarrange by surname / number / datea firm grip on the rule
Classifying newswhich category the news belongs tofinding the main subject

For each question you usually get 30 to 40 seconds. So you need a method that is both quick and without slips. There is a golden rule to master both together: read to find a mistake, not to prove it right. When you read to prove it right the eye starts seeing what you want to see; when you read to find a mistake the eye stays alert.

TrickThe biggest source of saved time: cut the options one by one — as soon as you find a single difference in an option, drop it and go to the next. You need not read the whole option.

The part-by-part method

Left to right, in small pieces

Splitting a long code or address into pieces to match them, look-alike letters and digits, and the four forms a difference takes.

Looking at a long code (such as MB9764R) or an address all at once leads to mistakes. The eye catches only a chunk of three or four characters properly at a time. So:

Four steps of matching
1. Split the whole entry into pieces (name | house | locality | city-PIN)2. Match every piece left to right in both places3. The moment you find the first difference stop and cut the option4. The option that matches in every piece is the answer

A difference comes in four forms. Learn to read knowing them — so the eye knows where it is easy to slip:

Form of differenceExample
A changed letter / digitSharma → Sharmo ; 4627 → 4629
Transposition (two neighbours)Meena → Meaen ; 3562 → 3652
A missing letter / digitStation → Staton ; 302017 → 30217
A look-alike characterSeema → Seerna ; 0 / O ; 1 / l

Below are the pairs of letters and digits on which the eye is deceived most and by which the options in the exam are made:

PairWhich
O ⇄ 0the letter O and zero
l ⇄ 1small l and one
S ⇄ 5S and five
B ⇄ 8B and eight
Z ⇄ 2Z and two
m ⇄ nm and n
u ⇄ vu and v
a ⇄ oa and o
e ⇄ ce and c
d ⇄ bd and b
q ⇄ gq and g
TrickRead numbers in groups, such as 305793 as “30 · 57 · 93”. Reading in groups of two or three catches a difference very quickly, and saying them in your mind helps too.
Example 1 · Basic
How many of the following pairs are exactly the same? 1) TZ4690N — TZ460N 2) MA8943J — MA8943J 3) MT5948T — MT5948T 4) SR4371H — SR4371H
Solution, step by step
  1. 1Pair 1: TZ4690N and TZ460N — the lengths differ ✘
  2. 2Pair 2: MA8943J = MA8943J — every character matches ✔
  3. 3Pair 3: MT5948T = MT5948T — every character matches ✔
  4. 4Pair 4: SR4371H = SR4371H — every character matches ✔
  5. 5The pairs that are exactly the same: 3.
Answer 3
Every pair was matched from left to right.
BasicTry it yourself first
How many of the following pairs are exactly the same? 1) TR9583M — TR9583 2) CR5811L — CR5811L 3) YV5943T — YV5943T 4) KL8556E — KL8556E
BasicTry it yourself first
How many of the following pairs are exactly the same? 1) EJ2229H — EJ2229H 2) EK3487J — EK3787J 3) WW4092P — WW092P 4) DH6849P — DH684P9
BasicTry it yourself first
How many of the following pairs are exactly the same? 1) 297448 — 297748 2) 523042 — 523048 3) 115261 — 115261 4) 583860 — 533860
BasicTry it yourself first
How many of the following pairs are exactly the same? 1) 960038 — 960083 2) 994197115 — 99497115 3) 499022182 — 499022182 4) 982358402 — 98358402 5) 737871139 — 737871139
BasicTry it yourself first
Exactly one of these four codes does not match the rest. Which one is it? 1) AU3361A 2) AU3311A 3) AU3361A 4) AU3361A
2

Matching name and address

The entry exactly like the given one

The parts of an entry, the forms of mistakes in the options and the “none of these” question.

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How to match an entry

Part by part and stop where a difference is found

The parts of an entry, the places where the options go wrong and the strategy for “none of these” questions.

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Practice — name and address

Hard options: two changes each and phone numbers

Hard questions with two changes in every option and practice with “none of these” questions.

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3

Codes, differences and counting

Matching pairs, counting errors, searching a sequence

Pairs of codes and numbers, counting the mistakes in a copy and finding pairs in a sequence.

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Comparing pairs

How many pairs are alike; which one is different

The method of matching pairs of codes and numbers, counting questions and choosing questions.

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Finding and counting the differences

Original and copy — how many characters differ

The method of counting the character-by-character differences between a record and its copy.

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Counting in a sequence

“How many times is 7 followed by 1?”

Conditional counting in a sequence of digits, letters and symbols: read once, mark, count.

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4

The order of files

By surname, number and date

By what rule office files are arranged: alphabetical, numerical, mixed letter-number codes and dates.

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Alphabetical order of names

The surname first, then the first name

In files names are kept as “surname, first name”; if the surname is the same the first name is looked at.

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The order of numbers, codes and dates

Look at the value of the number, not at the digits

The right way of increasing order of a number, codes of letters and numbers and the method for dates.

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5

Classifying news

Which category the news belongs to

Dividing news into five categories: politics, social issues, sports, science and health, miscellaneous.

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The categories and the cues that identify them

What the main subject is

The cue words that identify the five categories, the confusing cases and the method of solving.

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Practice — news

All categories mixed

Mixed practice with news of all five categories.

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6

Strategy guide

Balancing speed and exactness; slips to avoid

The first step for every type, how to split the time, and the common traps.

The first step of every type

The method at a glance

The method of all the types in one table, and the account of time.

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Common traps

The mistakes that keep happening

The commonest reasons for losing marks in clerical aptitude.

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7

Mixed practice

All types mixed — keep an eye on the time

Questions of different types together, in three levels.

Basic practice

One rule, one step

Simple name-address, pairs, counting, the order of files and news.

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Standard practice

“None of these”, same surnames and counting in both directions

The standard level of every type.

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Advanced practice

Two changes each, long codes, long sequences and six files

The hardest forms: addresses with two changes, long codes, hard counting and orders of six files.

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8

Revision — cards

Flip each card and test yourself

Think of the answer yourself first, then flip.

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