PFS - Cognitive Tests

Verbal Reasoning

In this test, you will see passages of text. For each passage, there will be four statements relating to the text. Your task is to read each passage of text carefully and then decide whether each statement follows logically from the information in the passage.

Passage: Before the development of modern technology, people relied on their own observations and experience to predict the weather. It was known that certain atmospheric conditions were likely to lead to different types of weather. This knowledge was often put into rhymes or proverbs to help people remember them, A well-known example of this is ‘Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight, red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning’. In other words, if the sky is red in the evening, expect good weather, but if it is red in the morning, expect bad weather. Although a ‘red sky’ is quite an accurate predictor of the weather, many proverbs are no better than chance as predictors.

Question: For each statement there are three answer options you can choose from: True, False or Can’t tell.

- Modern methods of predicting the weather are not always accurate.
- Atmospheric conditions can indicate what the weather is likely to be.
- All proverbs are poor predictors of the weather.
- If there is a ‘red sky’ in the morning, there is a good chance that the weather will be fine.

Numerical Reasoning

The graph shows the average change in house prices in rural and urban areas over 5 years.

- In which year did rural houses show their greatest change in value?
a. Year 1      b. Year 2      c. Year 3      d. Year 4      e. Year 5

- A house in an urban area was worth $110,000 at the beginning of Year 1. What was it likely to be worth at the end of Year 2?
a. $106,700      b. $106,722      c. $107,822      d. $108,900      e. $113,278.