INDIGOLEARN

Logical reasoning

www.IndigoLearn.com
9640 11111 0

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 1

Chapter 9: Number Series, Coding, De-coding & Odd Man Out

Number Series:

Key Points to remember:

• Succeeding numbers are usually derived from preceding numbers. The pattern
is usually based on the following:
o Simple Addition of a number
o Simple Subtraction of a number
o Combination of addition & subtraction
o Multiplication of a number
o Division of a Number
o Exponents
• First find out differences between succeeding numbers or difference of
differences
• Try remembering up to 5th power of first 10 natural numbers

Number / 1 2 3 4 5
Exponent
1 11 = 1 12 = 1 13 = 1 14 = 1 15 = 1
2 21=2 22=4 23=8 24=16 25=32
3 31=3 32=9 33=27 34=81 35=243
4 41=4 42=16 43=64 44=256 45=1024
5 51=5 52=25 53=125 54=625 55=3025
6 61=6 62=36 63=216 64=1296 65=7776
7 71=7 72=49 73=343 74=2401 75=16807
8 81=8 82=64 83=512 84=4096 85=32768
9 91=9 92=81 93=729 94=6561 95=59049
10 101=10 102=10 103=1000 104=10000 105=100000

o If there are two large numbers one after the other – try dividing them and to
get a relation between those two numbers; if that does not work out try
exponents

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 2

 Coding & Decoding

Coding is usually
o Common difference of Succeeding alphabets
o Common difference of Preceding Alphabets
o Alphabet after A is Z
o Alphabet before Z is A
o Sometimes alphabets are allotted numbers as table below and the
series may of alphabets may be based on these numbers or a
summation of these numbers.
§ Eg: FAT may be represented as 6120 or 6 + 1 + 20 = 27

A B C D E F G H I J
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
K L M N O P Q R S T
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
U V W X Y Z
21 22 23 24 25 26

Odd Man Out

o Usually combination of number series or alphabet series or other

patterns
o Be on lookout for prime numbers or factorials

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 3

 Chapter 10: Direction Sense Test

o Always start the problem by imagining an India Map

o Draw the map & start solving by assuming that you are in Nagpur, Centre of
the country as starting point

North

North East

North west

West
East

Nagpur

South west

South East

South

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 4

 o When a question already provides the direction of the ending point relative
to the starting point, it is easier to solve using that direction as a clue
o When a problem states that people are sitting in a circle determine based on
the question if the students are facing inwards or outwards. If nothing is
mentioned start with the assumption that they are facing inwards. Eg. If
people are friends or a family, they are usually looking at each other and
hence facing inwards.
o When a person is upside down, east and west directions become reverse.
o Eg: If a person is standing in the center of the country & facing north,
West will be to his left and East to his right. If the same person is upside
down, and is facing north , east will be to his left and west will be to
his right

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 5

Chapter 11: Seating Arrangements

Always use pen & Paper to solve these problems:

Two types of seating arrangements & information provided in them

o Circular seating

o Clockwise seating
o Anti-Clock Wise Seating

o Linear arrangements

o Definite Information
o Comparative Information
o Negative Information

o Solve the problems by drawing lines and arranging positions based on

information

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 6

Chapter 12: Blood Relations

• Solve Problems by placing people in layers one above / below the other based
on generation – this helps in retaining clarity
• Similarly, for people in same generation, place them side by side on the same
layer
• Use full terms like Boy / Girl or Mother / Father or Male / Female rather than
using abbreviations like M / F as that can lead to confusion if M stands for
Mother or Male
• If you (personally) have a large family imagine yourselves in the position of
one of the characters and try and figure out relationships – this is risky as
sometimes all relationships may not be there in your family.

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 7

Chapter 13: Syllogism

Syllogism means logical deduction / inference

Problem cab solved using a) Rules Based Approach or b) Venn Diagrams

Venn diagram-based approach is the original and logical approach but is time
consuming.

Rules based approach is easy to remember and quick to solve.

Rules Based Approach:

Any Statement is split into two parts: Subject & Predicate

Statements are Categorized as per following table:

Sentence Type First Words Distribution

Subject Predicate
Universal Affirmative All

Universal Negative No

Particular Affirmative Some

Particular Negative Some Not

Subject Predicate

All boys are good

No Boys are good

Some boys are good

Some boys are not good

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 8

Rules for arriving at a conclusion based on two sentences:

1. There should be 3 terms in two sentences

2. The middle term should be distributed at least once
3. No term can be distributed in the conclusion if it is not distributed in any of
the two statements
4. If both statements are Negative no conclusion can be drawn
5. If one statement is Negative, then conclusion also has to be negative
6. If one statement is Particular, then conclusion also has to be particular
7. If Both statements are Particular, then no conclusion can be drawn
8. If Both statements are Positive, then the conclusion is necessarily Positive
9. If both the sentences are Universally Affirmative, then the conclusion is
necessarily Universally Affirmative

Inferences from single statement

S1: All cats are bats S2: No ball is a bat

I21: Some Cats are Bats I2: Some balls are not bats

Complementary Pair

• There are two sentences

• In both sentences the subject and predicate are same
• In a complementary pair at least one of the statements is true

CA Foundation – Logical Reasoning IndigoLearn PAGE 9