How the Analytic Thinking Skills test works
SO/PD II is taken on a computer and lasts about two and a half hours in all. Besides Analytic Thinking Skills it has Mathematical Usage, Reading Comprehension and a Multitasking Simulation, and the scores combine into a single Recommended or Not Recommended result.
Analytic Thinking Skills gives you 45 minutes for 23 questions, nearly two minutes each, in three sections. Argument has 7 questions: a short argument followed by a question about its assumptions, what would strengthen or weaken it, or what explains it, with five options. Problem Solving has 5 questions on two passages and a bulleted list of facts, and each answer needs both. Logic-based Reasoning has 11 statements to classify against a set of facts.
In the logic section, TRUE means the statement follows necessarily from the facts, FALSE means it contradicts them, and INDETERMINABLE means the facts do not contain enough information to decide.
How to approach each section
Each section needs a slightly different habit:
- Argument: find the conclusion first, then the evidence offered for it. The gap between them is the assumption.
- Problem Solving: read the question, then pull the relevant line from the passage and the relevant fact from the list before choosing.
- Logic: use only the facts given. If you need to assume anything at all, the answer is INDETERMINABLE.
- Watch for reversed conditions. “All A are B” does not mean all B are A.
- Keep an eye on the clock at the end of each section. About 2 minutes a question is the average.
Worked example
Facts: “Every crew working on Line 4 must hold a switching permit. Crew Red is working on Line 4. Crew Blue holds a switching permit.”
“Crew Red holds a switching permit” is TRUE: it follows from the first two facts. “Crew Red does not hold a switching permit” is FALSE: it contradicts them. “Crew Blue is working on Line 4” is INDETERMINABLE: holding a permit is required for Line 4, but it does not place a crew there.
Tips for the real SO/PD II test
- Get comfortable with screen reading. SO/PD II is the one EEI battery taken on a computer.
- In the logic section, INDETERMINABLE is not a fallback. Choose it when the facts genuinely leave the question open.
- For Argument questions, ignore options that are true but irrelevant to the link between evidence and conclusion.
- Prepare for the Multitasking Simulation separately. It runs four tasks at once and includes telling high and low tones apart.
Practise Analytic Thinking Skills on CogniPrep
Our version follows EEI’s structure: 23 questions in 45 minutes, in the order 7 Argument, 5 Problem Solving and 11 Logic-based Reasoning. Argument and Problem Solving questions have five options; logic statements take TRUE, FALSE or INDETERMINABLE. You can move freely and change answers, then hand in from a review grid, and the score out of 100 counts every question. Whether the real test lets you go back is not published, and our questions are our own.