How Watson Glaser interpretation questions work
Each set gives you a passage, often with figures from a survey, study or report, and several conclusions. You treat the passage as true and decide whether each conclusion is warranted by it.
A conclusion follows if it holds beyond reasonable doubt. It does not have to be certain in the strict way Deduction requires, but the passage must leave no sensible reason to doubt it.
The common trap is a conclusion that says more than the evidence shows: about a wider group, a longer period, or a cause the passage never establishes.
How to judge an interpretation conclusion
Check each conclusion in this order:
- Note exactly what the passage covers: which group, which period, which place.
- Compare the conclusion’s scope. If it reaches a wider group or a different time, it does not follow.
- Check the strength of its wording. “Most” needs more than half; “all” needs every case.
- Look for a claimed cause. Two things happening together do not show that one caused the other.
- If it survives all three checks, ask whether a reasonable person could still doubt it from these facts. If not, it follows.
Worked example
Passage: A supermarket chain’s loyalty card records show that 4,000 cardholders bought fresh fruit last month, and 2,600 of them bought it at least once a week. The chain’s fresh fruit sales were 10 per cent higher than in the same month last year.
- “Most cardholders who bought fresh fruit last month bought it at least weekly.” Follows. 2,600 out of 4,000 is 65 per cent, which is more than half.
- “Most of the chain’s customers buy fresh fruit every week.” Does Not Follow. The figures cover only cardholders who bought fruit, not customers without a card or those who bought none.
- “The loyalty card scheme caused the rise in fruit sales.” Does Not Follow. Nothing in the passage links the two.
Tips for the real interpretation questions
- Do the arithmetic when a conclusion rests on numbers. A quick fraction often settles it.
- Underline who was counted. Survey respondents, members and customers are different groups.
- Treat words like caused, because and led to as a warning. The passage must show the link, not just two facts side by side.
- Do not mark a conclusion Does Not Follow just because it is not certain. Beyond reasonable doubt is enough.
Practise Interpretation on CogniPrep
Our Interpretation game runs 12 passage and conclusion pairs, picked from 24, each on a 50-second clock with no way back. If the clock runs out, the question is marked wrong. You get a score out of 100 built mainly from accuracy, with the rest from pace, balance between Follows and Does Not Follow answers, and accuracy on conclusions that do not follow. Pearson times only the full test, so the 50 seconds per question is our choice.