VIC-SEL 3.3 – General Ability Verbal Skills

🧠 General Ability: Verbal – Skills & Strategies

~35 questions, 30 minutes

What Verbal Ability Tests

Verbal General Ability tests how students think with language – not what they know about grammar or vocabulary. It assesses the ability to identify relationships between words, reason logically using language, and recognise patterns in verbal information.

Word Analogies

If A is to B, then C is to ? – identify the relationship between the first pair and apply it to find the second. Relationships include function, category, degree, part-whole and many others.

Odd One Out

Which word does not belong with the others? Identify the category or relationship linking three words and find the word that breaks it.

Verbal Sequences and Logic

Complete a sequence of words following a logical rule. Requires seeing patterns in meaning, word type or word relationships.

Coding and Decoding

If words are coded in a particular way, apply the same code to find a new coded or decoded word. Tests systematic logical thinking.

Top Strategies

Define the relationship precisely before looking at options – for analogies, write out the relationship in words first
Test all options against the rule before choosing
Watch for degree and direction – large is to enormous as small is to tiny, not minute
Do not overthink – the simplest valid relationship is usually correct
Practise daily – Verbal Ability improves significantly with regular exposure to question types