Goldman Sachs conducts Aptitude test for a few selected profiles. Many companies today require candidates to qualify given aptitude tests as a part of their selection process. These tests are concerned with evaluating mental agility and problem solving ability. They check the right fitment of a candidate with a particular job profile. For instance, a financial analyst role would require smart reasoning and swift data inference.
Since Goldman Sachs’s aptitude test may be conducted in future, we are providing the below sample verbal aptitude questions:
DIRECTIONS for the question 1 & 2: In each of the following question, out of the given group of wordings, choose one inappropriately spelled.
Q.1
A) Commission B) Omission C) Possession D) Occasion
Correct Answer:- D Explanation:- Explanation:- Occasion is the right spelling
Q.2
A) Pneumonia B) Diarrheoa C) Xenophobia D) Amnesia
Correct Answer:- B Explanation:-
The correct spelling is Diarrhoea.
DIRECTIONS for the question 3: Given below are sentences that form a paragraph, identify the sentence(s) or part(s) that is/are incorrect in terms of grammar and usage (including spelling, punctuation and logical consistency). Then, choose the most appropriate option.
Q.3
There is an university in the city that is famous for its research.
The police chief tried to exercise a undue influence on me.
Rajesh’s attitude is such that it seems he always puts on air.
Manohar has decided to visit all his sons-in-law next month.
A) A, B and C B) B, C and D C) A, C and D D) All of the above
Correct Answer:- A Explanation:-
Statement A is incorrect. The correct article is ‘a’. Remember, the usage of ‘a’ and ‘an’ are decided on the basis of vowel sound (and not on the basis of vowels). We always say ‘a university’ and not ‘an university’.
Statement B is incorrect. The correct article is ‘an’. The correct sentence is: The police chief tried to exercise an undue influence on me.
Statement C is incorrect. The correct sentence is: Rajesh’s attitude is such that it seems he always puts on airs. In the given case, ‘puts on airs’ is an idiom that means ‘act better than one really is; to pretend to be good or to be superior.’
You might think statement D is incorrect but it is correct actually. For compound nouns such as son-in-law, the plural form is made by adding a ‘s’ to the base word (which is son in this case).
DIRECTIONS for the question 4 & 5: Read the passage and answer the question based on it.
Passage 1
To test the memorability and credibility of stories, one of the authors, along with Dr. Ray Price and Dr. Joanne Martin, provided three different groups of MBA students with exactly the same information. In one case, the students were given a verbal description that contained facts and figures. Another group was given the same information—only it was presented through charts and tables. The final group was provided the very same details presented as the story of a little old wine maker.
To the researchers’ surprise, when tested several weeks later, not only did those who had heard the story recall more detail than the other two groups (that was predicted), but they also found the story more credible. MBA students gave more credence to a story than to cold hard facts.
But why? Why do even the most educated of people tend to set aside their well-honed cynicism and critical nature when listening to a story? Because stories help individuals transport themselves away from the role of a listener who is rigorously applying rules of logic, analysis, and criticism and into the story itself. According to creative writing expert Lajos Egri, here’s how to transport the listener into a story.
The first step is to make your reader or viewer identify your character as someone he knows. Step two—if the author can make the audience imagine that what is happening can happen to him, the situation will be permeated with aroused emotion and the viewer will experience a sensation so great that he will feel not as a spectator but as the participant of an exciting drama before him.
Concrete and vivid stories exert extraordinary influence because they transport people out of the role of critic and into the role of participant. The more poignant, vibrant, and relevant the story, the more the listener moves from thinking about the inherent arguments to experiencing every element of the tale itself. Stories don’t merely trump verbal persuasion by disproving counterarguments; stories keep the listener from offering counterarguments in the first place.
Q.4 What is the relation between credibility and analysis?
The more you analyse, the more credible you find something
The less credible you find something, the more you analyze
The more you analyse, the less credible you find something
The more credible you find something, the less you analyze
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
Basically there is an inverse relationship between credibility and analysis. Also we can view analysis (or a lack of it) as a cause – and credibility as an effect.
Q. 5 What role does vibrancy have to play in story telling?
It helps the reader imagine things better and so gives an effect of almost being there
It helps suspend emotions and sensations as the reader reads the story
It makes a story more believable, as we love stories which talk of heroes
We relate better to stories that show us the big picture, we do not like being bogged down in detail
Correct Answer:- A Explanation:-
From the passage: The more poignant, vibrant, and relevant the story, the more the listener moves from thinking about the inherent arguments to experiencing every element of the tale itself.
2 – vibrant story telling heightens emotions, not suspends them.
3 – the part about believable is true, but the reason is because we suspend judgment
4 – talks of a mindset of people who do not like detail. All of us do not subscribe to this opinion.
DIRECTIONS for the question 6, 7 & 8: Choose the word from the options which is most Similar in meaning to the given word.
Q. 6 EXASPERATION
A) exaltation B) irritation C) amplification D) exception
Correct Answer:- B Explanation:-
The meaning of this word is frustrated annoyance or irritation. Amplification means to make larger, greater or stronger. Exaltation means elation of mind or feeling.
Q. 7 SALUBRIOU
A) miasmic B) unhealthy C) wholesome D) delightful
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
Salubrious means favourable to health or wellbeing. Miasmic means toxic or contaminated. Option C is correct
Q. 8 AUGUST
A) Common B) Ridiculous C) Dignified D) Petty
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
August means respected and impressive
DIRECTIONS for the question 9 & 10: The question consists of five statements labelled A, B, C, D and E which when logically ordered form a coherent passage. Choose the option that represents the most logical order.
Q.9
With technology offering all kinds of options, from spell-checks and predictive text to simply erasing or changing errant lines, writers have been lulled into complacency bordering on laziness.
The very inflexibility of a typewriter's construction and functioning imposed a certain order to thought and communication that the advent of new, more accommodating writing machines has ended up destroying.
Caution is however in-built when using manual typewriters as even 'whiting out' liquid offers limited opportunities to alter what has once been committed to paper.
The downside, of course, is that everything 'unsaved' can also vanish at the press of a wrong button, but that has not deterred the onward march of computers.
The comforting cadence typewriters clack-clacking in unison was once also the background music in countless offices and their replacement by the far softer tap-tap of keyboards has considerably diminished the air of busyness, though it may be business as usual.
A) ECBAD B) BEADC C) EBADC D) BDECA
Correct Answer:- C Explanation:-
Option 3.
The passage talks about typewriters, their advantages and disadvantages and the new technology – computers. The introductory sentence hence would be E.
C will follow D because D mentions that everything saved can vanish at the press of a wrong button and C states that however this is not possible in manual typewriters.
Hence the sequence is EBADC.
Q.10
Having the vision to design what we call a rudimentary weapon today would have taken tremendous intelligence by the standards of those times, given that others around that prehistoric inventor would have been content with whatever their current skills brought to the hearth.
Our forebears had invented and used stone-tipped spears - a revolutionary leap comparable to the intercontinental ballistic missile as it allowed the user to kill accurately from a distance - over half a million years ago, or two lakh years earlier than previously estimated.
Scientific research constantly reveals that there was more to them than their bad dress sense, lack of sophisticated manners and inadequate personal hygiene.
He - or maybe it was a 'she' who got tired of the inefficiency of the male hunter-gatherers and decided to do something about it - was the Steve Jobs of prehistory, creating something so simple and yet irresistibly user-friendly.
We really tend to underestimate our prehistoric ancestors, using the term Neanderthal in a none-too-complimentary way.
A) ECBAD B) DBACE C) EBCDA D) BDECA
Correct Answer:- A Explanation:- Option 1.
The paragraph talks about our prehistoric ancestors whom we underestimate and then their invention – the stone tipped spears and the fact that they would have had considerable intelligence to come up with such a weapon.
The them in C refers to the Neanderthal in E. Hence C will follow E.
The rudimentary weapon mentioned is A is the stone-tipped spear mentioned in B and hence A will follow B. Hence the sequence is ECBAD