UCAT

Verbal reasoning asks whether a statement can be drawn from a passage of text, using only what that passage says. No medical knowledge is needed, and what you already know about the topic is a hazard rather than a help, because the question is always about the passage and never about the world. The passages are short extracts on science, history, economics, the arts and everyday affairs, written in the style of articles and reports, and the skill is reading them the way an editor would: slowly enough to see what is claimed and what is merely mentioned. ## Claims, evidence and background Most passages mix three kinds of sentence. A claim is something the author asserts is so ("Rural bus services have declined since 2010"). Evidence is what is offered in support (a figure, an example, a quoted study). Background is context that is neither (a definition, a date, a short history). A conclusion that a question offers is usually built from one of these, and mistakes come from treating one as another: a statement that a study found something is not the same as a statement that the thing is true, and a sentence of background may not support the claim it sits next to. Reading for structure means asking of each paragraph what job it does. A first sentence often states the topic, the middle sentences give detail, and a final sentence often qualifies the whole thing with "however" or "although", so the real position of the author may only appear at the end. ### Whose view is it…