Verbal Reasoning – Find the Odd Word (Type B)

For this verbal reasoning question you will generally be given 5 separate words. Now, from those 5 words, 3 will be similar to each other in one way or another. There will be 2 words which do not relate to the other words. You have to identify which of these 2 words are the odd ones out.

In general, I have seen the Odd Word question ask for a single odd word answer as well as two odd word answers, so its better for you to prepare for both scenarios just in case. This does sound simple, but remember the test will gradually increase the difficulty level, this means the differences and similarities you have to look become very specific, making it easy to get confused.

Also keep in mind, that the Find the Odd Word question type doesn’t just rely on spellings being different or words being longer or shorter than the other. You will need to understand the word itself and the relationships between the words. The question type itself tests the following core skills:

• Broad and varied English vocabulary including definitions
• Ability to identify verbal patterns and relationships based on qualities
• Decision making skills
• Ability to look at the question from 2 different angles in this case similarities and differences
• Applying prior knowledge and abstract thinking
• Being able to logically group words together

As you can tell some of these skills are specifically to do with the question type such as patterns and grouping, whilst others are more about your thought processes and how you analyse and come to a conclusion. Both can be developed and improved, but it’s vital that you have the initial knowledge (which is strong English vocabulary) so you can draw your conclusions a lot more confidently here.

What this means is the following three things:

1. You need to know the words
2. You need to know what they mean
3. You need to know what those things actually are such as their qualities

By being able to tap into this prior knowledge it makes it easier for you to assess the options logically and systematically. This will then allow you to group words which are either similar or different to each other, giving you your answers. If you haven’t prepared, you will struggle as the questions get harder, possibly losing time.

Do the 2 odd words have to be similar to each other?

In short, no. This is an area where a lot of people do get caught out. Just like they look to group the words that are similar to each other, its easy to then think the 2 odd words (your answers) also have to relate to each other.

Always read the instructions carefully, at no point do they expect you to do this, focus on finding the 3 words out of the 5 which are similar, the remaining 2 words would be your odd ones out.

What do Find the Odd Word Questions Look Like?

As you can see from the Gaggle example below, the Find the Odd Word question is in the following format:

• Example given with instructions
• Set of 5 words given per question
• Answer sheet has all 5 words, but you only need to select 2 words
• Only 2 are acceptable
• 1 mark per question

How do I answer this question?

First of all lets understand what this question type is actually testing, which is your ability to sift through and then group relevant information together based on certain qualities, similarities and differences. You are then expected to answer with the words that do not fit the group.

So as you can see, its not about the odd words, it is about your thinking process. To get to the answer here, you’ll need to find what things are the same over what things are different as that method is quicker and easier. Trying to look for the differences will take too long, and the odd words don’t have to be similar to each other either.

Remember, this tests your analytical skills on a basic level, but that doesn’t mean that spotting the pattern or the similarities isn’t hard. You will be expected to apply your own background knowledge, which in this case needs to be:

• Knowing your vocabulary
• Knowing your definitions
• Knowing what those things are beyond just the word and its spelling
• Improving your general knowledge

As a recap, a pattern, relationship or similarity is just a thing that is common across all of the words. But for this question type, you need to think bigger than just the word on the page, you need to bring in your general knowledge.

Grouping by pattern, relationship or similarity

The difficulty with Find the Odd Word questions is that any number of physical or non-physical qualities could be the reason for a pattern, relationship or similarity. So you need to work through systematically to identify the common qualities.

NOTE: The list of qualities is a lot, and by no means do we expect anyone to remember all of it. But this just shows how important it is to develop this method of thinking. If anything, 2 things which help here are English vocabulary and general knowledge.

By bringing these 2 things together will you naturally be able to identify what things are similar just based on your own understanding of those things.

These qualities can be any of the following:

• Synonyms : Do they mean the same thing?
• Emotions : Are they the same feeling, or are they a set of feelings?
• Verbs : Is it another way of saying the same doing word?
• Shapes : Is it the same shape, or group of shapes?
• Tools : Does it share the same use, area or industry?
• Instruments : Is it part of a family of instruments, are they woodwind or brass?
• Capitals : Are they all capitals?
• Countries : Are they all countries or countries from a certain part of the world?
• Animals : Are they all animals, a certain type of animal or a certain countries animal?
• Currency : Are they all currencies or types of currencies?
• Colours : Are they a certain shade or group?
• Transport : Are they a certain form of transport?
• Fruit : What category of fruits does it fall into?
• Sports : Is it a certain type of sport, from a specific area or country, or does it involve a certain type of ball?
• Clothing : Are they clothes from a specific time, for a specific body part or for a certain type of weather?
• Sense : Are they all senses, are these senses used in certain parts of the body?
• Human body areas / parts

What you need to do here is already have in your mind your own checklist of qualities, this checklist you will apply to each word, and one by one group the words with the same qualities together.

What if they all fall within the same group?

If all the words fall within the same group because they have the same quality, for example they are all emotions, then you need to go the next level down. This would be identifying whether they are the same type of emotions, or are there more than one.

Or, if the words all relate to pieces of clothing then checking to see if another quality is that they can be grouped by a certain style of clothing or for a certain part of the body.

What I have done here is use other more specific qualities to help me narrow or filter down the group because the first grouping that i did, which was emotions or clothing was too broad. So I needed to find something else which made the words more similar to each other.

Things to watch out for

Whilst you can get into a good process of categorising and filtering the words given to you, it is important that your English vocabulary stays strong as you can end up doing the following:

1. Confusing groups and definitions – This is very easy to do and generally happens when you misread for example happy and joy is an emotion but laugh is a doing word
2. Misunderstanding words – Just like point one, misunderstanding usually happens when you aren’t confident in the definition or didn’t read properly
3. Double meanings – It’s important to know multiple definitions in case the definition changes based on the pattern (the other words) for example content can mean an emotion and feeling but can also mean substance and filling
4. Marking the words which are similar on the answer sheet instead of the odd ones out – Always remember, you need to group words to find the odd ones out