Maximising Your Score on the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Test

Mar 24, 2023

Written By Lawrence Topley

The Watson Glaser is a test designed to assess your critical thinking and reasoning skills. It is not a test of your knowledge on legal topics, but a test of how you are able to think critically. The test is often used by law firms as the second stage of the application process, where you will have to score beyond a certain benchmark to continue to the next stage.

What does the Watson Glaser Critical involve?

The test is multiple choice, and the number of questions and the time given vary. Often, it is equally split into five distinct sections.

These include:

- Assumptions

- Inferences

- Deductions

- Interpretation

- Evaluation

The key to maximising your score is being able to fully understand and distinguish what each section is asking you to do. This can be achieved by completing practice tests online or through practice test booklets. These are both available online and many firms often provide online practice tests. We also offer a free practice test, which can be found here

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Distinguishing the sections

Although the difference between sections can often be confused, learning the difference between them is the first step to maximising your score on the Watson Glaser. Candidates often go wrong by confusing sections and applying the reasoning of one section to another.

It is therefore important you know the ‘rules’ of each section, which will help you select the right answer.

Assumptions

An assumption is something that is accepted as the truth without evidence. It occurs when something is taken for granted. When you go to a supermarket, you assume it will have what you need, without any evidence and take it for granted it will be there. The test will require you to identify where an assumption has been made.

It is important you are strict in your reasoning, and that you do not allow yourself to make an assumption based on your own knowledge but on the facts you are given.

Inferences

When you infer something, you come to a conclusion based on the facts you are given, that may not be provided explicitly in the text. For example, if it is sunny outside you can infer that you will not need your coat. This may not be true, but given the information you have it is a logical decision to make. This means sometimes you will have to read between the lines from the evidence you are given. Following this, you will be provided with inferences that could be made from the text.

From this you will have to decide whether the inference falls into one of the categories below.

- Definitely True: Taking into account the information provided, there is no doubt the inference is true.

- Probably True: Considering all of the information, it is likely the inference is true.

- Insufficient data: It is not possible to say whether the inference is true or false because the information is not provided in the text.

- Probably false: Considering all of the information, it is unlikely the inference is correct, but it is not impossible.

- Definitely false: Taking into account all of the information in the text, there is no doubt the inference is false.

In order to succeed on the Watson Glaser, you will need to be able to differentiate the inferences you are provided strictly into these categories. Often candidates struggle in this section in distinguishing between these categories, so practice is key to making this clear for the test itself.

Deductions

A deduction is a conclusion which is reached logically after a series of statements or premises. You can only use the knowledge available in the text to come to your conclusion. For example, if all birds have wings and an animal does not have wings then it is not a bird- since all birds have wings. Your task is to identify what conclusions can be reached from the information available.

In order to maximise your score, you should remember that the premise does not have to be true in reality for a correct deduction to be made. For example, you may know that some insects have wings and that therefore the deduction is incorrect. However, this was not part of our above premise and so is not a relevant factor in deciding whether the conclusion is correct.

Interpretation

Interpretations are conclusions we make after evaluating information and figuring out what logically follows. The test will require you to decide whether an interpretation follows from a conclusion or does not follow from a conclusion.

Candidates taking the test are often confused with the difference between interpreting and inferring. Here it is important to remember that the two sections are different because an interpretation is something that logically follows, and an inference is something that likely follows. It is simply a question of whether a conclusion follows a statement.

Evaluation

The last part of the test you need to ace is the evaluation section. This requires you to work out whether an argument is strong or weak. You will be provided with a text followed by a series of arguments. From which you will assess each argument in relation to the text and decide whether the argument is strong or weak. You should ignore your own personal views and take into account only factors that strengthen or undermine an argument, based on the text.

Strong arguments have evidence, often backed up with a statistic for example, and are relevant to the text. Weak arguments may contradict the text or lack logical reasoning. Taking these factors into account will help you to filter strong arguments from weak ones.

Overall

To maximise your score on the Watson Glaser test, you’ll need to fully understand what each section is asking you to do. As we have seen, some sections are very similar and so being able to distinguish between them will help clarify each part of the test, and you can use this knowledge to work out the answer.

The best way to do this is by completing a number of practice questions, and spending some time going through the answers to understand where you went wrong.

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