Syllogism questions give you a few statements and five conclusions. For each conclusion you decide Yes (it must follow) or No (it does not have to follow). They look like word games, but they reward one simple discipline: treating the statements as the whole world.
The three words that do all the work
- All A are B — every A sits inside B. It does not mean all B are A.
- Some A are B — at least one A is a B. It could be one, many or all of them.
- No A are B — the two groups never overlap. This one works both ways: no B are A either.
Most wrong answers come from reading "some" as "only some", or from reversing an "all" statement. "All surgeons are doctors" does not tell you anything about whether all doctors are surgeons.
A four-step method
- Turn each statement into a quick circle sketch (a circle inside a circle for "all", overlapping circles for "some", separate circles for "none").
- Read a conclusion and ask: must this be true in every sketch that fits the statements?
- Try to break it. If you can draw one arrangement that matches the statements but makes the conclusion false, the answer is No.
- If you cannot break it after one honest attempt, the answer is Yes. Move on.
💡 Watch for conclusions that sound sensible but use outside knowledge. If the statements never mention it, it cannot follow from them.
Common traps
- Reversed "all": "All X are Y, so all Y are X" — No.
- Chained "some": "Some A are B and some B are C, so some A are C" — No. The B that are A may be different from the B that are C.
- "None" linking: "All A are B and no B are C" does give "No A are C" — Yes.
ℹ️ In the real test each syllogism question has five conclusions and you mark each one. The practice questions below use a single conclusion so you can check your method quickly.