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The One Instruction That Decides Everything
Every syllogism set carries the same instruction: *even if the statements seem at variance with commonly known facts, take them to be true.*
That sentence is the whole game. "All stones are gold" is not a claim about the world; it is a temporary rule you are asked to reason inside. The candidate who thinks "but stones aren't gold" has already lost the mark.
The question is never *is the conclusion true?* It is: is the conclusion forced by the statements? If you can imagine even one arrangement of circles where the statements hold and the conclusion fails, the conclusion does not follow.
So the method is mechanical, and being mechanical is the point:
A syllogism set is 4–5 marks and takes under a minute per question once the drawing becomes automatic.
1. Statements: All pens are books. All books are chairs. Conclusions: I. All pens are chairs. II. Some chairs are pens. Which conclusion follows?
2. Statements: Some cats are dogs. All dogs are rats. Conclusions: I. Some cats are rats. II. All rats are cats. Which conclusion follows?
3. Statements: No apple is a banana. All bananas are cherries. Conclusions: I. Some cherries are not apples. II. No cherry is an apple. Which conclusion follows?
4. Statements: All flowers are red. Some red are roses. Conclusions: I. Some flowers are roses. II. No flower is a rose. What is the correct answer?
5. From the statement "All boys are students", which of the following is always valid?
6. Statements: Some books are pens. No pen is a pencil. Conclusions: I. Some books are not pencils. II. All books are pens. Which conclusion follows?
7. Statements: All chairs are tables. Some tables are desks. What can be said about the statement "Some chairs being desks is a possibility"?
8. Statements: All apples are stones. All stones are gold. Which conclusion definitely follows?