Reasoning section is one of the most scoring sections in bank and SSC exams. Although it doesn’t require any formulae based calculations but it is essential to have a smart approach.
Approximately 4-5 questions are asked from this topic in SSC exams. These types of questions aim to test your ability to classify certain groups or items. If you are prepared properly, you can easily score well in these questions. This post aims to cover all the possible concepts of ‘Venn Diagram’.
What is a Venn-Diagram?
- The concept of Venn-Diagram was given by John Venn. These diagrams depict relationships between two elements.
- The questions based on Venn-diagram, usually represent elements or data through geometrical figures like circles, squares, triangles & rectangles. ‘Circle’ is the most widely used representation.
Let us understand the concept of Venn-Diagram through an example.
Suppose, we want to illustrate: Cat, Animal, Horse
We know that all cats are animals, so ‘cat’ is a sub-set of animals. In other words, the circle of ‘cat’ will be inside the circle of ‘animal’. Similarly, all ‘horses’ are animals, so the circle of ‘horse’ will also be inside the circle of ‘animal’. Hence, the representation will be:
Various types of Venn-Diagram based questions asked in Bank/SSC exams:
Typically, there are two types of questions based on Venn-Diagrams:
1) Establishing relationship between two or more entities:
To solve this type of questions, it is essential to be aware about common relationships and use that knowledge while solving questions. Questions in SSC exams aim to evaluate your general awareness and analytical skills. We need to link the given elements with each other and derive any relationship, if possible.
For instance: To define the relationship between Rivers and Tributary, we need to know that Tributary is a small river flowing into a larger river, hence we can easily conclude that all tributaries merge into rivers and hence all tributaries are a part of rivers. This information can be represented as:
Various relations that can be established are:
- All items are NOT related to each other
For instance: Boy, plants and elephants belong to different groups, they are not related to each other.
- In a group of three or more items, the first item is related to the second one and the second item is related to the third item and so on
For instance: Ocean, sailor and ships are related to each other.
- Two items are a sub-set of the third item
For instance: Rose and Lily are sub-sets of the main set flowers.
- If two items are different from each other but are related to the third item in a particular way
For instance: Boys and girls are different but can be related to doctors.
- In a group of three or more items, two items are related to each other but completely different from the third one
For instance: Leaves and tress are related to each other but are not related to sky.
2) Finding the exact region:
In such questions, the Venn-Diagram is labeled and we’ve to identify the region asked in the question. There could be questions which require data analysis and deductions to arrive at the correct answer.
Let us consider SSC FCI Combined Assistant Grade-III 2012 exam question.
Ques: Which number in the Venn-Diagram represents home makers among women who are good at craft?
Ans: Number 3 is common among women, home makers and good at crafts.
Another such question of SSC MTS exam 2013 is as follows:
Ques: Here we have to tell alphabet which indicates ‘graduates knowing cooking and are not working’.
Ans: ‘E’ represents graduates who know cooking and are not working.
I hope by now you must have developed a good command over Venn-Diagram based questions. Keep practicing.
Also read, How to solve “input-output ” question in reasoning section?
Tips to solve “inequality” question in Reasoning ability.
