A reasoning and military aptitude plan for AFCAT: topics, methods and a four-week schedule

The Reasoning and Military Aptitude section tests how quickly and accurately you see patterns in words, numbers and figures. Unlike General Awareness, there is no fixed body of facts to learn. Every question type repeats, and every type has a method that can be learnt and then made faster with practice.

That makes it the section where a month of steady work shows up most clearly in your score. This guide lists the question types, gives the core method for each, and sets out a four-week plan with a daily routine.

What the section contains

The questions fall into two families.

The target times are practice goals, not official limits. Across the whole paper you have about 72 seconds per question, and reasoning is where you should bank time for slower sections.

Why spatial ability matters for the Air Force

A pilot has to hold a three-dimensional picture in their head: where the aircraft is relative to the ground, how a formation looks from another aircraft, how a map relates to the terrain below. Navigators, controllers and weapon systems officers need similar skills.

The non-verbal questions in AFCAT test the early form of this ability. Many candidates find them unfamiliar at first, because school exams rarely include them. They also improve fast, because the tricks are few: rotation, reflection, counting and shading. Our guide to spatial ability covers the three-dimensional questions in detail.

The method in action

Here is how the core methods look on four common question types.

Example 1 (series). 4, 9, 19, 39, 79, ?

• Differences: 5, 10, 20, 40. Each difference doubles, so the next is 80.
• 79 + 80 = 159. The same rule, written as "multiply by 2 and add 1", confirms it.

Example 2 (coding). If PLANE is coded QMBOF, how is JET coded?

• P → Q, L → M, A → B, N → O, E → F. Each letter moves forward one place.
• J → K, E → F, T → U: KFU.

Example 3 (directions). An aspirant walks 6 km north, turns right and walks 8 km. How far are they from the start, and in which direction?

• Turning right from north means facing east. The path forms a right angle with sides 6 and 8.
• Distance = √(36 + 64) = 10 km, towards the north-east.

Example 4 (syllogism). Statements: All pilots are officers. Some officers are engineers. Conclusion: Some pilots are engineers.

• Draw the pilots circle inside the officers circle. The engineers circle must overlap officers, but it can do so without touching pilots.
• Since a valid diagram exists where no pilot is an engineer, the conclusion does not follow.

A four-week plan

If your exam is further away, stretch each week to two and spend the extra time on your weakest types.

A daily routine (45 minutes)

1. 10 minutes: Read the method for one topic from your notes, and redo two solved examples.
2. 25 minutes: A timed set of 25 questions on that topic.
3. 10 minutes: Review every mistake and every slow question, and add them to your error log.

From week 3, replace one day a week with a full mixed reasoning set, timed as it would be in the exam.

Exam-day tactics

• Take the quick types first. Analogy, classification, coding and mirror images are fast. Arrangements and dot situations are slow.
• Check the options first in figure questions. Eliminate those that break the most obvious rule, then look closely at the rest.
• Move on at 90 seconds. Mark the question and return to it if time allows.
• Guess only after eliminating. With +3 and −1 across four options, a blind guess is worth zero on average. A guess after ruling out one or two options has positive value.

Common mistakes

• Neglecting non-verbal questions because they look unfamiliar. They are often the quickest marks once practised.
• Solving arrangements and blood relations in your head instead of on paper.
• Assuming someone's gender from a name in blood relations. Use only what the question states.
• Stopping at the first rule that fits in a series, without checking it against every term.

Diagnostic set

Try these seven in under six minutes. They show which types need the most work.

1. 3, 7, 16, 35, 74, ?
2. Altimeter : Altitude :: Odometer : ?
3. Find the odd one out: 27, 64, 125, 144, 216.
4. If ROAD is coded DAOR, how is BASE coded?
5. A candidate faces south, turns left, walks 5 km, then turns left again and walks 12 km. How far are they from the starting point?
6. A is the only son of B. C is B's daughter. How is C related to A?
7. Statements: No tanks are aircraft. All jets are aircraft. Conclusion: No jets are tanks. Does it follow?

Answers:

1. 153. Multiply by 2 and add 1, 2, 3, 4, then 5: 74 × 2 + 5 = 153.
2. Distance. An instrument and the quantity it measures.
3. 144. The others are cubes (3³, 4³, 5³, 6³); 144 is 12², not a cube.
4. ESAB. The word is reversed.
5. 13 km. Facing south, a left turn faces east (5 km), and another left faces north (12 km). √(25 + 144) = 13.
6. Sister. C is B's daughter and A is B's son, so they are siblings.
7. Yes, it follows. Every jet is inside the aircraft circle, and no tank is in that circle, so no jet can be a tank.

What to do next

• Note which diagnostic questions took longest or went wrong, and start week 1 with those types.
• Start with the verbal guides: number and letter series and coding–decoding.
• Keep a single error log for the whole section and review it every Sunday.