Verbal reasoning is exercised whenever you need to evaluate a claim against the evidence available to you. Reading a news article and determining whether a headline accurately reflects the content of the article requires verbal reasoning: you must compare the headline's claim against the information in the text and decide whether it is supported, exaggerated, or misleading. Similarly, reading the terms and conditions of a contract and determining whether a specific scenario is covered requires you to reason from the written text rather than from what you assume the policy should say.

A more demanding example is evaluating competing claims in a discussion. If two people present different interpretations of the same set of facts, verbal reasoning is what allows you to assess which interpretation is supported by the evidence and which goes beyond what the facts actually establish. The discipline of distinguishing between "this is what the information says" and "this is what I think is probably true based on the information" is the core skill that verbal reasoning modules assess.

• NOTAM interpretation:
• Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) provide essential information about changes to aerodrome facilities, airspace restrictions, navigation aid availability, and other operational factors. NOTAMs are written in a standardised but often dense format, and the pilot must extract the operationally relevant information and determine its impact on the planned flight. Misinterpreting a NOTAM (for example, reading a temporary restriction as applying to a different altitude band or time period than stated) can result in an airspace infringement or an approach to a runway with a displaced threshold or restricted facilities.
• Standard Operating Procedures:
• SOPs define the procedures, callouts, and actions that the crew must follow during each phase of flight. These are written documents that must be read, understood, and applied accurately. During training and checking, pilots must demonstrate that they have correctly interpreted the SOPs, and during line operations, they must apply them consistently. The ability to read an SOP and determine exactly what it requires (and what it does not require) is a verbal reasoning task. Ambiguity in SOPs is a known contributor to procedural errors, and pilots with stronger verbal reasoning are better equipped to identify and resolve such ambiguities.
• Weather report analysis:
• METARs, TAFs, SIGMETs and other weather reports use standardised formats to convey meteorological information. The pilot must decode these reports and determine their operational significance: whether the weather at the destination is above approach minima, whether the forecast suggests it will remain so, and whether any significant weather along the route requires a change of plan. This requires both accurate reading of the coded information and the ability to draw appropriate conclusions without over-interpreting the data.
• Technical documentation:
• Aircraft manuals, minimum equipment lists (MELs), and performance charts contain critical information that pilots must interpret accurately. Determining whether a particular equipment defect allows dispatch under the MEL, or whether a specific runway performance limitation applies to the current conditions, requires careful reading and precise reasoning from the stated criteria. Errors in interpreting technical documentation can have direct safety consequences.

• Mission briefing interpretation:
• Helicopter operations frequently involve mission briefings from external agencies (HEMS dispatch, SAR coordination centres, police tasking units). These briefings contain written or verbal information about the task, the location, known hazards, and operational constraints. The pilot must extract the relevant information, identify any gaps or ambiguities, and determine the implications for the flight. Misinterpreting a grid reference, a hazard description, or a tasking constraint can result in the aircraft arriving at the wrong location or operating in an area with unidentified risks.
• Landing site assessment information:
• Information about landing sites may be provided in written site surveys, operational notices, or electronic databases. The pilot must read and interpret this information to determine whether the site is suitable for the current conditions (wind, weight, lighting, obstacles). The information may include specific limitations ("maximum AUW 3,200 kg", "night operations not permitted", "prior permission required from landowner") that must be correctly interpreted and applied. Failure to correctly interpret a site limitation is a verbal reasoning error with potentially serious consequences.
• Regulatory and operational notices:
• The helicopter operating environment involves frequent regulatory updates, safety directives, and operational notices from the operator, the manufacturer, and the aviation authority. The pilot must read these documents, determine their relevance, and identify any required actions. The ability to accurately determine what a notice requires, and equally importantly what it does not require, is a verbal reasoning skill that prevents both non-compliance and unnecessary operational disruption.

Aviation decision-making must be grounded in the available evidence: the instruments, the weather reports, the procedures, the aircraft performance data. The tendency to over-infer, to assume something is true because it seems likely rather than because the evidence confirms it, is a recognised risk factor in aviation incidents. Verbal Reasoning modules specifically assess the candidate's ability to reason from evidence rather than assumption, using the True/False/Cannot Say format to detect those who conflate "probably true" with "confirmed by the text."

This discipline of evidence-based reasoning transfers directly to operational decision-making. A pilot who can accurately distinguish between "the weather report says conditions will be above minima" and "conditions will probably be above minima based on what I can see" is exercising the same cognitive skill assessed in Verbal Reasoning modules.

Pilot training involves a very large volume of written material: theory textbooks, aircraft manuals, operational procedures, regulatory documents, and examination questions. The ability to read, comprehend, and reason from this written material efficiently is a practical prerequisite for successful training. Candidates with stronger verbal reasoning can extract accurate understanding from written sources more quickly, which supports both ground school performance and the self-study that is essential throughout a pilot's career ^[3].

The ATPL theoretical knowledge examinations, which all airline pilots must pass, are themselves heavily dependent on the ability to read questions carefully, reason from the information provided, and avoid over-interpreting or misreading the question stem. Strong verbal reasoning directly supports examination performance.

Verbal Reasoning is assessed across Aon (Cut-e), CBAT / CFAST / MACTS, COMPASS, Advanced COMPASS and Sova assessments. The most common format is the True/False/Cannot Say paradigm, used by Aon, COMPASS, Advanced COMPASS and Sova. The CBAT Verbal Logic Test uses a logical inference approach with increasing quantities of text, and the CBAT System Logic Test combines verbal comprehension with numerical reasoning, requiring the candidate to interpret information from multiple written and numerical sources. COMPASS and Advanced COMPASS list their Verbal Reasoning modules as optional, meaning they may or may not be included depending on the specific assessment configuration.

The Aon Verbal Reasoning (scales verbal) module presents text distributed across multiple tabs that the candidate must navigate between. For each statement, the candidate must determine whether it is True (supported by the text), False (contradicted by the text), or Cannot Say (the text does not provide sufficient information to determine the answer). The module contains 42 to 49 questions across 8 to 17 minutes, depending on the variant.

Multiple forms of this module exist, including admin, consumer, industry and instruct variants, with the possibility of any form being used in a pilot assessment. The tabbed format adds a navigation demand: the candidate must locate the relevant information across multiple text sections before evaluating the statement, rather than working from a single visible passage. This information-retrieval component increases the time pressure and rewards efficient reading strategies.

The COMPASS and Advanced COMPASS Verbal Reasoning modules present a passage of text on screen and require the candidate to evaluate an accompanying statement as True, False, or Cannot Say. These modules contain 10 questions with 22 minutes available, giving substantially more time per question than the Aon module. The COMPASS and Advanced COMPASS Verbal Reasoning modules are listed as optional and may not be included in every assessment configuration.

The Sova Verbal Reasoning component uses the same True/False/Cannot Say format. In Sova assessments, Verbal Reasoning is part of a blended assessment that also includes Logical Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning, and Checking & Accuracy, with the full assessment containing between 50 and 80 questions across 25 to 30 minutes.

The passage-based format used by these modules closely mirrors the operational task of reading a document (a NOTAM, an SOP section, a weather report) and determining whether a specific conclusion is supported by its contents. The longer time allowance in COMPASS and Advanced COMPASS modules permits more deliberate reading and analysis, whilst the Sova format requires the candidate to switch between different question types within the same timed assessment.

The CBAT Verbal Logic Test (VLT) requires the candidate to draw logical conclusions from increasing quantities of text-based information. Rather than evaluating individual statements as True/False/Cannot Say, the VLT presents progressively longer and more complex passages from which the candidate must deduce the correct answer through logical reasoning.

The increasing quantity of text is a distinctive feature: as the module progresses, the candidate must process more information, identify the relevant details, and apply deductive reasoning to reach conclusions. This format assesses not only comprehension but also the ability to manage increasing cognitive load whilst maintaining reasoning accuracy, which is relevant to the operational demand of processing growing quantities of information during complex or deteriorating situations.

The CBAT System Logic Test (SLT) requires the candidate to examine information and data from a variety of sources to answer questions that combine mathematical and verbal reasoning. The candidate must interpret and synthesise information from multiple written and numerical sources, applying both logical and mathematical reasoning to determine the correct responses.

The SLT is distinctive in combining verbal comprehension with numerical problem-solving. The candidate must first understand what the written information is telling them (verbal reasoning) and then apply mathematical operations to the extracted data (numerical reasoning). This dual demand reflects the operational reality of tasks like performance calculations, where the pilot must first read and interpret the conditions and limitations stated in a manual before applying the numerical formulae.

Verbal Reasoning is assessed in the following pilot aptitude test systems:

The table below outlines the Verbal Reasoning modules in each assessment, linking each to the relevant preparation activity in our software.

Having identified the modules relevant to your assessment, you can navigate directly to the corresponding activities within our software.

Our software organises activities by the type of assessment you are preparing for, the skill being evaluated, and the specific airline, flying school or cadet scheme you are applying to. This means you do not need to manually cross-reference the table above; the relevant Verbal Reasoning activities will already be included in your tailored preparation.

To find the activities relevant to you, navigate to one of the following within the software:

• Activities by Aptitude Test
• If you know which test system your assessment uses. For example, to find Verbal Reasoning activities for COMPASS, navigate to Activities by Aptitude Test and select COMPASS.
• Activities by Skill
• If you want to focus specifically on Verbal Reasoning across all test systems. Navigate to Activities by Skill and select Verbal Reasoning to see every relevant activity.
• Activities by Airline, Flying School or Cadet Scheme
• If you know where you are applying but not which test system is used. Navigate to Activities by Airline or Activities by Flying School and select your chosen organisation. The software will include the appropriate Verbal Reasoning activities alongside all other relevant preparation.

If you have created a Preparation Strategy, the relevant Verbal Reasoning activities will already appear in your Focus Activities; no additional navigation is required.