Syllogisms
This page talks about the first type of syllogism you encounter in the UCAT exam. For the narrative/data-based syllogisms, look at the page below:
What are syllogisms?
Questions in which, from the given premise, you have to determine whether each of 5 statements follows logically. (Yes/No)
Each question is scored out of 2 marks:
- 5/5 statements correct net 2 marks
- 4/5 statements correct net 1 mark
- 3/5 statements correct or below net 0 marks.
Arrow method to answer syllogisms
Have a look at the PowerPoint below for an overview of the arrow method:
You might find that for easier questions you don’t need arrows; they are suited to confusing stems such as those filled with ‘made up’ words. Make sure to only spend about 60-70s on these questions. If drawing arrows is too time consuming, avoid it.
You have to be careful when dealing with ‘except’ and ‘unless’. When adding them to your diagram, I personally would add them as a note next to arrows rather than make a whole arrow just for exceptions.
Arrow method or Venn diagram method?
Venn Diagrams are just as much of a valid way to answer these questions, however it is easy to get them wrong so be mindful of the fact that ‘some’ can result in two possible Venn Diagrams.
- Some science teachers are also humanities teachers: this would result in two circles intersecting in the centre. The ‘science teachers’ circle overlaps with the ‘humanities teachers’ circle, but neither is inside the other,
- Some animals are dogs: this would result in the ‘dog’ circle being fully embedded in the ‘animal’ circle (i.e. all dogs are animals)