Logical Sequencing of Statements | Know Your Aptitude Class 6 To 8 - Class 8 PDF Download

Introduction

Logical Sequence of Statements forms the part of reasoning ability. The questions are simple and mostly focus on the common sense ability of the candidate. In these questions, a number of words will be present and you will have to figure out a rule or a method to put these words in a sequence. There will be at other times, sentences or statements present in the option and you will have to sort them in a sequence.

Logical Sequence Of Statements

Consider the following series of words: door, key, room, and lock. If someone asks you to put these words into a sequence, what will the answer be? It is either room, door, lock and key or the reverse i.e. key, lock, door and room. Why? The reason is simple, this is the order a person leaving a room or entering it will follow.  This forms a logical sequence and we call it the logical sequence of words.

Similarly, we can form what is known as the logical sequence of statements. In these types of questions, a sequence of statements is present. Using similar technique as for the words, you will have to put these statements in the form of a series.
For example, consider the following set of statements:
P: He began using rabbits for the trials.
Q: His experiments on rats were not successful.
R: The rabbits didn’t help the study anyhow.
S: The doctor was very upset.
So what is the logical sequence here? A rather callous look might compel you to think that the correct sequence should be P Q R and S. But let us see more carefully. The first sentence says that the doctor began using rabbits. Look for a cause for this sentence. If you find a cause then from the principle of causality, that statement should come before P. The statement is Q. It was because the experiment didn’t work on the rats that the doctor had to use rabbits. Then we will have R and then S. So the logical sequence here will be QPRS.

Example

To guess the correct sequence of the sentences when there are no fixed sentences is very difficult and many times not possible. So there will at least be one sentence that is fixed. Normally we have the first and the last sentence that is already present and you have to fill the gap in-between. We will see a few examples and try to get acquainted with the concept of arranging the statements in a sequence. 

Example: In questions below, each passage consists of six sentences. The first and sixth sentences are present in the beginning. The four sentences in the middle have been removed and jumbled up. These are labelled as P, Q, R and S. Find out the proper order for the four sentences.
I wanted to have mashed potatoes, so I went to the mall.
P: There I saw potato chips on a shelf after looking around for a while.
Q: I was looking for snacks and had to go to another level.
R: I couldn’t find the elevator and so I took the stairs.
S: I felt like having something else too.
I found the elevator while getting ready to leave.
(a) PQRS                    
(b) PSQR          
(c) QRSP          
(d) SQRP

Ans: (d)
Explanation: This is a very interesting example that is very similar to the ones that you will see in the IBPS exams and other such exams. First of all, never use words to guess the correct sequence of sentences. For example, in the above statement, the word elevator occurs in statement R and the sentence at the end. But logically they are separated. The whole portion talks about a person who goes to the mall and then buys chips at a different storey than the one he starts at. So the logical sequence of the sentences is:
I wanted to have mashed potatoes, so I went to the mall. (S) I felt like having something else too. (Q) I was looking for snacks and had to go to another level. (R) I couldn’t find the elevator and so I took the stairs. (P) There I saw potato chips on a shelf after looking around for a while. Therefore the answer is D) SQRP.