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The CBP Logical Reasoning Test, Explained

It tests whether you can tell what follows from a paragraph and what merely sounds like it does. Nothing on it depends on knowing anything about CBP — CBP says so itself.

The two lead-ins, and why one is harder

A positive lead-in asks for the single conclusion that validly follows. A negative lead-in asks for the single conclusion that does not, with four perfectly valid conclusions arranged around it. Most people are noticeably worse at the negative form, because it inverts the habit: you are looking for the one option you cannot support rather than the one you can.

Read the lead-in before the paragraph. Which question you are answering changes what you are looking for on every line.

The quantifiers that decide most answers

CBP's own lesson works through these. "All" and "every" tell you the first group sits inside the second, and tell you nothing about the reverse — all Border Patrol agents work for the government does not make every government employee an agent. "None" is symmetrical: if no A is B, then no B is A. "Some" means at least some and implies nothing about the rest.

"Many" is the one that catches people. CBP's guide gives the example directly: from "many Border Patrol agents are not fluent in French" you may be tempted to infer that a few are, and that inference is wrong. The statement tells you nothing at all about the ones it does not describe.

  • All A are B does not give you all B are A
  • No A is B does give you no B is A
  • Some means at least some, and stops there
  • Many, most and almost all say nothing about the remainder

If-then runs one way

If P then Q gives you its contrapositive: if not Q, then not P. It does not give you its converse. From "if a criminal receives a pardon, the criminal will be released" you may conclude that a criminal who was not released received no pardon — and you may not conclude that a criminal who was released was pardoned, because there may be other reasons for a release.

Watch for "only", "unless" and "except", which reverse or restrict a conditional, and for double negatives, which cancel.

One piece of ordinary test advice that is wrong here

Candidates are often told to be suspicious of answers containing absolute words. CBP contradicts that specifically for this test: ignore any advice you may have received about avoiding an answer that contains "all" or "none", because you will find those words in both right and wrong response options.

It is worth taking seriously. A candidate who has trained on material that quietly never keys an absolute answer has learned a habit this examination punishes.

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