EPSO verbal reasoning
20 questions in 35 minutes. You need 10 correct answers to pass
The structure is straightforward: you’re given one paragraph of text, roughly a hundred words, usually written like an EU document; the question will give you four options, with only one that’s proven correct in the text.
It tests whether you can tell what the text says from what merely sounds reasonable.
Format and timing
20 questions in 35 minutes, about 1 min 45 per question. Use that time to read through the text carefully once and make it count, you won’t have time to re-read it over and over again.
How to work a question
- Read the four options before the passage. Then read the text looking for the details they mention, instead of trying to remember all of it.
- Find the sentence that answers the question. Almost always it’s a specific line or even word.
- Check each answer option against that sentence, not your memory of it. The wording is extremely important.
- Watch the small words. Some, all, most, may, must, should: that is where wrong options are usually made.
How to practice
Answer questions and read every explanation, especially on the ones you got right by luck. We explain each answer as soon as you give it and point at the sentence that settles it.
What causes the most common mistakes
Quantifier strengthening
The text says "some countries reported delays". The option says "countries reported delays". "Some" quietly became "all", so the claim is stronger than the text and wrong.
Correlation read as cause
The text says two things happened together. The option says one caused the other. The text never says that, however plausible it sounds.
Necessary treated as sufficient
"Applications must include a certificate" says what an application needs, not that a certificate gets it approved.
Outside knowledge
An option can be true in real life and still wrong here. The only question is whether this passage supports it.