General Abilities is the largest section of the CSS MPT: 60 marks, more than English or General Knowledge. It is also one of the most improvable, since the question types are narrow and repetitive and practice moves your score faster here than almost anywhere else on the paper. Below: what the section actually tests, ten worked practice questions, and a fast way to revise it.
For how the section sits in the whole paper, see the MPT syllabus and marks; for a week-by-week schedule, see CSS MPT in One Month.
Key takeaways
- General Abilities is 60 marks, the heaviest section, so a weak score here is expensive.
- It is math and reasoning only: arithmetic, elementary algebra, geometry, logical and analytical reasoning, and mental abilities. No science.
- Most questions are one-step: they reward speed and accuracy on familiar patterns, not clever tricks.
- Timed practice is the whole method. Do sets under the clock and review every miss.
What General Abilities covers
The section has two kinds of question. The quantitative ones cover arithmetic (percentages, ratios and proportions, averages, profit and loss, and word problems on age, speed and distance, and work and rate), a small amount of elementary algebra (solving a linear equation, simple expansion and simplification), and geometry (angles, triangles, circles and polygons, and basic area and perimeter). Some basic statistics (mean, range, simple probability, and reading pictograms and pie-charts) sits with the arithmetic.
The reasoning questions are the other kind. Logical and analytical reasoning covers deductive puzzles, statement-and-conclusion and syllogism questions, number and letter series, odd-one-out, and "which option is a necessary part of…" classification items. Mental abilities covers coding–decoding, spatial and figure questions, and a set of recall items on memory, the intelligence quotient, stages of creative thinking, and reactions to stress.
You do not need advanced mathematics. Class 8–10 arithmetic and geometry, done quickly and without slips, covers the quantitative questions; the reasoning questions are pure pattern recognition that comes from volume.
Ten practice questions
1. A shirt priced at Rs. 1,200 is sold at a 15% discount. What is the sale price?
- A. Rs. 1,000
- B. Rs. 1,020
- C. Rs. 1,050
- D. Rs. 1,080
Answer: B. A 15% discount leaves 85% of the price: 1,200 x 0.85 = Rs. 1,020.
2. The mean of five numbers is 18. A sixth number, 30, is added. What is the new mean?
- A. 18
- B. 20
- C. 22
- D. 24
Answer: B. The five numbers total 5 x 18 = 90. With 30 added, the total is 120 over 6 numbers, so the mean is 20.
3. A car covers 240 km in 4 hours. At the same speed, how far does it travel in 7 hours?
- A. 380 km
- B. 400 km
- C. 420 km
- D. 450 km
Answer: C. The speed is 240 ÷ 4 = 60 km/h. In 7 hours: 60 x 7 = 420 km.
4. A team wins 18 of its 24 matches. What percentage did it lose?
- A. 20%
- B. 25%
- C. 30%
- D. 33%
Answer: B. It lost 6 of 24 matches. 6 ÷ 24 = 0.25 = 25%.
5. If 5x − 3 = 2x + 12, what is the value of x?
- A. 3
- B. 4
- C. 5
- D. 6
Answer: C. 5x − 2x = 12 + 3, so 3x = 15 and x = 5.
6. Ayesha is 4 years older than Bilal. The sum of their ages is 30. How old is Bilal?
- A. 11
- B. 12
- C. 13
- D. 14
Answer: C. Let Bilal be b. Then b + (b + 4) = 30, so 2b = 26 and b = 13.
7. A polygon with six sides is called a:
- A. Pentagon
- B. Hexagon
- C. Heptagon
- D. Octagon
Answer: B. A six-sided polygon is a hexagon; five is a pentagon, seven a heptagon, eight an octagon.
8. The angles of a triangle are in the ratio 2 : 3 : 4. What is the largest angle?
- A. 40°
- B. 60°
- C. 80°
- D. 90°
Answer: C. The parts sum to 2x + 3x + 4x = 9x = 180°, so x = 20°. The largest angle is 4 x 20° = 80°.
9. What number comes next in the series: 3, 6, 11, 18, 27, … ?
- A. 36
- B. 38
- C. 40
- D. 42
Answer: B. The gaps grow by two each time (3, 5, 7, 9, then 11), so the next term is 27 + 11 = 38.
10. In a code, ROSE is written as SPTF. How is LILY written?
- A. MJMZ
- B. MJNZ
- C. NKMZ
- D. MKNZ
Answer: A. Each letter moves forward by one: L→M, I→J, L→M, Y→Z, giving MJMZ.
How to revise General Abilities fast
Because the section is narrow and repetitive, the returns come from volume and timing, not from finding a clever shortcut.
Run a General Abilities practice set (pick just this section when you build a paper) every few days, always under the clock, and treat every mistake as data. Note the pattern each miss belongs to (a particular ratio setup, a series rule you keep misreading, a syllogism trap you fall for) in a running "leak list", and reread the explanation for that question before you move on. The point is not to grind more questions; it's to stop repeating the same three or four mistakes across sets.
A few things that speed this up:
- Time every set. The failure mode here is not "I can't do it" but "I ran out of time." Aim for well under a minute per question.
- Re-drill only your leak list in the final week. By then you should recognize most patterns on sight; the last week is about the handful that still trip you.
- Learn the mental-abilities facts outright. Short-term memory duration, who coined "IQ", the stages of creative thinking, and the IQ formula are recall questions: a one-page note covers them.
- Check your accuracy on a timed set is above ~70% before exam day.
Frequently asked questions
60 marks out of 200: the largest of the five sections, and enough that a weak score there is very hard to recover elsewhere.
No. School-level arithmetic and geometry, done quickly and accurately, cover the quantitative questions. The larger challenge is speed and avoiding careless slips, both of which come from timed practice.
Volume, with real review. Series, syllogisms, odd-one-out and coding questions each follow a small number of templates, and they surface fast once you've done fifty-plus mixed questions and actually reread the explanation on every one you miss. Skimming past a wrong answer to the next question is where most candidates plateau.
Not as a standalone drill. Mock CSS builds sets at the section level (General Abilities as a whole), mixed the way the real paper mixes them, rather than isolating one question type. If a specific pattern keeps beating you, the leak-list method above gets you the same result: flag it every time it shows up and re-read the explanation until it stops costing you marks.