Quiz: test your logical thinking skills

Do you consider yourself a logical thinker?

Perhaps you’re the type of person who thrives on quizzes and the opportunity to solve a tricky problem. Or you might find logical thinking a real struggle at times, and realise you need to give your skills a rev-up.

Like it or not, the art of thinking logically is a crucial skill not only in daily life, but also for climbing the career ladder – in whatever field you may wish to pursue.

Whether you’re an architect drawing up building plans, a nurse administering medicine or even a detective trying to solve a crime, logical thinking is a factor in virtually every career there is.

And more often than not, numbers come into play, says Dr David Tay, a senior lecturer in mathematics at Deakin.

‘There are a lot of real-life situations where basic mathematical skills are using logical thinking,’ he says. ‘I think in Australia we have, in some cases, a reluctance to do that. Some people consider it too hard or maybe they don’t see the relevance.’

Dr Tay teaches maths to first-year university students, and says while many want to be engineers, some are not interested in doing the maths required for their chosen career.

‘If you are an engineer designing a bridge and you don’t get the calculations right, I don’t really want to be walking on that bridge. If you can’t even get the numbers right, the bridge may collapse, and someone could be seriously hurt or killed.’

Of course you could always plug some numbers into a calculator or computer, but it can be difficult to know whether the answer a machine gives you actually makes sense. ‘You still need to understand what the problem is trying to ask from you,’ Dr Tay says.

So how’s your logical thinking? Take our quiz below to find out…