7.1 Name and Number Comparison (Checking)

What Checking Questions Measure

Clerical work depends on transferring data without introducing errors. A clerk verifies a case number against a file, confirms a mailing address, or matches an invoice line to a record. Checking questions, also called name and number comparison, measure whether you can compare nearly identical sets and detect a single deviation under time pressure.

A typical item shows two or three columns. Each row holds a name, a number, or a mixed code. The question asks how many sets are exactly alike, or which set differs. The differences are small on purpose: one transposed digit, one swapped letter, an extra space, or a missing character.

A Reliable Comparison Method

Scan left to right, character by character, and treat every mark as significant. Do not read names as words or numbers as quantities. The number 100245 should be read as one, zero, zero, two, four, five, not as one hundred thousand. Word reading invites your brain to autocorrect a mismatch into a match.

Error Types Examiners Plant

The ends of strings are dangerous because attention fades after the first few characters. Many candidates verify the beginning of a long number, assume the rest matches, and miss a transposition in the last two digits. Force yourself to finish every comparison to the final character.

Worked Example

Compare these three sets and decide how many are exactly alike.

Set 1: Marguerite A. Donovan, 7,409,238 Set 2: Marguerite A. Donovan, 7,409,328 Set 3: Marguerite A. Donovan, 7,409,238

The names match across all three. For the numbers, read digit by digit. Set 1 ends 2-3-8. Set 2 ends 3-2-8, a transposition of the middle digits. Set 3 ends 2-3-8 and matches Set 1. So Set 1 and Set 3 are alike, and Set 2 differs. If the question asks how many sets are exactly alike, the answer is two.

Speed and Accuracy Balance

Many checking subtests are scored for both speed and accuracy, and on most of them an unanswered item is counted as wrong, not skipped. That changes strategy. Accuracy comes first because one careless error can cost more than one unanswered question, but you still need a steady rhythm to reach the end of the section.

1. Set a per-item pace from practice, such as comparing one three-set item in roughly ten to fifteen seconds.
2. Keep the pace even; do not race the easy rows and then stall on a hard one.
3. If two sets look identical after a full scan, trust the scan and move on.
4. Do not return to recheck unless you have spare time at the end.

Common Self-Inflicted Mistakes

Reading too fast is the leading cause of missed items. The correct answer is always determinable from the sets shown, so a wrong answer almost always means the scan skipped a character. A second cause is losing the line, especially with three narrow columns; a guide finger fixes most of these. A third cause is fatigue near the end of the string, which the finish-to-the-last-character habit prevents.

Handling Two-Column Versus Three-Column Items

Some checking items show two columns and ask only whether the pair matches. Others show three columns and ask how many of the three are alike, which can be all three, exactly two, or none. The three-column format hides more traps because a difference can sit between any pair. Compare column one to column two, then column one to column three; column one is your fixed anchor for both comparisons. Counting matches from a single anchor is more reliable than comparing all three at once.

Final Reminder

Checking rewards a boring, mechanical process. Anchor left, compare one character group at a time, finish every string, and answer before moving on. The candidate who treats each comparison as a careful transcription, not as reading, will catch the planted differences that faster readers miss. Build the habit in untimed practice until the scan feels automatic, then add the clock so speed grows on top of a stable accuracy base rather than replacing it.