GMAT: Verbal Section Breakdown

The GMAT Verbal section contains 3 different types of questions:

1. Sentence Correction
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Critical Reasoning.

While you may have encountered Sentence Correction questions and Reading Comprehension questions on past standardized tests (like the SAT) you have probably never encountered a Critical Reasoning question before.
That means that before you can even think about tips and tricks for success on Critical Reasoning Questions, you need to understand exactly what they are and what they are testing.

At first glance, Critical Reasoning questions look a lot like miniature Reading Comprehension questions. You are given a few lines of text – about 3 or 4 sentences – and below that is a question about what you read.

That is where the difference arises. Unlike Reading Comprehension, which test your ability to understand what you read, Critical Reasoning Questions test your ability to understand the logic behind what you read.

There are 6 different types of Critical Reasoning questions and each tests your ability to understand:

• How the arguments in the sentences fit together, and/or
• How the author’s evidence supports the conclusion of the argument.

The 6 types of Critical Reading questions are:

1. Conclusion Questions:

This is the simplest type of Critical Reasoning Question. You are being asked to read the sentences and choose the most logical conclusion.

• The correct answer will be the answer choice best supported by the facts contained in the passage.

2. Strengthening Questions:

This type of question asks you to identify an answer choice that strengthens the argument the passage is making.

• You must first identify the argument: what is it you are trying to strengthen?
• Once you have identified the argument, you need to select an answer choice that strengthens that argument.
• The correct answer will either:

1. Add an additional fact that supports the author’s conclusion OR
2. Provide additional support for one of the facts that the author has already mentioned.

3. Weakening Questions:

This type of question is the opposite of a Strengthening Question. Instead of supporting the argument, you want to poke holes in it or find errors in the author’s reasoning.

• Just like in Strengthening Questions, your first step is identifying the argument.
• Once you have identified the argument, you should try to predict an answer.
  • Look for obvious flaws in the reasoning: did the author make an assumption? Do the author’s facts really support the conclusion? Is there something wrong with one of those facts?
• After you have predicted an answer, evaluate the answer choices. The correct answer will either:

1. Demonstrate why the author’s facts do not provide sufficient support for the author’s conclusion OR
2. Provide an alternate explanation for the facts that call the conclusion into question OR
3. Point out a flaw in one or both of the author’s facts OR
4. Point out that the author made an assumption that might not be true

4. Assumption Questions:

This type of question is one of the more difficult Critical Reasoning Questions. You are being asked to identify what the author didn’t say.
When making his argument, the author relied on a 3rd fact that they never mentioned- a fact that they assumed to be true without even saying it. The author’s whole argument is based on the truth of that unstated fact, and these questions ask you to identify what that fact is.

• Just like with the other Critical Reasoning Questions we’ve discussed, you should identify the argument first.
• Your next step is to try to predict the answer choice.
  • Ask yourself what else must be true in order for the author’s facts to provide enough support for the conclusion? What did the author not say?
  • To predict the assumption, imagine that you and a friend are having a discussion and your friend has just made the statement in the passage. You would retort by saying “But, you are assuming __________.” If you can fill in that blank, that is your prediction.
• Work through the answer choices to find the assumption. To test each answer choice, negate the statement in the choice (take the opposite of the statement) and then ask yourself with the author’s original argument still holds up.
  • Ex: If answer choice A said “Sunshine is good,” to negate the statement, you would say “Sunshine is not good.”
  • Then, considering the new “fact” that “Sunshine is not good,” ask yourself whether the author’s original argument still makes sense or whether it falls apart. If it falls apart when you include your new “fact”, then you have found the correct answer.
  • This method of testing the answer choices works because, in making an argument, the author assumed that the statement contained in the correct answer was a true fact. The argument depended on the statement in that answer choice being true. Therefore, if that statement is not true (when our negated opposite is true), the author’s argument no longer makes sense.

5. Inference Questions:

These questions ask you to use your reasoning skills to determine something else that must be true, based on the information contained in the passage.

• The inference is an additional conclusion you can draw based on any of the information contained in the passage
  • The correct answer may be supported by any of the individual sentences contained in the passage, or by the passage as a whole.
• The correct answer to inference questions will usually be one-step away from the passage.
  • In other words, it should not be difficult to explain why you are able to infer the information contained in the correct answer.
  • You should be able to explain why the correct answer must be true, based on the information in the passage, with one simple sentence.
• The correct answer will be something that is always true based on this information- otherwise, it would not be an inference that you could make from the passage.

6. Parallel Reasoning Questions:

These are the most difficult Critical Reasoning questions. Parallel Reasoning questions test your ability to identify how the author makes his argument, and identify the answer choice that uses this same method of thinking.

• First, you want to identify the author’s pattern of reasoning. Why does he think his conclusion is true and how does he prove it?
  • Some people like to diagram out the reasoning with letters.
  • For example, lets consider the following argument:

• • This could be diagrammed to read “Its true L is bad. But, if we don’t L, people get sad. Therefore, sometimes its OK to L.”

“It is true that lying is unethical. But, if we don’t lie, people may get their feelings hurt. Therefore, sometimes it is OK to lie.”

• Then, you need to find the answer choice that follows that same pattern.
  • It is the relationship of the ideas in the argument that matters, not the subject matter of the argument. You need to find an answer choice that matches the diagram you made.
  • For example, the following would be an argument that uses the same reasoning as the sentence demonstrated above:
  • As you can see, the pattern of reasoning is the same (Its true P is bad. But, if we don’t P, people get sad. Therefore, sometimes its OK to P.) Even though the subject matter is different, the structure of the argument is the same.

“It is true that playing pranks is wrong. But, if we don’t play pranks, people feel left out. Therefore, sometimes it is OK to play pranks.”

Success on the critical reasoning section depends on first identifying the correct question type from these 6 types of questions, and then applying the correct approach. Since the questions stress logic, your reasoning skills and a systematic approach are both essential tools for mastering the GMAT.

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