GMAT Critical Reasoning
Introduction
You can think of critical reasoning questions
as essentially mini reading comprehension questions. These questions
tend to follow one paragraph passages. These questions primarily
test the analytical and critical thinking skills that admissions
committees so badly want to see in their applicants.
While a college course in logic may help you with
these questions, it is certainly not a necessity. (There have
been many 750+ GMAT tests written by individuals who did not
take such a course in undergrad.) With some preparation time,
you can learn to think logically and ace these GMAT questions.
Additionally, preparation for these critical reasoning
GMAT CAT questions will also serve as preparation for your business
school studies. Many of the same techniques used to answer these
test questions will aid your case analyses. (This should be
extra incentive for those of you intent on pursuing consulting
careers.)
Types of Critical Reasoning Questions
- Strengthen an argument.
- Weaken an argument.
- Identify a parallel argument.
- Identify the assumption.
- Identify the inference.
- Select the best conclusion.
Our Preferred Approach to Critical Reasoning Questions
1.) Read the question before the passage.
Know before you begin reading the passage what you are looking
for. You will want to approach the same passage a little bit
differently if you are trying to destroy an argument or find
the best conclusion to the passage. Also, and we feel we can
not say this enough, read the questions carefully. The test
makers will deliberately include answer choices designed to
answer the question if it is interpreted incorrectly.
2.) Identify the assumption and conclusion
in the passage. This can be tricky at times. The conclusion
in the GMAT passages is not always the very last sentence and
the assumption is often implied. This is a great illustration
of where our general tip of "practice, practice, practice"
will come in handy.
The conclusion is often contained
in the first sentence of the passage and the remainder of the
passage supports this conclusion. The use of transition words
such as "consequently", "hence", and "as
a result" are commonly used to modify the conclusion.
The assumption is the passage's
"must have". In other words if the assumption is not
true, the conclusion must be incorrect. We have a simple method
for identifying assumptions. Read each sentence in the passage
individually and then ask yourself if the conclusion would still
be true if this one sentence was incorrect.
3.) Try to guess the correct answer before
you read the answer choices. Often your hunch will
be correct and this will help you focus on selecting the best
answer.
4.) Read every answer choice.
You may find an answer choice that is even better than the one
you initially selected. Eliminate the ones you know are wrong.
Carefully analyze the remaining choices with a focus on identifying
the one with the most relevant arguments and issues.
Critical Reasoning Tips and Strategies
The most common questions ask you to weaken
an argument. The GMAT testers expect you to identify
one of the following 4 things with this question type:
- Circular reasoning
- Inaccurate cause-and-effect argument
- Sweeping generalization
- Unqualified "expert" opinion
Utilize process of elimination. There
is a pattern in these questions that when the test taker is
asked to identify the argument that most greatly strengthens
or weakens the argument, that at least one of the choices will
do the opposite. If you have read the question carefully, you
will be able to quickly eliminate these choices.
Become comfortable "working backwards"
on these questions. If you become stuck, working backwards
is an excellent technique to use in this section. It will be
a bit time consuming, however, as it can mean re-reading a passage
5 different time and inserting a different answer choice at
the end each time.
Do not choose an answer simply because it is
true. The answer choice must be a natural extension
of the passage.
Ignore the decoys. Often times, the
GMAT passages contain extraneous sentences and information.
Learn to separate these decoys from the rest of the passage
so they won't be a distraction.
Avoid the emotionally-charged answer choices.
The correct GMAT answer choices are always more neutral and
weak.
Avoid absolute statements. Absolute
statements often include words such as "always" and
"must". The test writers are very biased against these
types of statements. Hence, when you encounter an answer choice
that is absolute, you will know that it can be eliminated.
Critical reasoning
practice questions
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