GMAT Cafe

The Verbal section of the test measures your ability to read and comprehend written material, to reason and evaluate arguments, and to correct written material to conform to standard written English. – The GMAT Information Bulletin 2008

The verbal section of the GMAT is the final section you will face on the GMAT exam. Since this is the last section, one tends to be exhausted and tends to lose concentration. This is where taking a lot of full length practice GMAT tests helps ( full length means taking all 3 sections AWA, Quants and Verbal). With enough practice, one can train his/her mind to stay alert for the full 4 hours of the test.

The verbal section consists of 41 multiple choice questions, which must be answered within 75 minutes. This section consists of a mix of three question types; Sentence Correction(SC), Critical Reasoning(CR), Reading Comprehension (RC).

Sentence Correction (SC):

Sentence correction questions present a sentence, all or part of which is underlined. This is followed by 5 answer choices. All the five choices present different ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these choices repeats the original underlined part of the sentence; the other four are different. If there is no error in the original sentence then choose Choice A (which repeats the original underlined part). If there is an error then, the correct answer would be one from Choices B,C,D or E.

Sentence correction tests on effectiveness and correctness of expression. The test-taker is supposed to give attention to the grammar, choice of words and sentence construction. The correct answer would be one that produces the most effective sentence; this answer should be clear and exact, without awkwardness, ambiguity, redundancy, or grammatical error.

Most test-takers believe that Sentence correction is the only question type in the Verbal section that can be mastered quickly. And they are right ! There are few commonly repeated question types and can be mastered with a fair amount of practice. One only needs to remember a few rules.

Critical Reasoning (CR):

Critical Reasoning questions require the test-taker to understand and analyze a brief passage (sometimes referred to as “stimulus”), this is followed by a question and then by 5 answer choices. The question may ask the test-taker to draw a conclusion, to identify assumptions, or to strengthen or weaken the argument.

Critical reasoning requires detailed analysis of the presented stimulus. Some suggest that one should read the question first and then the stimulus; some suggest reading the stimulus first is better. Try out both and figure out which works best for you.

The key to critical reasoning questions is reading closely and understanding the stimulus and the question. The advice to read closely may seem like an obvious thing, but GMAT verbal questions are known to play with the language. So one should get into the habit of reading very closely on the GMAT. This is essential because even the answer choices will be so close that if one misses the underlying meaning, he/she would end up choosing the wrong answer choice.

Critical reasoning questions can be mastered with a lot of patient practice. So develop the habit of reading closely. This skill will be helpful to you all your life.

Reading Comprehension (RC):

Reading comprehension is probably the most feared question type in the verbal section.As the name implies, it tests the ability of the test-taker to understand the substance and logical structure of a written selection. The GMAT uses reading passages of approximately 200 to 350 words, covering topics from social sciences, biological sciences, physical sciences, and business.

One has to read the passage, understand what the passage says, read the question, understand what the question asks, read the answer choices, understand them and then pick up the right choice. The challenge lies in managing to do all this in a short span of time. Obviously, one needs to have a lot of practice to manage to do all this in the stipulated period of time.

If one is strong in critical reasoning, then it is half battle won against Reading comprehension. If you have a long time before you face the GMAT, you can improve your reading by reading online magazines or editorials. Pick up stuff which you would generally not read. Get the habit of reading long articles on the computer screen.

Related Resources :

• Read the Economist Magazine
• Read the McKinsey Quarterly
• Read the Scientific American and the Nature magazine
• Read the University of Chicago’s online magazine