The GMAT Verbal section is notoriously difficult to ace: a perfect score is 51, but only 1% of people score higher than 45. Fortunately, there are some GMAT Verbal tricks and tips you can use right away to improve your performance.
In this post, we'll go over the best overall GMAT Verbal tricks as well as tips for each question type, such as sentence correction, critical reasoning, and reading comprehension. By the end, you'll have learned all of the key tricks and tips that you can use right away to improve your Verbal section score.
GMAT Verbal Section Question Types
The GMAT verbal section consists of 36 questions. Through all 36 questions, only three types of questions are covered. Let us now examine them.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning: In this case, one must answer the questions by comprehending the logic underlying the paragraph. The paragraph will be one long paragraph filled with logical reasoning and arguments. To answer the question, one must first understand the underlying rationale, which includes assumptions, strengthening factors, and other factors.
Reading Comprehension: A passage with multiple paragraphs will be provided here. You must read the course several times before answering the questions based on the passage. Questions generally focus on the passage's content, tone, details, and other implications.
Correcting Sentences: These types of questions can be tricky and difficult to answer. You will be given the same sentence in five different variations. You must select the grammatically correct, concise, and perfect version from the five options.
GMAT Verbal Tricks in General
The following GMAT Verbal tips and tricks apply to all three question types.
1. Make Language Simpler
The GMAT Verbal section's three question types all feature sophisticated vocabulary and scholarly concepts. As a result, rephrasing difficult language into your own words can be beneficial.
This strategy could take the form of boiling down the passage or argument, or it could take the form of simplifying the question itself, for reading comprehension and critical reasoning questions.
2. Concentrate on the Question Being Asked
Many GMAT Verbal questions will give you tempting wrong answers that are true to the prompt's content but do not actually answer the question. Ignore the other noise and concentrate solely on identifying and addressing the task of the question.
You can accept all of the options as de facto truths and simply choose the one that most closely matches your preferences.
3. Go over all of the answer options and use the process of elimination.
Getting rid of incorrect answers is an important part of the process of arriving at the correct answer. Rather than trying to find the correct answer, go through each option and eliminate the incorrect answers until only one remains.
This is also a good strategy for when you're stuck between answer options: focus on disproving each one, and then choose the answer option that is the most difficult to refute. It's almost always easier to eliminate incorrect answers than it is to find the correct one.
Even if you're certain of the correct answer right away, you should always take a moment to rule out the other options.