GMAT CAT 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 as 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

1. Strengthen an argument.
2. Weaken an argument.
3. Identify a parallel argument.
4. Identify the assumption.
5. Identify the inference.
6. 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:

1. Circular reasoning
2. Inaccurate cause-and-effect argument
3. Sweeping generalization
4. 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.

Click here to review our critical reasoning practice questions.

Back to top