A Quick Idea to Improve Your GMAT Critical Reasoning Overnight
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Today, I want to share with you one of the easiest and quickest ways I’ve ever found to improve your accuracy when doing GMAT Critical Reasoning questions.
First, here’s an example of such a question, which I’ve made much easier by stripping it down to just two answer choices (I’m guessing you won’t have too much trouble solving it):
Ignacio must have studied hard, because he got an A on the test.
Which of the following would most weaken the argument?
(A) Ignacio’s classmate Horace studied hard and got a C on the test.
(B) Ignacio is a habitual cheater.
Just in case you need it, the correct answer is at the end of this article (feel free to check now), but I’m guessing you’re pretty confident you got it right. I’m pretty confident you got it right too—there’s no trick or anything, it really is a fairly straightforward question.
In my view, here is the most interesting thing about this question: the wrong answer includes many words that were already part of the argument and contains no surprising ideas. However, the correct answer includes some new information that even very strong test takers may not have considered before seeing it presented in the answer choices.
The reason I bring this up is because when I teach GMAT Critical Reasoning in my classes, and I ask my students why they eliminated an answer choice that they thought was incorrect, the single most common reason they give me is some variation of the following:
- “They didn’t mention that in the argument.”
- “That wasn’t something the author of the argument brought up.”
- “That seems random/like it came out of nowhere.”
Yet when you think about it, all those things are true of the correct answer to the question above! If, right now, any of these are the reason you’re eliminating answer choices, then you’re often eliminating the correct answer.
Here is my super-quick fix. Stop saying “that answer choice wasn’t mentioned, so it’s wrong.” Start saying “that answer choice doesn’t affect the argument’s conclusion, so it’s wrong.” That’s it! You’ll improve your GMAT Critical Reasoning accuracy overnight.
Consider that advice in the context of the question under discussion here. Answer choice (A) mentions Ignacio, studying, the test, and grades, whereas answer choice (B) mentions only Ignacio. Yet when we consider the conclusion of the argument itself, “Ignacio must have studied hard,” answer choice (A) doesn’t convince us that the conclusion is untrue, as Horace could have gotten a poor grade for many other reasons: maybe he showed up to class halfway through the test, or maybe he was madly in love with his classmate in front of him and couldn’t concentrate. But that tells us very little about Ignacio, who still should have gotten an A, thanks to his conscientious study habits. When we look at answer choice (B), however, we are presented with an alternative explanation for Ignacio’s stellar performance. Ignacio got an A because he cheated. Though the conclusion that he studied hard may still be possible, it is now very much in dispute. So choice (B), though it is something we may not have considered, does have a significant effect on the argument’s conclusion, and is therefore correct according to our new litmus test.
Finally, a big caveat: this idea does not work well for questions that ask you to make an inference, draw a conclusion, or explain a discrepancy (your Manhattan Prep books refer to these as “Evidence Family” questions). For those question types, you really do want an answer choice that sticks pretty close to the facts presented. But, since those types of questions are less common than Assumption Family questions, for which the advice presented here is quite helpful, I still believe the simple change from “that answer choice wasn’t mentioned, so it’s wrong” to “that answer choice doesn’t affect the argument’s conclusion, so it’s wrong” will be a helpful one. Try it today!
And you already knew this, but the correct answer is (B). ?
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Ryan Jacobs is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in San Francisco, California. He has an MBA from UC San Diego, a 780 on the GMAT, and years of GMAT teaching experience. His other interests include music, photography, and hockey. Check out Ryan’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here.