![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2018\/07\/is-gmat-verbal-fair-part-1-chelsey-cooley.png\")
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GMAT Quant might be frustrating, but at least there are rules! Verbal, on the other hand\u2026 well, I\u2019ve had some arguments with the GMAT over what the right answer to a GMAT Verbal problem <\/span>should <\/span><\/i>be. You probably have, too. Or, you\u2019ve wondered what makes <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> Verbal answer choice \u201cmore right\u201d than <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> Verbal answer choice. After a lot of years and a lot of GMAT Verbal problems, here are my thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n There are definitely clear rules for Sentence Correction: they\u2019re the rules of English grammar. (Of course, people argue about grammar rules all the time. But the GMAT stays out of the really contentious debates, like the <\/span>Oxford Comma issue<\/span><\/a>.) <\/span><\/p>\n The GMAT is only 99% consistent in applying these rules to Sentence Correction problems. There are very few issues\u2014most notably, <\/span>pronoun ambiguity<\/span><\/a>\u2014where different GMAT Verbal problems sometimes disagree with each other. However, <\/span>most Sentence Correction problems can be solved in multiple ways<\/b>. If you can\u2019t tell whether one piece of grammar is supposed to be right or wrong, just look for another error that seems more clear-cut.<\/span><\/p>\n Official GMAT explanations for Sentence Correction problems can be really frustrating. Here are some actual quotes from the <\/span>Official Guide to the GMAT 2018<\/span><\/a>: <\/span><\/p>\n Wordy<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>unclear<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>confusing<\/span><\/i>\u2014aren\u2019t those subjective judgments? What I think is confusing might be perfectly clear to you. However, <\/span>this is a problem with the explanations, not the problems themselves<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n For a clear and thorough explanation of the <\/span>grammar rules <\/span><\/i>used in each problem, check out <\/span>GMAT Navigator<\/span><\/a> alongside the Official Guide. You\u2019ll learn that the right and wrong answers are based on predictable rules, even if the official explanations don\u2019t go into detail about them.<\/span><\/p>\n There are a few things that make GMAT Critical Reasoning problems seem unfair. One simple issue is the way the questions are worded:<\/span><\/p>\n To me, those questions sound pretty similar to this one: <\/span><\/p>\n Okay, I\u2019d <\/span>most like<\/span><\/i> the cr\u00e8me brulee\u2014any dessert that involves a blowtorch is good in my book\u2014but I still love brownies, ice cream, and pie!<\/span><\/p>\n Questions like this make it sound like you\u2019re looking for the \u201cbest\u201d answer out of a bunch of \u201cpretty good\u201d answers. That seems really unfair. However, <\/span>that isn\u2019t actually how Critical Reasoning works<\/b>. There\u2019s always one \u201cright\u201d answer and four \u201cwrong\u201d answers, even if that doesn\u2019t seem obvious at first glance. To see why, let\u2019s take a look at how GMAT Verbal problems are actually created. <\/span><\/p>\n Imagine that you\u2019re the one writing the problems. The GMAC puts thousands of dollars into writing and testing each GMAT problem, so if you want to keep your job, the problems you write had better be \u201csuccessful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In other words, strong GMAT Verbal test takers should get your problem right almost all of the time, and weak GMAT Verbal test takers should usually get it wrong. It shouldn\u2019t be based on luck, or personal opinion: your problem should tell you something about a test taker\u2019s overall skill level. <\/span><\/p>\n So, you\u2019ve got a challenge. Your problem should be fair, because otherwise, people would get it right or wrong randomly, not based on how well they performed overall. But it also shouldn\u2019t be super-obvious, since GMAT Verbal problems should be hard! What do you do? <\/span><\/p>\n What GMAT writers seem to do is create one right answer that follows all of the rules for the problem type, and four wrong answers that \u201cbreak the rules.\u201d But then, they dress the right answer up to look boring, confusing, poorly-written, or irrelevant. They dress up the wrong answers to look interesting, clear, well-written, and relevant. High scorers are people who cut through the distractions and eliminate anything that breaks the rules, no matter how nice it looks. <\/span><\/p>\n So, for the GMAT to work at all, Critical Reasoning <\/span>has<\/span><\/i> to have objective rules and it <\/span>has<\/span><\/i> to be fair. That doesn\u2019t mean the rules need to be obvious! In fact, the less obvious they are, the better that is for the GMAT. In the next article, we\u2019ll talk a bit about what the rules really are, why they seem so unfair, and what you can do about it\u2014and we\u2019ll take a look at Reading Comprehension, the most \u201cunfair\u201d-looking GMAT Verbal problem type of all. ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GMAT gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Chelsey Cooley<\/a> GMAT Quant might be frustrating, but at least there are rules! Verbal, on the other hand\u2026 well, I\u2019ve had some arguments with the GMAT over what the right answer to a GMAT Verbal problem should be. You probably have, too. Or, you\u2019ve wondered what makes this Verbal answer choice \u201cmore right\u201d than that Verbal answer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,873,929,52871,930,26,9,10],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-reasoning","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-sentence-correction","category-taking-the-gmat","category-verbal-on-gmat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16050,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029\/revisions\/16050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16029"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sentence Correction: Yup, It\u2019s (Mostly) Fair<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Critical Reasoning: Fairer Than You\u2019d Think!<\/b><\/h4>\n
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A Little Trip to GMAT Verbal Land<\/b><\/h4>\n
Back to Critical Reasoning<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"Chelsey](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2015\/11\/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Chelsey")
<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/i><\/b>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master\u2019s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170\/170 on the GRE.\u00a0<\/em><\/i>Check out Chelsey\u2019s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"