Pace yourself properly. You will have 65 minutes to complete the verbal section. GMAT critical reasoning questions, in general, don’t take quite as much time as the average reading comprehension question, but more time than a sentence correction question. As you work through your critical reasoning GMAT practice, you should plan to spend about a minute and a half on each one.
Read the question first. It can be helpful to read the question before you read the rest of the passage. Try to figure out which question type it is. This will help you figure out exactly what you should be looking for in the answer choices. For paradox questions, for example, you’re looking for a new piece of information that resolves a ‘problem’ or contradiction, whereas in an inference question you’re looking for a conclusion that can be reasonably drawn from the given information.
Think carefully about what you’re being asked. As soon as you read the question, try to discern what’s exactly is being asked of you. Are you being asked to draw a conclusion based on the given information? To reconcile two contradictory statements? This will determine how you approach the answer choices. For example, if you’re being asked to choose a statement that would weaken the argument presented in the passage, you’ll need to start off by 1) identifying the main argument of the passage and 2) select the answer choice that contradicts or provides an exception to that argument. If you’re being asked to select an answer choice that supports the main argument, you’ll still need to complete the first step (identifying the passage’s argument), but step 2 will be to select an answer choice that bolsters that argument.
Avoid extreme answer choices. Extreme or absolute answer choices are a red flag. Try to start taking notice of “clue words” in your critical reasoning GMAT practice. For the most part, avoid answer choices that contain language like ‘only,’ ‘never,’ ‘always,’ ‘all,’ ‘none,’ ‘best,’ ‘worst,’ ‘must,’ etc. They’re nearly always incorrect. For example, in answer choice C in the inference example above, “Exercise and weight reduction are the most effective methods” is a tip-off that the answer choice is likely wrong. Think about it: The passages you’re given in these questions are brief, and the accompanying questions ask you to do some nuanced critical thinking, so sweeping, broad generalizations are pretty unlikely candidates for correct answer choices.
Steer clear of answer choices with information that wasn’t directly given in the passage. This is especially true for inference questions. Everything you need to answer the question will be right there for you in the passage. If an answer choice is off topic or addresses a tangential issue (for instance, if an argument addresses the link between weight and age and an answer choice references the effects of exercise on weight), it might be a red flag.
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Take note as you work through GMAT critical reasoning practice questions: Sometimes you’ll get new pertinent information in an answer choice (for example, the correct answer to a paradox question will provide an explanation for an apparent contradiction), but incorrect answer choices will contain information that’s not directly related to the passage at all or provide unrelated new information that doesn’t answer the question.
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