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The more you practice, the easier critical reasoning becomes.

As you practice, learn to recognize the most common assumptions made in arguments:

-- that X caused Y
-- that a plan, when implemented, will achieve its goal
-- that X is the same as Y
-- that one example means it's true for all
-- that a rise/decrease in percentage proves a rise/decrease in the actual number
-- that a rise/decrease in an average proves a rise/decrease in the actual number

You need to understand how to strengthen and weaken each of these kinds of arguments.

For example, if an argument assumes that X caused Y, to weaken the argument we'd look for for an answer choice that shows that something else caused Y, or that the relationship was reversed, that Y caused X.

Once you to start to recognize how the GMAT tends to strengthen and weaken these types of arguments, you'll find it easier to spot the correct answer, because you'll know what to look for when you examine the answer choices.

Good luck!

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Mitch Hunt
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I think some of what you are hearing can be contributed to test stress - many people have spent a lot of time with the OG questions and know them like old friends. Taking the real GMAT can feel like going to a party where you don't know anyone. We haven't seen a real shift in questions recently - with the exception of the addition of questions that ask you for the flaw(upgraded weaken) and questions that ask you to evaluate the reasoning(combination of weaken and
strengthen).
The other issues is that the OG is in basic order of difficulty which means that high scoring students will never see the easy stuff and will get a much larger proportion of harder questions than exist in the OG.

There are plenty of materials out there that can help you with the harder questions and some people like to look at LSAT questions to find materials that are a bit more difficult. But the ultimate key is to remember that when you study you aren't studying the problems but you are looking for general concepts - different study materials treat them differently but you really need to have just a few core concepts that can play out over the test. If you pull apart an argument without looking at it from a conceptual level you really have only worked that problem and you can be sure that problem won't be on the test.

Best of luck.

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Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

The list is not exhaustive but they are the most common and the best starting point - you should try to fit as many questions as possible into the patterns and then add to the list after you have mastered these.

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Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

Hey TPR folks et. al.,

I was asked to weigh on this by private message. I don't have very much to add, as the question seems to have been discussed at great length. But, just to natter:

I agree that the feeling that the test might be "getting harder" is probably related to the unfamiliarity of the test. However, the OG definitely is on the easy side. Remember that most people who OBSESS about the GMAT (come to forums like this one, look at multiple books, etc.) are going to score higher than a 600. But the books needs to be fairly evenly split in the entire 2-800 range. That means that, if you're scoring over a 650, nearly 75% of the OG questions are below your ability level. That's a lot (even if slightly exaggerated...I don't know the actual breakdown of every question...).

Mitch's list of Assumption types is fantastic. Try to create the same sort of patterns FOR YOURSELF for the other question types. ALSO, try to create pattern lists for WRONG answer choices (Remember that only 40% or so will be out of scope/irrelevant, the rest will make some other error, whether it's just getting a single word wrong, scrambling text from the passage, or directly contradicting the passage). I know how nice the idea is to get somebody to just give you a list which you can then memorize, but CR is a form of reading COMPREHENSION. You're far better off noticing the patterns yourself and trying to create YOUR OWN list.

Good luck!

-tommy wallach

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Tommy Wallach, Company Expert
ManhattanGMAT

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I agree with Tommy- the best way to study is to create your own list of patterns and studying the patterns of the wrong answer choices is a great idea too. But if you need something to get you started looking at a basic list of most common will put you on the right course.

Remember this test is a logical problem solving test and is therefore based in patterns - find those patterns and you unlock the test.

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Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

one thing that you should also be able to do, if you really understand the critical reasoning problems in the OG, is make analogies of your own.

in other words, if you feel that you really understand a particular og problem very well, you should be able to write a similar problem on your own -- a problem that uses the same sort of reasoning, but deals with entirely different subject matter, and is written very differently.
the latter is key -- if you just take the same sentences and substitute different specific nouns and adjectives, that doesn't show any understanding at all. however, if you can write a problem that looks completely different, but whose underlying logic is the same, then that shows true understanding.

this is much harder than you think, but is an extremely useful exercise, particularly for people who complain that they have gone through the OG several times already and are unable to find new problems of sufficiently high quality.

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Ron is a Director of Curriculum Development at Manhattan GMAT. He has been teaching various standardized tests for almost 20 years.

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Ron is right. He must work for the best GMAT company ever.

-t

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Tommy Wallach, Company Expert
ManhattanGMAT

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Dagmat,

I would argue that you're best off studying more and more passages, be they LSAT, GMAT, or even GRE. The problem with reading general interest articles is, first, they often aren't as complex as some passages, and second, they aren't actually built to confuse you (as some test passages are). I would say if you're looking for the best possible practice, read passages and OUTLINE. Then get someone you KNOW is good at this stuff (be it a private tutor or just a friend who scores high on these tests) to check that you understood the passage correctly. (You can also do this yourself...write down the OUTLINE, as well as WHY you think each answer choice is wrong (in the form of a sentence), then check your understanding EXACTLY against the book).

Good luck!

-tommy

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Tommy Wallach, Company Expert
ManhattanGMAT

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