GMAT Verbal & Essays

Here are some additional things you can do (I did post this in answer to another question recently, but I can't find that thread anymore, so I'll copy it again here!).

RC Passage:

What is the main point or purpose of the entire passage (most commonly found in the first couple of sentences or the last couple of sentences of the whole thing)?

What is the purpose / main idea of each individual paragraph?

What kind of info is contained in the various paragraphs?
- background info / context
- support for the main point / purpose (this is generally the largest category of info)
- the actual main point / purpose
- follow-on discussion / expounding upon the main point / purpose

Is there any foreshadowing that gives you an idea of what's coming?

RC Questions:

Is it a general question or a specific one?

If general, what type?
- main idea
- passage structure
- tone

If specific, what type?
- specific detail, what
- specific detail, why
- inference
(those three are the main types, though there are other minor types)

Do you know how to handle each of those types? Do you know what they want? (This is different for each type.)

RC Wrong Answers:

Why are the wrong answers wrong, especially the tempting wrong ones? What kinds of commonalities can you notice after you've thought about a bunch of these? Here are some I've found:

RWP: Real World Plausible. The info sounds good in the real world, but I'm supposed to limit myself only to what the passage tells me.

DC: The info is directly contradicted by the passage

The Mix-Up: Two different pieces of info from the passage have been mashed together in a way that is not what the passage actually says - it just looks good b/c the two different pieces are discussed (separately) in the passage

Extreme: extreme words -- always, never -- typically indicate wrong answers (on RC - this is not as certain on CR)

TBNR: True But Not Right. This info is actually presented just as stated in the passage... but it doesn't answer the question that was just asked.

And, of course, the biggest category of all: Out of Scope. (RWP is a subset of OOS.) The info goes beyond what the passage actually says and we can't do that.