Don’t Prethink Answers to Critical Reasoning Questions

You may have heard of or be using a GMAT Critical Reasoning strategy known as “prethinking,” which involves coming up with a possible answer to a CR question before analyzing the answer choices. This strategy is flawed for a number of reasons, but wasting precious time is one of the big ones.

First of all, prethinking takes time you don’t need to spend. The 5 answer choices are right there in front of you. So, you don’t have to come up with an answer on your own in addition to analyzing the choices presented.

Secondly, prethinking can cause you to waste time when going through the choices because you’re looking for a prethought answer. The thing is, there is a good chance that your prethought answer won’t match the correct answer, especially in a medium- or hard-level question. In fact, your prethought answer likely won’t even be among the choices.

At best, then, your prethought answer will be a distraction that slows your evaluation of the choices. At worst, you’ll first go through the choices just with the aim of finding the one that comes closest to your prethought answer. Then, when no choices are a match, you’ll go through them a second time to actually analyze them. What a waste of time.

Generally, the reason some GMAT teachers recommend prethinking is to get students to pay attention when reading CR passages. Of course, you can pay attention without prethinking, and save time by doing so. So, to move more quickly through the GMAT Verbal section, don’t prethink.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep