For many test-takers, the biggest mistake they make on Verbal questions is guessing between their remaining two answer choices. Even if they’ve methodically eliminated answers and employed sound logic up to that point, they get frustrated. Maybe they think there is no real way to decide which choice is best. Maybe they just want to be done with the question. Whatever the rationale, they go with gut instinct to select a final answer.

The thing is, to get GMAT Verbal questions correct, we have to learn to decide between the last two choices. We could even say that the GMAT Verbal game is all about deciding between the last two choices. After all, there are generally three choices in a Verbal question that are relatively clearly incorrect. So, most of the hard work in answering a question comes in deciding between the remaining two choices.

We can’t rely on gut instinct to do the hardest work for us. If you were running a race, you wouldn’t stop 10 feet from the finish line and expect the wind to push you over it. When we’re down to two answers in a question, now is the time to really turn on our critical-thinking skills and higher-order logic, not go on auto-pilot.

So, what do we do instead?

A simple change of mindset can help us stay in the race when the finish line is in our sights. We must expect it to be hard to decide between our remaining two choices. Expect that part of answering the question to be the hardest part of all. If you take that view, then you’ll know that you’ll need to put in extra effort at the end of each Verbal question, rather than leave the final step up to fate.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep