Hi everyone,
I thought I’d share a bit of my own journey with GMAT Verbal. To be honest, my weakest area has always been Critical Reasoning (CR). At first, I assumed CR would be straightforward—just logic, right? But on timed practice tests, I often find myself rereading the same short passage multiple times and still not being 100% sure what the “gap” in the argument is.
Here are a few things I’ve been experimenting with:
Pre-thinking: before looking at the answer choices, I try to predict what kind of assumption or reasoning flaw might exist. This helps me avoid getting distracted by tempting but irrelevant options.
Breaking down arguments: I now write a super quick structure (Conclusion / Premise / Assumption) on my scratch pad. It feels slower at first, but in reality, it saves me from second-guessing later.
Timed drills: Instead of doing 1-2 CR questions casually, I push myself to do sets of 10 under strict time. It really shows me where I lose focus.
Even with these tactics, I still feel like progress is slow. I’m curious:
Do you also struggle more with CR than SC or RC?
Have you found any particular book, video, or habit that really helped you crack CR?
Would love to hear how others tackled this challenge—maybe I can pick up some tips to finally make CR less of a pain!
I thought I’d share a bit of my own journey with GMAT Verbal. To be honest, my weakest area has always been Critical Reasoning (CR). At first, I assumed CR would be straightforward—just logic, right? But on timed practice tests, I often find myself rereading the same short passage multiple times and still not being 100% sure what the “gap” in the argument is.
Here are a few things I’ve been experimenting with:
Pre-thinking: before looking at the answer choices, I try to predict what kind of assumption or reasoning flaw might exist. This helps me avoid getting distracted by tempting but irrelevant options.
Breaking down arguments: I now write a super quick structure (Conclusion / Premise / Assumption) on my scratch pad. It feels slower at first, but in reality, it saves me from second-guessing later.
Timed drills: Instead of doing 1-2 CR questions casually, I push myself to do sets of 10 under strict time. It really shows me where I lose focus.
Even with these tactics, I still feel like progress is slow. I’m curious:
Do you also struggle more with CR than SC or RC?
Have you found any particular book, video, or habit that really helped you crack CR?
Would love to hear how others tackled this challenge—maybe I can pick up some tips to finally make CR less of a pain!
