Rely on Pinpoint Logic Instead of “Gut Instinct” in Critical Reasoning Questions

A major part of knowing that a CR answer choice is incorrect is using clear logic instead of “gut instinct.” In other words, you must be able to pinpoint exactly why an incorrect answer is incorrect, rather than basing your decisions on a vague idea that something “seems off” or “doesn’t seem like it would be right.”

In the same way that you shouldn’t allow your “gut” to decide which answers are wrong, you shouldn’t allow it to choose the correct answer either. A fundamental error that many test-takers make is to merely reread the 2 final choices they have to decide between. Then they rely on gut instinct to choose which is correct. They just want to be done with the question.

If you want to win a race, you can’t collapse 10 feet before the finish line. Likewise, if you want to earn a high GMAT Verbal score, you can’t simply “leave it up to fate” when you’re down to 2 answers in a question. On the contrary, that is precisely the time to really turn on your critical-thinking skills and higher-order logic and relentlessly seek out the correct answer.

The truth is, relying on your gut is no better than flipping a coin. Your gut can make up all sorts of stories and jump to all kinds of conclusions that the information in the passage does not support. The GMAT question-writers know this. The question-writers know that your gut is more likely to select trap choices written to seem correct than to select actual correct answers. They set their traps to take advantage of the fact that when you rely on instinct, you abandon logical reasoning.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep