The Surprising Benefit of Reading Carefully on the GMAT Verbal Section

You might think that reading more carefully would slow you down. And on the front end of dealing with a question, you may technically be correct. But here’s the thing: even if reading more carefully initially slows you down a little, it sets you up to answer Verbal questions much more quickly. In other words, you make up the time in spades on the back end. How is that the case? Because you have a more solid basis for choosing an answer.

For instance, people often skim Critical Reasoning passages in the interest of saving time. Or, sometimes they don’t read all of a Verbal answer choice because they feel that they can eliminate it on the basis of what the beginning of the choice says.

However, they’re operating on incomplete information. So, it often turns out that they’ve eliminated choices too quickly. And when they can’t identify a correct answer, they end up having to reevaluate those discarded choices.

Or, because they’ve missed a key detail in skimming the passage, they cycle through answer choices again and again, unable to see why one choice is better than the others.

Conversely, when students read the passage carefully from the get-go, often the correct answer practically jumps out at them. The process feels smoother, decisions feel more decisive, and there’s a lot less second-guessing.

Moreover, careful reading leads to stronger pattern recognition over time. As you train yourself to catch subtle distinctions between answer choices, you start noticing common traps more quickly. In turn, you build even more speed and accuracy for future questions.

So, to answer GMAT Verbal questions more quickly, read passages, questions, and answer choices more carefully.

Reach out to me with any questions about your GMAT prep. Happy studying!

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep