Another gimmicky GMAT Critical Reasoning strategy that is all too common in GMAT circles is to attempt to “pre-think” the answer to a question. In other words, a test-taker will read the passage, read the question stem, and then try to “guess” what the correct answer will be without reading the answer choices. To put it simply, this is a rookie maneuverer.

When test-takers pre-think, they fall into a number of extremely well-researched cognitive biases. These biases can make it significantly harder to arrive at the right answer to a CR question, and at the same time, make it significantly easier to fall into a trap. GMAT question writers have MASSIVE amounts of data on the mistakes that test-takers are likely to make when they pre-think answer choices, and this data very surely is used to create trap answers that many “pre-thinkers” fall into. In fact, here at Target Test Prep, we too have large amounts of data on how students incorrectly “pre-think” the answers to the questions. And yes, to better prepare our students for challenges of the GMAT, we use this data to engineer trap answer choices in our Critical Reasoning practice questions.

Remember, CR questions want you to analyze the logic of a given argument or plan, not find a justification for your preconceived notion of what the answer should be. More to the point, why waste your valuable time trying to guess what the answer will be when the actual 5 answer choices are right there in front of you on the screen?

Such a strategy is not going to give you an “edge” in eliminating wrong answer choices — quite the opposite, in fact. So, after you read the passage thoroughly, read the question stem and make sure that you understand what it’s asking you. Then, skip the time-wasting task of pre-thinking an answer and simply read through the answer choices completely.