Don't Focus on What the Test Has Done in the Past
Often, GMAT Verbal tips and tricks involve “what the GMAT Focus does.” For example, someone might say, “In a CR question about a city, information about another city is not relevant to the argument. That’s what the test does.”
Here’s the thing though: It’s true that the test has done what I just mentioned. However, it’s also true that the test has done the opposite. In other words, information about a city has been relevant in a CR question about another city.
The fact is, when people talk about “what the GMAT Focus does,” they are often talking about what the test has done in the past. However, what the test has done in the past isn’t necessarily what will happen on your test. After all, language is flexible and what doesn’t work in one context may work in another.
Moreover, there are many ways that Verbal questions can work. So, the questions you see on test day could be rather different from past questions.
Thus, if you’re overly focused on preparing for exactly what went on in past test questions, you may get false impressions of what “must be” correct or incorrect.
Now, I’m not saying to totally ignore what goes on in official practice questions from the past. Some general patterns that appear in past questions can be useful to know. The point is, you’ll get better results by learning concepts, strategies, and logic that you can apply to Verbal questions of any stripe than by focusing on memorizing specific patterns from past questions.
Warmest regards,
Scott
