Bookshelf
Total GMAT Math Jeff's complete Quant guide, on sale now! |
Total GMAT Verbal Everything you need to ace GMAT Verbal! |
1,800 Practice Math Questions
Buy Jeff's books at Amazon.com
GMAT Official Guide, with IR
OG Math | OG Verbal
OG12 & Quant Rev solutions!
GMAT Question of the Day
Beginner's Guide to the GMAT
GMAT Hacks Affiliate Program
Categories
- General Study Tips
- Goals and Planning
- CAT Strategy
- The Mental Game
- GMAT Math Strategy
- GMAT Math Topics
- Mental Math
- Data Sufficiency
- Critical Reasoning
- Reading Comprehension
- Sentence Correction
- Analytical Writing Assessment
- Integrated Reasoning
- IR Explained
- Business School Admissions
- GMAT Prep Resources
- Practice Questions
- Total GMAT Math
- Total GMAT Verbal
- GMAT 111
The Important Parts of GMAT CR Passages
You should follow me on Twitter. While you're at it, take a moment to subscribe to GMAT Hacks via RSS or Email. |
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to identify the most important sentences in a GMAT Reading Comprehension passage. Since Critical Reasoning passages are shorter, the challenge isn't as great, but still, some sentences have more value than others.
Your first priority should be to read for the conclusion. Inference questions don't have conclusions, but the other 80 percent of CR questions do. If you're having trouble making sense of a CR passage, find the conclusion before worrying about making sense of the rest.
Next, look for relationships with the conclusion. If the passage argues that an advertising campaign has increased sales for Company X, look for information about that specific advertising campaign, or data indicating the increased sales. When looking for these related statements, keep a very narrow focus. If a sentence isn't directly connected to the conclusion, it may not be within the scope of the passage.
Thus, you can rank the importance of these sentences as follows:
- Conclusion
- Sentences directly related to the conclusion
- Everything else
This applies in some form to nearly every type of CR question. For instance, students often try to treat bold-face questions differently, but you shouldn't. If you identify the conclusion and how the other sentences relate to it, you have an understanding of the passage that will help you choose the correct answer.
About the author: Jeff Sackmann has written many GMAT preparation books, including the popular Total GMAT Math, Total GMAT Verbal, and GMAT 111. He has also created explanations for problems in The Official Guide, as well as 1,800 practice GMAT math questions.
Total GMAT Verbal
The comprehensive guide to the GMAT Verbal section. Recognize, dissect, and master every question type
you'll face on the test. Everything you need, all in one place, including 100+ realistic practice questions. |