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One big difference between answering a GMAT quant question and answering a GMAT verbal question is that being aware of whether you have solid support for an answer to a quant question is much more straightforward than being aware of whether you have solid support for your answer to a verbal question.
Consider the following quant example:
How do we know when we have finished answering that question and have solid support for our answer? We know that we have finished when we have done the math to find the number of hours it would have taken for Finley to complete the job. Until we find that number, which is 1.5, we know that we haven’t finished.
Now, verbal questions don’t work that way. In fact, it’s easy to decide that we have completed a verbal question when we haven’t really. Consider the following reasons for considering a verbal choice incorrect or correct:
Notice the clear difference between the above reasons for choosing a verbal choice and the reason for choosing 1.5 as the answer for the snow shoveling question. Whereas the reason for choosing 1.5 as the answer for the snow shoveling question is the rock solid reason that we arrived at that value by calculating it precisely, those reasons for choosing verbal choices are not solid at all.
But people use reasons like those all the time for choosing verbal choices. Why?
The issue is that, whereas a quant question is obviously not complete until we have done the math, we can convince ourselves that we have completed a verbal question once we come up with pretty much any reason for choosing a choice. Hey, it’s a reason. Right? And maybe we even get the question correct - “It worked!”
Of course, even if choosing a choice for a reason like one of those reasons works one time, it likely won’t work many other times. So, we can see that using reasons like those listed above is part of the reason why people’s verbal scores often bounce all over the place , V38 one day, V28 the next. One time things work out; the next time they don’t.
So, what’s the solution? The solution is to keep in mind that reasons like those are not solid reasons for eliminating or choosing verbal answer choices and to learn to stick with each verbal answer choice until we have a solid reason for eliminating or choosing it, a reason like the following ones:
We can get into the habit of using reasons like the above ones when training for GMAT verbal by sticking with a verbal practice question until we have a reason like those for eliminating or choosing every single choice in that question. We have to learn to be aware of what we have done and of whether we have used a solid reason or not, and any time we miss a practice question, one of the first moves we can make is to assess whether we had solid reasons for eliminating or choosing each choice. Often, when we miss a question, we’ll find that our reasoning wasn’t solid at all.
Yup, answering practice questions in this way can take 15 minutes or more per question when we’re learning, but by the time we take the actual GMAT, we’ll be coming up with solid support for our verbal answers in under two minutes per question, and we’ll nail GMAT verbal.
Consider the following quant example:
- Finley can shovel snow twice as fast as Chris can. If the two of them completed a snow shoveling job in one hour, how many hours would it have taken for Finley to complete the job working alone?
How do we know when we have finished answering that question and have solid support for our answer? We know that we have finished when we have done the math to find the number of hours it would have taken for Finley to complete the job. Until we find that number, which is 1.5, we know that we haven’t finished.
Now, verbal questions don’t work that way. In fact, it’s easy to decide that we have completed a verbal question when we haven’t really. Consider the following reasons for considering a verbal choice incorrect or correct:
- - The words in this choice don’t match the words in the passage.
- This sentence version sounds funny.
- This choice is the shortest choice.
- This choice reminds me of one that was correct in a verbal question I got incorrect the other day.
- I’m not sure why this is right, but it sounds better than the other one that I haven’t eliminated.
Notice the clear difference between the above reasons for choosing a verbal choice and the reason for choosing 1.5 as the answer for the snow shoveling question. Whereas the reason for choosing 1.5 as the answer for the snow shoveling question is the rock solid reason that we arrived at that value by calculating it precisely, those reasons for choosing verbal choices are not solid at all.
But people use reasons like those all the time for choosing verbal choices. Why?
The issue is that, whereas a quant question is obviously not complete until we have done the math, we can convince ourselves that we have completed a verbal question once we come up with pretty much any reason for choosing a choice. Hey, it’s a reason. Right? And maybe we even get the question correct - “It worked!”
Of course, even if choosing a choice for a reason like one of those reasons works one time, it likely won’t work many other times. So, we can see that using reasons like those listed above is part of the reason why people’s verbal scores often bounce all over the place , V38 one day, V28 the next. One time things work out; the next time they don’t.
So, what’s the solution? The solution is to keep in mind that reasons like those are not solid reasons for eliminating or choosing verbal answer choices and to learn to stick with each verbal answer choice until we have a solid reason for eliminating or choosing it, a reason like the following ones:
- - This choice has the wrong effect. It doesn’t support the conclusion; it instead explains one of the facts in the passage.
- Using this choice results in a sentence that is grammatically correct but conveys the following nonsensical meaning.
- This choice is supported by the passage, but it does not answer this particular question.
We can get into the habit of using reasons like the above ones when training for GMAT verbal by sticking with a verbal practice question until we have a reason like those for eliminating or choosing every single choice in that question. We have to learn to be aware of what we have done and of whether we have used a solid reason or not, and any time we miss a practice question, one of the first moves we can make is to assess whether we had solid reasons for eliminating or choosing each choice. Often, when we miss a question, we’ll find that our reasoning wasn’t solid at all.
Yup, answering practice questions in this way can take 15 minutes or more per question when we’re learning, but by the time we take the actual GMAT, we’ll be coming up with solid support for our verbal answers in under two minutes per question, and we’ll nail GMAT verbal.
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