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ElenaFerrante
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 24 Dec 2024, 01:36
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So the jury is out on whether one should pre-think (assumptions) on CR - some experts (such as E-Gmat) tout it as a game changer, while others (TTP and Gmat Ninja) advise against it. I personally prefer not to pre-think on CR lest I be cognitively biased, but I wanted to know what is the approach that other test-takers prefer and follow. I look forward to hearing from you - thank you!
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 24 Dec 2024, 01:55
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While reading question stem, you'll definitely have some thoughts at given scenario. That will get well balanced with practice!
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 24 Dec 2024, 22:35
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RishS94
While reading question stem, you'll definitely have some thoughts at given scenario. That will get well balanced with practice!
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This is very true. I don't normally recommend making a conscious effort to identify possible answers or a couple of assumptions during the exam (takes too much time). But yes, it is practically impossible to avoid having some initial thoughts after reading the stimulus.
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 24 Dec 2024, 22:41
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all these concepts arent tailor-made for all
its upto you to choose which is right for you
work 20-30 qns on both methods go with the one u really feel comfortable
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 03 Jan 2025, 12:07
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Hi ElenaFerrante,

You are correct that we advise against rethinking. We discuss it more here:

GMAT Critical Reasoning: 8 Essential Tips
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 15 Jan 2025, 21:50
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Here's my answer to a similar questions from exactly 1 year ago. Hope you find it useful.

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Here's the thing about prethinking on CR questions:

1. The GMAT is a time pressured test
2. Your job isn't to come up with the perfect answer, only to pick between 5 answer choices
3. Unless you're aiming for a sub 650 (classic GMAT) score, there's no point pursuing a strategy that works better for easier CR questions and not so well on harder ones.

Put all those things together and excessive prethinking doesn't make sense.

It's important to understand how the GMAT makes hard questions hard. Remember they're looking for executive reasoning skills. They test it by using psychometrics to make you miss information and or in the case of CR, over including information from the prompt when all you should be focused on is the core argument.

There are two key prethinking things that help in harder CR questions:
1. Reading the question first so you know what angle to read the prompt from (it's totally different if you're looking for weaknesses or assumptions compared to inference questions)
2. Distilling the core argument / point / conclusion down to 10-15 words. One of the biggest problems is carrying too much of prompt along with you when they ask you to analyze the strength or weakness of the core argument.

Anything more than that is a waste of precious test time - the answer choices limit the range of thinking you should do beyond those two things. Spending anytime wandering around the prompt and thinking freely outside the range of the answer choices doesn't work.

Remember also that the GMAT rewards you for great CONSISTENT process --- just like sports. Great hitters, shooters, passers follow a consistent process for each swing or shot they take. They don't score every time in hard (ie. 700+ situations) but you don't have to to be among the elite. It's the same with tough CR questions. You just need a consistent and EFFICIENT CR process that puts you in the game on hard ones and lets you get a majority of them right.
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To pre-think or not to pre-think? 15 Jan 2025, 22:41
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ElenaFerrante
So the jury is out on whether one should pre-think (assumptions) on CR - some experts (such as E-Gmat) tout it as a game changer, while others (TTP and Gmat Ninja) advise against it. I personally prefer not to pre-think on CR lest I be cognitively biased, but I wanted to know what is the approach that other test-takers prefer and follow. I look forward to hearing from you - thank you!
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I don't believe in pre-thinking. But it is important to evaluate the argument very properly before jumping on to the options - else you will end up work matching which is disastrous for medium and hard questions. If that is what you call pre-thinking, then it makes sense.

So you break the argument down into its components and evaluate what the author has given - premises and his conclusion. You will see that he has jumped the gun on the conclusion (since we are talking about inductive arguments in CR). So now you go to your options and know what you are looking for - not exactly but say "I am looking for something that tells me that A is good" etc.

You are not wasting time trying to guess what the answer would be - but you know what to expect. This is called "de-constructing the argument" and involves substantial thinking. But it saves you time while evaluating the options.
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