Is E-GMAT Critical Reasoning Approach optimal?

Question

Hi everyone,

I have been spending over 80 hours on preparing just the Verbal section so far, covering all SC and half of CR sections in e-gmat. As I was trying to use the approach suggested by e-gmat to solve CR questions, I felt that I would never have enough time to solve a question using their CR approach. For those who don't know their approach yet, I summarize it for you here.

- Step 1: Read, understand the passage, and figure out the main point of the author. (this is essential no matter what approach you take)
- Step 2: Pre-thinking step that involves laying out all possible assumptions you can think of from the passage. 
- Step 3: Read, understand the question and answer choices.
 
I think the problem starts in the 2nd step. Although , this step intuitively reasonable. However, as there are so many ways to look at the facts presented in the passage, and as it is sometimes vague which real-world knowledge we have to pretend we don't know to be able to look at presented facts and opinions in the passage correctly. I feel like we can draw a lot more assumptions that needed to answer such question, jacking up our timing considerably. Furthermore, they also suggest that we do these steps before reading the question. Wouldn't it be better to know which type of CR question is this so we know what details we should pay more attention while reading and understanding the passage?

When doing the CR quizzes, I do the followings:
- Step 1: Read, understand the passage, and figure out the main point of the author.
- Step 2: Read and understand the question, figure out what type of CR question is this.
- Step 3: Read the answer choices and apply its idea to the concept of the passage.

What do you guys think?

Can you please share your experience and maybe your approach to CR questions?

Really appreciated your inputs.

Thank you

zapak · Answer

All major prep companies teach the same approach to CR.Most of the tactics are heavily influenced by Powerscore and MGMAT.
Most prep companies would rather use sophisticated terminology to sell their tactics .

However, all said and done, step 2 of the approach helps us in understanding the argument.You do not need to brainstorm all the assumptions and possible answers.
All you need to do is to spend some time understanding the argument.

You approach will work for easy CRs but will not do wonders on tough CRs.
Also it is always better to follow the consistent approach of e-gmat .

Hope above helps.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi alexlearning17,

To start, CR prompts are the one question type in which you should actually start off reading the specific QUESTION that is asked. The 'task' behind dealing with each type of CR prompt is based on what the prompt asks you to do, so knowing that task BEFORE you start reading the prompt is far more efficient than reading the paragraph first and then finding out what you're supposed to do with the given information. Beyond that, doing well on a CR Quiz is not the same thing as doing well on CR within the context of taking a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT (in which CR questions can show up at any time during the Verbal section and you have to deal with an adaptive Algorithm).

Before I can offer you any additional advice, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

VodkaHelps · Answer

Hi,

Thank you for your input. I also think that it is better to read the question first so I understand which parts of the paragraph to focus one and how should I shape my thinking while processing the information.

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? ->  88 hours so far. Finished Sentence Correction section (will still need to take more quizzes on it). Half of Critical reasoning. I do feel that I have been moving quite slow. One of the reasons is I faced so many new vocabs and that really affected my performance during sample tests... 
2) What study materials have you used so far?  -> I am a retaker, so this time I solely use e-gmat for verbal. Just purchased Math Revolution for Quant. I haven't started with Quants yet. 
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?  -> My CAT was 640 last year and the actual test was 620. I had only 1 month to prepare last year.

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?  My goal is 740  
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?  I am planning to take early or mid July 
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?  -> Plannign to apply this september 
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to? -> INSEAD, HBS, HaaS, Stern (NUY) and safe bet Foster (UW) (im UW alumni)

egmat · Answer

alexlearning17 – thank you for being a student. The way to track the efficiency of your preparation is by tracking the improvement in your overall ability. Hence, it is very important to take an ability quiz every 30 hours of your preparation to track this improvement.

Is Prethinking all possible answers required?
The short answer is “No”. The whole purpose or prethinking is to ensure that you comprehend the argument. The purpose of prethinking is not to predict the answer. Hence, you should “stop” prethinking once you come up with a strengthener, weakener, or assumption.

How can you prethink in 15 seconds?
Quite simply by following the prescribed methods. Ask the falsification question while solving assumption questions. Similarly ask the corresponding question in Strengthen/Weaken questions.
The answers to these prethinking questions should be apparent if you have understood the argument well (i.e. done step 1 well).

Do self-correction to isolate your problem?
Let’s take an assumption question:
After reading and comprehending the argument, if you are unable to prethink in 30 seconds, look at the solution and ask yourself:
Did I ask the correct prethinking question? If you did not then you possibly

a. Did not understand the conclusion
b. Did not create the argument structure properly
c. Did not visualize the argument structure in your mind.

If you do all of the above properly, then there is no reason why you should not be able to come up with assumptions.

By the way, whether you follow the prethinking approach or not, to get the correct answer you do need to be able to:
a. Understand the conclusion
b. Create the argument structure properly
c. Visualize the argument structure in your mind.

Here are a few recent debriefs that mention Prethinking. You will notice that Prethining is useful not only in CR but also in RC

https://gmatclub.com/forum/740-q50-v-40 ... t=prethink
https://gmatclub.com/forum/road-to-a-gm ... t=prethink
https://gmatclub.com/forum/640-590-and- ... t=prethink
https://gmatclub.com/forum/730-q48-v42- ... t=prethink

I hope the above helps.

-Rajat Sadana

GMATPill · Answer

I'll chime into say that there are pros and cons to each approach and each person can tackle the problem differently.

Both approaches can work - reading question first or reading paragraph first -- depends on which approach you feel more comfortable with.

We at GMAT Pill actually stick to reading the paragraph first -- but already having a sense of what to expect in the question - without necessarily reading the question.

You see, there are only so many kinds of questions you'll see on CR -- they repeat over and over -- "helps explains" - "bold-faced portions" - "argument depends on" -etc.

If you can identify the setup - that exists in the paragraph - oftentimes, you can have a hunch of what to expect in the question.

I just took a look at the question above - and I found myself wasting a lot of time going back and forth between the question and the paragraph. So while that approach could work for others, I'm not quite used to it.

Instead, you can see ho we approach this question in the video above:
https://www.gmatpill.com/criticalreasoni ... Estate.mp4

So we believe in understanding the variations of what you might expect -- these core frameworks. Once you are familiar with what to expect -- oftentimes, you can sort of anticipate what the question is - and what answer choice is likely to be right -- even before looking at the question or answer choices.

Hope that helps.

You can learn more about us at:

https://www.gmatpill.com

VodkaHelps · Answer

Thank you for commenting Rajat Sadana.

I understand that your approach is the optimal in the scenario when a student successfully grasps the complete meaning, understand the intention, and creates the assumptions in his mind. However, in cases that I met some unknown vocabs that were extremely crucial to understand the passage, I found I had the only choice to read the answers and try to apply the logic which one is the most possible to be the correct choice.

As you mentioned about the method of reviewing the progress by taking the ability quiz every 30 hours of studying, I have the following questions that I wish to get answers to:

1. I have finished one sub-section, let's say SC, and had taken ability tests while learning the SC section. Now I am reaching another 30 hours point but I'm in the middle of studying CR. Should I do ability quiz for the SC as well and another one for CR? 
2. I honestly do feel worried to follow the approach suggested by you, e-gmat, that I should finish Verb completely or Quant before moving to the other section. I started with Verbal, but by the time I finish Quant I will probably forget some from the Verbal. Should I occasionally take Verbal ability tests while pursuing the Quant materials?

Thank you.

VodkaHelps · Answer

Thank you for your input. It is very interesting to know what other approaches out there and if they are in-line with the one that I am sticking to. That was also a good example. Appreciate it.

egmat · Answer

alexlearning17  - Do these two things to ensure that you don't forget what you have learned.

1. Make notes while learning, especially for questions in which you make a mistake.
2. Take ability quizzes every so often - take SC ability quiz while studying for CR (every week)

Also, write down how you would approach SC - what would you do in step 1, what would you do in step 2... that way you would not forget this approach. Remember, your goal is to internalize these approaches. As you do this, these approaches would start to become second nature to you.

-Rajat

Visakha · Answer

Hi 
I am facing a tough time using the pre-thinking approach of e-gmat. Even under the practice files questions it so happens that I end up spending 15-20 minutes and then also I do not have a concrete prethinking in hand.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Visakha,

If you're looking for advice for your studies, then you would likely find it helpful to start your own post-thread (instead of piggy-backing on this old one) - and describe your studies in more detail. Most GMAT questions are written so that they can be solved in more than one way, so if you find that a particular approach might be taking too long to implement, then there is likely a faster and/or easier approach that you could be using.

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

vamshikaithi · Answer

Hi Visakha, I found GMATWhiz's approach to be more structured than that of e-gmat. I could properly categorize questions into frameworks and pre-think based on the guidelines for each framework. I used to face a lot of difficulty solving CR questions previously but I could see the results once I started applying the framework driven approach. You can go through my debriefs to understand how I improved my CR accuracy and eventually improved my score. Scoring a perfect CR 51 ( 97 percentile ) from being an amateur in CR https://gmatclub.com/forum/scoring-a-pe ... l#p2526853 Debrief of my journey from 570 to 680 to 720 https://gmatclub.com/forum/my-journey-f ... l#p2648110 Try going through the detailed solutions and see where exactly you are making the mistake. I think that should help. All the best

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

That strategy looks good. It works well to read the passage before reading the question, because then you aren't distracted by the question from noticing details of the passage.

Once you have read the question, in some cases, it makes sense to go back to the passage to look for key information that relates to the specific type of question. For instance, once you know that you have to find an assumption, it can help to go back to the passage and more carefully identify the conclusion and how it's supported.

	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

Is E-GMAT Critical Reasoning Approach optimal?

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards