Reviewing GMAT Critical Reasoning: What to Do

The Highest Principle of Review

1. Do this every day. For every passage and every question in the Official Guide (OG) – regardless of whether you got it right or wrong, and every option whether you hesitated on it or not – perform the following analysis and categorization.
2. Review immediately after finishing each question. Don’t review several questions together after doing a batch (you’ll forget your thought process for the earlier ones).
3. First, summarize your thought process based on how you approached the question, and only then check the answer. This allows you to identify and correct your flawed thinking. Checking the answer first and then summarizing will lead you to be subconsciously influenced by the correct answer, preventing you from fixing your blind spots.
4. Don’t rush through the material or focus on the number of questions. If you have limited time, deeply reviewing just three to five questions a day is more effective than mindlessly doing many.

On Narrative Type/Question Type/Correct Options

The goal here is to anticipate how options will be structured for the next question based on the narrative logic of the passage and the question type. This allows you to form expectations about the options before you even read them. Please categorize each question based on its “passage narrative type” and the “question asked.” You can use the following categories (but are not limited to them):

CR Fundamentals (Part 2): Predicting Correct/Incorrect Answers Before Reading Options

At the end of each day, please categorize the questions you reviewed “separately” by narrative type/question type. When you review the next day, merge the new categorizations with the previous day’s. After merging, observe the questions within the same category and think across questions: “For this type of narrative/question, what are the common directions for correct options? What are the common directions for incorrect options?”

On Incorrect Options

The goal here is to categorize every type of error logically. For common incorrect options (e.g., irrelevant or opposite in tone), think: “How can I quickly eliminate these if they appear again in future questions?” For tricky options, think: “How did the test maker design this? How can I identify the logical traps during the second pass of elimination?” Don’t just review the story content of the passage and options. For details, see:

CR Fundamentals (Part 3): Preliminary Option Screening

CR Fundamentals (Part 4): How to Avoid Tricky Options?

At the end of each day, also merge the following into your review from the previous day: 1. Identical common incorrect options (subdivided by type of irrelevance and opposite tone). 2. Tricky options with similar design principles. While merging, consider: “If I see this type of option in the future, what SOP can I use to quickly determine if it’s irrelevant or opposite in tone, rather than relying on ‘feel’?” and “How does the GMAT typically create tricky options? What details in the passage should I check next time to confirm it’s a tricky option?”

Integrating for Practical Application

If you’ve been diligent with your review process, you’ll be able to “anticipate what’s coming” during the actual exam rather than just “fighting fires as they appear.” For example, Dustin’s thought process when encountering a question during the exam is as follows: here. With this kind of approach, combined with the training in “Reading Fundamentals” and “Logical Reasoning Skills” discussed here, you’ll be able to conquer any CR question that comes your way on test day.