Question Types in the GMAT Verbal Reasoning Section

GMAT Verbal Reasoning Section – Question Types

The Verbal Reasoning section is one of three components students often envision first when thinking about the GMAT. You can expect to see two types of questions in this section of the exam, about equally represented: Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. 

Having a firm grasp on what to expect from each question type will help you focus your preparation and pinpoint areas of weakness to work on before exam day. 

Reading Comprehension

Each Reading Comprehension question is presented as a passage for you to read before answering two to four multiple-choice questions about it. The passages are often about business, social science, or physical and biological sciences, and are generally academic and neutral in tone. For standardized testing purposes, comprehension refers to your ability to decipher and summarize a text's main idea, understand the difference between implied and explicit statements, infer information from the text, and analyze its structure. 

Critical Reasoning 

At a quick glance, the Critical Reasoning questions may look similar to the Reading Comprehension questions; however, they are testing two different skills. While Reading Comprehension tests your ability to break down a text, Critical Reasoning assesses your ability to evaluate the argument it makes. As with the Reading Comprehension questions, each Critical Reasoning question will start with a passage for you to read. However, these texts will present an argument and be shorter than the Reading Comprehension passages. You will then answer a multiple-choice question about the text that tests your critical reasoning skills.