GMAT Verbal Reasoning Section Strategy

Approaching Your Preparation

The Verbal Reasoning section is one of three components that most people think of when discussing GMAT scores. This section combined with the Quantitative Reasoning and Data Insights sections will eventually result in a score between 205-805.

Test-takers score higher on average on the Quantitative Reasoning section than on Verbal Reasoning, proving that this section should be taken as seriously in preparing for the GMAT as the Quant. In many ways, improving the Verbal score may be more difficult than improving the Quantitative score, as verbal skills are less straightforward than mathematical concepts. 

Formulating an approach is the first step to ensuring you achieve a high percentile score on the Verbal Reasoning section. You will want to target your areas of weakness and question types to improve on, tighten up your pacing, and budget time before the exam to practice. 

Focusing Your Studies

There are two types of questions in the Verbal Reasoning section of the GMAT: Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. You should first take a practice test to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Read through the explanation of the answers for questions you got wrong to understand if your mistake was due to a concept you don't understand. 

Timing is Everything

The Verbal Reasoning section is comprised of 23 questions, which you have 45 minutes to complete. Clocking in at just under two minutes per question, it's of utmost importance to have a firm grasp on your pacing. 

The Verbal Reasoning section is adaptive, meaning the algorithm will select questions for you based on how you performed on the previous ones. It also means that your score is continuously being calculated. Missing multiple questions in a row has a disproportionately negative effect on your score, so pacing is important to avoid not being able to finish the exam. 

Practice

It's not exactly groundbreaking to say that to succeed on the Verbal Reasoning section, you will need to devote significant time to practice; the more you practice any skill, the better you get at it. Well-organized practice not only familiarizes you with the type of questions you will see on the test, it can also help pinpoint your areas of weakness so you can develop a strategy to improve them. If possible, taking a course or working with a private tutor is ideal. Having a third-party perspective, especially from someone who has expertise in the GMAT, will help you create an effective practice regimen.

You will also want to build up your stamina. The GMAT is a marathon test that requires you to sit at a computer and focus for more than two hours. There are small breaks twice, but if you haven't prepared to keep your focus over the span of the exam, you will start to tire and potentially make timing errors or simple reading and comprehension mistakes. 

As mentioned above, timing is an important component of your success on the GMAT. Drilling all the question types will not only help you improve your accuracy and build your endurance, it will also save you time. As you become more familiar with the question types and the wording of the possible multiple-choice responses, you will become more efficient. This lets you save precious minutes to ensure accuracy, rather than finish all the questions in time. Make sure to return to the questions you bookmarked if time permits.