GMAT - Critical Reasoning

Let’s start this post with a critical reasoning question: When a group of people starts a company, the founders usually serve as sources both of funding and of skills in marketing, management, and technical matters. It is unlikely that a single individual can both provide adequate funding and be skilled in marketing, management, and technical matters. Therefore, companies founded by groups are more likely to succeed than companies founded by individuals. Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument? Before we dive into the answer choices, let’s start by wrapping our heads around what this critical Read more

While strengthen, weaken, and inference questions tend to make up the bulk of GMAT Critical Reasoning questions, another question Critical Reasoning type that appears often is those that require completing the blank, following the prompt: Which of the following most logically completes the argument below? These question types are asking you to figure out what makes sense, typically as part of a plan of action based upon data, surveys, or other kinds of feedback. Let’s take a look at a sample problem below: Which of the following most logically completes the argument below? NowNews, although still the most popular magazine Read more

With Critical Reasoning questions, many test takers forget the immense importance of figuring out the gap, or disconnect, in the reasoning in the question being provided. Understanding this gap is essential to determining what answer choice fits to resolve the gap. The next step is moving to evaluate what the question asks you to find – say, whether you need to select an answer choice that strengthens or weakens the prompt provided. Many test takers fail to spend adequate time evaluating the gap, and find themselves stuck between 2 or 3 answer choices. Without fundamentally understanding the gap, figuring out Read more

As you read GMAT Critical Reasoning problems, you might be struck by how different the questions can be: some are about biology, others about geology, and still others about politics, home repair, corporate strategy, and a whole host of other topics. But, strategically speaking, Critical Reasoning problems are all a lot more similar than meets the eye. There are a handful of blueprints for the structure of these problems, and if you can see those blueprints the subject matter becomes window dressing. The most popular Critical Reasoning blueprint? It looks like this: Fact that guarantees that X is true. Conclusion Read more

When I was a kid, all I wanted was a cool mono-syllabic last name. People would fumble through my clunky last name and inevitably layer some hybrid of odd accents in all of the wrong places. I just wanted to play lacrosse and hear “Go Capps” or “Go Carp!” Since I couldn’t change my name, I wished for a good nickname instead because let’s be honest, that can be even cooler. But you can’t pick your nickname, so I ended up getting labeled “JC” (my initials). When you go to a Catholic high school and your nickname is a shared Read more

The way that we tackle the GMAT Critical Reasoning section (or, you know, most of the GMAT) requires we have the unique mindset of pretending we are totally clueless, but also a keen expert who can find the gap in assumptions made by a critical reading prompt. What do we mean by clueless? Let’s start with one of our favorite Critical Reasoning questions: Numerous ancient Mayan cities have been discovered in the Yucatan peninsula in recent decades. The ruins lack any evidence of destruction by invading forces, internal revolts, or disease, and appear simply to have been abandoned. Some archaeologists Read more