The GMAT Verbal Section

There are three types of questions that will appear in the GMAT Verbal section. They are Reading comprehension, Sentence correction and Critical reasoning. Questions of all the three types will be asked in multiple choice formats.

The main concept behind the GMAT verbal section is to test ones’ ability to:

1. Skim texts and comprehend the text
2. Find the reason and evaluate arguments
3. Correct sentences to Standard English.

Reading Comprehension:

There will be texts in the verbal section that are about 350 words long. They must be read by the candidate and questions that follow based on the text be answered. The texts will be of academic type with a wide range of topics from sciences to business, economics and HR related ones.

What is Measured

1. Understanding the text in the passages. Questions here will test one’s ability to understand the terms used, author’s tone and level of English knowledge.

2. Understanding logical relations between main points of the passage and the author’s main ideas. One should be able to clearly identify the strong and weak points of the author’s arguments or evaluate the importance of the arguments in the text.

3. Drawing conclusions from the facts in the text. One must be able to analyze the facts in the passage and arrive at a general conclusion, which may be tested in some of the questions.

4. Analyzing charts, tables and numerical facts. Here, candidates are required to make inferences from pie charts, tables and graphs that have data related to the text. Questions will be based on interpretation and comprehending of the diagrams.

Critical Reasoning

Reasoning skills are tested in the critical reasoning questions. Reasoning also involves making and evaluating arguments and coming to a conclusion about the plan of action. One needs to have strong reasoning skills and no specific subject matter in any topic for this type of questions.

What Is Measured

Argument construction, argument evaluation and formulation and evaluation of a plan of action are the skills the candidate needs to show while dealing with this section.

1. Argument construction: The questions here will require one to identify the basis of the argument, draw conclusions and find the assumptions.
2. Argument Evaluation: Here, candidates have to recognize points that would either strengthen or weaken an argument. This is similar to spotting errors in the arguments.
3. Formulating and evaluating a plan of action: This means one has to determine factors that will strengthen or weaken a plan of action that is proposed by the question.

Sentence Correction

In these questions, a sentence that is incorrect will be given and the candidate has to correct it with the given five choices.

What Is Measured

Candidate’s language proficiency and grammatical competence is measured in this section. All standard rules of English are checked, like diction, noun-verb agreement, proper tenses, proper context etc.