Top 5 GMAT Verbal Mistakes

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Last Updated on May 15, 2023

Test-takers are generally aware that a lack of content knowledge can hold back their GMAT scores in the Verbal section. But, often, less attention is given to the detrimental impact that misguided strategies in answering questions can have. In fact, many GMAT students don’t realize they’re using misguided strategies when they answer Verbal practice questions, and those bad habits carry over to test day.

So, let’s take a look at what I consider the top 5 score-eroding errors test-takers make when tackling GMAT Verbal questions, along with some quick fixes. By the end of this article, you’ll see that, with some simple adjustments to your strategies and mindset, you can avoid these all-too-common GMAT pitfalls and improve your Verbal score.

Here are the 5 GMAT Verbal mistakes we’ll discuss:

• #1: You Guess Between Your Remaining Two Answer Choices
  • Quick Fix: Expect the “Final Two” to Be Tough
• #2: You Don’t Adequately Consider the Non-Underlined Portion in SC
  • Quick Fix: View Your Choices in Context
• #3: Your CR and RC Answer Selection Relies on Word-Matching
  • Quick Fix: Engage in Deeper-Level Analysis
• #4: Your Reading Strategy Is Imbalanced
  • Quick Fix: Read First, for Basic Comprehension
• #5: You Use Hacks Instead of Skill
  • Quick Fix: Realize That the GMAT Can’t Be Gamed
• Key Takeaways
• What’s Next?

Get ready to increase your GMAT Verbal score!

#1: You Guess Between Your Remaining Two Answer Choices

For many test-takers, the biggest mistake they make on Verbal questions is guessing between their remaining two answer choices. Even if they’ve methodically eliminated answers and employed sound logic up to that point, they get frustrated. Maybe they think there is no real way to decide which choice is best. Maybe they just want to be done with the question. Whatever the rationale, they go with gut instinct to select a final answer.

The thing is, to get GMAT Verbal questions correct, we have to learn to decide between the last two choices. We could even say that the GMAT Verbal game is all about deciding between the last two choices. After all, there are generally three choices in a Verbal question that are relatively clearly incorrect. So, most of the hard work in answering a question comes in deciding between the remaining two choices.

We can’t rely on gut instinct to do the hardest work for us. If you were running a race, you wouldn’t stop 10 feet from the finish line and expect the wind to push you over it. When we’re down to two answers in a question, now is the time to really turn on our critical-thinking skills and higher-order logic, not go on autopilot.

So, what do we do instead?

Quick Fix: Expect the “Final Two” to Be Tough

A simple change of mindset can help us stay in the race when the finish line is in our sights. We must expect it to be hard to decide between our remaining two choices. Expect that part of answering the question to be the hardest part of all. If you take that view, then you’ll know that you’ll need to put in extra effort at the end of each Verbal question, rather than leave the final step up to fate.

#2: You Don’t Adequately Consider the Non-Underlined Portion in SC

Another big mistake that GMAT test-takers make when tackling the Verbal section is not adequately considering the non-underlined portion in Sentence Correction questions. It’s easy to commit this error because Sentence Correction answer choices present versions of only the underlined portion. So, naturally, in focusing on evaluating the answer choices, we may lose sight of how each choice fits with the portion of the sentence that isn’t in the answer choices.

The thing is, on its own, an incorrect SC answer choice can look correct. In such cases, only when we consider the choice in the context of the full sentence can we see errors that aren’t apparent in isolation. For instance, perhaps an answer choice makes perfect sense on its own. However, when we plug it into the full sentence, we see that an illogical meaning results. Or maybe an answer choice is perfectly grammatical in isolation. However, plugging it into the full sentence results in a subject-verb agreement error or a mismatched pronoun and antecedent.

Even correct answers may not look like the best choices outside of the full sentence. For instance, perhaps a correct SC answer is a bit longer and wordier than all the other answer choices. However, when you plug it into the sentence, it’s the only choice that produces a logical sentence meaning. If you had merely looked at the answer choices in isolation, you might not have realized that the choice that seemed “least attractive” was in fact the most logical.

Quick Fix: View Your Choices in Context 

Do yourself a favor and always read each SC answer choice in the context of the full sentence. Especially before you select a choice as correct, mentally plug that choice into the non-underlined portion in the stem. Don’t rely on what you remember of the non-underlined portion from reading it once when you first saw the question! The sentence is right there for you to reread any time you need to. Don’t skip this essential last step!

Check out this guide to mastering Sentence Correction for some more expert tips.

#3: Your CR and RC Answer Selection Relies on Word-Matching

GMAT Verbal question writers do their darndest to make incorrect answers attractive to test-takers and correct answers not so obvious. One way they can accomplish this feat is by using wording in incorrect Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension choices that matches the passage wording and switching up the wording in the correct choice.

Naturally, when answer choices look, on the surface, as if they say something the passage says, we’re drawn to them. We may even assume that a choice that isn’t related at all to what the passage says, or possibly what the question asks, must be related because it uses passage wording. And when a choice uses wording that doesn’t exactly match the wording in the passage, we may be less drawn to that choice.

Of course, the GMAT writers aren’t going to make things so easy for us that we can simply play a word-matching game to ace Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. Think about it: would your reasoning or comprehension skills really be tested by such a game?

The truth is, you will not perform well in CR or RC by selecting answer choices on the basis of whether they include words that appear in the passage. In fact, you’re likely to fall for many trap choices.

So, how do we avoid taking the bait?

Quick Fix: Engage in Deeper-Level Analysis

We have to dig below the surface of CR and RC answer choices. We can’t stop at the words used. Rather, we must focus on the logic and meaning of what they say. For instance, an incorrect choice could mirror language from the passage but actually contradict what the passage says is true. If we stay at the surface level in evaluating such a choice, rather than think more deeply about what the choice actually says and how it logically relates to the passage, we won’t catch that error.

Additionally, we might not notice a choice that is correctly in line with what the passage says simply because that choice phrases the information differently.

However, if we make logic and meaning, instead of wording, the primary criteria for our evaluation of answer choices, we engage in the deeper-level analysis that is necessary for finding correct answers to CR and RC questions and avoiding traps.

#4: Your Reading Strategy Is Imbalanced

Many GRE test-takers perform poorly in Reading Comprehension because their reading strategy is imbalanced. Specifically, they make one of two common mistakes: they either try to process every detail when they first read a passage, or they don’t bother to read through the passage at all. Neither of these strategies is optimal for efficiently and accurately answering Reading Comprehension questions.

The first strategy, reading for detail, is both impractical and unnecessary. It’s impractical because 99.99% of us cannot remember every detail we read, and trying to is far too time-consuming. It’s unnecessary because we don’t know which details we’ll end up needing to answer questions and which will be unimportant.

The second strategy, going to the questions without reading through the passage, and then just scanning parts of the passage for relevant information as we face each question, is no better. Using this strategy, we essentially start from zero with each question, rather than start armed with knowledge about what the passage says and where in the passage different discussions can be found. So, we waste time randomly scanning the passage and rereading sentences to find relevant information or make connections between ideas.

It may seem counterintuitive, but skipping reading the passage generally adds time to our RC work. Unfortunately, the notion that reading the questions first saves time is one of the biggest misconceptions that GMAT test-takers have about RC questions.

Quick Fix: Read First, for Basic Comprehension

In both of the cases described above, a better strategy is the following. First, read through an RC passage with the goal of basic, overall comprehension, noting where key details lie but not getting caught up in the details. Then, attack each question, returning to the passage as necessary for relevant details. This strategy is most efficient for a few reasons.

First, you don’t waste time trying to memorize or fully process details that you may not be asked about.

Second, you get a basic sense of where different discussions take place in the passage. So, you don’t waste time randomly searching the passage for various bits of information that questions ask about.

Finally, you’re able to much more quickly spot answer choices that are clearly incorrect because they don’t comport with what the passage says. In fact, you may find that there are times when you can almost instantaneously recognize that an answer choice is wrong because it makes absolutely no sense given what you just read in the passage.

Of course, if you haven’t read the passage, you won’t have the benefit of being able to narrow down your choices right off the bat.

#5: You Use Hacks Instead of Skill 

The final big GMAT mistake test-takers make when answering Verbal questions is using hacks instead of skill to find correct answers. In fact, we’ve already discussed one popular “hack”: word-matching. A couple of other very common (and, sadly, just as ineffective) hacks include:

• always choosing the shortest option among SC answer choices or assuming that the longest option can’t be right
• automatically eliminating CR answer choices that use “extreme” words such as “only,” “always,” or “none.”

These so-called hacks, and others like them, are not a reliable route to finding correct answers to GMAT Verbal questions. Sure, it could be the case that the shortest answer choice happens to be correct in a particular SC question, or a CR answer choice that uses the word “always” happens to be incorrect. And you could get an ace on 10 at the blackjack table.

OK, using hacks might be slightly more reliable that pure luck — at least on easy Verbal questions. But ask yourself, do you want your Verbal score to hinge on strategies that work only occasionally? Or, do you want to be able to implement strategies that you know will work time after time, on question after question?

Quick Fix: Realize That the GMAT Can’t Be Gamed

It’s understandable that GMAT students want to find shortcuts and hacks to make mastering the GMAT easier. But the sooner students realize that the GMAT can’t be gamed, the better off they are in their GMAT prep, because they can start doing the real work of building their GMAT Verbal skills.

GMAT writers don’t make answering Verbal questions as simple as memorizing a list of “bad” words or picking the shortest sentence out of a lineup. In general, we should be wary of GMAT Verbal “hacks” that don’t require any actual Verbal skill or knowledge — the things that the GMAT tests.

In general, gimmicky GMAT Verbal strategies may be able to take you from a very low Verbal score to a mediocre one. However, beyond that, these hacks are a gamble. So, don’t gamble with your GMAT score!

Key Takeaways

When answering Verbal questions, take care to avoid the following 5 GMAT mistakes:

1. guessing between the remaining two answer choices
2. not adequately consider the non-underlined portion in SC
3. relying on word-matching in RC and CR
4. using an imbalanced reading strategy
5. use hacks instead of skill

Eliminating these common GMAT mistakes from your Verbal strategies can help you avoid traps in Verbal questions and increase the number of questions you get correct, particularly questions of a higher difficulty level.

Remember, because the GMAT is an adaptive test, greater accuracy on questions allows you to see more difficult questions, and correctly answering more difficult questions allows you to substantially increase your Verbal score.

So, always keep in mind that content knowledge is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to mastering GMAT Verbal. Without smart strategies for applying that knowledge when answering Verbal questions, a high Verbal score is likely to remain elusive.

What’s Next?

Check out our article with tips on how to avoid careless mistakes on the GMAT and improve your accuracy when answering GMAT questions.

You also may be interested in our answer to the question, “How many mistakes can you make on the GMAT and still score 700+?”