What Critical Reasoning tests
Critical Reasoning gives you a short argument of a few sentences and one job to do with it: weaken or strengthen the conclusion, find the assumption it needs, decide what evidence would help evaluate it, draw the inference the facts support, resolve a paradox, or name the role a statement plays. The arguments need no outside knowledge; they test whether you can separate evidence from conclusion and spot the gap between them.
How the GMAT Focus scores it
Critical Reasoning shares the 23-question Verbal section with Reading Comprehension. The section adapts to your answers and produces a Verbal score from 60 to 90, which GMAC weights equally with Quant and Data Insights. Each argument stands alone, so a confusing argument never carries into the next question.
Timing rule of thumb
Budget about 2 minutes per question. Read the question first so you know the job, then read the argument and restate its conclusion in a few words before you look at the choices. If two choices survive at 90 seconds, pick the one that bears on the conclusion most directly.
The two most common traps
1.True, but out of scope
A choice can be accurate and on topic yet say nothing about the link between evidence and conclusion. The conclusion sets the scope; a choice that never touches it cannot be right.
2.Doing the opposite job
Weaken questions often include a strong strengthener, and assumption questions often include a choice that attacks a premise. Negate a candidate assumption: if the argument still stands, you have the wrong choice.