GMAT Verbal Reasoning: two question types, not three
GMAT Verbal Reasoning is 45 minutes covering Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning — and nothing else. Sentence Correction was removed, which deleted roughly a third of the old section along with the grammar drilling built around it.
What the section is now
| Question type | What it tests |
|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension | Following an argument in dense prose and drawing supported conclusions |
| Critical Reasoning | Evaluating a short argument — its assumptions, its weaknesses, what would change it |
If a course sells "GMAT grammar", idiom lists or sentence-correction drills, it is preparing you for the retired exam. The current Verbal section does not test grammar directly at all.
Both types are logic, not language
Removing Sentence Correction changed what the section rewards. What is left is reasoning about arguments — so the preparation that helps is not vocabulary or grammar but practice at identifying a conclusion, separating it from the evidence, and seeing what the gap between them assumes.
- Every Critical Reasoning question turns on the gap between evidence and conclusion.
- Reading Comprehension answers must be supported by the passage, not merely true.
- Outside knowledge is a liability in both.
Every Verbal question type
GMAT Verbal — FAQs
3 questions
No. It was removed, and the section is now Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning only.
Not directly. Grammar mattered through Sentence Correction, which is gone.
45 minutes, like each of the other two sections.
Verbal on the other exams
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.