GMAT Verbal flashcards
GMAT Verbal · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Main idea
- The central claim that the entire passage is organized to support; a correct answer must account for all paragraphs, not only the opening one.
- Primary purpose
- The author's overall aim, expressed as a verb plus object such as 'explain a phenomenon' or 'challenge a theory,' rather than a summary of content.
- Contrast signal words
- Words like 'however,' 'but,' and 'yet' that mark a shift in direction; the author's own view often appears right after such a signal.
- Detail question rule
- Answer only from information explicitly stated in the passage; a choice that is factually true but absent from the text is incorrect.
- Valid inference
- A statement that must be true given the passage; answers using 'could' or 'possibly' fail when the question demands certainty.
- Author versus subject
- The author may report others' views without endorsing them; viewpoint questions require separating the author's stance from described researchers' claims.
- Overstated answer choice
- A tempting wrong option that uses absolutes like 'all' or 'never,' narrows the scope improperly, or reverses a stated causal relationship.
- Tone from modifiers
- Attitude is inferred from evaluative adjectives and adverbs such as 'merely' or 'remarkably,' not from the topic alone.
- Conclusion
- The claim an argument is trying to establish; it is usually the statement that weaken, strengthen, and evaluate questions target.
- Premise
- Evidence or a stated reason offered in support of the conclusion; premises are accepted as given and are not what the question asks you to attack.
- Necessary assumption
- An unstated premise required for the conclusion to follow; negating it makes the argument collapse, which confirms it is necessary.
- Weaken answer
- Attacks the link between premise and conclusion via an alternative cause, reversed causation, or unrepresentative sample; it need not disprove the conclusion.
- Strengthen answer
- Supplies a missing link or rules out an alternative explanation, increasing support for the conclusion without needing to make it certain.
- Causal argument flaws
- A claim that X causes Y is weakened if Y causes X, a third factor causes both, or the observed correlation is coincidental.
- Sample flaw
- An argument generalizing from a group is weakened if the sample is unrepresentative or too small, and strengthened if it is random and adequate.
- Evaluate question test
- The correct answer is a question whose two possible replies point in opposite directions for the conclusion, so either reply affects the argument.
- Boldface role
- In boldface questions, label each bold statement as evidence, intermediate conclusion, or main conclusion, and state its relation to the main conclusion.
- Sufficient versus necessary
- A sufficient condition guarantees the outcome; a necessary condition is required for it. Confusing the two is a common wrong-answer trap.
- Scope shift
- A flaw where the conclusion introduces a term or group not covered by the premises, making the reasoning invalid.
- True subject
- The head noun of the subject, found by stripping prepositional phrases and modifiers; the verb must agree with it, not the nearest noun.
- Pronoun antecedent
- A pronoun needs exactly one logical antecedent agreeing in number and person; ambiguous 'it' or 'they' references are incorrect.
- Dangling modifier
- An introductory modifying phrase must describe the subject of the main clause that immediately follows it; otherwise the modifier dangles.
- Parallelism rule
- Items joined by 'and,' 'or,' 'but,' or 'not only...but also' must share grammatical form, such as noun with noun or clause with clause.
- Logical comparison
- Comparisons must place like with like and supply the missing noun or verb when ellipsis would make the comparison ambiguous.
- Fewer versus less
- Use 'fewer' with countable nouns and 'less' with uncountable nouns; use 'number of' for countable items and 'amount of' for uncountable.
- Past perfect use
- Use past perfect only for an action completed before another past action; avoid shifting tense without a time-based reason.
- Idiom caution
- Fixed constructions like 'ability to' and 'prohibit from' are tested, but unfamiliar idioms are rarely the intended deciding split between choices.
- Split and compare
- Find the first difference between answer choices, eliminate on a clear grammar rule, then proceed to the next point of difference.
- Modifier proximity
- A modifier should sit next to the word it describes; moving it changes meaning and often creates the error tested in a choice.
- Diction versus grammar
- Grammar errors (agreement, parallelism, reference) are decisive; word-choice preferences are weaker and should be used only after grammar splits.
- Verb tense sequence
- Tenses must reflect the actual order of events; a past action preceding another past action takes past perfect, otherwise simple past.
- Countable noun test
- If a noun can be counted individually it takes 'fewer' and 'number'; mass nouns take 'less' and 'amount.'