Verbal Ability
Verbal Ability
ATMA's Verbal Ability section checks whether you can read quickly and choose the most precise answer, not whether you have memorized the longest word list. Expect reading comprehension passages, para jumbles, sentence-correction items, and vocabulary questions whose meaning is fixed by context.
Core rules
- In reading comprehension, separate the main idea from supporting detail. A correct main-idea option covers the whole passage; a detail option may be true but too narrow.
- For para jumbles, find the opening sentence first. It usually introduces a noun without pronouns such as it, they, or this. Then follow linkers (however, therefore, for example) and pronoun reference.
- In sentence correction, strip prepositional phrases to locate the true subject: Each of the managers who report to the director has the subject Each, so the main verb is has.
- Vocabulary items reward context: replace the target word with each option and test whether the sentence keeps its logic and tone.
Worked example
Each of the managers who report to the director have submitted their budgets.
The subject is Each, which is singular; of the managers who report to the director is a prepositional phrase and does not change the number of the subject. The main verb must be has. Who report is correct because who refers to the plural managers. The possessive should agree with Each: his or her budget. Corrected: Each of the managers who report to the director has submitted his or her budget.
Traps
- Choosing a formally worded option that creates a sentence fragment or a run-on.
- In RC, selecting an option because it repeats a passage phrase while ignoring its scope.
- In para jumbles, starting with a sentence that begins with This or They.
- Treating vocabulary as a memory test instead of checking the sentence's contrast or cause-effect signal.