Question Types in the EA Verbal Reasoning Section

EA Verbal Reasoning Section – Question Types

The Verbal Reasoning section is one of three components which people often think of when thinking about the Executive Assessment (EA). On the Verbal Reasoning section of the exam, you can expect to see three types of questions, with each type roughly equally represented. These three question types are Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction.

Having a firm grasp on what to expect from each question type will help you focus your preparation and pinpoint areas of weakness you need to work on before exam day. 

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension questions are presented as a passage you are to read before answering three to four multiple-choice questions. The passages are often about business, social science, or physical and biological sciences. These passages are generally academic and neutral in tone. For the purposes of standardized testing, comprehension refers to your ability to decipher and summarize the main idea, understand the difference between implied and explicit statements, infer information from the text, recognize the author's tone and attitude, and analyze the structure of the text. 

Critical Reasoning 

At a quick glance, the Critical Reasoning questions may look similar to the Reading Comprehension questions; however, you can be assured they are testing two different skills. While Reading Comprehension is testing your ability to break down the text, Critical Reasoning is assessing your ability to evaluate an argument being made. As in a Reading Comprehension question, a Critical Reasoning question will start with a text for you to read. This text will present an argument and is generally shorter than a Reading Comprehension text. After reading the prompt, you are to answer a multiple-choice question regarding information that can weaken or strengthen the argument being made. 

Sentence Correction

Sentence Correction questions assess the test-taker's grasp on grammar rules in written standard English. You will be presented with a sentence that is likely to be quite wordy and complicated. Some or all of the sentences will be underlined, and you will be presented with five multiple-choice answers. Your objective is to choose the option that is the grammatically correct version of the sentence. The first option is always the same as the original sentence, followed by four options changing one or more parts of the underlined section. 

As when preparing for any important standardized test, practice is key. The faster you can recognize the three types of questions that comprise the Verbal Reasoning section, the faster you can select and apply an approach to answer the question you are being asked. Familiarity with the Verbal Reasoning questions cannot be overstated, but at the same time, it is not enough to be able to confidently arrive at the correct answer…you must be able to perform the necessary operations and answer the question correctly within the limited amount of time you are given. Test fatigue can be quite real on a 90-minute exam with no given breaks, and if you are unfamiliar with maintaining an uninterrupted focus for so long, you may start to make careless or otherwise avoidable mistakes simply because you are fatiguing. Knowing how to correctly answer Verbal Reasoning questions is the first step towards EA success, followed by the ability to correctly answer questions within the allotted time you are given.