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If you need to brush up on your English skills, or if English is not your native language, there are numerous prep books that can help. My page about GMAT study guides provides tips on different types of prep books.
Topics are usually from physical or biological sciences, social sciences, or business (marketing, economics, human resource management, et al.)
No prior knowledge of the material is necessary. All questions can be answered based on the material in the passage.
You answer questions about a passage that you read in the test. The purpose is to measure how well you understand, analyze and apply information and concepts presented.
Instructions from the GMAT:
Reading Comprehension
Each passage is followed by questions about its content. After reading a passage, select the best answer to each question among the five choices. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what the passage states or implies.
Do not waste your mental bandwidth during the test trying to expand upon, or otherwise go beyond the material presented.
First, scan the passage to better understand its structure and “big picture” meaning.
Next, read the first question so you know what to look for.
Questions usually focus on facts, inferences, main ideas, or the tone of a passage.
Passages about physical or biological sciences often involve factual questions. Social science passages often have inference questions. Business passages often have questions about the opinion of the author or the prevailing thought, behavior or attitude.
Feel free to take notes on scrap paper if this helps you.
Gain a better understanding of an important concept or fact by reading the sentences before and after it.
Instructions from the GMAT:
Critical Reasoning
For each question, select the best of the answer choices given
In other words, how well do you think? Do you have analytical thinking skills? Can you think logically? These are good skills to have in business.
Passages are generally one paragraph long.
Identify the assumptions. Note that if an assumption is not true, the conclusion is not true.
Learn to identify the conclusions as best you can. They are not always obvious and are not stated explicitly. Sometimes they are implied. Think about it. Do you really expect a test for this level of education to say "in conclusion, ..." "therefore, ..." and such? Taking lots of practice tests will help you.
Be aware that conclusions can be at the beginning, middle or end of the passage.
Know the difference between assumptions and conclusions.
Beware the answer that is true. It may not be the correct one. Correct answers are generally neutral. Emotional answers can generally be eliminated.
The sentence correction questions measure your grasp of standard written English. You correct grammar and style errors and improve a sentence by changing its structure.
You select the best of 5 choices for expressing an idea or relationship.
A correct sentence has good grammar and structure. Do nouns and verbs agree? Are pronouns consistent? Are verb tenses correct? Know how to spot and correct dangling participles, lack of parallel construction.
Wikipedia has a helpful article on English grammar. General language test prep books as well as GMAT verbal section prep books are helpful. (See my page on GMAT study guides for more info.)
An effective sentence is clear and concise. There should be no unneeded words or overly complicated expressions. The words in the sentence should be appropriate, correct and used in the right context.
From the instructions from the GMAT:
Sentence Correction
Each of the following questions presents a sentence, all or part of which is underlined. Beneath the sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other four are different. If you think the original is best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose one of the others.
Each of these questions tests correctness and effectiveness of expression. In choosing your answer, follow the requirements of standard written English; that is, pay attention to grammar, choice of words, and sentence construction. Choose the answer that produces the most effective sentence; this answer should be clear and exact, without awkwardness, ambiguity, redundancy, or grammatical error.
The GMAT does not test punctuation, spelling or capitalization, so don’t give it any of your bandwidth.
Sometimes there are no corrections to make. Do not seek errors that do not exist.
Eliminate any answers that change the meaning of the sentence.
Sentences can have more than one error. Find the answer that corrects all the errors.