RC - Difficult Specific or Inference Questions

[Levent-g]

Hi MGMAT Team,

in my previous RC tests I recognized that I am especially struggling with "Specific Details" or "Inference" Questions, for which the details to answer these questions in the passage are spread around. A very famous category is the type which says "All information are stated in the passage EXCEPT". The more they are distributed the more time consuming and difficult to answer they are, especially if the text is anyhow difficult to understand.

In my opinion to search all of them via keywords might be very time consuming. Also to make notes, which are that detailed, would lead to time problems. As I am anyhow struggling with time on the verbal part, I am thinking of just to categorize them as potential questions to sacrifice to at least gain time for other questions. :-(

I am really excited to read your expert opinion on my issue.

Thanks in advance
Levent

[RonPurewal]

Hi MGMAT Team,

in my previous RC tests I recognized that I am especially struggling with "Specific Details" or "Inference" Questions, for which the details to answer these questions in the passage are spread around. A very famous category is the type which says "All information are stated in the passage EXCEPT". The more they are distributed the more time consuming and difficult to answer they are, especially if the text is anyhow difficult to understand.

This may be true, but it's not terribly consequential. Some questions take more time than others. Some take less.

The same is true -- even more so, in fact -- on the math section.
If you have the 12th edition OG, take a look at multiple-choice math questions #163 and #164. No one is realistically going to finish #163 in less than two minutes; it would be perfectly fine to allow 3+ minutes for that one, as long as you're not lost. On #164, on the other hand, there's no reason why anyone should take more than about twenty seconds.

So, I guess I'm not sure what the complaint is, here, in the first place.
It sounds as though your complaint is "Some problems take longer than others". To which I say, yes! Exactly. Some problems take longer than others.

In my opinion to search all of them via keywords might be very time consuming. Also to make notes, which are that detailed, would lead to time problems.

You should NEVER take notes on details.
Just remember vaguely where certain types of details are found. Then, if necessary, go back and look them up.

[RonPurewal]

As I am anyhow struggling with time on the verbal part, I am thinking of just to categorize them as potential questions to sacrifice to at least gain time for other questions. :-(

Here is everything you ever need to know about time management:

1/
If you are stuck, QUIT.
... Try to find another way to approach the problem.
... If you can't, then guess and move on.

2/ If you don't know WHY you're doing something / looking at something, STOP.
... Try to figure out WHY.
... If you can't, then quit, guess, and move on.

3/ Do not ever use the same thought process more than once.

If you can do these three things, then you will have no timing issues whatsoever. If you have problems with timing, then it's 100% certain that you are (a) sitting there staring at things that aren't working, (b) doing steps or reading words with no clear sense of purpose, and/or (c) getting nowhere with something, but then going back and looking over exactly the same information again, in exactly the same way.

With CR and RC it's often (b): people are just scanning over the words, without having something to look for. If you're looking for something specific enough, timing is not an issue.

With SC it's often (c). Someone will scan over a couple of choices looking for stuff; won't see any stuff; but will go back and look again at the same parts of the same answer choices.

The key to time management is not to be "faster", or (especially not!) to skip questions.
The key is to get rid of bad habits, and to inculcate good habits #1-3 above.

[Levent-g]

Thank you Ron!

To understand this better can you please explain more or provide an example of what you mean by:

2/ If you don't know WHY you're doing something / looking at something, STOP.
... Try to figure out WHY.
... If you can't, then quit, guess, and move on.

Why should I don't know why I am doing something? Do you mean I should pre-think first what I will do and not just start to something?

3/ Do not ever use the same thought process more than once.

What do you mean by thought process? Or when do people use it twice? Could you please give an example?

If you have problems with timing, then it's 100% certain that you are (a) sitting there staring at things that aren't working

What do you mean by starring at things that don't work? What are these things? Parts of a passage which are not important?

One additional question to CR: Do you recommend to do notes for all questions or only for the ones which are difficult to understand?

Thanks and Regards

Levent

[RonPurewal]

Why should I don't know why I am doing something? Do you mean I should pre-think first what I will do and not just start to something?

I don't know what you mean by "pre-think". It sounds like the same thing as "think", but maybe I'm misinterpreting you.

What I mean is that you should always have a specific purpose in mind, whatever you're doing.

For instance:

* When you read a CR passage, you should never just be reading the words at random. You should read the question part first, so that you know what to be thinking about while you're reading.
E.g., if it's an assumption question, you should be thinking about whether there are any "jumps" in the argument, or whether there are any obvious objections to it. If it's a strengthen/weaken question, you should be trying to discern exactly what is the main issue. If it's a "draw your own conclusion" question, you should be looking for connections between the statements. Etc.

* When you read CR answer choices, have a plan for what you're doing with them.
If it's a strengthen/weaken/explain/evaluate question, always have the specific issue in mind, and constantly ask yourself, "How would this choice specifically affect xxxxxx?"
If it's an assumption question, ask yourself whether the choice is necessary. Or negate it and see whether it destroys the argument.
Etc.

* When you read RC passages, don't just read random words. Look for main themes at the beginning, and then relationships with those main themes throughout the rest of the passage.

Etc.

Basically, you should never be "wandering around aimlessly". If it's math, this means "don't push variables around and just hope that something happens". If it's verbal, "don't just read words without having something you want to do with them".

Think about the attitude you'd have if you were, say, sewing something, or drawing something.
At no point would you ever lack a clear purpose. You would ALWAYS have a very clear long-term goal ("I'm trying to sew a shirt", "I'm trying to draw a bird") AND a very clear short-term goal ("This is where the left sleeve connects to the shoulder seam", "This is the bird's beak").
If you were at all confused -- even slightly -- you'd stop, and figure out exactly what you were doing before starting again.

You should have the same attitude toward solving these problems. If you don't know exactly why you're doing what you're doing, then stop doing it until you have a goal.

[RonPurewal]

What do you mean by thought process? Or when do people use it twice? Could you please give an example?

* Someone looks over a split in SC, and doesn't know how to resolve it. He/she looks at the same split, again, hoping that something magically comes to mind. (In general, it won't.)

* Someone tries to set up a problem with algebra and fails. Instead of trying other things (backsolve, plug in numbers, estimate, etc.), he/she tries to do algebra again.

Etc.

What do you mean by starring at things that don't work? What are these things? Parts of a passage which are not important?

Anything that's not making tangible progress toward a goal (or anything that doesn't have a goal in the first place).

[RonPurewal]

One additional question to CR: Do you recommend to do notes for all questions or only for the ones which are difficult to understand?

You should almost never have to take notes in critical reasoning.

The most important thing you can do is personalize the passages in some way.
* Put yourself into the situation, if possible. (If the passage is about a business, make it your business. If it's about a fictional country's economy, make it about your country's economy. And so on.)
* If that's not possible, make it a conversation in your head, with a real person. Or make it a show you watched on TV, or an article you read in a magazine, or whatever.

Anything you can do to get away from "academic" thinking, and back into the real world, will help you win this game.

[Levent-g]

Thank you very much for your time and detailed answers. Much appreciated.

[RonPurewal]

You're welcome