shmoowalker wrote:
Any tips on how to improve on inference/assumption questions? I find myself making inferences that, although they seem correct, are not the ones the test is looking for. Same goes for questions asking you to assume something. How do you know which inference is the one the test is looking for. Am I overthinking these questions?
Example questions:
The passage implies that:
The conclusion above depends in which of the following assumptions?
Hey Shmoowalker,
You need to work on building Visualization skills.
What is Visualization?
- For any argument/passage, you should be able to
o Understand which sentence plays what role (premise which impacts conclusion, conclusion, statement that adds context without touching the logic)
o Understand the structure of the argument/passage:
What is the conclusion?
What is the author’s logic or logic of the argument?
What can be challenged (say, claim/opinion), what cannot be challenged (say, fact)?
o Be able to explain the argument/passage in your own words
- The last point is the acid test. Are you able to correctly express the argument/passage in your own words? i.e. would you be able to explain this argument in your own words to a friend, without having to refer to the argument?
This is the skill that will help you ace the hard, time-taking questions. Hard level questions in CR need strong visualization/deep understanding of the argument.
Work on building this skill.
What do you need to do?
The reason you are taking this amount of time to solve the question is likely because the process to solve them is not yet ingrained in your mind. So, you need to ensure that you practice more time based question.
Let me put in an analogy – remember the first time you got a computer and using the keyboard was a little difficult. You probably had to put conscious effort to type in whatever you had to type in. But the more you typed, the faster you got, while maintaining the accuracy (correctly typed words).
The case is relatively similar here – just practice more question and analyse the part where you spent the maximum time.
This will help you build the foundation for solving CR questions accurately.
Thanks & Regards