How do you guys decypher convoluted texts?

Question

I have a really hard time with CR, not because the I can't identify what they are looking for, but rather because I can't make sense of the text in time. Some texts (moderate level and up) are so hard for me to understand that I don't really know what to look for.

How do you guys tackle CR? Do you write it down?

VeritasPrepBrandon · Answer

This is a great question and something that many test takers struggle with. Critical reasoning is important not only because it is 1/3 of the verbal section, but also because the same critical logic applies to many other problem types on the gmat.

Step 1 in critical reasoning questions that have a conclusion (strengthen/weaken, assumption, method of reasoning, etc) is to identify the conclusion. If you do not know what the conclusion of an argument is, then you fundamentally do not understand the argument. As you are correctly stating, sometimes this can be easier said than done.

Veritas teaches some excellent techniques for drilling into a critical reasoning question and finding the conclusion. One of the most effective techniques is to use something called "the why test." Ask yourself for each statement given in the argument "why?", and you need to be able to find another statement (premise) in the argument that backs it up for it to be a conclusion. Conclusions will always have one or more premises that support them. Then, to make sure that it is not an intermediate or subordinate conclusion, make sure that it does not serve as the "why" to any other statements in the argument...you should not be able to ask "why" to another statement and then get this sentence as your reasoning. Conclusions are the end of the line.

After identifying the conclusion correctly, you will have already identified the premises (the whys), and therefore will understand the argument. Depending on the type of question, your exact approach will then vary, but for most questions you will be focusing on the gap in reasoning between the given premises and stated conclusion.

I hope this helps!

saumya12 · Answer

While I have not tried writing down, I believe this will be very time consuming.

If you look at CRs, the various sentences in all the CR passages are actually not discrete, disjointed pieces of information, because if they were, then there would be "so much" information to understand and digest, making the CR passage very difficult to understand.

The various sentences in each CR passage are actually just a part of the passage's intent, to prove a point. Hence, there is a very strong correlation between all the sentences, with each sentence just reinforcing/proving the passage's core point: the conclusion. So, basically each sentence is just one layer of the foundation over another, all of which make a strong foundation, for the ultimate building (conclusion) to be built upon.

So, if you look at each CR passage from this angle, it will make things easier to understand.

VeritasPrepBrandon · Answer

I am not certain why you thought that I was advocating writing down the premises and conclusion of an argument, as I most certainly was not. I agree that would be a very time consuming and inefficient process. In terms of how to think about critical reasoning arguments, I disagree with your approach. If you look at CR arguments from a more generalist standpoint, as you are recommending, you will inevitably fall for many trap answers that involve subtle wording traps and erroneous logic. While the arguments are not always broken up into very obvious premises followed by a conclusion, those definitive premises and conclusion are there. That is what makes them an argument as opposed to a short reading comprehension piece, which would build upon itself in each sentence as you discussed.

I hope this helps clarify.

saumya12 · Answer

Hello Brandon Sir, I was actually responding to erikvm's question: "Do you write it down".

As for the "approach" that I recommended, this approach has helped me in "understanding" the significantly large arguments very quickly; so, the approach was more for a quick and thorough understanding of the argument.

I feel that in CR, as long as we understand the argument well, it is more than half the work done.

erikvm · Answer

Thanks for the tips. My situation is quite weird. I often manage to identify the conclusion and the premise, but I somehow can't connect the dots. I do drills on the OG CR questions, and almost everytime, I'm left with only 2 answer choices and then picking the wrong one.

I can't really pinpoint what I need to do in order to improve. And besides, reviewing past CR questions just feels really odd because I already know the answer - I know the reasoning for  that specific question . But before knowing the answer to a question, I almost always fail to do the reasoning required.

Any suggestions? And any tips on how to do reviews on past CR problems?

VeritasPrepBrandon · Answer

I have a couple of thoughts for you here. First, your situation is not weird at all because the issue of narrowing down to 2 answer choices and then picking the incorrect one 50% or more of the time is a very common one for students (although I think it probably often feels more frequent than it really is). A really good testing strategy to improve your odds with questions that you have narrowed down to 2 answer choices is to restart the question. So basically go back up to the prompt, reread it and summarize it in your mind, and then go to the answer choices as you did before, except this time only looking at the two remaining answer choices. This strategy helps increase your hit rate because you consumed mental energy eliminating the other 3 answer choices, and throughout the process your understanding of the argument inevitably became a little blurred. Hitting the "refresh button" with just these 2 answer choices doesn't take much time, and can often clarify otherwise seemingly imperceptible differences.

As for reviewing critical reasoning questions, one approach that I recommend is finding and learning common flaws. Veritas talks a lot about the common flaws in critical reasoning arguments, some of which include causation, generalization, and abuse of statistics. While each argument looks unique, many are actually very similar to one another in their error types. So I recommend finding patterns in problems that you have done, making it easier for you to recognize these same types of problems moving forward. Another very common error type in more difficult problems is a scope shift in the argument, either between premises or between the premises and the conclusion. A very blatant example of this from Veritas is:

Premise) All men are mortal
Premise) Socrates is a dog
Conclusion) Socrates is mortal

A less blatant but identical error occurs in this argument:

Premise) All good test takers score well on the gmat
Premise) You are an intelligent test taker
Conclusion) You will score well on the gmat

Intelligent test taker does not equal good test taker. If the test mixes up the ordering of this argument and throws in some context, a subtle but incredibly important point like this can be easily missed.

I hope this helps!

erikvm · Answer

Thanks, I'll see if I can apply these tips to my studying. I am still very skeptical about the whole review part. I know it's easy to do for quant and sentence correction because (in my opinion), the actually patterns are more visible, whereas in CR I can't really spot patterns.

Any suggestions on "common flaws" article provided on your website I could/should read?

Any suggestions on "common flaws" article provided on your website I could/should read?

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi erikvm,

That's great that you're able to narrow down to two options INCLUDING the right one.  GMAT questions are engineered in partnership between GMAC and ACT to ALWAYS have a right option and a statistical runner up (at the target score level) . Those who can distinguish the right option from the runner up are able to scrutinize the difference(s) between the options, and detect a subtle, but definite reason why the runner up is wrong.

There are two specific things you should do to crack down on runner-up selection  :
  1)  Compile a list of 10 questions in which you narrowed down to 2, but picked an incorrect option. Scrutinize the DAYLIGHTS out of the difference(s) between those options, and you'll absolutely notice how much clearer it is to detect what makes the wrong option wrong. Do this ASAP.
 2)  On the heels of that exercise, you'll want to make a tactical adjustment: when you're down to the final two, look for why one of them is wrong, rather than just trying to find the one that's right. With practice at that skill, watch what starts to happen to your accuracy rate.

There's one thing to stress here: sometimes the clock can make people do funny things. There's no question that the most common among these is to read differently (usually skimming). If you think that's the case, let me know and I can offer you some advice on how to course correct that tendency.

erikvm · Answer

I am sure the clock has some effect on my reading, I mean, if I do drills untimed, I usually have a higher accuracy. What did you have in mind?

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi erikvm,

I see. There are some standard questions about verbal pacing and reading quality I always like to ask:

● Are you finishing Verbal early? If so, by how much? Do you run out of time? If so, how many questions do you get jammed up on at the end of the section?
● Describe your reading pace. Would you say you are skimming or skipping parts of a prompt or passage?
● What typically happens on your last RC passage? Do you skip the passage, or hyper-skim? Anything along those lines?
● Additionally, are you doing the AWA and IR before your CATs? On the real test, your stamina in verbal will hinge on your ability to withstand the FULL test.

Also, can you keep me apprised about items 1 & 2 above?

erikvm · Answer

I usually finish with a few minutes to spare, never finished a section with more than 7-8 minutes left.

I tend to read the passage thoroughly, and make sure I understand it. Sometimes if the text is tedious I just start over (sometimes from the top, sometimes just the last paragraph), because if it gets tedious, its easy for the mind to drift. I jot down a few things. I have noticed that this actually helps, no matter if what I write down makes any sense, but just to force my brain to stay "active". I rarely look at the notes I jot down, but I guess it works as a "okay, look brain, heres whats happening, you need to focus on this passage now, dont think about anything else"

Judging from my score reports on earlier exams, it seems like I stay focused for the last RC. Out of the last 3 CATS, the last RC in each CAT has not had any dip, so to speak.

The CATs I have done are as following:

GMAT Prep 1, Awa and IR: No, score: Q48, V31 (I took extra long on the Q, so the score is abit inflated)
MGMAT Cat 1: Awa and IR No (Q40, V34)
MGMAT Cat 2: Awa and IR: Yes (Q42, V36)
MGMAT Cat 3: Awa and IR: Yes (Q40, V36)

The IR on MGMAT is incredibly difficult in my opinion. Quant seems a bit more computation heavy than GMAT Prep too.

Regarding info about the 1 & 2 from the previous post, what's the question?

EDIT: I'd actually like to add something. All the easy level CR questions from OG/Verbal are so dead-on, like.. these questions I feel like I know the answer before even finishing the first sentence, and my accuracy is close to 100%. But as soon as the stimulus gets a little more complicated, my accuracy drops significantly. Obviously, harder problems will be harder to answer, but still - I wish I could I have the same mindset for the easy problems as for the hard ones, afterall, the logic is all the same. Somehow, when the author tightens the gap, or when the text is just so hard to understand, I'm like "what's going on?"

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

You're going to want to knock out these 2 tasks at your next chance. You're going to start to really see the difference when you narrow down. If you want to touch base with me afterwards, please do. You can PM me if you'd prefer.

1) Compile a list of 10 questions in which you narrowed down to 2, but picked an incorrect option. Scrutinize the DAYLIGHTS out of the difference(s) between those options, and you'll absolutely notice how much clearer it is to detect what makes the wrong option wrong. Do this ASAP.
2) On the heels of that exercise, you'll want to make a tactical adjustment: when you're down to the final two, look for why one of them is wrong, rather than just trying to find the one that's right. With practice at that skill, watch what starts to happen to your accuracy rate.

Reading As Though the Clock Weren't There  
I've worked with students who've jumped from 60th percentile to the 99th percentile on Verbal within days be having them shift to a non-clock reading mindset. When you read as though you think the clock isn't there, it doesn't actually take as long as you'd think or as it might feel since the alternative often requires re-reading, and more time debating between the options. Feel it out on some of your next practice quizzes and you'll feel the difference, and see the results.

Knowing When and What to Let Go  
We get into the specifics about this in the course, but there are certain types of questions that you want to consider dumping on purpose along the course of the section to transfer precious time away from a few low ROI questions, to many more high ROI questions. That serves as a huge time valve, eliminates the most anxiety inducing questions, and boosts confidence since you're able to spend more time with the questions.

The bottom line is that you're in a great position. You are likely right on the cusp of a major breakout, if you can make just a handful of tactical adjustments.

VeritasPrepBrandon · Answer

Here are a few articles that may help you. This first article deals with the issue of narrowing down to 2 critical reasoning answers, and then picking the correct one: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/1 ... reasoning/ This second article is about exploiting the gaps, which can sometimes be subtle, in critical reasoning questions: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2015/0 ... questions/ This third article is about taking an active approach to critical reasoning questions, which can help you avoid traps: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/0 ... -the-gmat/ These two articles deal with the common critical reasoning flaw of causation: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2015/0 ... questions/ https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2015/0 ... ation-tip/ And finally, here is a link to many helpful critical reasoning articles from Veritas: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/?s=cri ... ng&x=0&y=0 Please let me know what you think of this stuff and if you have any questions for me. I hope this helps!

How do you guys decypher convoluted texts?

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