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Re: Rarest Concepts on SC [#permalink]
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Man, good questions. I don't think you can distill V44 into just one important point, but if I had to try I'd say it this way:

Be proactive.

Don't just read the prompt and react to it, but instead go in and "attack" each problem. That means...

On SC: prioritize the decision points you're best at making. Just like my point up further in this thread - don't let the testmaker bait you into making hard decisions just because they're the ones you see first. Make decisions in your own order: proactively look for the binary, easy stuff like subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, parallel comparisons, etc., and make those decisions first before you try the harder stuff. So much of SC is about prioritizing which decisions you make so that you do it on your own terms.

On CR: proactively read the question stem first and then have a plan for how you read the rest. If it's Strengthen/Weaken you're spending 2/3 of your time on the stimulus really attacking the weakness in the argument, taking extra time to read the specifics of the conclusion; if it's Inference or Method/Boldface you know you're doing more process of elimination so you'll spend more time on the answer choices. For Strengthen/Weaken *do not* give each answer choice a fair chance! You want to attack the answers, not let yourself be talked into them. You want to have a feel for what the right answer should do and if A, B, C don't do that, don't spend too long on them - you can always come back to them later if you don't find what you're looking for by the time you reach E. But don't go into those answer open-minded or playing process-of-elimination - instead be proactive as you look for the answer that deals with the flaw in the argument.

This video might help explain what I mean about CR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8MAeW-vZ80

On RC: you don't have enough time to become an expert on the passage, so read it just carefully enough to understand the skeleton of it (the general scope and main point, and where the transitions are) and then be really question-driven. Save your time on details to go back to only the details they ask you about.

The whole key is being proactive...have a plan for each question type and execute that plan with how you read. Don't just read, then look at the question, then start thinking - be proactive, be in attack mode, and take the test on your own terms without letting the testmaker distract you or waste your time.
Re: Rarest Concepts on SC [#permalink]
Thank you sir VeritasPrepBrian for your feedback.
Most of the questions are given from Must Be True question (apart from primary purpose question in RC and apart from assumption, Strengthen & Weaken questions in CR) in both RC and CR. So, what is the best way to answer the Must Be True questions in both RC and CR, you think?
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Re: Rarest Concepts on SC [#permalink]
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AsadAbu wrote:
Thank you sir VeritasPrepBrian for your feedback.
Most of the questions are given from Must Be True question (apart from primary purpose question in RC and apart from assumption, Strengthen & Weaken questions in CR) in both RC and CR. So, what is the best way to answer the Must Be True questions in both RC and CR, you think?
Thanks__


Must Be True (Inference) questions are pure process-of-elimination: it's really hard to anticipate right answers because many things can be true off of a stimulus, so you need to spend time on each answer choice weighing whether it must be true or not.

As you're using process of elimination:

1) Try to find hypothetical situations in which the facts of the stimulus are true but the answer is not. If you can find a situation like that, it's not a "must be true" situation.

2) Be really careful with "extra" words in the answer choices. Words like "all," "only," and "never" are really hard to prove. Or the addition of an adjective or modifier can make a conclusion more specific than you realize (e.g. "Company X must cut costs in order to be profitable" vs. "Company X must cut manufacturing costs to be profitable" - the second one makes it extra specific so "manufacturing" is really important...does it HAVE TO be those costs in particular, and not any other type?)

3) Especially on RC, make sure you have direct proof for the right answer. Often something seems really likely to be true but it's not concretely proven...those are very tempting trap answers but you have to be careful.

4) Beware your temptation to want to pick a strong or specific answer (something with first/last/tallest/fastest in it....something compelling) that's harder to prove and to avoid a weaker, more bland answer (something with "some" in it, for example, or something that makes you think "no that's not new information") that's "boring" but has to be true. Inference answers are often boring or seem like you already know them (which is why they must be true).
Rarest Concepts on SC [#permalink]
VeritasPrepBrian wrote:
3) Especially on RC, make sure you have direct proof for the right answer. Often something seems really likely to be true but it's not concretely proven...those are very tempting trap answers but you have to be careful.
Sir,
Are you talking about those that are "real world connection" by the highlighted part? Also, WHY did you specifically mention about RC inference? Is there any different things that are uncommon in RC inference and CR inference?
VeritasPrepBrian wrote:
2) Be really careful with "extra" words in the answer choices. Words like "all," "only," and "never" are really hard to prove. Or the addition of an adjective ormodifier can make a conclusion more specific than you realize
Do you suggest that if we get these qualifiers ("all," "only," and "never"), then we should immediately reject that choice in inference question?
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Rarest Concepts on SC [#permalink]
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