How do you analyze "patterns" for CR?

Question

I see people writing that the key to CR is understanding "how the writers write questions" and "understanding why 4 choices are wrong" etc. Is there a guide here on the forum that dissects how you go about analyzing CR?

CR is my weakest area and I think it's because I usually go on gut feeling. Materials I have used is MGMAT and Powerscore (I just finished reading Powerscore for the first time and I'll prolly reread it soon)

souvik101990 · Answer

How about you post a few questions that are giving you some trouble and we will take a dig with our analyses :-)

erikvm · Answer

Well, I'm more interested in the general approach to "thinking", because I've seen people write here on the forum that the GMAC guys that writes the question uses the same pattern.

I am familar with the different areas (weaken/strength/assumptions etc), but I still get this feeling that I need to go deeper.

Here's an example from a Manhattan Prep article:

"Fortunately, the GMAT uses only a  few basic argument patterns , with  similar assumption s and a limited number of ways to strengthen or weaken those assumptions. If you can spot and name those patterns, you’re well on your way to drastically improving your CR score."

What is this referring to?

souvik101990 · Answer

In general, if you solve a number of official CR questions, you will get a fair idea what gaps of arguments GMAT is fond of.

Refer to  this article  for a better understanding.

But you can't expect to understand the gaps and looking at patterns without the careful perusal of a few questions.

RichEconomistGMAT · Answer

Hi erikvm,

We've posted quite a few articles on how to tackle CR. You can check them out here: https://bit.ly/1DZ3Zxm.

I'd also caution you not to get too hung up on one explanation of a strategy. You don't want to exhaust yourself re-reading that explanation over and over again, so try a few questions and see where you're actually having trouble with the questions.

Best,
Rich

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

HI erikvm,

Since CR prompts can only be so wordy, the information that is provided is almost always going to involve a 'logic pattern' of some kind.

Here's an example of a common pattern that GMAT questions writers use:

'Causality' is the idea that "one thing causes another"

eg. I ate healthier food, so I lost weight

It's actually quite common to be asked to STRENGTHEN or WEAKEN a causal argument. This tests your ability to "identify" the logic/argument AND correctly strengthen/weaken it.

In the above example, if we were trying to WEAKEN the idea that eating healthier food leads to weight loss, then there are 3 major ways to do so:

1) Offer evidence that something ELSE caused the weight loss (not the healthier food; maybe it was because of exercise).
2) Offer evidence that the ORDER of events is reversed (losing weight led to eating healthier).
3) Offer evidence that the events are NOT related (one did not cause the other; they both just happened at the same time).

These patterns, and others, appear consistently on Test Day, so part of your training should include building up your knowledge of these patterns AND your training to spot them when these same patterns occur.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

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