Eliminate or select in CR?

Question

Hello to the experts of this great community!

Just a small question on approach to CR questions: Do you eliminate and work from wrong to right or you prephrase an answer (if possible) and select if an option matches your prephrase and move on.

Want to get a sense of how experts go about this topic  Bunuel   VeritasKarishma   egmat   souvik101990

Thanks a lot in advance for your response!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi yashjain800,

CR questions are typically "thin" when it comes to the information that they give you to work with - meaning that while you probably won't be able to predict in advance what the correct answer will specifically state, you CAN predict the general idea(s) that the correct answer will likely discuss. As such, it's common to take a bit of a hybrid approach - you should still take some notes and come up with a general prediction before you look at the answers AND then as you work through the answers, you'll eliminate the ones that are outside the focus of the prompt until you find the answer that matches the general theme of what you're looking for. Sometimes the correct answer is remarkably 'obvious', but at higher-and-higher levels, the correct answer cab be subtle (and you might find yourself debating between two answers that both appear correct at first).

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

yashjain800 · Answer

Thanks Rich for your prompt response! I agree with you, a hybrid approach in which you start with a prethought answer and work towards an answer is probably the best.

To your questions:
Studies:
1) I will be writing my third GMAT attempt. Got a latest 730 (Q50, V38)
2) Mostly crowdsourced from GC and various resources from colleagues. Taking Official and MGMAT mocks.
3) Mostly ranging b/w 740-760 on the official ones but on MH - the range has been 680-730

Goals:
4) Aiming for a 750+ score. As high as I can go.
5) This upcoming cycle, hence wrapping up my GMAT soon.

Hope this clarifies.

KarishmaB · Answer

yashjain800  - It really depends on individual comfort. 
Once you run through many CRs, your mind starts evaluating and pre-thinking from sentence 1 onwards without needing to take out time to do that. By the time you arrive at the conclusion, you have already identified a few gaps. Of course, you do go through each and every option and give it a fair chance. You do not look for only that which you have identified because one, it may not be in the options and two, you could have been wrong in your assessment and a closer look would help you realise it if you see an option that makes more sense. 
I do like to evaluate my argument closely before jumping to the options because then I can strike off a few options as irrelevant without much thought. My focus narrows to exactly what is relevant. This is what I advise my students to do too.

AliTariqPrepVista · Answer

Key to perfection on CR is Prephrasing.
The answer choices are crafted by test makers after a lot of deliberation. Prephrasing helps you avoid trap answer choices comfortably. 
I can write a whole book on importance of prephrasing for CR Mastery.

Also, please note that there are two types of prephrasing: General prephrasing and Specific prephrasing.

They are deployed on specific situations.

For instance, with the strengthen/ weaken CR questions with causality or plan argument, you can't do specific prephrasing. However, you can take a few seconds upfront and do general prephrasing, and that tells you characteristics of the correct answer fairly well.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi yashjain800,

First off, a 730/Q50 is an outstanding Score, so you can comfortably apply to any Business Schools that interest you. As such, another retest is probably not necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement.

There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

If you are currently consistently scoring around the mid-700s on your CATs, then the additional points that you are looking for are almost certainly going to be based on rarer patterns and concepts. By extension, "general advice" might not mean too much to you - and you need to dig into your CAT/mock results to define the specific types of questions that you're getting wrong and WHY you're getting them wrong (are you missing small details, doing disorganized work on your pad, etc?).

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

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

I mean, here's the honest truth--you want to be good at both. People are indicating as such, noting that there is a 'hybrid approach' to this. It very much helps to be good at 'pre-thinking' before going to answers, but, it also very much helps to have a good 'elimination' instinct. I definitely lean towards 'pre-thinking,' but definitely there comes a question where...

Wait none of these are what I thought of (Here's a great example: https://gmatclub.com/forum/guillemots-a ... 82065.html)

In absolutely no way did I pre-think anything *close* to what ends up being the right answer to that question. I don't think I've ever seen *anyone* 'pre-think' that one well. It's such a specific (and very tricky) game they've set up.

In fact, if someone is good at pre-thinking, but not great at eliminating, they are more likely to fall for (what I think is) the best 'trap' answer because they'll 'talk themselves' into thinking the trap answer 'fits' their pre-thinking (it doesn't, but it feels like it does).

I'd give that problem a try before reading on (because I'm going to spoil it by explaining why I think it's a good example of what I'm discussing).

So, everyone's pre-thinking on that question (and, to be fair, a *good* thing to pre-think) is something like, "Well, what if the birds don't move north, even though it's getting warmer there? What if there is reason not to move North?"

Great thought.... But then... Which answer matches that? If people are *committed* to this pre-thought, they'll justify choosing answer 'B,' thinking, "Well, if their predators move North, maybe the birds won't."

But... If the presence of predators kept birds out of a region.... They wouldn't be in the region they're in! In fact that would mean there could never be predators, because no 'prey' would be around them. If there were some *new* predator in the North, *maybe* that would be reason? But their current predators are already eating them... Welp, they can eat us in the North too!

D doesn't seem to do what we 'pre-thought.' In fact, if you're not careful, you might say, "This makes it even more likely they'll move North, so that's not the answer."

But another helpful CR skill can help you realize why D is right--the conclusion is NOT move North... The conclusion is 'extend their range by moving North.' So there are two ways not to extend their range by moving North. What we 'pre-thought' (they don't move North). But also... very sneaky... They DO move North but *abandon the South*.

WHO COULD PRE-THINK THAT?!?! Hardly anybody, I wager. You have to be a bloodhound for why wrong answers are wrong, notice D and be curious, re-specify the conclusion to yourself, and have that 'ohhhhhhh' realization.

Eliminate or select in CR?

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