If you can identify an argument
and assess its strengths, you may come up with a right answer
after reading the stem.
When you finish reading the stimulus
and the stem and you have analyzed everything using the techniques
above, you can usually come up with a pre-phrase of the right
answer before even getting to the answer choices. Coming up with
the right pre-phrase of the answer is only half of the battle,
however. From the five answer choices, you have to pick the answer
that most closely resembles the your pre-phrased answer. The
potential answers are difficult to read and contain traps. If
you have a general idea of the answer going into the answer choices,
you are in a good position to correctly identify the answer.
Test takers should not be discouraged
if they cannot come up with a pre-phrase. Some questions are
difficult and an immediate answer will not jump out at you.
If you have gone as far as
to be able to identify and assess an argument, don't fall into
a trap when picking an answer.
Test
writing is an extremely time-consuming task. One of the most
difficult parts of test writing is generating the "junk"
wrong answer choices. Test writers have an easy way out. On nearly
every question you will see wrong answers that are either the
trick opposites or scope traps. These wrong answers
do not do much to test ability; they are simply there to fool
inexperienced and unskilled test takers. Test writers like to
use them because they take a few seconds to write and fool most
students, thereby making the question "harder."
On the
positive side, a skilled test taker may quickly identify these
two trap questions types. Most of the wrong answers in any given
Verbal test will be one of the two types of junk answers. If
you can identify the junk answer choices, you may thereby eliminate
wrong answers and increase your chances of getting the right
answer. Below we have several examples.
Trick Opposites
This is an underhanded trick from
test writers that does little to improve the quality of the test.
This trap involves contradicting the question stem, the end of
the question that asks you what to look for. Here are examples:
1. "All of the following
may be inferred from the passage EXCEPT," then give a
few borderline answers and one answer that absolutely may be
inferred from the passage (which someone picks automatically
if he forgot the "EXCEPT").
2. Ask for an assumption in an
argument, then give an answer choice that is a summary.
3. "Which of the following
weakens the argument above," then give an answer choice
that obviously strengthens the argument.
These
tricks are intended to catch students who rush through questions.
However, you may turn this tactic to your advantage if you read
the question stems slowly and carefully. Then you may identify
the trick opposites, eliminate them as answer choices, and increase
the chances of getting the right answers.
The Scope Trap (this section is a repeat from the Reading Comprehension
section)
When it comes to determining
the scope of a passage, you need to understand what we mean by
"scope". Think of scope as a narrowing of the topic.
If you've found the main point, you must also identify what is
in the range of the argument. Scope is related to more than just
the general topic being discussed, it is the narrowing of the
topic. Is the article about graduate-school admissions, MBA admissions,
or helping international students get into the business school
program of their choice? Each step represents a narrowing of
the scope.
Scope
is one of the most important concepts for doing well on the verbal
section, particularly for high scorers. Why? Put yourself in
the position of the test question writers. They must write difficult
questions. Only one of the five choices is correct; the rest
are junk answers. They have to write questions that a certain
number of students will get wrong and they have to make up "junk"
answers to fool people. The issue of scope solves both problems
for test question writers: it allows them to easily generate
wrong answers, and it makes the questions harder because scope
is a challenging issue. Most critical reasoning or reading
comprehension questions have junk answers that are "outside
of the question's scope."
Some
common examples of scope junk answers are choices that are too
narrow, too broad, or literally have nothing to do with the author's
points. Also, watch for and eliminate choices that are too extreme
to match the argument's scope; they're usually signaled by such
words as all, always, never, none, and so on. Choices
that are in some way qualified are usually correct for arguments
that are moderate in tone and contain such words as usually,
sometimes, probably.
|
all |
always |
never |
only |
|
words that signal answers
that are too strong and therefore usually outside the scope of
an argument. |
Example:
Some scientists believe that
carbon dioxide induced global warming may increase the number
of hurricanes in the future and their severity.
What if someone inferred from
that statement that
All of this season's severe hurricanes were
caused by global warming.
That statement would be outside
of the scope of the original argument. The inference made is
outside the scope of the argument. The argument is not that strong.
What about this statement:
Some of this season's storms may have been
caused and exacerbated by global warming.
This statement is more measured
and is within the scope of the original argument.
Strategy: If the question asks "which of
the following is NOT an assumption of the argument" or "which
of the following does NOT describe an argument made in the passage
above," the answer will often be the one with extreme language.
Here is a critical reasoning question
that illustrates scope.
Apartment building owners
argue that rent control should be abolished. Although they acknowledge
that they would increase rents in the short term, owners argue
that in the long term the rent increases would lead to greater
profitability. Higher profits would lead to increased apartment
construction. Increased apartment construction would then lead
to a greater supply of residences and lower prices as the potential
apartment residents have a better selection. Thus, abolishing
rent control would ultimately reduce prices.
Name an assumption made by
the owners: (hint: this is a difficult question, but you may eliminate
4 of the 5 answers as outside the scope of the argument).
a) Current residents of rent control apartments would be able
to find new apartments once their rents increased.
b) The fundamental value of any society is to house its citizens.
c) Only current apartment owners would profit significantly from
market deregulation.
d) New apartment construction will generate a great number of
jobs.
e) The increase in the number of apartments available would exceed
the number of new potential apartment residents.
Which possible answers are outside
of the scope? The scope is the argument that deregulation will
increase supply and lower prices. "Name an assumption"
means find a direct assumption of that supply/demand argument.
a) Current residents of rent
control apartments would be able to find new apartments once
their rent increased--is this outside of the scope?
Well, this sentence expresses a nice sentiment for the welfare
of renters, but it has nothing to do with our argument, which
is about a supply/demand dynamic.
b) The fundamental value of
any society is to house its citizens. Is this outside of
the scope? Again, nice sentiment, but this does not directly
tie into the argument.
c) Only current apartment
owners would profit significantly from market deregulation.
Is this outside of the scope? The profitability of the apartment
owners is not directly relevant. Note: of course if the profitability
of the apartments increases, it would help increase supply because
other companies would be drawn into the market, thus increasing
supply. Indeed this looks good and as if it is an assumption,
but "Only current apartment owners" is too limiting.
How about newer apartment owners? The profits made by "only
current owners" is not the issue at hand; it is the prices
of apartments. Again, as previously mentioned, answer choices
that use words such as "only" tend to be outside the
scope of the question. Here "only" is too restrictive
and allows you to eliminate this answer choice.
d) New apartment construction
will generate a great number of jobs. This is clearly outside
of the scope.
e) The increase in the number
of apartments available would exceed the number of new potential
apartment residents. Aha! This is an argument about supply
and demand, and this is an answer about supply and demand. This
is clearly within the scope of the argument, and it is the correct
answer. If demand rose with new apartment construction, then
prices would not decline, invalidating their argument.
Optional Strategy: Some students prefer to read the question
stem first and then read the stimulus itself. This lets
the user look more specifically for what the question is asking
and identify the question type beforehand. You may choose to
this strategy. Many test prep companies recommend this approach.
Use your own preference.
w II. Typical Critical
Reasoning Question Types
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