How to approach Argument Part Qs

lsnnnnn0011

Do you first identify where the part in question is located in the stimulus? Is this waste of time?
What's the most efficient way to attack AP Qs?

TheMikey

I like to bracket the sentence they are asking about before reading it all. It seems though that on recent PT's they've started to combine words from 2 sentences to form 1 sentence in the question stem that isn't word for word like they have been in earlier PT's. Not for all of them, but this has been a trend I've noticed at times when these questions show up. I still try to identify where the sentence is, nonetheless, it's a habit for me and doesn't take long if you skim.

The way I attack them is:
1. identify each piece of the argument. I put "ctx" next to any context, a "P" next to any premises, "MC" next to the main conc, and if there is a sub conclusion I put an "sc".
2. if there is a sub conclusion and a main conclusion, I try to figure out which is supporting which by doing a test such as "main conclusion, why? because sub conclusion". if it makes sense, then you're good to go. if it doesn't make sense, then reverse the conclusions because you may have the main conclusion in the support phrase for the sub conc, which isn't right.
3. overall, these questions are important because you will have to identify pieces of an argument for all argument based LR questions and these just ask you what a piece of an argument does. so practice identifying each piece of an argument.

NotMyName

After reading the QS, I bracket the Part in the QS, read the stimulus, then bracket the part in the stimulus. At this point, I am pretty good at identifying the parts of a stimulus intuitively so there is a good chance that after my first read, I already know where alls the context, conclusions, and premises are. I like bracketing in the stimulus last because I'm less distracted during my first read.