Subscription pricing
Out of curiosity, do people generally label the LR passages (i.e. Premises, conclusions, etc.) or just do it mentally? I'm considering labeling the premises and conclusions in every passage to improve my overall speed at identifying these things, but I'm not sure if that's something that people use as an actual test strategy.
0
6 comments
I find that I almost instinctually bracket the conclusion in a stimulus when I reach it. It's not something I really think about, but I do it on most of the questions.
I mark up almost every question in LR that has an argument in it. I don't label anything using letters, but I do underline main conclusions and bracket premises.
I just use notations when dealing with arguments. I put MC for main conclusion, SC for sub conclusion, and the premises I just put a P next to. I don't know for others, but it does help me concentrate on analysing the argument.
A quick bracketing and notation of C for conclusion is a huge help. Same goes for P premise. For me that is step one after reading stimulus. It only takes a second and really situates the statements as they pertain to the argument.
I don't usually do it during a timed PT (sometimes I do, like if I am having trouble analyzing the passage). What I almost always do, though, is circle "strong" words such as "most," "only," "all," etc. This is especially helpful for most strongly supported questions and inference questions because the correct answer choice often relates back to the phrases containing those "strong" words. During BR, I am more likely to explicitly breakdown premises and conclusions since the questions I BR are the ones that gave me some trouble during the timed exam. If you are just starting out, I think explicitly labeling the premises and conclusions is very helpful. In time and with enough practice, you will just be able to "see" them without having to explicitly mark them.
For practice, if you are struggling at identifying the P and C, then I would do it until it becomes second nature. If you mean to use the method on test day, I tried it and it wasted some valuable time.