Self-study
Hi all,
I just finished the NA module and am doing some drills but it's going horribly. I know these questions are really difficult, but I just can't seem to get a grasp on it.
I know that these questions depend on your making your own assumptions based on the information given, but it's annoying when the explanations make it seem like you're supposed to get that one specific assumption. I guess I'm frustrated because you can come up with so many assumptions, but the right one is like the 3rd one you came up with and it's said in a very convoluted way in the answer choice, and on top of that, you also have to do the negation test, which for me is also a bit confusing...
It's making me feel like I'm not good at making assumptions and then also the negation test frustrates me as well because it wants me to negate (which I am good at, all my negations match up) but I can't seem to figure its relationship with the argument...
I don't really know what the point of this post was, maybe partially to rant, but I think I just would like your guys' input on what you did to overcome the difficulty, frustration and feeling like nothing in the NA makes sense because I feel like I'm about to start tearing out hairs..
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9 comments
I genuinely didn't understand these questions until I learned the negating trick recently. It sounds a little like you're negating these assumptions but not comparing them to the argument's conclusion.
A lot of the arguments presented in NA questions seem to leave a gap between premises and conclusion. So, your necessary assumption in these cases must, when negated, make the conclusion not necessarily follow from the premises. Are you able to pick out the conclusion confidently?
I've found the best way to think about them is to think what MUST be true? It doesn't have to be obvious, and prephrasing is often unhelpful because lots of times the answer choices will bring up small little assumptions that you just would've never even thought of. But what answer choice would make the author think "huh, yeah, didn't think of that, but yeah that's gotta be true or else my argument is screwed." That's the correct one.
I would recommend the class spotting the gap, especially if you’re struggling with assumptions. I felt the same way but it’s just part of the learning process! Struggling is good bc that means you have something to learn
I feel ya. I still struggle with these but what has helped is mentally breaking down the argument and mapping prems and concs. Doing untimed NA drills and slowly working through them has helped as well. They are still difficult but I am getting far more right than wrong from where I started. Hang in there and keep going!