Self-study
Hey guys I was at the Active Reading Webinar last night and I typed up a bunch of notes for people who couldn't attend. I had to leave early for work so I didn't get everything but here are the notes I was able to get. Also thank you to Corey, David and the entire 7sage staff for arranging these webinars because they were extremely helpful and I look forward to being on another one tonight.
Active Reading Webinar Notes:
1. What is the Goal of Active Reading: The process of absorbing, contemplating, and engaging with a stimulus or passage to be able to better understand and predict answer choices
• If you learn to do this well it cuts down on the time it takes to find the answers correctly
• Want to make the test emotional because it offers a connection between you and the test and makes taking one an intuitive process rather than just a test. If you make it emotional while reading then you can remember easier. Emotional memories will go into long-term memories rather than just short term.
2. How do you do Actively Read:
• READ SLOWLY & TAKE BREAKS: Although this may seem counterintuitive by reading slowly and taking breaks at the end of certain sentences you avoid the “What the Hell did I just read” syndrome. Take the time up front to make sure you understand each sentence and how it fits in with the stimulus
i. This is done while you’re reading and again before you go to the answer choices
• Work on Pre-phrasing/anticipating the answer choices:
i. A common misconception is that you can’t anticipate the answer choices in certain types of questions or in RC but this is wrong
1. Even if your pre-phrase is wrong by doing this step you’re engaging with the material more, making an emotional connection and will be able to remember it more clearly
ii. You can only pre-phrase an answer if you understood what you read which was why you need to slow down and understand what you read
• Think of this active reading like setting up your game board in logic games:
i. We’ve learned to “spend the time upfront and reap the rewards later” with LG, why not apply that to LR and RC
1. Spend time pre-phrasing anticipating answer choices (i.e. making inferences) with LR
ii. With RC the passage is your game board and your job is to be able to eliminate unnecessary material and be able to locate what you need
1. Take pleasure in the fact that everything you need to answer a question in RC is in front of you on the page
• Approach reading everything on the test like a friend who you know lies to you:
i. If someone in real life said a bad argument you’d call them out on it rather than just ignore it, by rushing through and trying to get to an answer choice you give their crappy argument credibility
3. What should I specifically look for to actively Read:
• Strength of words: Important because you need to see how the strength of the passage/stimulus relates to the strength of the answer
i. Conditional indicators/operators: “if, unless, must, etc.
ii. “Most, some, all”: These make eliminating answer choices easier because you know it’s out of the scope, this needs to match what was said in the stimulus
iii. Ex: For a MBT Question: If the stimulus says some drugs help with headaches and an answer choice says all drugs help with headaches we know that it is too strong an answer choice
• Group Descriptors: How they’re describing the comparison between 2 groups
i. Ask yourself “what do we know”
ii. Do we assume that everything is the same or are there differences between the 2 groups
• Correlational phrases and causation phrases: Can help you see the overall flow of the passage and further engage yourself
i. These are helpful because they can help you zero in on a conclusion
4. Know that when you first start this it will take a long time but will slowly become faster almost like a computer program:
• On the webinar we saw one question take over 8 minutes to explain but when he did it in real-time and explained it, it took just over 2 minutes
June 2007 Test Examples:
Note that you can use whatever “system of notation” you like, the main point is to understand why he marked those words and the process at which he used to read and get the correct answer choices
Section 2 Question 15:
15. A new government policy has been developed to avoid many serious cases of influenza. This goal will be accomplished by the annual vaccination of high-risk individuals: everyone 65 and older as well as anyone with a chronic disease that might cause them to experience complications from the influenza virus. Each year’s vaccination will protect only against the strain of the influenza virus deemed most likely to be prevalent that year, so every year it will be necessary for all high-risk individuals to receive a vaccine for a different strain of the virus.
Which one of the following is an assumption that
would allow the conclusion above to be properly drawn?
Marks we made:
1. Circle “Many serious cases”: Defines the parameters of what we’re talking about (strength of words)
a. Could help eliminate an answer if it said “All cases…”
2. Underline influenza: That’s what the subject of the cases are
a. Answer choice could refer to a different disease
3. Dash at the end of the first sentence: “Stop sign that breaks up the stimulus”
a. Allows me to pause and comprehend what I just read before moving on
4. Circle high risk: Describes the individual
a. Bracket the definition they give of high risk (may be useful and breaks up text visually)
5. Circle “only against”: Strong word (strength of word)
6. Underline “most likely”: Strong word (strength of word)
7. Dash after year: This is our premise and enforces the fact that I understand this is the premise
a. “Each year’s vaccination will protect only against the strain of the influenza virus deemed most likely to be prevalent that year”
b. What do we takeaway from this:
i. Vaccine protects only against 1 strain
ii. The strain that is most prevalent that year
8. Underline “so”: Conclusion indicator
a. You need to be actively engaging and ripping apart their conclusion
b. Conclusion: “every year it will be necessary for all high-risk individuals to receive a vaccine for a different strain of the virus.”
c. Stop and compare premise to conclusion
i. High-risk: Used in both the same way
ii. Strain of virus: Used differently
1. P: Most common strain
2. Different strain each year
9. Pre-phrase: “The strain that is most prevalent every year is different, not a continual one strain”
10. Navigate Answer choices and choose D
Section 2 Question 17:
17. Hospital executive: At a recent conference on nonprofit management, several computer experts maintained that the most significant threat faced by large institutions such as universities and hospitals is unauthorized access to confidential data. In light of this testimony, we should make the protection of our clients’ confidentiality our highest priority.
Steps:
1. Read who is saying this: “Hospital executive”, sometimes it seems unnecessary but other times it can help you build an emotional connection to an answer
2. Circle Non-profit management: Relevant subject of the conference
3. Underline “most significant”: Strong phrase (strength of word)
4. Underline “access to confidential date”: States what the problem is
5. Circle “should”: conclusion indicator
6. Underline “highest priority”: Strong phrase (strength of word)
7. Label premise: “Several computer experts maintained that the most significant threat faced by large institutions and hospitals is unauthorized access to confidential data”
8. Label conclusion: “We should make the protection of our clients’ confidentiality our highest priority”
9. Stop and think about this: “At a hospital what should my highest priority be”
a. Shouldn’t it be my health and not confidentiality?
b. Yet computer experts are saying the most significant threat is my confidentiality therefore we’re going to make it our highest priority
c. Is this enough to warrant this?
d. Better yet should we be taking advice from computer experts?
e. If this were real life you would call them out on this in a heartbeat.
10. Takeaway: If you have a prescripted conclusion you need to try and understand why they’re saying what they’re saying
a. “Should”: Makes this a prescripted conclusion
i. Why are you telling me that this is best for me?
ii. After looking at this at a laser focused level we can see the absurdity when computer experts give advice on the most important priority in a hospital to doctors
11. With that in mind we can easily find that answer choice B is correct
