Reading Comprehension Process of Elimination??

Judyyyyy

The problem I have with Reading Comprehension is that for some questions an answer choice is considered to be correct even though its not necessary valid. But for others, it seems as if we can eliminate answers because of the very same reason. I'm obviously lacking intuition on how/when to eliminate answer choices.

Can anyone explain why certain answer choices can be eliminated while others cannot? What typically constitutes a wrong answer? I would like to hone my intuition on what constitutes a wrong answer and which answer choices aren't necessarily accurate, but still considered correct.

jdawg113

well technically all but 1 AC can be eliminated... you just need to know what you are looking for. for some questions you may have a great idea and those are the ones you find very easy to eliminate AC's but there is always 1 right answer and 4 wrong. that is why you need to really grasp so much information when reading the passage bc all the answers are in there. For each question you should be able to point out exactly where TCR is coming from and if you understand that then you should be able to eliminate all the other AC by noticing it is nowhere in the passage. Def something I would recommend to do while doing BR

Judyyyyy

I guess my problem, more specifically, is related to the inference questions that are coupled with the phrase "most likely" in the question stem. I find this to be somewhat counter intuitive because we are taught that inferences must be true, but some correct answers seems to be just most strongly supported.

Do you have any advice on how to approach these types of questions? Is POE the easiest way to arrive at the correct answer?

jdawg113

POE is always a great way to come to an answer... and it depends on what question it is... if it is asking for an inference than yes MBT AC... though if it is saying what is most likely then it is not a must be true and it is more of a most strongly supported (depending on wording)
it kind of sounds to me like you are trying to approach all sorts of questions in the same way which you really cant (until you are a real pro, then you do what you want bc... well you're a pro)
if you have 7sage I recommend spending some time watching the videos for the approaches for the different types of questions and drilling until you get it. If you dont have a membership I would say crack open the trainer (of if you dont have that LR bible/whatever you have) and read up on a question type and then drill some of that type of question until you really understand how you attack that question stem

Snowball

@jdawg113 could you explain what you mean by "TCR"? thanks!

jdawg113

The correct response (right answer)

Judyyyyy

Thank you!! Yes, I believe that I'm trying to approach all the questions the same way which is probably why I'm so confused with some of the RC credited answers. I'm going to look in the Trainer for more info on the question types. I did not know that there were different methods to approach the questions.... (I don't believe 7sage teaches different approach to RC question stems? Or am I missing something?)

jdawg113

lol totally merged into LR mind set in last post but any question in RC is a LR question, just with a longer stimulus practically. If your looking for the main point you need to take in everything and ask yourself why? why was this written? if the question is asking what the author would most agree to you need you take notice as you're reading to how the author refers to the topics... if he uses words saying he supports or agrees with a critic theres a good chance TCR includes something stated that the critic believes. The problem with RC is the stimulus for all the questions of a passage are the same, its long, and its read first b4 all the questions which is why active reading is so important. you need to just take note of the different tones and attitudes. if you see somewhere the author taking a negative tone you want to note that (physically or mentally) incase a question comes up asking the tone or attitude or what the author would disagree with... so maybe my last post wasnt so accurate since I was kinda thinking of LR but there are differences in RC but a huge portion of it is taking notice of all these types of things as you read the passage

joegotbored-1

I think @jdawg is right on the money with RC being very much like LR..with longer stimulus. The question types repeat and are within easily identified quotas per passage (on average). If you know you have trouble with inference questions, look at Most Strongly Supported or Must Be True questions. Main Point/Main Conclusion will always be there.

The only question type I can think of that doesn't show up in LR but DOES show up in RC is the Definition question where you're asked what an author meant by the use of a word. There is a similarity on this question type to Argument Part questions but sometimes they are straight definitions.

You'll be fine on RC if you keep boning up on LR. Practice what @jdawg suggested regarding your notes (mental or physical) while reading and you'll be good to go. Familiarity with the question types will go a LONG way!