Must be true advice please

overthistest

Hey everyone
I have been having trouble with MBT questions in specific.
Can you offer your tips and hints to how you handle them? Do you find writing out logic to help or waste more time?

Kris4444

I don't know how helpful I can be since MBT has been giving me trouble, too. But I've been drilling 5-star MBT questions recently and a pattern I noticed is that the answer is always much simpler than I expect it to be. Since must be true is such a rigorous standard, the right answer is usually something that seems too simple. I've found that simplifying or visualizing the stimulus to make it make more sense to me has helped a lot. You could also try approaching it like a NA question, if those are easier for you, where if you negate it, the statements no longer work together.

overthistest

@Kris4444 said:
I don't know how helpful I can be since MBT has been giving me trouble, too. But I've been drilling 5-star MBT questions recently and a pattern I noticed is that the answer is always much simpler than I expect it to be. Since must be true is such a rigorous standard, the right answer is usually something that seems too simple. I've found that simplifying or visualizing the stimulus to make it make more sense to me has helped a lot. You could also try approaching it like a NA question, if those are easier for you, where if you negate it, the statements no longer work together.

Thank you - great advice...will try this out!

galactic

@Hannahbalas18 How are you doing on MSS questions? If you're strong on MSS, you can approach MBT questions the same way and then just do a final validity check on the answer choice you think is right to ensure you have a valid argument in front of you (stimulus + answer choice).

MBT is no different than MSS aside from the correct AC in MBT bringing the argument (stimulus + answer choice) to complete validity.

Does that make sense?

Another drill you can do to improve on both MBT and MSS is practice covering up the answer choices and creating an inference (MBT) or statement that is supported (MSS) on your own before looking at the ACs. In the beginning this can be tough, but as you get better, I think you'll find that you can confidently produce a statement that can be inferred or supported from the list of statements you just read in the stimulus.

After doing this exercise of creating your own answer choice, you might also find it helpful when going through each of the ACs for MBT to ask yourself the question: does this answer choice combined with the stimulus leave me with a flawed argument? If the answer is yes, that is a wrong AC. -- Because again, the stimulus + correct answer choice for MBT will leave you in the territory of validity.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have anymore questions.

overthistest

@"galactic law" said:
@Hannahbalas18 How are you doing on MSS questions? If you're strong on MSS, you can approach MBT questions the same way and then just do a final validity check on the answer choice you think is right to ensure you have a valid argument in front of you (stimulus + answer choice).

MBT is no different than MSS aside from the correct AC in MBT bringing the argument (stimulus + answer choice) to complete validity.

Does that make sense?

Another drill you can do to improve on both MBT and MSS is practice covering up the answer choices and creating an inference (MBT) or statement that is supported (MSS) on your own before looking at the ACs. In the beginning this can be tough, but as you get better, I think you'll find that you can confidently produce a statement that can be inferred or supported from the list of statements you just read in the stimulus.

After doing this exercise of creating your own answer choice, you might also find it helpful when going through each of the ACs for MBT to ask yourself the question: does this answer choice combined with the stimulus leave me with a flawed argument? If the answer is yes, that is a wrong AC. -- Because again, the stimulus + correct answer choice for MBT will leave you in the territory of validity.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Thank you so much for this! You rock!!