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Ignore Context?

IdavidngoIdavidngo Member
in Logical Reasoning 26 karma
When we are reading the stimulus and separating the conclusion, premise, and context, are we supposed to ignore the context/"some people's argument"/etc, and then just focus on the Premise and Conclusion?

For example, in NA questions, it seems that after determining which sentence in the context, we can just ignore it and focus on the relationship of support to answer the question.

Am I right on this?
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Comments

  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    I tend to shy away from absolute rules like this because so much is question/situation dependent. If you get in the habit of ignoring context then it will come back to hurt you when you needed it. The important thing is just to develop the ability to know when to ignore it or when it will be of help to you.
  • IdavidngoIdavidngo Member
    26 karma
    @Pacifico thank you! You have a point. I'm just struggling so hard on NA, I'm trying to grab any rule that can help me justify ways to answer the question.

    But, of course, I must practice practice practice so I know when to or not to ignore the context.
  • harrismeganharrismegan Member
    2074 karma
    Sorry to hear you're struggling with NA!
    I wouldn't ignore the stimulus completely. BUT when I do see a context indicator I make sure to note where it context is and where the argument is.... skim the context and get right into the question.
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    7965 karma
    Ooh yes, be careful with NA. There is no "trick." Over time you will get better at pre-phrasing the gap. I believe having a firm grip on the gap in addition to the conclusion is the key to these questions.
  • gs556gs556 Member Inactive Sage
    568 karma
    @Idavidngo said:
    I'm trying to grab any rule that can help me justify ways to answer the question
    Here's your rule: Negate the answer choice and see what happens to the argument. If the argument survives, eliminate the answer choice. Repeat until there is only one answer choice left.
  • c.janson35c.janson35 Free Trial Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    2398 karma
    Just to add to what @gs556 said, I would recommend against negating each choice from the get go; narrow it down to the couple or few that you think may be winners, and then negate those. Negating 5 when you can just as easily see that some are wrong can be a big time suck.
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    7965 karma
    @c.janson35 said:
    I would recommend against negating each choice from the get go; narrow it down to the couple or few that you think may be winners, and then negate those.
    Big time fist bump on this. NA's need not be a major time sink. In fact, if you are relying on just negating all 5 AC's ... Wow ... I think one of the circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno consists mainly of that. And pattern games.
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