Hi, I have a question about the method.
I'm not sure whether I'm doing it correctly...
I was doing review bfr checking the correct answers, but now doing aft checking answers.
Because I thought when I choose answer choice, I already have my reasoning to choose it...but is this not efficient?
Why do we have to do the reasoning explanation part again after solving the question? (bc we already choose the ans. based on our reasoning)
If you know the correct reasoning, you would not miss the question.
Also I'm worried whether my reasoning is correct or not, whether that's the reasoning that makes the choices right or wrong...
Maybe I did not understand the BR method correctly. But I'm not sure how ppl improve using this method...
Could anyone elaborate the method a little bit? and if you could answer or address my questions/concerns?
Why and how will ppl improve using the method?
Thank you,
Comments
Well that is a detailed and complicated answer to unpack better than J.Y. has already done, but I will try my best to explain and answer your questions/concerns. This is not efficient. J.Y. made a very apt analogy to doing this in his lesson on BR. He basically said doing this is like gambling. You are betting you got the answers right when you check them right away. When you get them right, you're happy and feel smart. When you get them wrong, you become disappointed and feel stupid. You don't much much out of it if you aren't closely examining why or why not you got it wrong.
Additionally, when you check the answers first you are missing the entire point of blind review. You will know which ones you got wrong and your brain will begin to reverse engineer the reasoning for the right answer choices. The problem is when your brain does that, if you don't know why it is right, you will learn and enforce bad habits.
Let me give an example. You are BR'ing after checking the answers and see you got #13 wrong. So you may remember what you chose and now you're picking between 4 choices instead of 5. Know if you checked and you know the answer is (c) your brain will automatically try to justify (c) and it may do so without the proper reasoning.
Perhaps you are checking the answers without seeing them. That is better, but still not honest BR. Let's say you see you got -0 wrong. Are you going to honestly go back and check your reasoning? There is still something to learn even if you missed none! Perhaps you guessed and got lucky? Or maybe you don't quite understand why one of the answer choices was wrong...
I don't know about you, but I often find myself between 2 answers and I pick the one I think is best. But in the moment, on a timed drill, I don't have the time to go through my entire reasoning process of why it is right... So BR helps me to make sure I understand why the one I picked is right or wrong. Because we want to make sure you understand WHY the right answers are right and the wrong are wrong. The thing is, you can get lucky and get a question right with the wrong reasoning. For a long time I could only do parallel flaw questions by matching quantifiers and prescriptions. So I would pick the answer that matched the stimulus. If the stimulus said most people should I would simply pick the answer that included more or should. A lot of the time I was right, but I wasn't learning or becoming better at parallel flaw questions. As soon as I ran into a question where I couldn't match the quantifiers I found myself lost.
In short, your reasoning can be wrong and get you to the right answer sometimes.
Is there something specific you would like elaboration with as far as BR goes?
I don't think I can more accurately and eloquently sum it up better than J.Y. can. Here is a link of his lesson on it. If there is something you are still lost on please ask. At first it didn't click with me, but I promise you it works.
Remember this to try to understand BR better:
BR's purpose is far beyond getting the answers right. That is only a small part of it. When you BR, part of it is retraining your brain. So if you got an answer choice wrong because of faulty reasoning, then you need to block out whatever you did and ensure you do not make the same error. When you go through the stimulus/stem/ACs during BR you should be cognizant of your thought process that finally leads you to the right answer. Or if you got it correct, you should make sure you understand exactly how you arrived at said correct answer and make sure to reinforce it. As you can see, simply checking your answers won't do this for you. In the end BR is about instilling the correct thought processes to answer the questions correctly, not just making sure you got the answer choice correct.
Watch these couple YouTube videos. If you still have some questions after come back and ask again.
BR overview:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step3:
Good luck =]
Also, this webinar workshop really helped me understand the ins and outs of BR.
It is long, but an hour and a half is worth the points this technique will yield you
So what if I still could not find the path even though I think about the answer choices for hours?
When is the time I can check the answers?
Sometimes I found my reasonings and pro's reasonings or explanations are different-for example, sometimes this happens; I thought this is why this answer choice is wrong, but other's explanations are from different directions.
Should I trust my reasoning or theirs?
Should I just eliminate my reasoning and absorb their explanations and try to understand the answer choices?
Sorry if this does not make sense...
This is why I cannot stop referring to other's explanations cuz I'm afraid of overlooking something...not saying I don't trust my own reasoning but afraid of missing some important things.
But I was wondering whether I'm wasting my time...and whether this is a good way to review. (cuz it does not sound like what BR tells us to do)
By the way thanks for the video @"Alex Divine" just finish watching the workshop. It was indeed lon lol but it was interesting.
It truly is the best way to improve and reinforce good habits and break bad ones. It can also be seen as a practice-practice test where you can try out new techniques and see what works best for you without worrying about the stress of time.
Do you have a specific question on what to do what JY didn't address?