How to get better at predicting

Comments

• FerdaFresh Alum Member

  November 2017 561 karma

  This is an unorthodox suggestion since it's nothing explicitly suggested in the CC, but I visualize almost all arguments in my head like a moving picture while reading the stimulus. The pictographic illustrations help me retain the information in the stimulus so I don't have to reread to get the picture.

  For example, in PT 82 Section 1 #7 (even though it's an easier NA question), I literally visualized the two manufacturing plants and made one twice the size of the other in my mind to symbolically reflect the fact that natural gas costs twice as much for one compared to the other. I don't know if I'd be breaking 7Sage's discussion rules by going in depth on this question, so I won't. But basically, when the stimulus' conclusion came around, I saw the "gap" right away without getting bogged in the details because I had already visualized one plant as being "twice" that of the other.

  This could have just as easily been a flaw question and the same gap would have been apparent. I see you have Ultimate+, so give it a look over to see what I mean
• catgonzalez1974 Member

  November 2017 193 karma

  I have had a lot of good answer choice predictions from recognizing the flaw. Once I can ID the flaw, and then correspond it to the question stem, I can verbalize (in my head.) what the correct answer choice might be. Sometimes I am way off because I got the flaw incorrect, or didn't understand the question, and sometimes I just misread the answer choices, or stimulus, but this seems to work for me. I've improved my LR score tremendously. Now onto RC.
• 10000019 Alum Member

  November 2017 3279 karma

  In my experience, it isn't easy to predict the correct answer for PSA or NA.
  If you're having issues seeing the flaw when you know there is going to be one, then I don't think you need help predicting the flaw; I think you need to work on comprehending the structure/reasoning.
• Sami Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 7Sage Tutor

  November 2017 10806 karma

  @mnr12345 said:
  This is for assumption family questions (flaw, na, sa, psa)

  I see the conclusion. I see the support. But even for the easiest questions (as in one of the 0-12ish), I still can't go into the answer choices with an idea of what the a/c should be. The passages usually look right, but I know it's not perfect and there's a missing link/connection, there is an assumption the author is making. I try to make a prediction, but I end up not finding one I am confident in and I move on to the a/c.

  That's pretty much right on target and the reason you shouldn't be predicting/pre-phrasing. There are 100's of necessary assumptions or ways you can strengthen/weaken each stimulus. A better way is to just read and understand the stimulus and use that understanding to read each answer choice and just consider each of them separately to see if it would perform the operation that question stem is asking you.

  I think a drill that can really help people get better at retaining the core of the stimulus is after reading each stimulus see if you can write down a concise summary of that stimulus. I find a lot of people keep re-reading stimulus 5 times and don't actually have a grasp of what the stimulus is saying. It's okay to re-read but the goals should be understanding how the premises support the conclusion. You can train your mind by practicing it initially by writing it down during a drill. As you get better you won't need to write it down and your mind will start doing it in your head automatically.

  After you feel that you have a grasp of the stimulus, go through the answer choices without a prediction and just consider each of them. You can ask yourself: If what this answer choice says is true how would this affect my stimulus? For necessary assumptions you can ask yourself, would my argument in stimulus fall apart if this fact in answer choice is not true?