Too Many Times Coming Down To Two Answers- Can't Decide!

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• 1 Like

  nessa.k13.0 Inactive ⭐

  November 2017 4141 karma

  Hi! If you get to the questions and are not able to definitively select something on a lot of them, then chances are you’re not understanding the passage. Make sure you note (mentally or literally) when the passage subverts expectations or where you don’t quite understand what is going on.

  For main point questions you want to anticipate what the main point actually is (after reading the question stem) so that when you go to the answer choices you are less likely to be thrown my trap answers. For those two PTs you took, get a clean copy if you can, reread each passage and when you get to the main point question, paraphrase the main point of the passage before reading the ACs—don’t convince yourself a vague idea will work because it won’t (Do this for all the passages to practice if you need to). Next select an answer that best fits or is better than your wholistic anticipation of the main point. If you find yourself choosing between two ACs again look at which option mischaracterizes the passage and eliminate it. This could occur because an AC overemphasizes a peripheral element, maybe it is factually inaccurate, maybe it exaggerates the role of something. Select the answer you think is best. Once you go over the other questions you came down to 2 ACs on, look and see what options you fell for and write down why that ac is wrong and how you fell for it.

  For the other questions you go 50/50 on it depends. Are you not understanding the argument(s)? Are you not understanding the role of a word or element in the passage? Do you not understand the passage structure? Are you reading so fast that you miss out on the argument vs objections to the argument? There could be a wide range of things. Check to see if you can identify in the passage whatever it is that the question is about first.
• 1 Like

  justdoit-1 Alum Member

  November 2017 57 karma

  Thanks for the great tips. I'm going to take a blind copy of the tests and do exactly as you said!
• 1 Like

  Leah M B Alum Member ⭐

  November 2017 8392 karma

  What's helped me some on the MP questions for RC is remembering to think about the passage as a whole and what it is trying to accomplish. Is it persuasive, convincing me that a theory is correct? Is it explanatory, telling me about a phenomenon? I've noticed a number of the RC MP question answer choices will mostly be correct but have the wrong emphasis in this area.

  Also when you get down to a 50/50 choice, often (for me at least) the options are really similar so I have a hard time deciding. So what helps is to compare how those two choices are different from each other, and which of those would be correct (e.g. they are essentially the same except one says "all" and the other says "most").

  RC is generally my weakest section though, so I'm right there with you on figuring these dang things out haha.
• justdoit-1 Alum Member

  November 2017 57 karma

  Thanks Leah! I've gone through a few RC sections since my last post and found I'm right back at the 18-19 correct on RC. As I go through the RC sections from 70-80 the level of difficulty is noticeable compared to 50-69. Part of my issue was burning out because I had been going so hard. I took a break for a full day and came back to it feeling refreshed. What I noticed was that I was starting to second guess my self (out smart myself) on answers and that was why I was having so many 50/50 decisions. I always stress to myself to read all the answers but if I already found what seems like a perfect paraphrase or the correct answer, I can't allow myself to be tempted by other answers. Moral of the story- if you found the right answer, don't look to disprove what you know to be already correct.
• 1 Like

  Habeas Porpoise Alum Member Sage ⭐

  November 2017 edited November 2017 1866 karma

  Hey! I've had a similar issue with 50/50 and this is what's helped me, though it echoes much of what @"nessa.k13.0" and @"Leah M B" have already said:

  • Slow down while reading: if you spend time up front with the passage you won't have to waste as much time looking back and forth between ACs, and you might find that you're not stuck between two ACs as often because you have a better understanding of what you've read.

  • While reading think about these things:

  1. Main point - what summarizes this passage?
  2. Author's purpose - why is the author telling me this?
  3. Author's tone - how does the author feel about this? (this is critical for inference and MSS questions)
  4. Overall structure of the passage - helps string it all together, and
  5. POVs - if the author introduces alternative perspectives, OPA, etc, note them down because you might get a question that asks you to consider this alternate perspective.

  • As Nessa said, try and formulate the MP in your own words before reading the MP question. When crossing out ACs, consider whether they're giving a summary of the passage, or incorrectly giving the summary of just one paragraph. Is it emphasizing the right idea, or focusing on a single detail that the author mentions in passing?
    For both MP and other question types, you can also cross out wrong ACs that use qualifying words that mischaracterize the tone (agreeable or enthusiastic when the author/POV in consideration is critical and disappointed) or make judgement we can't infer (saying "the only way to preserve native languages..." when the passage explicitly says "one of the ways to preserve native languages").

  If at this point you're still stuck between two ACs, and you know where in the passage the information is located, go ahead and check each AC against the passage.

  If you still can't figure it out, or you don't know where it is, I recommend Sage Daniel's method of bubbling in an AC on your answer sheet but just circling the question in your test book without circling the answer (leaving the two ACs you're between unmarked on your test itself), and coming back to it later. This ensures you don't leave the question blank if you run out of time, but if you have a chance to come back to it, you won't reaffirm the AC you already picked (since people have a tendency to convince themselves they're right) and will be able to look at it more objectively.
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  November 2017 edited November 2017 23929 karma

  When I get stuck between 2 answer choices (which used to have a F***ton when I began prepping) I realized that it was usually caused by one of two things. First, either the question was just designed to have two super attractive answer choices. Second, I made some mistake on the way to getting down to those two answers -- that is, I was attracted to two answers because you didn't understand the argument/passage as well as I should have and as a result didn't focus on something I should have in the elimination process. The latter happens much more often than the former. Getting stuck is usually the result of not understanding key parts of the passage as well as we could have. When this happens to me I return to the passage and re-read it so I can see what I've missed.

  What's helped me more than anything is to write my own explanations during BR.
• JURISDOCTOR35 Free Trial Member

  November 2017 48 karma

  I seem to have the same problem.