Quick Tip: Use Ctrl+F / Command-F in RC Passages

Looking for a keyword or phrase in your RC passage? Ctrl+F (Command-F for Mac) is completely allowed! Use this quick command to search for keywords and save yourself valuable time in RC.

Discussion: Reviewing the Right Way

As a tutor, students come to me all the time complaining they have hit a plateau. A pattern that I see over and over again with students who have hit a wall with their progress is a lack of quality in their review. What constitutes quality review? Here are some tips:

Be meticulous

A big benefit of having study partners or a tutor is that you are forced to explain to someone else why a particular answer is correct or incorrect. If there are any holes in your line of reasoning, the other person will quickly notice! But when studying on our own, it is easy to be lax with the way we explain wrong answers to ourselves. It is easy to hear an explanation and think something like “Yeah, that makes sense,” and simply move on to the next question. 

But passively taking in an explanation is never as thorough as having to produce it, so make sure that you can explain in detail why you got the answer wrong. Make sure that you really understand the logic for the stimulus, correct answers, and why trap answers are wrong. In this case, journaling the explanations for questions is a great tool.  Explanations should generally include the answers to: 

  • Why was I confused by the stimulus?
  • Why did the incorrect answer seem attractive?
  • Why did I think the correct answer was wrong?
  • What pieces of information did I miss?
  • What was my emotional reaction to being confused during the test?

Don’t just review incorrect answers

If you got a question right but the answer is “yes” to any of the following, it means that you might not deeply understand key aspects of the questions. So review those questions too! 

  • Did I take way too long to answer this question?
  • Did the stimulus confuse me for some reason?
  • Was it really difficult to choose between two or more answer choices?
  • Did none of the choices really seem 100% correct?

Look for patterns

One of the benefits of the type of meticulous self-critique mentioned above is that it gives us insight into our mistake-making patterns. These patterns can be both technical and emotional: technical, in that you didn’t understand the right approach for answering a question, and emotional, in that your focus or emotional response to stress prevented you from performing as well as you could have. Take a look at some example patterns that you might notice in yourself:  

  • I tend to select answers that attack or support the premises.
  • I have trouble seeing when an argument confuses necessary and sufficient conditions.
  • I tend to become overly anxious when I can’t understand the argument, and this blocks my thought process.

In short, good studying is not just a matter of quantity, but of quality! Implement these tips to gain better insights into your mistakes and how to improve.