Quick Tip

To Write or Not to Write

Know when to pick up your pencil and write something down! For Logical Reasoning, many students either write too little or write too much. On one end of the spectrum, students will try to do every question in their head, getting mixed up. On the other end of the spectrum, some students will reflexively pick up their pencil for every question, wasting precious time on ones that could have been done on the spot. 

First, you should decide what question types are worth mapping. Second, for those questions, you should skim the stimulus and see if an answer jumps out. If not, then it may be time to map!

Discussion

When Should I Predict the Answer?

When Should I Predict the Answer?

Many students struggle with knowing the proper order for a given question. Should they read the stimulus, let the answer come to them, and then go to the answer choices? Or should they be “fed” information from the answer choices?

Here’s a step-by-step process for how to approach any question. 

First, read the question stem and identify the type of question. We recommend that students read the stem first, because your approach will vary depending on the question type. 

Second, ask yourself if the question type is one that allows predictions. For the most part, the only questions where you cannot predict the answers are Must Be True/Must Be False, Most Strongly Supported, and questions with “except,” since these all could have a theoretically infinite number of correct answers that you can’t predict directionally. 

Third, if the question allows predictions, try thinking about what the right answer may be. This is useful prior to reading the answer choices for a few reasons. First, it gives you a compass to guide you in the direction of the right answer. Second, each answer choice has an 80% chance of being wrong, and are there merely to confuse you. You shouldn’t rely on the choices if you can avoid it, since the choices may be giving you false signals.   

However, if you cannot predict the right answer (or have a question that isn’t amenable to prediction), don’t despair! You should instead switch into wrong-answer elimination mode. Try to skim the answer choices and look for common flaws. Many wrong answers on LR will give you spurious, unrelated information not talked about—knock out answers that do this! Others will use language that is too strong or too weak, depending on the question. 

In sum, Logical Reasoning is like Logic Games or Reading Comprehension: you’re rewarded for doing work up front, instead of leaving the brunt of your efforts to the questions. Make predictions before you dive in! It will give you direction and, ultimately, make your job easier. 

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