I think the best thing to do is to eliminate any answer choice with strong wording, such as: never, always, every, all etc. The GMAT tends to be moderate in its opinions...

Thanks, yeah that makes sense. My trouble is choosing between two answer choices that will both weaken (if its a weaken question) but one will weaken something very close to but slightly different from the actual argument. I'm wondering if there is a strategy to make sure I never choose that answer.

If I were you, I'd reread the passage very carefully. This one argument about paintings comes to mind (I think you can even search for "paintings museum" and find it):
- the museum should not spend the extra money on regulating temperature, because this doesn't help conserve the paintings
- this is so because it's been demonstrated that even centuries-old paint does not deteriorate at regular room temperature

The weakening statement was based on the extremely subtle difference between "paintings" and the "paint" used in those paintings. If you're in a rush (and you usually are), then it's not hard to overlook this. So reread the argument and check for really really fine differences!

Ah, ok, thanks. I was looking for a short cut...lol. I guess with this test there are none. Thanks Dana.

There may be some, but I am unaware of them... However, the two things mentioned above (no strong words + look out for subtle differences) have really helped me so far... Maybe they'll also help you!

Thanks Dana. I appreciate the help. I will see if I can do that and not have timing become an issue on my next practice CAT.

Hey Osirus,

Sorry to miss this earlier in the week - I was traveling to meet up with some of our instructors back east (incidentally, a fantastic group of people!).

One thing you might consider doing in this case is to negate each of your remaining answer choice to see if it has the opposite effect on the statement. The GMAT is great at hiding behind 'negation' to obscure correct answer choices.

Say a question asked:

Experiments suggest that a fifth universal force of mutual repulsion between particles of matter exists in the universe.

Which of the following most strengthens the argument above?

A) No previously established scientific results are incompatible with the existence of a fifth universal force.

B) No scientists have suggested that the alleged fifth force is an aspect of gravity rather than being fundamental in itself.

Notice that both answer choices involve negation - "no" - behind which the GMAT authors can hide a bit. If you negate them, you'd find that:

A) SOME previously established scientific results are incompatible with the existence of a fifth universal force.

B) SOME scientists have suggested that the alleged fifth force is an aspect of gravity...

Well, the first one, if negated, definitely weakens the theory - there is scientific evidence that it does not hold. Because we know that, either way, the statement will impact the conclusion, we know that it's within the scope of it. The second is a little softer, and shown to be out of scope. "Some" just means "not none", and "suggested" is a pretty soft statement...it doesn't show that there is any proof - if one scientist had theorized that this fifth force was actually just a subset of gravity, that doesn't mean that he's correct. Therefore, the answer here is A.

See if that strategy helps when you're down to two, particularly as you attempt to determine "in scope" vs. "out of scope". Also, for narrowing down to two and then deciding from there, I've found the following strategy to be really helpful: https://blog.veritasprep.com/2009/11/gma ... ek_20.html

Thanks a lot Brian, I'm convinced you're the best expert on this site. That helps a lot and was exactly what I was looking for. I will seek to implement that strategy tonight when I'm drilling verbal and see if it translates to a better verbal score when I take my next practice test. Thanks so much

With weakening & strengthening questions if I have it narrowed down to 2 answers and cannot decide--I try to identify which answer is the closest to the conclusion of the argument and I'll pick that one. This is similar to what Dana J posted, subtle differences in two words such as 'paint' and 'paintings' can make or break one of two very similar answers. When I encounter a strengthen/weakening question, a light bulb goes off in my head stating 'stay as close as possible to the conclusion.' This realization in itself can be very helpful.

In regards to assumption questions, learn how to use the negation technique. This technique works 90% of the time when it comes down to identifying the correct choice from two similar answers.