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Trouble with CR

by quitaskinme » Tue Oct 27, 2015 10:58 pm
Hey everyone! I went over CR today, and as for right now i'm taking my time and trying to train my brain how to attack the problems. I wrote notes on how to do and how to attack each type of CR problem. In the MGMAT prep material, the problems seem easy. However, when I get to OG problems i'm having trouble breaking the paragraphs down into useful info and i'm catching myself blankly staring at sentences a few times.

Here is my process for CR. For example WEAKEN the arguement.

1. Read the question stem to identify the problem type.
2. Read/try to paraphrase each sentence in my head.
3. Deconstruct the argument and find the premise & conclusion.
4. Try to formulate what kind of answer i should be looking for(I DON'T GET HOW TO DO THIS. I seem to be way off all the time. I seem to pick simple things that weaken the argument)
5. Read the answers crossing off "wrong to right"(cross off the wrong ones and leave whichever could possibly be right). However, when reading the answers I can't quite seem to realize what it is I should be asking myself.

Any helpful tips that you guys find useful to break down CR problems? Any other process? For now specifically for questions regarding

1. Weaken
2. Strengthen

**Also, is it necessary to really know the key words for premise, conclusion, counterpremise, etc...?
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Thu Oct 29, 2015 4:05 pm
quitaskinme wrote:Hey everyone! I went over CR today, and as for right now i'm taking my time and trying to train my brain how to attack the problems. I wrote notes on how to do and how to attack each type of CR problem. In the MGMAT prep material, the problems seem easy. However, when I get to OG problems i'm having trouble breaking the paragraphs down into useful info and i'm catching myself blankly staring at sentences a few times.

Here is my process for CR. For example WEAKEN the arguement.

1. Read the question stem to identify the problem type.
2. Read/try to paraphrase each sentence in my head.
3. Deconstruct the argument and find the premise & conclusion.
4. Try to formulate what kind of answer i should be looking for(I DON'T GET HOW TO DO THIS. I seem to be way off all the time. I seem to pick simple things that weaken the argument)
5. Read the answers crossing off "wrong to right"(cross off the wrong ones and leave whichever could possibly be right). However, when reading the answers I can't quite seem to realize what it is I should be asking myself.

Any helpful tips that you guys find useful to break down CR problems? Any other process? For now specifically for questions regarding

1. Weaken
2. Strengthen

**Also, is it necessary to really know the key words for premise, conclusion, counterpremise, etc...?
A few bits of advice: first, if you're struggling to come up with a potential solution before examining the answer choices, simplify matters by devoting more attention to the conclusion. For example, if a conclusion were: profits will increase next year evaluating the answer choices can be as simple as asking yourself "would this impact next year's profits?" after you read each one. Critical Reasoning, for the most part, is about logic and attention to detail. So don't be so hard on yourself if you're not entirely sure what you should be looking for before you look at the answers.

Also, it's premature to start thinking about making significant adjustments to your approach. More importantly, what happened after you missed those Official Guide questions that you struggled with? Did you see where you went astray? If you did, make notes to yourself about what you can do differently going forward. If you didn't, post the question here to get some feedback. Repeat this process a few times and you'll find that you'll start to recognize patterns more easily.

Keep us posted...
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by quitaskinme » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:14 pm
Thanks! Yes, I note the problems so I can go over it again in the future. I also try to ask myself why I chose the wrong one.

Just curious, what is it that we should be asking ourselves when doing CR problems such as:

1. Assumption
2. strengthen/weaken
3. Evaluate
4. Boldface
5. Inference

Like for example during strengthen questions, we should ask ourselves what is important? And what is the conclusion? Also any advice on separating the fluff from the premise/conclusion? When I time myself I realize I just start paraphrasing every sentence because i'm not sure what is important. I feel like that wastes some time and I should learn to avoid the fluff.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:32 pm
That's a BIG question.
If you're interested, we have a free CR module (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... -reasoning) with 38 videos covers the strategies for each type of CR question.

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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