Misreading CR

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Misreading CR

by bluemets » Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:46 pm
It seems CR is my worst area under verbal. I'm finding that most questions I review & retry before looking at the answer I'm able to successfully answer.

Anyone find any tricks to focus on the details of the question while under the time crunch?

I see this error less frequently on RC ...

Thanks!!

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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:16 pm
I find that often, because of time pressure, students try to go quickly through CR by speeding through the argument, and then deliberating on the answer choices. As you say, this can often lead to misreading (or just missing) key pieces of information. Really, the best way to tackle CR quickly and effectively is to read the argument very carefully, and take a moment to think about what you're looking for. If you have a clear idea of what you're looking for in the answer choices, you can actually go through them much more quickly.

You'll want to know each of the major question types, and what to be looking for with each (you can search of the forum or guide for more information about each:
- Assumption - look for a logical gap between the premises given and the conclusion
- Evaluate - also look for a logical gap, and see which answer asks a question about it
- Strengthen/Weaken - again, find the logical gap, and find the answer that either upholds it or undermines it
- Draw Conclusion/Inference - think about what MUST be true given the premises
- Discrepancy - make sure you understand what the discrepancy is, and why it's a discrepancy. Look for the answer choice that keeps it - and the original condition - true.
- Argument Structure - make sure you know how to identify the main conclusion, supporting premises, and counterpoints

While you're working through the answer choices, pay attention to the exact wording of each answer choice. Focus on trying to prove 4 of them wrong, not pick 1 right one. Good luck!
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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by HerrGrau » Mon Feb 04, 2013 6:31 am
Hi,

I hope you are well. Ceilidh made some great points here. The one that I would like to stress: Spend more time reading/understanding the questions than you spend contemplating answer choices. I find that the longer I spend staring at answer choices the more they all blur together. In general, the question is won and lost while reading and analyzing the argument/passage.

Be an active reader. I know that it can be difficult to be interested in every GMAT CR question but really push yourself to make the material matter to you. By remaining alert and constantly processing the information in an active way you should retain more and miss/misinterpret less of the information.

One last point - once you are done reading the argument and you have started to contemplate the answers remember to keep in mind the facts, assumptions, and conclusions that you extracted from the passage. So keep a dialog between the passage and the answer choices. You have done all the work of understanding the information so make sure that you use the information in an active way.

Happy studies!

HG.
"It is a curious property of research activity that after the problem has been solved the solution seems obvious. This is true not only for those who have not previously been acquainted with the problem, but also for those who have worked over it for years." -Dr. Edwin Land

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