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Critical Reasoning Strategy And Approach

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Critical Reasoning Strategy And Approach

by anirudhvoleti » Fri Mar 26, 2010 1:02 am
Hi Stacey,

I have the manuals of both Manhattan Review and Princeton Review. I have taken some classes here but somehow they have not been able to address the issue w.r.t. Critical Reasoning. I am following a standard approach which involves the following everytime I attempt a CR Question:

1) Read the Question First.
2) ID The question type.
3) Find the Conclusion and Premise in order to understand the assumption that the author is trying to take.
4) Depending on the type of question, paraphrase the answer.
5) Move to Answer choices and apply the concept of wrong answer choices (BADHITF).

The materials that I have with me are:
1) The Princeton Review GMAT Manual
2) Manhattan Review Verbal Guide-Turbocharge your gmat
3) Official Guide 12, 11, 10
4) GMAC Verbal Review

In case I need more material, I will refer to the ManhattanGMAT Manual.
Do let me know if this is a good approach to attempting a CR Question and if I should add on anything more specific here.

Thanks,
Anirudh
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by nervesofsteel » Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:26 am
i am no expert.. but powerscore cr bible can help you understanding cr qtns....
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by Stacey Koprince » Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:59 pm
Received a PM asking me to reply.

I agree with your first two steps. The third step gets a little tricky.

Basically, after you ID the question type, that tells you what to look for when you read the argument. You may need to find the conclusion, yes, but you may not (certain types won't even have conclusions). You may need to think about assumptions, but you may not - again, it depends upon the question type.

So step 3 should actually have many sub-parts that say:
If the type is X, then I should identify Y and understand Z. The correct answer will have to do W. Incorrect answers might J, K, or L.

For example:
If the type is Draw a Conclusion, then I should identify any facts or opinions they give (but I should NOT find a conclusion in the argument), and I should understand exactly what the argument has told me versus what it might imply. The correct answer will be something that must be true according to the information given, without bringing in any outside knowledge or assumptions. Incorrect answers will often go "too far" by assuming additional information that we don't actually know.

So, before I start reading the argument, I already know:
(1) the kind of information I need to find
(2) the kind of analysis I need to do on that information
(3) characteristics of a correct answer for that type
(4) characteristics of wrong answers for that type

Do you have it broken out that clearly for yourself? (I'm guessing not, and I'm guessing that's part of the reason why you might be struggling with CR.)

I can't speak to the specifics you give that are based on Princeton Review and Manhattan Review's materials. (For example, I don't know what BADHITF means - though I agree in general that you need to be able to recognize common characteristics of wrong answer choices. In my experience, there are different characteristics for the different question types - with some overlap, of course.)

You may also want to take a look at this article:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... r-question
There's another article on CR linked within that article.
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
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Manhattan GMAT

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