PRETHINKING/PREPHRASING THE ANSWER. expert,help.

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One of the most important skill to do CR problem is prethinking/prephrase of possible answer. In short, we need to know what to do with the answer choices. We need to know what we find in answer choices. This skill is good for CR problem which have answer choice based on an assumption, namely strengthening, weakening and assumption question. for example, we need to find information which make the conclusion less/more likely.

The following is from GMATPREP. I do not post answer choices because I want to discuss the prephrasing process before reading the answer choices.

what do you do after reading the following stimulus? what do you find in answer choices? we need to know what to find before reading answer choices.

the problem with me is that after I read the following stimulus, I do not know what I need to do? How do I do the prethinking? pls, help.


Which of the following most logically completes the reasoning?
When species are extensively hunted, individuals that reach reproductive maturity early make up a larger proportion of the population, because they have a better chance of reproducing. When species face diminished food resources, on the other hand, individuals tend to take longer to reach reproductive maturity. These considerations may help settle whether the primary cause of the gradual disappearance of North America's mastodons, prehistoric animals related to elephants, was diminished food resources or human hunting, since __________.

question 2. I will post question after you comment. thank you.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Birottam Dutta » Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:04 am
Interesting sort of question you have put across, to say the least. Ill put my opinion of what I would look for at the end. However, please try to realize that on numerous occasions, you need the answer choices to guide you in arriving at the right answer. Either through gaining clarity on what the question is actually asking, or through eliminating options and narrowing down the choices, the multiple options are to be used to arrive at the right answers. Yes, there will be many occasions when you will find that some choices are tricky and put among the options just to confuse the candidate. But by and large, the parent statement, in conjunction with the options, is to be used by the candidate to arrive at the right answer.

In my opinion, what I would look for as the conclusion of this passage is some information regarding the proportion of the population of the mastodons that had reached reproductive maturity. If the proportion was less, then it may be concluded that the mastodons died of lack of food, and if the proportion was more, then it may be concluded that the mastodons died of hunting.

Hope I am close!!! And I eagerly await the answer as well as the next question!