<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I have recently been reading various approaches to the critical reading section, and I have noticed that a lot of people talk about Devil's advocate and asking why the answer is wrong? I am a bit confused as to how to do this. Do they mean that you have to look at the two answer choices and then go to one of the answer choices and ask why one is certainly wrong? But how do I know whether an answer is certainly wrong? Do I have to go back to the relevant part of the passage? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Just to clarify as well, I get down to 2 answer choices and then I dont know what to do with the answer choices to play devil’s advocate. Do I pick one of them arbitrarily and do what? or ?</p>
<p>BUMP!! much help needed</p>
<p>don’t stress too much on using different strategies on CR. CR is all about how fast and how much you can grasp the meaning of the passage. 3 golden rules to follow:1. make no assumption, answer has to be infered from the passage 2. no extreme words. 3. make annotations.</p>
<p>^That doesn’t help at all…</p>
<p>Thanks Yangfizz but I was interested in this strategy because it has helped a number of people</p>
<p>^^^“Make no assumptions, everything must be inferred from passage”
<em>tells to avoid extreme words</em></p>
<p>^^^^
Section 7, Question 16, QAS Test October 2007:</p>
<p>Growing up in the 1950s, I was somewhat awed and at times frightened by our extended family’s emphasis on picture taking. Every wall and corner of my grandparents’ (and most everybody else’s) home was linked with photographs. When I was young, I never linked this obsession with self-representation to our history as a subjugated people.</p>
<p>The author uses the “obsession” in line 6 in order to
A.) reveal her own strong interest in family history
B.) demonstrate the extent of her involvement with her parents
C.) show her admiration for her family’s devotion to a hobby
D.) suggest that there was something extreme about the adults’ behavior
E.) deplore the effects of excessive picture taking on the community</p>
<p>Answer is D, obviously an “extreme” answer.</p>
<p>So guys- If anyone knows what to do when you are down to two answer choices your strategy and how you play devil’s advocate that would be great. </p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Thanks @Tomato for the insight, but if anyone knows how to use an apply the devil’s advocate approach that would be great</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course you have to think about what you’re doing before you choose an answer (as none of the answers really make sense). The other person was noting that extreme words can often be risky, and you should look at them more carefully to make sure, for example, a sweeping generalization is always true according to the passage. They can often be wrong.</p>
<p>I think devil’s advocate applies along the idea that if you can find just a single contradiction to a statement, it must be false (this is a proof by contradiction). Hence, if you pose possibly incompatible information from the passages to one of the statements in an answer, you can find a contradiction and eliminate it. The logic would go along: assume a statement is true. It implies something. However, the passage implies something else that is not compatible with the former implication. This is a contradiction, hence the statement we assumed true must be false.</p>
<p>@blah thanks for your words of wisdom 
I was wondering if you could illustrate what you are talking about ‘proof by contradiction’ by providing an example. Maybe, if you could show your process: eliminating choices that are clearly wrong and getting down to two answer choices and then doing your proof by contradiction; that would be really useful for me and for others</p>
<p>cheers</p>
<p>I always first find and eliminate wrong answers until I am left with the right one. The right one is the one which you cannot prove to be wrong. </p>
<p>For example, the question with “obsession”. Why the word was used? Read the sentence and capture the main message of it. It doesn’t say anything alone. Then look to the sentence before it. The author says that their home was flooding in pictures. Therefore the word “obsession”. Now let’s see the answers:
a) “her own strong interest” makes it wrong. The author is talking not about herself, but family.
b) “her involvement with her parents” makes it wrong for the same reason.
c) “show her admiration” is wrong again for the same reason.
d) we can’t have anything against this one.
e) “deplore the effects” is wrong because she is not talking about any effects of picture taking. “on the community” is also wrong because the author is talking about her family only.</p>
<p>That’s how I do it. You have to use pure logic. Notice the structure of paragraphs. Why something is being said? Why some example is being used? The previous sentence always explains the reason why. The previous sentence always serves as introduction. </p>
<p>You can give me some examples where you narrowed down to 2 answers and got stuck. I could explain how I would know which one is wrong.
I personally learned by comparing my reasoning with successful students’ reasoning. I learnt their way of reasoning by learning how they choose correct answers.</p>
<p>Correct answer hunting means canceling your own thoughts and assumptions, taking given facts and using them applying rules of logic. It’s like solving equations… you strictly use only what is given; you do not invent your own variables.</p>
<p>Thanks Aimingat750 for your post. Really useful words and I am following a process similar to yours now. I think I know how to play Devil’s advocate using the answer choices and basically eliminating answer choices until i’m left with one. I am continually asking myself - is there any evidence to suggest A, B, C, D and eliminating answer choices as I go. </p>
<p>Here is a question I got wrong with an excerpt of the passage: I will show you how I do it and then let me know if it is similar to yours.</p>
<p>In time, my grandmother gave in to the inevitable. Without ever discussing it, we understood that when she came looking for me, clicking her ballpoint, I was to write the letter, and her job was to keep the cookies coming. I abandoned her skimpy floral stationery which badly cramped my style, and thumped down on the table a stack of ruled 8.5 X 1.
“Just say something interesting” she (grandmother who cannot write) would say. And I (granddaughter) was off to the races. </p>
<p>Q. The granddaughter used ruled 8.5 X 11 paper because she</p>
<p>A) disliked the floral pattern on her grandmother’s stationery
B) began to view the letter writing as an onerous assignment
C) assumed that she would teach her grandmother how to write
D) required more space than her grandmother 's stationery provided
E) anticipated having to write multiple letters for her grandmother</p>
<p>This is what I did </p>
<p>I crossed out B, C and E out because they are not mentioned in the passage or have nothing to do with why she used 8.5 X 11. This leaves A and E. For some reason I blindly put A. What I normally do in these situations is whatever I’m leaning towards I try and disprove. So what I should have done is this: </p>
<p>I’m thinking A is the right answer so I go to answer choice D and then I look to see if there is evidence in the passage that makes D a correct answer. I look to the passage again and see ‘cramped my style’ so passage supports D so I eliminate A. D is the answer. </p>
<p>Usually I don’t get the above scenario but rather the answer that I think is right is right and the opposing answer choice that I believe is wrong is in fact wrong when I can’t find any evidence. </p>
<p>Your insights on how you would approach this problem would be much appreciated. Could you describe your thought process when you get down to 2 answer choices. What are you thinking. </p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>I read the whole sentence and spot that “skimpy” and “badly cramped my style” are the reasons for changing the stationery. To say the truth, I only have a blurry idea of what they mean but I look at the choices and try to find something related:
a) “disliked the floral pattern” is wrong because it wasn’t the design of the stationery that she didn’t like - crossed out
b) out of topic - crossed out
c) out of topic - crossed out
d) This one is talking about the stationery so it could be the answer
e) this doesn’t answer the question why she changed her stationery - crossed out</p>
<p>So I mark d because everything else doesn’t answer the question. This is an example how you can get the answer right even if initially you have only a blurry idea of the meaning of the sentence.</p>
<p>cool cheers. </p>
<p>Also though, what do you do when you reach two answer choices that are sensible? What’s your process. Do you pick one of the remaining answer choices arbitrarily and find evidence that supports it? And if you can’t eliminate? what’s your method</p>
<p>I actively try to find something wrong with one of them. It helps to skip and go to answer another question. When you come back, you see it as if with new eyes and new insight. Usually I am able to spot the wrong parts quickly if I have no problem with the vocabulary. It’s all very logical and straightforward with the specific questions (why something was used/said). It always helps to read the mentioned lines and get the idea of the possible answer before looking at the choices.</p>
<p>could you expand on your idea about 'why something is used/said? What do you mean by this exactly?</p>
<p>Wait–I feel so stupid. I chooses ‘a’ because I thought “cramped my style” meant she didn’t like her grandmothers style. Am I interpreting this wrong??</p>
<p>Have a nice day</p>