I have read so many posts on how to obtain a better CR score, and every single one has always said to go over your mistakes and fully understand why you got it wrong. I can go over my mistakes and understand why I got it. But then it says to really understand it. What does that mean? Is there some magic pattern that I’m supposed to glean from my mistakes in order to prevent making those mistakes again? Because if there is, I simply not getting it.
It’s not a matter of finding the right answer; it’s a matter of finding the least sucky answer. This however, is a skill that comes with practicing process of elimination repeatedly, and it is through practice that you will find your own method of interpreting the passage and finding information. Understand why the other choices are wrong, not why the right answer choice is correct.
So by understanding why other choices are wrong, will I be able to identify certain kinds of answer more easily? Like identifying really broad ones, specific ones, irrelevant, and reversed relationships?
In every question, only one answer can be right. If you can fully understand why every wrong answer must be wrong, you’ll be in good shape.
I understand that, but it just doesn’t make sense to me how just knowing why answers are wrong can be helpful… like do all wrong answers have something in common?
Well they’re all wrong. But they’re wrong for different reasons. If you can understand the reasons answers are wrong, you can find the right answer by the process of elimination.
If something is not stated in passage, it’s wrong. Some choices may mislead you by appearing logically right, but it’s not written in passage, esp inference questions. When you think a choice is correct, go to the passage and make sure it’s written there and point it out!
Find wrong answers first and eliminate them, then pick the correct answer. That helped me increase from 480 to 620.
Most of the time, level 4-5 questions have answers that are not exactly dead on. Thus, it’s easier to find the least sucky answer choice by eliminating the worse ones, than trying to see whether one of them matches the ideal answer the best.
I was in the 500s range before because I would try to see the most ways an answer could be right. When I switched to finding the flaws in each answer, my score improved to 700+
How long should it take to eliminate four choices, then? Sometimes I have a hard time because I’m not sure if an answer is supported in the passage.