Verbal Reasoning

question type 6: weaken and strengthen argument

weaken: if it refutes or undermines the premises that leads to its conclusion strengthen: if it provides evidence or supports any of the premises that lead to its conclusion

logical fallacies

-An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid -often hard to pick up -faulty logic is used. for example: X is Y and therefore Y is X. this is not always true, especially if X is a subset of Y (as there are other items in Y that are not X) another one is: X and Y occur together, therefore X causes Y, which is not always true. 'a study found that teenagers who consumed fish regularly as part of their diet were less likely to engage in violence' does not mean eating fish can prevent violence in teenagers (definitively) ^ note the words less likely and prevent. they are not related to each other and that is why the statement is flawed, as violence may still occur (it is not entirely stopped)

do not bring in personal bias/prior knowledge

-ONLY use information presented in the passage to answer questions. it may be factually incorrect in reality, but you must presume it to be true in order to answer the question correctly

inference

-an inference refers to a conclusion that is not directly stated but is sufficiently supported by info in the text do not fall into the trap of answering can't tell when in fact an inference is required (the difference lies wherein that for CT, more info is needed but an inference is just presented differently within the scope of the text)

don't waste time

-as soon as you realise that an answer is correct, move on. do not bother disproving other answers as you will run out of time. -do not over analyse. take each statement at face value and don't second guess -options that restate info verbatim may often be incorrect, as the context of a specific word may differ and hence change the meaning

question type 4: definitions

-do not simply choose an answer that defines the word! select the answer that best describes the meaning of the word in the context of the passage

be active and crucial

-extract relevant info from text. useful to analyse keywords in the question and locate them in the passage -temporarily retain the location of information by mentally organising the paragraphs into their respective overall idea they express -summarise key info in the notebook, particularly if the passage is lengthy

skim

-limit subvocalisation -keep track of eye movements. max three eye shifts per sentence as you read -keywords become your friend. quickly locate then read whole sentence in which they are found

question type 5: judgements

-need to be careful, as finding an answer that may seem correct may be less correct than another. in this case, you must check and compare each answer for the one that best answers the question

question type 1: true, false and can't tell

-need to decide whether the conclusion that the question is positing is sufficiently supported by information in the passage -true: if the statement matches the passage (can be an inference or directly stated). may be rephrased or paraphrased -false: if the statement contradicts/ conflicts with the passage. only one part of the sentence has to contradict the passage for it to be false. can exaggerate, distort or refute info in the text can't tell: if the statement is beyond the scope of the passage (insufficient info or ambiguous). must be careful as one word can change the scope of the statement. for example, if the passage is about 5 countries and some statistic, you cannot deduce information about any other country not listed and hence statements involving words like 'in the world' are not sufficiently supported. watch out for definitives like certain or reasonable, as one requires more proof than the other to be correct 1. Make sure you have read the text with an active approach. 2. Pick keywords in the statement. 3. Search for evidence by scanning in the relevant section. 4. Compare the statement with the evidence and decide on whether it matches the text, contradicts it or you need more information.

negatives and qualifiers

-thought reverses like 'never, not, incorrect, cannot, least likely, except' turn a question inside out -non-definitive words like 'often, sometimes, some, almost, could, may, sometimes, rarely' do not completely eliminate the possibility of an event occurring, whereas definitive words will either entirely guarantee or dissuade the probability of an event -soft definitives more likely to be the answer option true -hard definitives more likely to be false

question type 3: aim, summary, tone

-understand the text as a whole to identify purpose/aim, intention of author, overall summary, main conclusion and tone -aim refers to why the passage was created and what the author would like you to do after reading the text (express personal feelings, emotions or -summary refers to the content of the text and what it is trying to communicate -tone refers to the sound and attitude of the author

question type 2: reading comprehension

1. With the first type 'fill in the blank'- style questions, the test gives us a part of the statement already known to be true and the text can be specifically scanned for mentions of this part to find which option best completes it. 2. With the second type 'find the true statement' each option should be individually checked as the question itself does not give any clues to work from; working systematically, eliminates the wrong options which aids moving on quicker to the next question. There is only one correct answer, the other options will tend to be more like false or can't tell statements, which means the same skills can be used to pick out these particular statements. key tips: -when asked about a date, be careful as other dates will often appear to convolute the information. while there may be the same date in the passage as asked by the question, it may be for an entirely different event! -the question may state information in the passage the wrong way around, so it may appear right at first glance but is in fact incorrect -the question may propose something that is slightly or fully outside the scope of the passage. it is important to scan for the keyword in the question and compare it to the passage -definitives used in the question will often not match up with information in the text

keywords

1. identify relevant keywords presented in the question that will help you answer it -if the question stem is general and contains no keywords, look at the answer stems and use those keywords to verify each statement -select keywords that stand out and are easy to locate (capitalised words, locations, names, numbers, dates, adjectives). for numbers, BE WARY OF UNITS -avoid searching for keywords that appear frequently. instead focus on ones that appear no more than 3 times if possible 2. scan the passage for keywords -watch out for synonyms -watch out for change in context 3. read the whole sentence in which the keyword is located to grasp it whole meaning and hence answer the question

time per question

30 seconds approximately (2min for each unit, of which there are 11)

question type 6: cause and consequence

cause: something that directly results in a particular outcome. look for evidence, contributing factors and reasons consequence: direct result or outcome of something else. look for the aim or result of a particular action

understand the stimulus

do not try and remember the stimulus, but understand the argument that both the question and passage present

Step 1: Reading

extract info properly -reword premise in a particular way to make it easier to digest every single sentence has a subject followed by a description of the subject. the description is a relationship/function. subjects: nouns (not too important) description: verbs and prepositions (words that connect nouns and words together, like and, to and from etc) are the most important words in the description. another you may find are adjectives, but are not as important focusing on these words will make it much more easier to recall information, both specially and meaningfully. adjectives can be remembered and applied given you recall nouns and their description.

Step 3: Question

from the series of sentences with subject and descriptions formed in previous steps, analyse the question and jump to the sentence that contains the needed info. create a table: a 2 x 4 for abcd option types. row one is sentence (n) and row two is sentence (m). the columns are A B C D 2 x 1 table for TFCt option types DO NOT PREREAD QUESTION STEM FIRST AND SEARCH IN THE PASSAGE PREMISE SHOULD ONLY BE READ AND UNDERSTOOD ONCE

Step 4: Formulating

in the table created in step 3, use a series of ticks, crosses and circles to fill out the table ticks: the information in this sentence supports an answer option (A B C or D) crosses: when info in this sentence contradicts an answer option circles: neither supports nor contradicts answer options (irrelevant). these are the most common if one of the boxes has a cross, skip it, as you need two ticks for an answer option to be correct

Step 2: Linking

linking sentences to obtain a more fluid and holistic interpretation of the premise. information provided in one sentence may fill the gaps in another, so the sentence(s) which are affected by such info can be adjusted accordingly this step is not too common in VR practice sentence 1 and 2 by looking at articles and listing out EACH sentence with subject and description. take as much time as necessary to perfect this

key skills

read critically critically assess given information determine whether inferences can be formed from the information given in the passage ability to read fast ability to retain information quickly locate relevant information logical and critical thinking identify aim of the passage make inferences based on the author's opinion

Step 5: Concluding

select the BEST answer. u need to choose the answer options with the most number of ticks. it will involve rereading the answer options if there are multiple options with the same number of ticks. it may need to be reinterpreted in order to select an answer

preview the question stem

this allows you to be prepared to scan for what you need to answer the question