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Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:50 pm
by notaznguy
What should I do?
Right now I'm doing conditional reasoning questions and I'm wondering, if I believe I spotted the right answer, should I just bubble it and move on? Or is it better to check all the answers and make sure they are invalid to be 100% sure?
The former would save a lot of time over time, but the latter would guarantee that I am 100% correct. Also, in case something went wrong, it can also confuse me. What do you guys do?
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:52 pm
by lawgod
It depends which way you get more correct.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:59 pm
by NZA
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:10 pm
by Mattfl88
NZA wrote:
+1
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:10 pm
by theavrock
NZA wrote:
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:15 pm
by notaznguy
Wait, so am I suppose to check all the answers?
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:17 pm
by lawgod
notaznguy wrote:Wait, so am I suppose to check all the answers?
lawgod wrote:It depends which way you get more correct.
I'm citing to myself.
Now I understand-
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=159869
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:30 am
by Luthecis
Definitely read all of the answer choices before making your final decision.
You might find an attractive answer that seems to be correct, but there might be a better choice that makes it a better answer. As they always mention in the instructions: you are to choose the best answer from the given choices.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:47 am
by KevinP
LG: Find correct answer and move on.
LR & RC: Check all answer choices.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 6:44 am
by totaltest.milan
It depends on the section. The method that I teach my students for the games section relies on making test diagrams so they spend a bit more time but once they get the right answer they know that it has to be the right one and so I tell them to just circle it and move on. For the arguments and reading I tell them to always go through all of the choices for the basic reason that those sections are not as formally objective as the games section. The correct answer will always (99% of the time) be inherently superior but the choices are designed to be tricky so that you'll pick the one that's enticing but incorrect. Going through all of the choices ensures that you don't make that mistake. That being said, if you're running low on time and are confident with your choice then you can circle it without going through the rest.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:45 am
by Sloth Hero
KevinP wrote:LG: Find correct answer and move on.
LR & RC: Check all answer choices.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:25 pm
by Yougot
Because there will always be a question where one answer is 90% correct but just missing that one small word, which you wouldn't notice unless you CHECK THEM ALL!
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:06 pm
by incompetentia
KevinP wrote:LG: Find correct answer and move on.
LR & RC: Check all answer choices.
Pretty much this. LG has the one right answer and the four obviously wrong ones. The others are more tricky.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:11 pm
by bp shinners
Luthecis wrote:Definitely read all of the answer choices before making your final decision.
You might find an attractive answer that seems to be correct, but there might be a better choice that makes it a better answer. As they always mention in the instructions: you are to choose the best answer from the given choices.
Nope. 4 answers are absolutely incorrect, and 1 answer is correct.
I still recommend checking all answers, but there won't be one that's more correct than another correct answer.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:26 pm
by wtrc
Check all the answers, unless time is really an issue and you are running out. LG could be different, for certain questions.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:38 pm
by EarlCat
bp shinners wrote:Nope. 4 answers are absolutely incorrect, and 1 answer is correct.
I still recommend checking all answers, but there won't be one that's more correct than another correct answer.
This.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 6:31 pm
by SanDiegoJake
KevinP wrote:LG: Find correct answer and move on.
LR & RC: Check all answer choices.
+1
In LG, people usually progress through the following stages:
Stage 1: Checking all the answers because you're unsure of yourself.
Stage 2: Confidently choosing the one right answer and moving on.
Stage 3: Confidently choosing your answer, but still checking all the other ones for peace of mind and because it only takes seconds to check the rest by this point.
In LR and RC - Always check them all. You're looking for the
best answer, so even if you've found a good one, you have to make sure there isn't a better one.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:27 pm
by Jeffort
Can we dispense with this silly talk about 'the best answer' please?
There is one answer choice that is logically correct. The other 4 answer choices are logically incorrect.
At best this pick the 'best answer' nonsense might be a way of talking about what to do when you narrow it down to two attractive answer choices. In those situations, typically one of the two is correct and the other is attractive but also logically incorrect.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:28 pm
by lawgod
Jeffort wrote:Can we dispense with this silly talk about 'the best answer' please?
There is one answer choice that is logically correct. The other 4 answer choices are logically incorrect.
At best this pick the 'best answer' nonsense might be a way of talking about what to do when you narrow it down to two attractive answer choices. In those situations, typically one of the two is correct and the other is attractive but also logically incorrect.
This is the best answer.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:45 am
by JoeFish
I would say check all the answers (although you can often just glance at them to immediately see why they're wrong) in RC and LR, with one exception: On certain inference or assumption questions where the passage is a collection of if/then statements, I convert them to symbols, after which it is objectively clear what the only right answer is the second you see it, as long as I'm translating correctly.
On second thought, mistakes can always be made, so just glance over the others on those questions too.
The RIGHT answer that's not always easy or possible is "practice so much that you're so fast, while maintaining your accuracy, that even after you go through every question, checking all the answers, you have time to spare."
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 3:02 am
by Ocean64
bp shinners wrote:Luthecis wrote:Definitely read all of the answer choices before making your final decision.
You might find an attractive answer that seems to be correct, but there might be a better choice that makes it a better answer. As they always mention in the instructions: you are to choose the best answer from the given choices.
Nope. 4 answers are absolutely incorrect, and 1 answer is correct.
I still recommend checking all answers, but there won't be one that's more correct than another correct answer.
i would like to turn your attention to something mentioned in SuperPrep and I quote " If one answer choice strengthens the argument a great deal, then answer choices that strengthen only slightly are incorrect." -superprep page 27, right hand column, second bullet point.
so in fact, there are answers that are more correct than others, according to LSAC at least.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:43 am
by Jeffort
Ocean64 wrote:bp shinners wrote:Luthecis wrote:Definitely read all of the answer choices before making your final decision.
You might find an attractive answer that seems to be correct, but there might be a better choice that makes it a better answer. As they always mention in the instructions: you are to choose the best answer from the given choices.
Nope. 4 answers are absolutely incorrect, and 1 answer is correct.
I still recommend checking all answers, but there won't be one that's more correct than another correct answer.
i would like to turn your attention to something mentioned in SuperPrep and I quote " If one answer choice strengthens the argument a great deal, then answer choices that strengthen only slightly are incorrect." -superprep page 27, right hand column, second bullet point.
so in fact, there are answers that are more correct than others, according to LSAC at least.
Yeah, but that sentence is mainly for CYA test integrity purposes. Some answer choices when interpreted a particular way that is debatable/subject to multiple interpretations from its text (typically by adding in an unwarranted assumption to attach more meaning to the AC than what it actually says) can be argued to strengthen/weaken and also argued against based on the facts. The credited answer choices are logically correct under all reasonable/valid interpretations of the verbiage according to established rules of grammar and definitions of words in conjunction with how it relates to the stem and stimulus.
The attractive distractor/trap answers might sound correct and appear to strengthen/weaken under shaky/debatable interpretations but don't hold logical water when interpreted strictly without adding in
unwarranted assumptions.
Defining warranted vs. unwarranted assumption is another story though. That issue relates in part to common sense and what stuff the average college educated person is expected/assumed to be familiar with/been exposed to on a basic level (you have heard of the stuff before and know the basics of it unless you've been living under a rock) from life experience and prior education. (stuff like car alarms, smoking, computers, TV, movies, microwave ovens, popcorn, pizza, tacos, hot sauce, dinosaurs, meteors, planets and stars, etc.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsnA0ix9hZU
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:37 pm
by Ocean64
Jeffort wrote:Yeah, but that sentence is mainly for CYA test integrity purposes.
i know that the general consensus throughout prep companies is that 1 AC is 100% correct and 4 are 100% incorrect, and it would be very convenient to think of it and to teach it that way, but i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that personally, i think that what i mentioned in the previous post is a quality in ACs that is unique to strengthen questions and i have seen it at least a couple times where one AC is superior to another, even though the alternative would have sufficed, albeit barely. Also note the sentence "When the question asks for a strengthener, an answer choice will be correct even if it strengthens the argument only slightly, provided that none of the other answer choices strengthen the argument significantly." -SP, page 27 bullet 2 again, also note that this information is in a bullet point under "More Points to Consider" and that is not a place where you would usually include a disclaimer, since that's what you were alluding to.
for weakening, this wouldn't work and they make that clear.
this is my personal opinion, fwiw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnHVYhPKW84
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:32 pm
by suspicious android
Ocean64 wrote:i have seen it at least a couple times where one AC is superior to another, even though the alternative would have sufficed, albeit barely.
Eh, no. You might have felt that way about the answer choices on whatever question you were mentioning, but, at the risk of being condescending. . . your understanding and/or interpretation were just off.
Oh, and by the way, this quote: "If one answer choice strengthens the argument a great deal, then answer choices that strengthen only slightly are incorrect" doesn't imply that there are in fact multiple answer choices that strengthen slightly.
I would imagine that in a case where you're thinking there are multiple strengthening answer choices, you are making additional unwarranted assumptions about the situation, which allow interpretations that might strengthen the argument. Jeffort's bit about warranted/unwarranted is pretty spot and worth consideration.
Re: Check ALL answers or move on when you see right one?
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:11 pm
by EarlCat
Jeffort wrote:car alarms, smoking, computers, TV, movies, microwave ovens, popcorn, pizza, tacos, hot sauce, dinosaurs, meteors, planets and stars, etc.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY