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Having trouble doing point at issue questions, i'd appreciate any tips that people have on this.

I took a prep course last summer and they suggested I write +/- for "agree/disagree" and a question mark for if they don't mention the issue at all

no idea why i'm almost always getting these wrong...

probably because you're attributing + or - to people whose views you don't actually know and should be ?. that's a common problem with point at issue. read more closely.

This question type was my least favorite but after I read the tips from PS bible.It a lot easy.Its a tiny chapter but will make your basic solid.

soj wrote:probably because you're attributing + or - to people whose views you don't actually know and should be ?. that's a common problem with point at issue. read more closely.

Yea, figuring out the 'no opinions' is difficult. I usually suggest that my students treat the answers in the same vein as MBT questions. Someone needs to be logically committed to that answer before you can say they agree/disagree. Not a perfect rule of thumb, but it generally gets people thinking in the right direction.

Look for the part of the argument that overlaps; that is the only thing that they can agree/disagree on. That is what the +/- system is trying to get you to do; however, I don't think that making the grid is necessary...just look for the overlap.

soj wrote:probably because you're attributing + or - to people whose views you don't actually know and should be ?. that's a common problem with point at issue. read more closely.

I like this. In general, the answer choices will follow a basic pattern. There will be one answer choice, the credited response, that you can commit the speakers to opposite sides (+, -). There will be another 2 or 3 in which you can commit one speaker to one side, but cannot commit the other speaker at all (+, ?), (?, -). And there will usually be one in which the two speakers agree (+,+), (-,-).

That's really all there is to these questions.