Critical Reading Flashcards
Opinionated answer choices
the right answers are always objective, never subjective
opinionated words to avoid
- exactly
- always
- all
- every
- must
- no
- none
- never
objective words to look for
- often
- if
- mostly
- usually
- may
- can
- almost
- sometimes
- some
group of people, ethnicity, world region
The college board will never express a negative opinion about a certain people group, ethnicity or world region. Any answer choice that puts a general population in a negative light will be incorrect
answers with the same meaning
if two answers have the same meaning, they are both wrong
opposite meanings
if two answer choices have opposite meaning, one will usually be right
read or skim?
read line citation first, by the end, you will probably have the general idea
what to look for in line citation
circle the nouns and verbs in the citation, then circle the nouns and verb in the answer choices, the one that has the most matching is usually the correct answer.
- carefully look at/circle first word
how to identify wrong answers
- COAT
- completely irrelevant
- obscure information
- additional information
- totally contradictory information
big words
simplify them and see if they still make sense
appositives
- renaming the noun
- will say something then say it again in a different way
- look for the answer choice that restates the first way
- “she made a mistake, a slip of the tongue, when it was her turn”
- look for the answer choice that restates “made a mistake”
common definition is usually
wrong
how to find right vocab answer
- USE
- unquestionably
- substitute
- each answer
overall passage questions
- tone
- main idea
- inference
- details
- comparison
- skip them and come back, may not be necessary to read the whole passage if you’ve done the other questions first
- do essential reading
- avoid SON
essential reading
- read the italicized introduction
- opening sentence of each paragraph
- closing sentence of each paragraph
if two passages are speaking about different subject matters
they probably agree on a unifying theme
if two passages are speaking on the same subject
they probably disagree
answering questions on dual passage
read and answer passage one and its questions separately before moving onto passage 2
both passage traps
- answers that sidetrack or confuse you
- answers that neglect one passage all together
- answer choices that swap passages
the positive/negative test
for sentence completion questions, deterring if it positive or negative to help eliminate answer choices
predicting words
write in simple words that would work
prefixes and roots
help you predict the meaning of the word
SCOPE words
change the flow of the sentence on the connotation of words
cause and effect words
- found in sentences with the same flow
two-blank sentence completion tips
- both words must fit exactly
- if one word is PERFECT, its usually the most common, and the second is usually wrong
imposter words
look very similar to the perfect answer but have completely different meanings
same subject area
if a word has the same subject as the sentence (like partisanship and political) it will usually seem right but its a trap and is usually wrong.
contradictory words
very often one of the answer choices will be the exact opposite of the correct answer choice.
passage based reading acronyms
- CITATION
- USE
- PASSAGE
- COAT
CITATION
citation questions
- circle the citation in the passage
- identify nouns/verbs- circle them
- terminate hidden patterns in sentence
- additional information
- totally contradictory information
- irrelevant information
- obscure information
- note the one that restates
USE
vocab questions
- unquestionably
- substitute
- each answer choice
PASSAGE
main theme questions
- PASS these questions up until the end
- add the essential reading
- go over the circled portions/answers
- every answer should be politically correct
COAT
to identify wrong answer choices
- completely irrelevant information
- obscure information
- additional information
- totally contradictory information
DUAL
use for dual passages
- do each passage/its questions one at a time
- underline main themes in each passage
- answer must match correct passages
- leave both passage questions until the end
COMPLETION
use for sentence completion
- classify unknown words
- operate the positive/negative test
- magnify key elements (scope words, adj, etc)
- predict the blank
- look at the answer choices
- eliminate wrong flow answer choices
- try second blank first
- identify the correct answer
- only one restates
- now it is an exact fit
