General Critical Reasoning Strategies Flashcards
What are the Skills that the examiners are trying to test in Critical reasoning?
Attention to detail
Logical reasoning
Critical analysis
Vison
Good judgement
Execution of best judgement
On average how much time should you spend on a CR question
23 questions for 45mins
1.7 mins / Question
General CR examiner tricks 1
- Placing a highly attractive wrong answer choice immediately before the right answer choice, hoping that you will pick the wrong one and move to the next question without going through the rest of the answer options.
Strategy- Read all 5 answer choices carefully to avoid this trap
What are the parts of an argument?
Conclusion
Evidence/ Premise
Assumption
Background Information
What CR strategy is better?
Reading the passage first
Reading the Question stem first
Reading the passage First, then question stem, then 5 answer choices.. is the best strategy.
In summary its a HINDERANCE to read the question first and Not a HELP
Because;
- Understanding the passage is key to answering any question and reading the question stem first undermines your ability to fully understand the passage
- Reading the question stem first makes you wast time, as you will read quest-passage-quest again
-Some question stem add new info not in the passage and this may confuse/distract you.
-If you are a truly knowledgeable test taker, the question stem will often be predictable from understanding the passage
General CR examiner tricks 2
They use small, seemingly nitpick variations in phrasing to test your reading and attention to detail.
Strategy - read very carefully, do not skip words
General CR examiner tricks 3
They use big words/terminology (e.g in science passages) to confuse you and to make you miss the main point.
Strategy - Focus on understanding the relationship of the ideas and ignore big terminologies used. Reading passages is about seeing past the topic to analyse the structural relationships present in the stimulus.
Once you are able to see these relationships, the topic will become less important-
The CR Primary objectives (when approaching a passage)
- Determine whether the passage is an argument or a set of facts
- identifying presence /absence of a conclusion
- If the stimulus contains an argument, identify the conclusion/main point
If the stimulus contains a set of facts, examine each fact- main pont? conclusion, descripancy etc
-how did the author support its main point
- what statement supports what? and how they lead up to the main point
- look for the connection between premises - their words or my words?
- main pont? conclusion, descripancy etc
- Determine whether the argument is “strong” or “weak”.
-Does the given facts support the conclusion?- Does the conclusion go beyond the scope of the premise?
- Read Closely and know precisely what the author said. Do not generalise! Pay attention to “modifiers”! Avoid Para-phrasing!
- Avoid Pre-thinking the answer
- Carefully read and identify the question stem. Do not assume that certain words are automatically associated with certain question types.
- After reading the question stem, take a moment to mentally recap details you just gathered As is stated.
-Look for Logical connections between statements
- their words not your words
- don’t just jump to answer choices - Always read each of the five answer choices completely
- If all five answer choices appear to be Losers, return to the stimulus and re-evaluate the argument.
CR Execution strategy
- Is it an argument or a set of facts?
- What is the main point?
- What is the logic structure of this argument?
How is it supported?
What are the logical connections? - Is the argument weakly or Strongly supported?
- What is the extent or scope of the argument?
- What is the question stem asking of me?
- As I read each answer choice, what is this choice saying?
- What is the logical implication of what this answer choice is saying?
- Do I have Clear proof why I choose to eliminate this choice?
- Is my final answer supported by the passage?
Premise indicators
- Because
- Since
- For
- For example
- For the reason that
- In that
- Given that
- As Indicated by
- Due to
- Owing to
- This can be seen from
- We know this by
Conclusion indicators
Thus
Therefore
Hence
Consequently
As a result
So
Accordingly
Clearly
Must be that
Shows that
Conclude that
Follows that
For this reason
General CR examiner tricks 4
They arrange premise and conclusions in a way to confuse you, By placing conclusion indicator and premise indicator back-to-back, separated by a come.
Therefore, since …
Thus, because …
Hence, due to …
E.g
Therefore, since higher debts has forced consumers to lower their savings, banks now have less money to loan.
Premise - higher debts ….their savings
Conclusion- banks now have….to loan
What is an Additional Premise & list its indicators
Additional premise may/may not be essential to the argument but provides additional support for the conclusion and could be, if needed, used to prove the conclusion separately (if an objection was raised to the first premise)
Indicators;
Additionally
Furthermore
Moreover
Besides
In addition
What’s more
What is a Counter-premise & list its indicators
A counter premise is a premise that contains an idea that is in contrast to the argument. Brings up points to compare and contrast, or points of opposition to a previously raised point.
Contrats Indicators;
But
Yet
however
on the other hand
admittedly
in contrast
even so (despite what has just been said)
Although
even though
still
whereas
in spite of
despite
after all
What is the “Conclusion identification Method” used for?
How is it used?
It is a trick used to identify “conclusions without indicators”
How its used;
If you have two statements A & B.
use this template -
BECAUSE “statement A”, WE CAN CONCLUDE THAT “statement B”. - Does this make sense?
if no, then reverse it
BECAUSE “statement B”, WE CAN CONCLUDE THAT “statement A”
