That's how I used to feel about Critical Reasoning
Now I don't claim to get every Critical Reasoning question right YET! But I will say that by doing either 20 Critical Reasoning questions or 20 Reading Comp questions a night since my last tutoring session on 9/18 has given me a positive outlook on Critical Reasoning and Reading Comp.
I just finished my last set of 20 Critical reasoning questions in the blue verbal review guide book. I didn't know how many critical reasoning questions there were in that section, but day by day I could see how they made the questions harder. I didn't get any more right or wrong towards the end of the section either!
That was nice for me to see... I did see that I got some of the same ones wrong that I got wrong back in April. Now that's not necessarily because I haven't learned anything (some may think differently) but that's a function of me not being able to solve questions that I've seen before. Here is the reason I find it difficult to solve questions I've seen before....
- I read the premise. If I recognize it I try to remember what the premises were about...the story they told
- I look at the answer choices and remembering two of them sticking out in my head for some reason. The reason usually being because those are the two I narrowed it down to previously.
- Then I reread the premise again
- Then the two answers again..
- Then I hone in on one answer and then debate in my head if I'm choosing that answer because it's the best one, or if it's the OPPOSITE of the one I chose the last time, but the thing is.. I don't remember which one I chose the last time.
Needless to say instead of looking at the question with a fresh set of eyes, I'm going off of the time I previously saw the question. It's just the way my brain works so leave me alone! :-)
But now I am more confident than ever about reading comp and CR. There is still one type of question that I need more practice with and I'm going to point it out to my tutor. Sometimes the two answer choices seem exactly the same to me. This is something I need to work on so that I go into my exam confident about my answer choices and not debating on whether I should choose the answer opposite from the one that I want to choose! Oh yes! I have gotten to that point before...
On that note - I've also done it before during a practice set hahaha...I wrote on a separate piece of paper the answers I would have chosen for a select few problems that I couldn't pick 1 answer on, and I said to myself "I'm choosing B but I think C is the better answer but I just don't know why and can't justify it." Then I wrote C on another piece of paper and I got it "right" lmao. Hey gotta make yourself laugh sometimes right? I obviously know that I can't do that in the exam - or can I? ;-)
Needless to say - Critical Reasoning is becoming easier to reason
Tomorrow I'll write a real update about conversations I've had with folks and upcoming events.
