(Necessary) Assumption questions - going through answers

[jeremiah230!!]

Say there is a gap between the premises and conclusion — indicating that this is likely a Supporter question — and that I have a solid prephrase of what I’m looking for, is it best to just perfunctorily scan through the answer choices looking for what I prephrased and give anything that pops out a closer look, or to go down the list of answer choices and rule out each incorrect answer (either due to being out of scope or failing the Assumption Negation Test) until I land on the right one?

I can see it being more time efficient to just look for the prephrase, but can also see it being a bit safer to work my way down the list of answer choices.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Jeremiah!

Having a solid prephrase should absolutely help you go through those answer choices faster. But I would still make sure to read each one carefully just because this test can be tricky and the testmakers can often be misleading with their language. Also, remember that the Assumption Negation Technique should not be used on every answer choice--save it for double-checking your correct answer or helping you choose between a couple of contenders.

Your first pass through should be reading each answer choice looking for your prephrase and eliminating any that you quickly see as obviously wrong. If you find your prephrase, great! Still read the other answer choices to make sure you haven't missed something. Also, make sure that the answer choice actually matches your prephrase and not that you're just trying to force an answer choice to match your prephrase. Use the Assumption Negation Technique to double-check. If you don't find your prephrase, use the Assumption Negation Technique on your contenders to find an Assumption you may not have thought about during your prephrasing.

So read all of the answer choices, but having a strong prephrase should absolutely make finding that correct answer faster!

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey