- Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:27 pm
#111349
Hi lounalola,
The techniques/approach to Weaken and Strengthen questions in RC are the same as those in LR, so this situation is interesting.
Here are a few thoughts of what may be happening.
First, the LR stimuli contain short, usually more straightforward arguments often with just one point of view (sometimes two) whereas RC passages often contain multiple arguments and points of view, so you may be having difficulty identifying the arguments in the passage as you read/diagram them. Being able to recognize (and take note of) any arguments in the passage and to identify the conclusion/premises is the first step to success. (This is the "A" in the VIEWSTAMP analysis.)
Second, because there are often multiple viewpoints in a passage, it can sometimes be difficult to correctly track them. For example, some students mistakenly assume that anything in the passage represents the author's view, when in fact a particular sentence or point may actually capture the opposing view.
Third, sometimes these question require you to connect two or more different ideas in different paragraphs in order to answer the question, which can be difficulty if you're expecting the answer to appear in one place in the passage.
One final note is that it is possible that the Strengthen/Weaken questions in RC are just more difficult on average than the ones in LR. Since they don't appear that often in RC, it's possible that the test makers add them to increase the difficulty of the passage/section (and to mix things up from the more common Must Be True and Main Point questions).
Of course, these are just some general points/observations. The best way to determine exactly what is giving you trouble is to examine specific Weaken/Strengthen questions and determine why you chose a particular answer compared to the correct answer. This should give you a clearer idea of where you may be going wrong.
Fortunately, these questions appear less frequently in RC, so you shouldn't see too many of them!
