Question about Reading Comprehension Parallel Questions

[Jkjones3789]

Hello, I find myself getting the Parallel Questions in Reading Comprehension wrong very often. I notate my passages well and return to the part I need to parallel , then I see what's going on and what it is that I must parallel and get it wrong. How do I correct this , my answers seem like they are always to broad and the correct answer contains a more specific aspect that I did not consider while prephrasing. Thank you so much.

[Robert Carroll]

Jk,

Parallel Reasoning questions in Reading Comprehension are situations where you need to do two things in your prephrase - think of a good parallel situation, but also critically examine your prephrase to make sure you're neither adding not subtracting any relevant thing to the situation in the stimulus. For instance, if the passage mentions a situation where a mediator assists opposing parties in compromising on a resolution that will benefit them both, think of a parallel situation that has a neutral third party assisting opposing sides in solving a problem. Then be critical of your prephrase - did I involve the mediator in the dispute? Then I added a feature that wasn't in the passage, so my prephrase adds a new fact that wasn't there. Did I forget to have the two parties coming to their own resolution, and instead imagined a situation where the third party simply imposes judgment after hearing the arguments? Then I subtracted something that was relevant from the passage.

You want to ask yourself why your prephrase contains certain elements, as you need to be sure those elements in fact parallel something the passage told you, and you also need to make sure you included everything the passage told you. It's really important to do this because, especially for these questions, the parallel situations in the answer choices can all be tempting! If you're not clear on what you should and shouldn't include in a parallel situation, you start to commit yourself to an answer choice rather than finding an answer choice that reflects what you already expected to see.

When an answer choice includes something, be critical of it and evaluate whether it is in fact involving a parallel situation.

Robert Carroll