Pre-Phrasing

[dianaknazz]

Hi all,
I am having trouble motivating myself to prephrase (which I know sounds stupid but it is what it is); I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem and knows of a good strategy to make yourself do it? I know I partly have trouble because I want to jump into the questions, time wise, especially for Reading Comp. I understand completely the important and benefits of prephrasing, I guess I am looking for techniques that will help me do it quickly and efficiently, without overthinking it (which I think is what I am scared of)

Any tips, suggestions, or experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[BethRibet]

Hi Diana,

Thanks for writing. My only suggestion is that it's important to remember that pre-phrasing is a brief exercise that helps you clarify your understanding of the stimulus. Sometimes, it neatly matches up to the right answer, whereas other times the right answer just isn't something you would have naturally anticipated. But it's generally not a wasted effort as long as you don't pore over it for more than 5-10 seconds; it helps you make sense of what you've read. While it doesn't always prove time-efficient for every single question, for most people, it does prove time-efficient overall. The time you save for those questions in which your prephrase does sync up with an answer choice is generally worth it overall.

The only thing to be wary of is to make sure that you still read the answer choices carefully. Sometimes, the test-makers will deliberate craft answer choices that sound a lot like an obvious pre-phrase, but contain one tricky or incorrect word or phrase. When you're excited about having found a potential match for your pre-phrase, it's easy to overlook those errors. So just remember -- keep pre-phrasing relatively brief, read the answer choices carefully, and then you should be just fine!

Hope this helps,
Beth