Choosing between two final answers

[apl1993]

It seems that the vast majority of the questions I miss on LR come down to me narrowing it to two choices and then choosing wrong. Is this a common problem? Is there a general fix to it?

Thanks.

[Adam Tyson]

Sadly, that is a very common occurrence. We hear that all the time from our students, and there are a lot of things that can contribute to that problem.

First, consider that the authors of this test are absolutely brilliant at crafting answers that are very attractive but wrong. They lay out traps for the unwary, designed to draw you in, turn you around, confuse you and bedazzle you. Most of the time, when my students describe the same problem you are happening, they are caught between the right answer and one of those trap answers. One way to avoid those traps is to work on your prephrasing - determine ahead of time, before looking at those distracting answer choices, what the right answer should say (or more importantly, what it should do). Don't be drawn to answers that don't match your prephrase, and especially don't fall for the ones that are the opposite of your prephrase.

Second, take a moment to step back and review the question stem again. What are you trying to accomplish? It can be easy to lose sight of your objective once you start getting into the weeds of the answers. Now, return to your two contender answers and compare them to one another and compare them each to your objective. Which one better achieves that goal? How do they differ, and what difference does that difference make? Is one stronger than the other? Easier to defend? Is one saying something is certain and the other saying something is merely probable? Which do you need in this case - certainty or probability?

Finally, don't second-guess yourself - that's where most of my students go wrong in these cases. If you like B and select B, don't go back and change it to D without a good reason. I have a rule that I give my students that goes like this - "Once you have selected an answer, you are forbidden from changing that answer unless you have clear and compelling evidence that the new answer is demonstrably better than the old answer." Don't let your quiet doubts get in the way of your clear analysis - if the new answer merely feels better, that's not good enough. Nobody ever complains that they changed the wrong one to the right one - I never hear about that from my students! It's always about changing the right one to the wrong one, and always without a clear reason, just "I don't know, something about it bothered me, I thought maybe I made a mistake." Don't let this happen to you!

Good luck, keep at it! Prephrase, sort, select with confidence and move on!

[Morkem]

Sadly, that is a very common occurrence. We hear about that all the time from our students, and there are a lot of things that can contribute to that problem.

I've felt the same, like they're trying to trick us. Maybe it's a good idea if you're unsure to pick the answer that seems less likely to be true.

[Dave Killoran]

I've felt the same, like they're trying to trick us. Maybe it's a good idea if you're unsure to pick the answer that seems less likely to be true.

Hey Morkem,

They are definitely trying to trick you! Although, they would probably describe it as, "we are attempting to ascertain whether the test taker has the ability to discern between fine details when analyzing logical scenarios." Or something similar

The rule I always tell students about picking between two remaining answers is:

• • If you understand both answers, then pick the one you feel is superior. Always go with your analysis when you feel like you are on solid ground with understanding both.
  
  • If you understand one answer and don't really like it but don't really understand the other answer, then choose the answer you don't really understand. Why? Because if you choose the one you do understand, you are choosing an answer you already don't like. Again, go with your analysis and avoid answers you dislike. The unknown is better than an answer you don't like.
  
  • If you don't really understand both answers well, then try to match the general language in the stimulus with the task at hand. For example, if you have a Must Be True question and the stimulus used a lot of a terms that were probabilistic and not absolute (such as "could," "should," "maybe," etc), then choose the answer that uses similar language and avoid the answer that uses absolutes (such as "always," "never," etc).

The other comment I always make is that in these situations, details matter. So, one thing you have to lock down in the stimulus is the exact wording of the conclusion. Don't just kind of know it; make sure you know it exactly. It makes a difference in so many cases, and I've seen students get quite suddenly much better at choosing the right answer when they get forced to focus on the conclusion language.

While the above doesn't cover every possible situational variable, it's a good basis, and it gives you the opportunity to realize that the unknown is sometimes preferable to the unknown. That might help a bit. Thanks!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hey Morkem,

Let me add my 2c to the excellent advice above. If you find yourself in a tight spot, make no mistake about it: you were meant to! More often than not, one of the incorrect answer choices (particularly in LR and RC) is specifically designed to be more attractive than any of the other incorrect answer choices. Essentially, you are tested on your ability to tell them apart. So, how do you do that?

Assuming you understand what each answer choice is saying (if you don't - check out Dave's advice above), the optimal means of differentiation between a decoy and the correct answer choice will vary by question type. For instance:

• In Assumption questions, apply the Assumption Negation Technique and examine which of the two attractive answer choices, when negated, weakens the conclusion of the argument the most. It also helps to know what sort of answers are typically incorrect in Assumption questions. More often than not, such answer choices contain statements that either strengthen the argument, or else provide a sufficient reason to justify the conclusion, but do not represent an assumption upon which the conclusion depends.
  
  In questions whose stimuli contain Conditional Reasoning, a great approach would be to diagram the argument contained in the stimulus, and then use that diagram to prove an inferential statement (in Must Be True or Parallel questions), identify the missing conditional link (in Justify questions), or determine the logical flaw (in Flaw and Parallel Flaw questions). The strongest "decoys" in such questions often contain Mistaken Reversals or Negations, whose elimination almost invariably requires a thorough understanding of the conditional reasoning contained in the stimulus.
  
  In Point at Issue questions, apply the Agree/Disagree test and determine which answer choice would pass that test, where one of the speakers would agree with that answer choice, and the other speaker would disagree with it. Decoy answers typically contain statements with which only one of the speakers would agree or disagree; the other speaker's opinion would be impossible to determine from the information presented in the stimulus.

For most LR question types, there is a question type-specific test designed specifically to help you differentiate between the correct and the incorrect answer choices. So, you may wonder - is this the best you can do here?

Not really! The very fact that you found an incorrect answer choice attractive is already problematic: it means you've been caught in a trap, and you need to find a way out of it. This is triage, not prevention. Sure, you can use the aforementioned tests to get yourself out of that predicament, but why did you get trapped in there in the first place? Because you did not prephrase the answer on your own!

The absolute best thing you can do to avoid getting stuck between two answer choices is to prephrase the nature of the correct answer choice before you look at the answers. In the most basic terms, this approach calls for a prediction about what the right answer is likely (or even certain) to include. Pausing to create a prephrase can change your entire approach to the question: it allows you to quickly scan the choices looking for what you know will be part of the right answer. During this analysis, incorrect answer choices that go off in different directions can often be glanced over with little or no consideration. If, on the other hand, you don’t take the time to prephrase, every wrong answer choice starts to require a bit more consideration, and the ones that are particularly attractive are far more likely to lead you off the path. Before you know it, you're stuck between two answers, unable to decide.

Granted, the value of this approach is tougher to see in the abstract than it is to recognize in retrospect. To make it work, you need to practice it to the point where it becomes an automatic part of your response, i.e. an almost subconscious reaction to the question stem. Even if none of the answer choices represents an exact match for your prephrase, having speculated on what the right answer choice would have to say (or do) is already incredibly helpful! Use that prephrase as a filter - or a lens, if you will - to differentiate between seemingly equal contenders.

Hope this helps!!