Time Consuming Questions

[ericj_williams]

In the text/on the video, it talks about avoiding time-consuming questions.

Is there some sort of list available that would help me spot them quicker, similar to logical indicator words like "thus" and "since"?

An example to me is the third question from the fruit stand game, which asks me what cannot be a complete and accurate list, which is in effect seeming to ask me to find 4 could be complete lists. But the game is moving so this could be a very time-consuming question, especially for occurring relatively early in the game.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Eric,

It's a very good question, and I'm going to give what's going to seem like an evasive answer, but I hope it shows you the kinds of things you should think about when it comes to timing.

We can't create a list like the one you're asking for, because what's time-consuming to you and what's time-consuming to another student are often very different things. I've had students who found all Assumption questions in Logical Reasoning very time-consuming, whereas they're my favorite kind of question and they often take me very little time at all. On the other hand, I will often find myself getting sucked into (and spending too much time on) a Strengthen or Weaken question in LR (usually late in the section) that other students might zip right through and finish in a very timely way. So if I tell you to mark Assumption questions as time-consuming, that's going to be misleading and unhelpful, because you might not have a problem with them at all. Same goes for Conditional Reasoning questions, which some people think take forever (because of the diagramming involved) and others think go fairly quickly (ironically, for the very same reason!).

You need to go through enough timed sections that you develop a sense for which kinds of questions are going to suck you down a rabbit hole. Use the online analytics, if you have access to them, to determine which questions take you longest to complete. Learn to anticipate those questions, and to flag them to come back to once you've finished everything else in the section.

But also remember that sometimes even though a question seems like it might take forever (like the question you referenced from the fruit stand game), there might be a simple way to "prephrase" your way to the correct answer. Even if you don't see that in the moment, you should look at that question during your review process and think about if there was a simple way to prephrase and get immediately to the correct answer. In that fruit stand game, the third question asks what cannot be true. We know from our rule list that it can never be true that K and P appear in a group together. Check the answer list. See if there's an answer where they try to force those two variables together. There is (answer choice E)! You didn't have to test answer to "see through" to the right answer. Remember that lesson for future games, etc.

Let me know if this triggers further questions for you, and keep up the good work!

[ericj_williams]

Hi Eric,

It's a very good question, and I'm going to give what's going to seem like an evasive answer, but I hope it shows you the kinds of things you should think about when it comes to timing.

We can't create a list like the one you're asking for, because what's time-consuming to you and what's time-consuming to another student are often very different things. I've had students who found all Assumption questions in Logical Reasoning very time-consuming, whereas they're my favorite kind of question and they often take me very little time at all. On the other hand, I will often find myself getting sucked into (and spending too much time on) a Strengthen or Weaken question in LR (usually late in the section) that other students might zip right through and finish in a very timely way. So if I tell you to mark Assumption questions as time-consuming, that's going to be misleading and unhelpful, because you might not have a problem with them at all. Same goes for Conditional Reasoning questions, which some people think take forever (because of the diagramming involved) and others think go fairly quickly (ironically, for the very same reason!).

You need to go through enough timed sections that you develop a sense for which kinds of questions are going to suck you down a rabbit hole. Use the online analytics, if you have access to them, to determine which questions take you longest to complete. Learn to anticipate those questions, and to flag them to come back to once you've finished everything else in the section.

But also remember that sometimes even though a question seems like it might take forever (like the question you referenced from the fruit stand game), there might be a simple way to "prephrase" your way to the correct answer. Even if you don't see that in the moment, you should look at that question during your review process and think about if there was a simple way to prephrase and get immediately to the correct answer. In that fruit stand game, the third question asks what cannot be true. We know from our rule list that it can never be true that K and P appear in a group together. Check the answer list. See if there's an answer where they try to force those two variables together. There is (answer choice E)! You didn't have to test answer to "see through" to the right answer. Remember that lesson for future games, etc.

Let me know if this triggers further questions for you, and keep up the good work!

That's a very fair response.

I suppose, simply, I will need to do a better job of determining the types of questions that give me trouble and either avoid them on the test or work to getting them closer to a strength.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.