Must Be True Struggles

[jolie_g]

Hello!

I seem to be struggling with Must Be True questions on Reading Comp passages. Since these make up a large proportion of RC questions, I need to get a handle on them.

I consistently feel like I can support my answer with evidence from the passage and follow the two main rules: 1) paraphrase something already said in the passage or 2) create a logical combination of premises given. But then once I check my answer, the explanations say that my supports are just not supported enough.

Do you have any advice or tips on how to see which supports are the best supports during a timed section or test?

Thank you!

[Adam Tyson]

One strategy you can try, jolie_g, is to take the opposite approach to your contender answers. Instead of trying to find support for them, try to find problems with them. It's an easy trap that we can all fall into on this test to rationalize why an answer might be right, to talk ourselves into a bad answer by saying things to ourselves like "if you look at it this way" and "well if they believe X, they probably also believe Y." But the right answers don't need our help - they are right all on their own!

If you approach every answer like a skeptic, looking for problems, you may find that you are better able to see the problems in the wrong answers. The right answers, meanwhile, will stand up to your scrutiny. "That's too strong a statement" or "that's not quite what the author said" or "this answer is conflating two ideas that aren't really the same" are the kinds of problems you are likely to spot when you go looking for flaws in answer choices, and bad answers will start to fall away, leaving only the best answer still standing.

Be a skeptic! Look for problems! That's one way to get unstuck when faced with multiple contenders.

[jolie_g]

That makes a lot of sense.

Thank you so much!