#3 - When compact discs first entered the market, they were priced significantly

[Tajadas]

Hello,

I got #3 right without much difficulty, but I had a tough time prephrasing what the answer would be. The best I could do what "the correct answer will give a reason for why the price of vinyl went up", which is pretty much a rehash of the question. I spent more time than I should have trying to narrow this prephrase before moving on the answers. Is there a way to improve on this prephrase, and if so, what would that be? If not, when do you know when to call it quits on a prephrase and move to the answers?

[Adam Tyson]

That looks like a great prephrase to me, Tajadas! Broad prephrases are generally better, because a narrower one might have been off and the right answer could have looked wrong to you. For example, my first thought was that as vinyl started to go out of style it became more of a collector's item and harder to get. If I had focused too closely on that prephrase, I might have missed the correct answer about rising production costs. But your prephrase was broad enough to catch both my answer AND the correct answer, because it was a large enough "umbrella" to cover them both (and others, too).

Another example of a broad prephrase approach that can be better than trying to narrow things down is with a weaken question about a causal argument. You could prephrase "something else caused that effect," which might get the job done, or you could prephrase "it's one of those five things that we always use to weaken causal arguments" and be sure to pick up the right answer even it is about reversed cause and effect, or a problem with the data, etc.

Don't worry about being so specific with your prephrases, but cast a wide net that gives you the flexibility to pick the right answer even when it might not be exactly what you expected it to be.