ganbayou
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Is it a good idea to stop reading answer choice when you...

by ganbayou Fri Oct 28, 2016 4:15 pm

When you think something is wrong in the answer choices can we just stop reading it?
I found I have time difficulty issue and need to save time as much as possible...
For example, some answers start with wrong verbs or some answers talk different issues in the middle of the sentenecs etc.
Can I just stop reading there?
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ohthatpatrick
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Re: Is it a good idea to stop reading answer choice when you...

by ohthatpatrick Sat Oct 29, 2016 5:39 pm

What you’re talking about is definitely a complicated “it depends” answer, but it sounds like you’re going in the right direction.

The stronger a prephrase I have, the more I’m actively looking for an answer that corresponds with my prephrase. As soon as an answer doesn’t look like it’s resonating with what I was expecting, I would bail.

Moreover, one of the biggest things I’m on the lookout for is extreme wording (only, unless, if/then, no, none, never, all, any, always, most, typically, usually, primarily, tends to). As soon as I see one of those words, I am often going to bail from reading an answer choice.

The key here though is to clarify that we’re talking about taking a brisk 1st pass through the choices to hopefully find one we like and confirm it without having needed to thoroughly read all five choices.

But if I’m bailing from an answer based on the initial verb, or an early extreme word, I’m not always ELIMINATING it on my paper. Sometimes I’ve seen something egregious enough that I can think, “This is definitely wrong” and cross out that choice. Other times, I’m just thinking “Doubt it, defer” and putting a squiggly next to it or simply continuing on to the next choice.

So definitely keep practicing looking for early/easy reasons to stop reading, but use your judgment from choice to choice in terms of whether you’ve seen a clear dealbreaker (cross it out) or simply been unattracted to what you’ve seen (leave it and maybe mark it as unlikely).
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Re: Is it a good idea to stop reading answer choice when you...

by romano.eric901 Tue Nov 15, 2016 7:53 am

You’re not looking for an exactly right answer. You have to look for the best possible answer among the choices they give you. So by reading first words, it gives the wrong idea, skip it right away.

Sometimes you’ll be doing a question and think to yourself, none of these answers seem right to me. I know. Sometimes none of them seem right to me, either.

Sometimes none of the answers will be the same as how you would answer if you could write anything you want. That’s OK. One of the answers will still be better than all the rest.
 
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Re: Is it a good idea to stop reading answer choice when you...

by DominicG543 Sat Jan 13, 2018 1:07 pm

I don't know if I understand your answer correctly. But I couldn't stop before I am sure that I have chosen a correct variant as well. So, I think that there are two ways: to leave that and to think about it after completing other questions (in such situation I do that). And the second option is to try to reread the text several times and try to make sure that you are right. Of course, you could find a mistake in such way. I think that the first is better as the second could take a lot of time. And time, by the way, is very valuable in such situations.