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 lathlee
  • Posts: 652
  • Joined: Apr 01, 2016
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#45948
Hi. what do you guys mean step 4 of the fundamental rules to solve 2nd & 3rd Family Questions, (Strengthen, justify, assumption, and weaken): "These questions often yield strong prephrases. Make sure you actively consider the range of possible answers before proceeding to the answer choices", especially the part of "yielding strong prephrases. "

I assume "yielding strong prephrases, " meaning these question often requiring of formatting paraphrases to solve these questions (Paraphrasing: According to the LR prep bible: "One of the most effective techniques for quickly finding correct answer choices and avoiding incorrect answer choices, prephrasing an answer involves quickly speculating on what you expect the correct answer will be based on the information in the stimulus.")

Even if this is what you guys meant, I still cannot get the crystal clear instruction of what I should do as the step 4, "step 4 of the fundamental rules to solve 2nd & 3rd Family Qs: "These questions often yield strong prephrases. Make sure you actively consider the range of possible answers before proceeding to the answer choices."
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 Dave Killoran
PowerScore Staff
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#45952
Hi Lathlee,

Just to be clear, it's "prephrasing" all the way through, not "paraphrasing" as you say at one point. It's an important distinction!

What we mean is that people tend to react more strongly to argument than to fact sets, and thus questions that center on arguments (which are typically from the 2nd and 3rd Families), usually elicit a strong er response in the reader. Use that response to create a potential answer. In other words, you read a fact set and often your reaction is "whatever." Read an argument, and typically you respond, "No, I disagree," or something similarly strong. That reaction is useful :-D

Thanks!
 lathlee
  • Posts: 652
  • Joined: Apr 01, 2016
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#45959
yep, dave I meant prephrasing, NOT Paraphrasing, I made one typo mistake in the middle haha. but this is the new dilemma that i see now. how does having a strong prephrase, a useful response, is useful (lol) in considering active answer choices?
 Adam Tyson
PowerScore Staff
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  • Joined: Apr 14, 2011
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#49097
That's the whole point of prephrasing, lathlee! Your prephrase is your prediction for what the answer will be, or do, or say, and having a strong reaction to a stimulus like "this argument is no good because the author made a whole-to-part flaw" prepares you to sort the answers quickly and confidently. If the stem is then a Flaw in the Reasoning stem, you just need to find the answer that describes a whole-to-part flaw, and you won't be so easily distracted by answers that describe other flaws, like part-to-whole or mistaken reversals or alternate causes, etc. When you have a strong prephrase, you are essentially just looking for the answer that matches it, and anything that doesn't match it is a loser! That's why prephrasing every single time is the key to success on LR, lathlee. It prepares you for finding the right answer quickly and confidently, and protects you against attractive wrong answers.

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