Valitania's long-standing practice of paying high salaries to its elected politicians has had a disastrous effect on ...
gmaramaraMarch 31, 2020
How to be more efficient with timing
I've found that with these questions, I'm getting almost all of them correct because I'm writing out the premises and conclusion and breaking it down with the strategies you taught. However, when I don't write it out and try to speed up the process due to timing, I do terrible. Any recommendations on how to implement these strategies quicker? Or does that eventually come with the more problems you do?
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I am not sure what you mean when you say you are writing out premises and conclusions. There are certain question types for which a diagram is helpful. We definitely want to diagram our sufficient & necessary conditions, quantifiers, or numerical information that is difficult to keep track of mentally. The video lessons often include a breakdown of the premises, but this is meant to demonstrate argument structure. We shouldn't diagram every logical reasoning question that way on the test. This particular question about Valitania is a good example. I don't think it would be very helpful for me to write anything down here. There is one conditional statement: "The prospect of earning a high salary is always attractive to anyone whose primary aim in life is to make money."
Prospect of high salary ---> attractive to people who love money
While there are sufficient and necessary conditions here, writing them down hasn't really given me anything I didn't already know. This is a weaken question, and I can tell it isn't going to ask me to connect a series of conditions like a must be true or cannot be true question would.
Instead of attempting a diagram here, I would highlight or underline the conclusion. Then I would try to simplify the argument mentally and put it in my own words. If you can do this, then you have a good understanding of the argument.
C: The practice of paying high salaries to politicians is bad. Why? Because it attracts people who care most about money.
This is enough for me to answer the question. By breaking down the argument, you are doing the right thing. But, try to do so mentally. We don't always have time to make a neat breakdown of the stimulus. Diagramming is a very important tool, but it is not a requirement. As you see more questions, you will learn when it will help you and when it will not.
AlvaroJune 17, 2024
I have to say that I used to diagram every question as well and summarize the stimulus since it was very challenging for me to try to resolve a question without it. However, the more I practiced, the easier it was for me to identify and focus on the most important parts of the stimulus. So now, I feel more confident solving some questions without writing anything. Moreover, practicing reading comp and reading the Economist (Mehran's advice is on the spot with this newspaper) have been so incredibly useful. Using all the highlighter colors on some questions also helps me separate the argument without having to write anything, saving me time.
Emil-KunkinJune 21, 2024
This is great to hear! Personally I think that as you get more advanced, you might see there are really only two scenarios when you'll need to diagram: to confirm that your understanding of the conditional logic makes sense, and when there's just too long of a chain to keep in your head.
