Selection of the correct answer in Verbal

On Verbal, you’re asked for the “best” answer—not the “objectively correct” answer that we need to find on Quant—so it can be really easy to fall for a tempting trap, especially on Critical Reasoning (CR) and Reading Comprehension (RC). Learn to work super-systematically, and you’ll navigate through those tempting traps to land on the right answer.Here’s what to do: Know Your Verbal Processes There comes a moment for CR and RC when you’re ready to tackle the answer choices,Both Critical Reasoning (CR) and Reading Comprehension (RC) contain different question “sub-types.” You’ll need to know how to recognize what’s what so that you can apply the right kind of reasoning. Tackle The Verbal Answer Choices: 1st Pass You’ve read the argument or passage, you’ve identified the question type, you know what you’re trying to find, and you’re ready for the answers. First, assume that you are going to take two full passes through the answer choices.This sounds like it will take forever. It won’t. Your thought process goes something like this:(B) looks good; the passage does talk about that. [Reading the remaining answers because you know you are supposed to do so.You’ve read through answer (D) but  haven’t really been paying attention. You can’t wait until this is over. Okay, so (B) is the answer.” Basically, once you decide that a certain answer is the correct one, your mind is already moving on. The problem comes when answer (D) was actually better than answer (B) but you didn’t notice, either because you didn’t read answer (D) in the first place, or you did read it but weren’t actually paying attention. Now, you’ve lost time and you are still going to fall into the trap. So delay your “What’s the right answer?” decision. On your first pass through the answers, your decision is strictly “No vs. Maybe.” No = I am never looking at this answer choice again. Maybe = I think this might be the right one…or I think this might be wrong but I’m not totally sure yet…or I have no idea what this answer choice means. In short, cross* off everything that you’re sure is wrong and leave everything else. Don’t agonize over the “everything else.” Don’t think about whether it really is right or wrong. Just leave it and go look for more stuff to cross off until you’ve gotten through all five answers for the first time. Tackle The Verbal Answer Choices: 2nd Pass At the end of your first pass, there are three possible outcomes: You’ve crossed off 4 answers: pick the remaining one and move on You haven’t crossed off any answers: this one’s too hard, so pick your favorite letter and move on You’ve crossed off some wrong answers but not all 4 of them: now it’s time for your 2nd pass through the answers.During this second pass, you’re going to go through the remaining answers, but this time you’re going to closely compare them to each other. Before, you may not have noticed a particular difference between answers (B) and (D), but now that you only have a few answers left, you can actually compare and think about what those differences mean. For instance,  you’re answering a Main Idea RC question. You notice this: (B) Talks mainly about the second paragraph (D) Talks about both paragraphs When you first saw (B), you may have thought to yourself, “Yes, the passage does talk about that,” so you naturally left it in. Once you compare (B) to (D), though, you might realize that (B) is too narrow. Answer (D) better addresses the entire passage, so now you know that (B) is likely a trap. On verbal, the “best” answer actually implies a comparison. There’s no way to know that (B) is too narrow until you’ve read (D). If (D) didn’t exist, in fact, then maybe (B) would be the best answer out of the available answers.   After the 2nd pass, there are again three possible outcomes: You’ve crossed off 4 answers: pick the remaining one and move on You have more than 2 answers left: this one’s too hard; pick your favorite letter and move on You have exactly two answers left: you’re allowed to do one more pass, directly comparing these two answers If you do get down to two answers after the 2nd pass, then this is a tough problem but you have also made decent progress so far. At this stage, it’s worth investing another 20 to 30 seconds to do one final comparison.Do not agonize back and forth. After the first direct comparison between the final two, you will either have a hunch or you won’t. If you have a hunch, pick it now; it’s not going to change the 5th time you compare them. And if you don’t have a hunch, pick one now anyway; you’re not going to suddenly develop a hunch the 5th time you compare them. Give yourself one chance, sure, but then you’re done. You keep narrowing to two and guessing wrong? That  is frustrating. Let’s talk about how to study in a way that will help you make that hard decision between the right answer and the most tempting wrong answer. First, though: you don’t always guess wrong. Rather, you’re noticing when you get it wrong because you got it wrong. When you get it right, how often do you really tell yourself, “Oh, yeah, I just went with a hunch there, but I actually got it! ” If you’re like most people, you don’t notice that as often because you’re concentrating on the ones you got wrong.How to get better at recognizing and eliminating those tempting trap answers? Here’s what you’re going to do: As you work, mark any problems on which you narrowed to two answers before guessing. Use a consistent symbol—an asterisk or whatever. This will allow you to find all of these after, not just the ones on which you end up guessing wrong. Do ask yourself what you’re probably already asking yourself (Why is the right one right? Why is the wrong one wrong?), but don’t stop there. Ask yourself why the wrong one looked good. What was tempting about this choice? Why did you pick it or consider picking it? Now you know not to use that reasoning to pick an answer in future, since that reasoning can lead to picking a wrong answer. Ask yourself why the right one looked worse than the tempting wrong one. Somehow, they got you to doubt the correct answer. Why did you eliminate it or consider eliminating it? Again, now you know not to use that reasoning in future to eliminate an answer. Takeaways Work systematically on all verbal questions. Keep track of your answer eliminations on your scrap paper. On your first pass, concentrate on crossing off everything that is definitely wrong. Don’t actually decide what’s right—not yet. If you can’t cross anything off, forget it; guess and move on. On your second pass, directly compare any remaining answers. If you can’t get down to at most two answers at this stage, the problem is too hard; guess and move on. You’re allowed to make one more direct comparison between the last two answers…but only one more. Then choose and move on.