consider Out of scope or not option or not, that is the question

[MCATwannabe]

Hi Everyone,

I have a huge problem with practice MCAT differences between EK and Kaplan.

Kaplan says if the question is " Which of the following conclusions is not supported by evidence in passage", the answer defaults to the out of scope, if I'm not wrong.

EK says, forget the out of scope, focus on conclusion that was stated but not supported by evidence?

WHich is it? Out of Scope or not, that is the question.

 

Thanks for response,

 

P.S. Are Kaplan section tests hard? I'm getting REALLY LOW % (50%) on them no matter what I do! I do better on EK, and much better on AAMC (with one exception). Please help me!

-MCATWannabe

 

EDIT: can't fix topic, but it makes no sense. sorry.

[ElPenguino]

I encountered the same thing! My advice would be to focus on your own logical reasoning and what you have in front of you instead of trying to reconcile the catch-all strategies proposed for certain styles of question. When in doubt, reread the stem carefully and think what it's really asking: which of the options is not supported in the passage. Your brain is your best tool, not prep tricks.

 

That being said, I was left completely stumped by EK's reasoning at times. They would list four options: two of which were supported, one was a conclusion in the passage that was not supported, and the other was a conclusion that was not from the passage. My instinct said that the one not featuring in the passage at all was the correct answer, as it obviously was not supported in the passage. But I reread the question afterwards, and it says "which of the following passage conclusions is not supported", not just "which of the following conclusions". Its very subtle, it's intention is to trick, and I would be curious to know if anyone has encountered such a situation on the actual test. Frankly, I'm not convinced by EK's reasoning as the question would need to say "which of the following is a passage conclusion and is supported in the passage" to support their logic.

 

Long and short: don't lose sleep over it. It's about (verbal) reasoning, not (verbal) strategizing. Just my two cents!

[Sebriz]

But I think the best at verbal have a strategy at reasoning

[ElPenguino]

But I think the best at verbal have a strategy at reasoning

 

Haha yes sorry. Totally agree. A good strategy is a necessity for most (myself included). What I was trying to get at was: don't become dependent upon the various strategies pertaining to individual question types and try not to sweat the differences between companies.

 

Don't let a strategy stand in the way of your ability to effectively reason. Most companies provide strategies that work, but none of them are foolproof. Any strategy is useless if you don't commit to developing your reasoning and critical reading above all else. The right answer is always on the page and you should be prepared get to it by applying reasoning alone if these uber-specific strategies fall short.

 

For the record, I'm doing Kaplan as well. I find they have a lot of good advice for taking the test but can de-emphasize using your own brain in favour of heeding their advice to the hilt, at times.