Tag: exam tutor

Is it that time of year again? Midterms? Finals? Do you want to pull your hair out yet? Here are some tried and true tips to help you do your best.

-Plan ahead. Start to rehearse and review your notes and the texts BEFORE exam week so that you can cut down on your workload for the week. Starting early is essential for classes that have cumulative exams because there is so much information to review.

-Cut down on work or other commitments. If you work part-time, ask for some time off or for fewer hours at your job and make sure that your family and friends understand that you will be extra busy. Try not to add any new commitments during midterm and final time.

-Get enough sleep. Pulling all-nighters for a big exam rarely pays off. Instead try to create your schedule for exam week in a way that leaves adequate sleep time. You won’t do well on an exam if you are falling asleep while taking it.

-Study with a partner. Misery loves company and this is never truer than during midterms and finals. Hopefully by the time midterms roll around you have found a study group that works. Study with your group or study partner to keep each other on schedule and motivated to work.

-Don’t panic. The whole world will not stop and does not end because of midterms and finals. If you did thy the pressure is getting to you, readjust your schedule to allow more break time and try to really relax during those breaks. If you find that you have excessive anxiety, get some help before it becomes a stumbling block to doing well.

Critical Reasoning Question 2

In recent years, attacks by Dobermans on small children have risen dramatically. Last year saw 35 such attacks in the continental United States alone, an increase of almost 21% over the previous year’s total. Clearly, then, it is unsafe to keep dogs as pets if one has small children in the house.

The argument above depends upon which of the following assumptions?

A. No reasonable justification for these attacks by Dobermans on small children has been discovered.

B. Other household pets, such as cats, don’t display the same violent tendencies that dogs do.

C. The number of attacks by Dobermans on small children will continue to rise in the coming years.

D. A large percentage of the attacks by Dobermans on small children could have been prevented by proper training.

E. The behavior toward small children exhibited by Dobermans is representative of dogs in general.

The correct answer is E.

The evidence discusses attacks by Dobermans, but the conclusion is that the dogs-any dogs- are unsafe around little kids. This makes sense only if we assume (E): that Dobermans, in their behavior toward little kids, are generally representative of dogs. A good way of checking assumptions is to see what happens if we take their opposite: if the opposite of a statement weakens the argument, then that statement is assumed; if it doesn’t, it’s not. Here, if Dobermans’ behavior toward small children isn’t typical of dogs, the argument falls apart.

(A), whether the attacks were justified, is beside the point. Even if the kids were pulling the dogs’ tails, the author’s point that the dogs aren’t safe still holds. Other pets are beyond the scope, so (B)’s out. As for (C), the argument doesn’t deal with the future, so the author needn’t assume anything about it. And it certainly wouldn’t weaken the argument if, contrary to (D), many of the attack could not have been prevented, so (D)’s not assumed.

Okay, our goal at PrivateTutoringAtHome.com is to help parents, students, and tutors alike be super successful. We know many of you are shaking in your boots as you prepare for the ACT and SAT and GED and GMAT and LSAT, and any other acronym standardized test you can think of.

So, in honor of the standardized test, we’ll be posting 1 question and answer this whole month and the focus will be on critical reasoning. Deal? Good. So join us daily for some seriously yummy critical reasoning buffet.

Critical Reasoning Question 1

In Los Angeles, a political candidate who buys saturation radio advertising will get maximum name recognition.

The statement above logically conveys which of the following?

A. Radio advertising is the most important factor in political campaigns in Los Angeles.

B. Maximum name recognition in Los Angeles will help a candidate to win a higher percentage of votes cast in the city.

C. Saturation radio advertising reaches every demographically distinct sector of the voting population in Los Angeles.

D. For maximum name recognition a candidate need not spend on media channels other than radio advertising.

E. A candidate’s record of achievement in the Los Angeles area will do little to affect his or her name recognition there.

Think you know the answer?

The correct answer is D. An L.A. political candidate who buys saturation radio advertising will get maximum name recognition. In other words, such advertising is sufficient for maximum name recognition. If so, then is must be true that, as (D) says, a candidate can get such recognition without spending on other forms of media.

(A) suggests that radio advertising is the most important factor in L.A. political campaigns, but nothing like this was mentioned in the stimulus, so it’s not something that you can infer. Nor were we told the specific results of attaining a maximum name recognition, so (B) is out. Similarly, we don’t know precisely what is meant by “saturation radio advertising,” so we can’t infer anything as detailed as (C). Finally, although we know saturation radio advertising is sufficient for getting maximum name recognition, we can’t infer that other things, such as candidate’s record mentioned in (E), have little effect on name recognition.

When I answered this question, I thought the answer was either B or C. Knowing both these answers were incorrect, helps me to understand that I need to work on assuming details not given.