- Joined
- Mar 24, 2012
- Messages
- 2,259
- Reaction score
- 535
I'm doing the examcrackers verbal edition. I find some of the question really vague and many times there isn't much to choose between the answers, and the answer explanations use massive inferences to explain why they are right.
Passage: It is about men's fashion and the author describes fashion designers being able to make clothing make people look more attractive (concludes the paragraph by saying that the best fitting clothes may not be the most popular or acceptable), then describes the more traditional dress code that men's fashion has followed throughout history. 3rd paragraph describes the "power look" i.e. the business suits, talks disparagingly about how it was distributed around the world "through colonialism" and describes the business suit as impractical outside of the UK. 4th paragraph describes how many clothes are worn for traditional purposes and gives ex. of ties, which are used to indicate rank order or pedigree (e.g. ivy league ties). Last paragraph concludes that "unfortunately for fashion, tradition is more important in how one appears" and says research shows that a uniform's historical implications have more of an impact on the viewer than aesthetic considerations.
All in all, I thought it was a more or less factual article and the only real opinion was calling business suits impractical and saying unfortunately tradition is more important than fashion. But one of the questions asked for the author's opinion on what the main purpose of clothing is below:
Question: The author most likely believes that one of the main purposes of clothing should be to provide the wearer with:
A: A "power" appearance
B: A uniform
C: a more attractive appearance
D: an appearance appropriate to his employment.
They have asked me to choose an author's opinion on what the main purposes of clothing is when the author never made an argument for a preference. In the passage the author talks about "power" appearance and fashion. The answer was that the author believes the main purpose of clothing is to provide a more attractive appearance.
Even the answer choice admitted that the author was a "realist" i.e. that he doesn't have much of an opinion but says "appearance" is the best answer because the author criticized the rise of British business suits.
The answer is saying we should infer that just because the author had a disparaging view of the rise of the British business suit that we should assume he thinks clothes should be "a more attractive appearance". I think this a completely unrealistic inference that we shouldn't be making
It also says that because the article says that "fashion oriented designers have managed to make clothing that create the illusion of more perfect body proportions" that means the author is pro "fashion"..... It was a fact, not an opinion. How does this make C right?
Lastly the article says that "Unfortunately for fashion, these traditions are so deep seated that they cannot be changed in one lifetime by the average person or even by vast advertising campaigns by designers". I understand "unfortunately" is an opinion statement, but again the answer assumes that these 3 points are enough to make C. the right option when I believe there is almost no evidence from the first 2 quotes and only some evidence from the 3rd.
On top of that, if you read the article "which I can't copy on here" there is also evidence for many of the other options. There are more questions where the answers are vague and the "right" answer requires you to make a number of major inferences, something that TPR teaches you not to do. I just came from TPR and this is seriously confusing me.
If any of you have this book "Exam Crackers 101 VR from 2002" the question is from the 2nd passage of the trial section.
My question is, should I be using Exam Crackers 101 VR from 2002, is it too old for the current MCAT? I read that the 2008 version is the exact same just different format for the new MCAT, but honestly is this the Exam Crackers people say is exactly the same as the real MCAT because I feel like the questions aren't too good and the explanations not so good either
Passage: It is about men's fashion and the author describes fashion designers being able to make clothing make people look more attractive (concludes the paragraph by saying that the best fitting clothes may not be the most popular or acceptable), then describes the more traditional dress code that men's fashion has followed throughout history. 3rd paragraph describes the "power look" i.e. the business suits, talks disparagingly about how it was distributed around the world "through colonialism" and describes the business suit as impractical outside of the UK. 4th paragraph describes how many clothes are worn for traditional purposes and gives ex. of ties, which are used to indicate rank order or pedigree (e.g. ivy league ties). Last paragraph concludes that "unfortunately for fashion, tradition is more important in how one appears" and says research shows that a uniform's historical implications have more of an impact on the viewer than aesthetic considerations.
All in all, I thought it was a more or less factual article and the only real opinion was calling business suits impractical and saying unfortunately tradition is more important than fashion. But one of the questions asked for the author's opinion on what the main purpose of clothing is below:
Question: The author most likely believes that one of the main purposes of clothing should be to provide the wearer with:
A: A "power" appearance
B: A uniform
C: a more attractive appearance
D: an appearance appropriate to his employment.
They have asked me to choose an author's opinion on what the main purposes of clothing is when the author never made an argument for a preference. In the passage the author talks about "power" appearance and fashion. The answer was that the author believes the main purpose of clothing is to provide a more attractive appearance.
Even the answer choice admitted that the author was a "realist" i.e. that he doesn't have much of an opinion but says "appearance" is the best answer because the author criticized the rise of British business suits.
The answer is saying we should infer that just because the author had a disparaging view of the rise of the British business suit that we should assume he thinks clothes should be "a more attractive appearance". I think this a completely unrealistic inference that we shouldn't be making
It also says that because the article says that "fashion oriented designers have managed to make clothing that create the illusion of more perfect body proportions" that means the author is pro "fashion"..... It was a fact, not an opinion. How does this make C right?
Lastly the article says that "Unfortunately for fashion, these traditions are so deep seated that they cannot be changed in one lifetime by the average person or even by vast advertising campaigns by designers". I understand "unfortunately" is an opinion statement, but again the answer assumes that these 3 points are enough to make C. the right option when I believe there is almost no evidence from the first 2 quotes and only some evidence from the 3rd.
On top of that, if you read the article "which I can't copy on here" there is also evidence for many of the other options. There are more questions where the answers are vague and the "right" answer requires you to make a number of major inferences, something that TPR teaches you not to do. I just came from TPR and this is seriously confusing me.
If any of you have this book "Exam Crackers 101 VR from 2002" the question is from the 2nd passage of the trial section.
My question is, should I be using Exam Crackers 101 VR from 2002, is it too old for the current MCAT? I read that the 2008 version is the exact same just different format for the new MCAT, but honestly is this the Exam Crackers people say is exactly the same as the real MCAT because I feel like the questions aren't too good and the explanations not so good either
Last edited:
