EK Verbal 101 Exam #11 (7th Edition)

[starbaduk]

Verbal is my worst subject. I think I do a good job understanding the passage, but I often do not agree with the reasoning they provide for their "credited" answer. This happens less frequently with AAMC, and much more frequently with EK and TPR. Help me.

Atari Video Game Passage 1

3. According to the passage, which of the following is most likely true about "game arcades" (line 11)"?

Answer key: A. Video games thrived in arcade without decline.

When I read this answer choice, I immediately thought "Ok, this must be a trap." The passage indeed talks about game arcade declining during 1980's when Atari home video game system started becoming less popular, but to me, the answer choice seems to infer that game arcade was ALWAYS popular.

The answer I chose was "D. Early on, children were not allowed in the arcades." Beginning of the passage compares Pong with "other establishments that were not of the typical seedy quality that one associates with game arcades and smoke filled pool halls." Is it wrong to conclude from this that arcade early on was not appropriate for children?


Bill Gates Passage III

20. According to the passage, the author feels that Bill Gates is successful because:

Their answer: B. He gives away the most money.

Passage: "In examining this strange perspective, it might do to listen to those who, by the old standards, are actually successful. I choose Bill Gates for this, not because he has the most money, but because he gives away the most money in the world. His money is a byproduct of his sucess."

IMO, the fact that Bill Gates gives away the most money is related to the reason why the author chose to examine Bill Gates. I don't think the passage is stating that Bill Gates is considered successful because he gives away the most money. Or is it?

Despite feeling that none of the answer choices was adequate, I picked "A. He has the most money." I thought that the paragraph could be "interpreted" as someone with a lot of money is obviously successful. (And that more than just being successful, he picks Bill Gates because he gives away the most money. He doesn't explain why).

Am I right or wrong? Or are these just not good questions?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MBHockey]

You're doing something that I used to do a lot -- over think the question. I have found a lot of the time that the right answer doesn't require you to torture yourself with logic. When I stopped over thinking, and just used the passage contents at face value, I started getting a lot more right.

Your conclusion about the "seedy" arcades is very logical. However the MCAT doesn't want you to make these sort of assumptions, however sound, unless they specifically ask for them. They only said that arcades were "seedy". They didn't say that for this reason parents didn't allow children in arcades.

For the Bill Gates question, he states that Bill Gates is "successful"..."not because he has the most money, but because he gives away the most money."

The reason he chose Bill Gates is because he is successful. And he is successful because he is the most philanthropic.

Notice that here the logic follows from what was actually written in the passage.

I think you'll find that a lot of the time the right answer is more obvious than you think.

 

[Vanguard23]

I think it was either that Atari question or another one that I spent a good six minutes deliberating on(after I finished the full section). And that was after I knew the answer after having looked them all up. I just wanted to see what the hell was going on.

 

[dundunham]

Yes I agree with MBhockey.... I also had problems over analyzing the questions thinking there was some deep connection going on. This gets into all that trouble of introducing outside ideas that talk you out of the right answer which is always more to do with what the passage states.

I seem to do this also when reading answers and not really working to eliminate or compare between answers. I fall into that "suggestion" trap that this answer could be the right one but is actually my mind playing tricks on me and not paying attention to what the passage "specifically" stated or the direction it took.