tips for CARs answers choices where a single word makes it correct/incorrect

[deleted1058816]

I have observed that in some cases, it seems like a single word in the passage, question stem, or answer choice makes the difference between a correct answer choice and incorrect answer choice. For example, maybe the passage mentioned it's "possible" that a certain theory is true, while the answer choice states is "probable" that the theory is true--therefore, that answer choice is wrong. In another case, I was debating between two answer choices, and the only reason I got it right was because one of the answer choices used the "characters" plural, instead of character--which caught my attention.


People say you should focus on the main idea. But even after reviewing the answer explanation for some of these questions, I feel like under the same time-stressed circumstances, I would still get these questions wrong. They literally hinge on spotting a few tiny details, sometimes obscured in multiple places in the passage. Does any one have any tips for avoiding these hard-to-spot answer traps?

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[GreenDuck12]

I have observed that in some cases, it seems like a single word in the passage, question stem, or answer choice makes the difference between a correct answer choice and incorrect answer choice. For example, maybe the passage mentioned it's "possible" that a certain theory is true, while the answer choice states is "probable" that the theory is true--therefore, that answer choice is wrong. In another case, I was debating between two answer choices, and the only reason I got it right was because one of the answer choices used the "characters" plural, instead of character--which caught my attention.


People say you should focus on the main idea. But even after reviewing the answer explanation for some of these questions, I feel like under the same time-stressed circumstances, I would still get these questions wrong. They literally hinge on spotting a few tiny details, sometimes obscured in multiple places in the passage. Does any one have any tips for avoiding these hard-to-spot answer traps?

When you get the the AAMC passages you will get to see how exacting they are with their word choice. I tell my students when we go through questions that every single word is deliberately chosen, nothing is in there by chance. This is part of the reason why cars is so challenging - we are often so careless with our use of language that we get develop habits that the AAMC exploits. To be sure, you can practice and learn to recognize these things quickly but it takes a lot of time and effort.one trick that helped one of my students was to quickly look for reasons an answer was wrong instead of why it might be right. They would usually be able to rule out 2 sometimes 3 of the answer choices using that strategy and would sometimes spot really tiny details for why an answer wouldn’t fit with the wording of the question. One other piece of advice would be that you are selecting the best answer for the question. Always make sure the answer you pick answers the question instead of simply fitting with the passage.