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[fa21212]

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[NextStepTutor_1]

When I read this passage, I literally could not understand anything that it said or any of the questions. If anyone has any tips on how to read this passage effectively or do any of the questions (I got them all wrong), that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hi fa21212,

Many, many students find dense philosophical CARS passages to be among the hardest to tackle, so you're in good company in that regard. There is no single trick that will make a difficult passage into an easy one, but here are a few tips that might help you as you practice:

• Focus less on the philosophical details (like what "nominalist materialism" means) and more on who holds which opinions. Does the author present an argument and take sides? Are there some people the author criticizes? (Like here, for instance, at the end of the final paragraph the author critiques Hobbes scholars for not being able to take a consistent stand on these issues).
• For every paragraph, ask yourself: What's the point of this paragraph? What is the author trying to tell me? Consider taking brief notes. For this passage, your notes might look something like:
  • P1: state of nature = starting point for Hobbes; lots of ppl agree w/ this
  • P2: Hobbes cares a lot about human nature, human nature plays out in state of nature
  • P3: but what is state of nature anyway? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Push towards seeing passages as arguments -- the author is almost always trying to convince you of something, even if it seems buried under a ton of factual information or philosophical details. In this case, the author is trying to convince us that there's a problem: this concept of state of nature (whatever that means) is crucial to Hobbes' thought, but no one seems to know what it actually is.

Also, practice, practice, practice, and review the results of your practice carefully. For every CARS passage you do, you should review all the questions. For questions you get right, ask yourself "how did I get this right and how do I reinforce those good habits?" For questions that you answered incorrectly or were unsure of, what would you have had to do to get it right? What can you do to make that happen next time? For all questions, ask yourself: why is the correct answer correct and why are the incorrect ones incorrect? For the passage as a whole, ask yourself what you focused on and what you could have focused on instead to set yourself up better for the questions. This review process takes a ton of time -- if done right, it can take much longer than actually doing the passage -- but careful, forward-thinking review is what really leads to improvements.

Good luck and hope this was helpful!!

 

[5words]

Hi fa21212,

Many, many students find dense philosophical CARS passages to be among the hardest to tackle, so you're in good company in that regard. There is no single trick that will make a difficult passage into an easy one, but here are a few tips that might help you as you practice:

• Focus less on the philosophical details (like what "nominalist materialism" means) and more on who holds which opinions. Does the author present an argument and take sides? Are there some people the author criticizes? (Like here, for instance, at the end of the final paragraph the author critiques Hobbes scholars for not being able to take a consistent stand on these issues).
• For every paragraph, ask yourself: What's the point of this paragraph? What is the author trying to tell me? Consider taking brief notes. For this passage, your notes might look something like:
  • P1: state of nature = starting point for Hobbes; lots of ppl agree w/ this
  • P2: Hobbes cares a lot about human nature, human nature plays out in state of nature
  • P3: but what is state of nature anyway? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Push towards seeing passages as arguments -- the author is almost always trying to convince you of something, even if it seems buried under a ton of factual information or philosophical details. In this case, the author is trying to convince us that there's a problem: this concept of state of nature (whatever that means) is crucial to Hobbes' thought, but no one seems to know what it actually is.

Also, practice, practice, practice, and review the results of your practice carefully. For every CARS passage you do, you should review all the questions. For questions you get right, ask yourself "how did I get this right and how do I reinforce those good habits?" For questions that you answered incorrectly or were unsure of, what would you have had to do to get it right? What can you do to make that happen next time? For all questions, ask yourself: why is the correct answer correct and why are the incorrect ones incorrect? For the passage as a whole, ask yourself what you focused on and what you could have focused on instead to set yourself up better for the questions. This review process takes a ton of time -- if done right, it can take much longer than actually doing the passage -- but careful, forward-thinking review is what really leads to improvements.

Good luck and hope this was helpful!!

Actually, reveiwing what you got right helped you perform better on your exam?

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

Actually, reveiwing what you got right helped you perform better on your exam?

Yes! Reviewing what you got right is surprisingly important, because it gives you an opportunity to solidify and consolidate good patterns of thought. This is especially true for questions that involve strategic thinking or reasoning about a passage, and for questions where you had some difficulties choosing between the answer choices. Honestly, the psychological boost can be helpful too. Reviewing FL exams or practice materials can be really draining if you focus only on mistakes, and paying some attention to what you did right can help keep your mental energy up and give you a more balanced sense of how you're doing.