UCAT: Verbal Reasoning

[Breg]

RIGHT: Hmm but it says in the question most accounts were written by non-Spartans, not "all"? I thought "all" and "most" referred to who wrote the accounts, not what the accounts presented?
I'm getting confused with whether the definition of most is equivalent to the definition of all in this case, since 100% of accounts were written by non-Spartans and presented idealised image etc.

I think it's helpful here to look at the question and work out what it's asking: is this statement true. You can rule out "can't tell" because it's directly addressed in the text. The answer is true because Ollier believed all accounts were written by non-spartans, thus he also believed most accounts were written by non-spartans. Something to keep in mind is this isn't DM where they're trying to trick you with strict logic, if you can infer it from the text then that's the answer.

 

[Kevkevkev]

Hey guys, what do you reckon is the better way to approach VR? Keyword approach or reading the text first? And what are some of your tips of speed reading? Thanks in advance

 

[Sokka]

Hey guys, what do you reckon is the better way to approach VR? Keyword approach or reading the text first? And what are some of your tips of speed reading? Thanks in advance

Hey Kev, I would recommend reading the passage first if you have a look at Smelly Boy’s ucat guide he runs through the VR strategies quite well! Tips that I’ve encountered (but haven’t necessarily implemented) are not moving your eyes too much (move your eyes after reading 7 words instead of just a couple), don’t subvocalise, and read with intent.

 

[Kevkevkev]

Hey Kev, I would recommend reading the passage first if you have a look at Smelly Boy’s ucat guide he runs through the VR strategies quite well! Tips that I’ve encountered (but haven’t necessarily implemented) are not moving your eyes too much (move your eyes after reading 7 words instead of just a couple), don’t subvocalise, and read with intent.

Hey Yuzzy, thanks for the advice. I'll have a read on Smelly Boy's ucat guide! Appreciate the tips!

 

[sevun]

Hmm, does "distribution of water" not equal "where water in the moon has come from" because distribution refers to where the water is placed, but not where it originated from?

 

[ucatboy]

View attachment 3727
Hmm, does "distribution of water" not equal "where water in the moon has come from" because distribution refers to where the water is placed, but not where it originated from?

Pretty much yeah, distribution = in which areas on the moon is water located.

 

[watermelona]

has anyone else seen questions like this where the texts says 'usually requires' and when the question asks if it (always) 'requires' the answer is false? i thought it would be cant tell because from the passage i assumed it could be required or not required depending on the case so im not too sure?

 

[sevun]

I have the same questions as watermelona above about putting down False vs Can't Tell for certain questions.
If in the passage it says

1."X may occur/could occur" and the question says "X certainly occurs/will occur."
or 2. "it is claimed that X occured" (indicating there is uncertainty/bias/opinion involved) and the question says "X occurred",

do you respond with False or Can't Tell?

I think in many cases I've seen the first option where False be correct, and for the second, it would be Can't Tell, but I'm not really sure. Apologies if this has been posted before!

 

[Scorpion]

has anyone else seen questions like this where the texts says 'usually requires' and when the question asks if it (always) 'requires' the answer is false? i thought it would be cant tell because from the passage i assumed it could be required or not required depending on the case so im not too sure? View attachment 3738

I have the same questions as watermelona above about putting down False vs Can't Tell for certain questions.

1."X may occur/could occur" and the question says "X certainly occurs/will occur."
or 2. "it is claimed that X occured" (indicating there is uncertainty/bias/opinion involved) and the question says "X occurred",

do you respond with False or Can't Tell?

I think in many cases I've seen the first option where False be correct, and for the second, it would be Can't Tell, but I'm not really sure. Apologies if this has been posted before!

The passage's use of the words 'could,' 'may' or 'usually' makes the statement low modality, or of low certainty. If something is 'usually' required, we can take this to mean it is required the majority of the time, but not always. The question states that, 'expert-level knowledge is required,' which is high modality, or a certain statement. You will need to get used to the fact that high certainty statements cannot be satisfied by low certainty evidence and thus the answer will be False.

Can't Tell means there is not enough evidence in the passage to prove or disprove the statement. However, we can disprove this statement as expert level knowledge is only usually required, not always required.

In reference to sevun's examples:

1. This is false. We know from the passage that X will not certainly occur. It is not Can't Tell because the passage has proven that X is not certain, directly contradicting the statement.
2. This, to the best of my knowledge, is Can't Tell. We don't know whether the claim is truthful or not. However, there is nothing to say that X didn't occur, either, making it not False.

The difference between 1. and 2. is that 1. includes the word 'certainly', and this certainty was contradicted by the passage. If statement 2 was instead, "According to the passage, X certainly occurred" this would be False. (I think)

 

[watermelona]

The passage's use of the words 'could,' 'may' or 'usually' makes the statement low modality, or of low certainty. If something is 'usually' required, we can take this to mean it is required the majority of the time, but not always. The question states that, 'expert-level knowledge is required,' which is high modality, or a certain statement. You will need to get used to the fact that high certainty statements cannot be satisfied by low certainty evidence and thus the answer will be False.

Can't Tell means there is not enough evidence in the passage to prove or disprove the statement. However, we can disprove this statement as expert level knowledge is only usually required, not always required.

In reference to sevun's examples:

1. This is false. We know from the passage that X will not certainly occur. It is not Can't Tell because the passage has proven that X is not certain, directly contradicting the statement.
2. This, to the best of my knowledge, is Can't Tell. We don't know whether the claim is truthful or not. However, there is nothing to say that X didn't occur, either, making it not False.

The difference between 1. and 2. is that 1. includes the word 'certainly', and this certainty was contradicted by the passage. If statement 2 was instead, "According to the passage, X certainly occurred" this would be False. (I think)

oh i see that does make sense, thank you!

 

[watermelona]

Hello everyone.
For this question, I was wondering why it wouldn't be 'can't tell?' In the text, it says that 'he issued one of the first modern patents' to protect his invention and I picked 'can't tell' because we don't know whether he was the first. I didn't understand the explanation given.

following this approach i chose false as the answer since the passage said "is AMONG the most visited..." but the answer is cant tell. how do you distinguish between when to pick cant tell and when to pick false in these situations?

 

[r1ckworthy]

following this approach i chose false as the answer since the passage said "is AMONG the most visited..." but the answer is cant tell. how do you distinguish between when to pick cant tell and when to pick false in these situations? View attachment 3742

For a statement to be false, it has to directly contradict the text. The text states the following, "It is one of twelve World Heritage Sites in the Czech Republic". There is nothing in the statement to suggest that Sadlec is the most or least visited of the twelve heritage sites. Also, for that sentence you just mentioned, the passage only mentioned it to be among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech republic only, not of the twelve world heritage sites. Since there is no information directly mentioned in the passage, it is can't tell. Hope that makes sense.

 

[watermelona]

For a statement to be false, it has to directly contradict the text. The text states the following, "It is one of twelve World Heritage Sites in the Czech Republic". There is nothing in the statement to suggest that Sadlec is the most or least visited of the twelve heritage sites. Also, for that sentence you just mentioned, the passage only mentioned it to be among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech republic only, not of the twelve world heritage sites. Since there is no information directly mentioned in the passage, it is can't tell. Hope that makes sense.

thank you for explaining

 

[sevun]

Since the official resources mimic the real exam pretty well, or so I've heard, I am expecting there to be a lot of inference questions in VR. I often spend an extra 10-20 seconds tossing up between options which really hurts my time management, since the options both could be the answer, it's just that one is "more correct". Does anybody have any tips on choosing which option?
I feel that perhaps if you're unsure about which option and haven't read the text fully and just skimmed, would picking the more general one help? Any extra ideas?

Also, can someone help me understand their explanation?:

 

[Breg]

Since the official resources mimic the real exam pretty well, or so I've heard, I am expecting there to be a lot of inference questions in VR. I often spend an extra 10-20 seconds tossing up between options which really hurts my time management, since the options both could be the answer, it's just that one is "more correct". Does anybody have any tips on choosing which option?
I feel that perhaps if you're unsure about which option and haven't read the text fully and just skimmed, would picking the more general one help? Any extra ideas?

Also, can someone help me understand their explanation?:
View attachment 3758

So you're asked about the "significance of the distinction" between scutula and scapula. From reading the text, the significance of how this word is translated determines how much Romans knew about the shape of Britain (which is more of a shoulder blade than a diamond).

 

[sevun]

So you're asked about the "significance of the distinction" between scutula and scapula. From reading the text, the significance of how this word is translated determines how much Romans knew about the shape of Britain (which is more of a shoulder blade than a diamond).

Thanks Breg! Also, since you did so well in VR, do you have any tips for eliminating options which you are tossing up between (since VR is all inference-y)?

 

[AJ]

Hi guys,
This may rub off as an odd question, however, I feel I need to know as it may affect my performance given the technique I use to attack the VR section.
Does anyone/ can anyone confirm (as from my understanding the text size is bigger within the actual test, therefore, the passages are perceived as longer) whether you are required to scroll to the end of the passage for each questions for a particular passage or just the once for the four questions before moving on. The reason I say this is because, approx 10 minutes in I tend to try shift to the TF/CT marks and within the practice tests you can shuffle through quite quick. I would hate to have to scroll down for each question! and if this is the case I will tend towards adopting a new technique.
Thanks in advance.

 

[hazell]

hey, yeah I had the exact same concerns before my exam- I sat it yesterday and the font size was bigger, but it was very comfortable to read. The exam was stretched out horizontally to fill up the whole screen. You can still tell the relative size of the passage- the only scrolling i had to do was to show the url for referencing of the passage. I had about 2 or 3 i had to scroll for and when skipping it did ask to scroll to the bottom before continuing. I wouldn't recommend adopting a new technique because you don't need to scroll that much- most of the passages fit within the screen

 

[Noodlemeister]

It seems some people I've talked too are finding the VR passages longer than the ones found in mocks. I'm thinking this is probably due to most people being used to "standard" desktop resolutions when doing these practices while UCAT uses a lower resolution with higher text scaling. That's just my 2 c though.

 

[gr8]

hey guys! sorry if this has already been answered before... but if you're pressed for time and you're guessing a bunch of the true/false/can't tell questions. which would you pick? im torn between true and can't tell