VARC1000 (Season 1) RC Lesson #1 How wrong answers are created

Summary

This video script delves into the art of creating reading comprehension questions, focusing on the strategies behind crafting correct and incorrect answer choices. It explains the three components of a reading question: the passage, the question stem, and the answer choices. The presenter, referred to as 'the evil guy,' illustrates how to identify and eliminate wrong choices by recognizing false, uncertain, broad, alien, narrow, and extreme statements. The script advocates for a methodical approach to reading comprehension, emphasizing the importance of understanding the context and details within a passage to discern the correct answer.

Takeaways

• 📚 The script discusses strategies for tackling reading comprehension questions, focusing on how to identify correct and incorrect answer choices.
• 🧩 It breaks down the components of a reading comprehension question: the passage, the question stem, and the answer choices.
• 👤 The script personifies the question setter as an 'evil genius' whose goal is to create confusion among test takers by crafting tricky answer choices.
• 🤔 It emphasizes the importance of understanding how wrong answer choices are created to improve reading comprehension skills.
• ❌ The script explains that wrong answer choices are not just false statements but also include uncertain or irrelevant information.
• 🔍 It teaches a method to evaluate answer choices by looking for contradictions, lack of certainty, or extreme statements.
• 📈 The script provides an example of a pre-session test question and walks through the process of analyzing each answer choice to determine its validity.
• 📝 It highlights that the correct answer must be true and directly supported by the passage, while wrong answers can be false, uncertain, or not mentioned.
• 🚫 The script warns against selecting answer choices that are too broad, alien to the context, narrow, or extreme.
• 💡 It suggests an elimination strategy where one should assume each answer choice is wrong and look for flaws to eliminate it from consideration.

Q & A

What are the three components involved in setting a reading comprehension question?

The three components involved in setting a reading comprehension question are the passage, the question stem, and the answer choices or options.

Who is typically responsible for creating the passage in a reading comprehension test?

The passage in a reading comprehension test is usually written by an author, who is distinct from the person setting the question.

What is the role of the question setter in a reading comprehension test?

The question setter's role is to pick the passage and create the question stem and answer choices for the reading comprehension test.

Why is it challenging for test takers to differentiate between the correct and incorrect answer choices?

It is challenging for test takers to differentiate between the correct and incorrect answer choices because the question setter deliberately creates wrong answers that are either false, extreme, or uncertain to trap the test takers.

What is the significance of the term 'uncertain' in the context of wrong answer choices?

In the context of wrong answer choices, 'uncertain' refers to statements that cannot be confirmed as true based on the information provided in the passage, leaving them open to interpretation and thus not definitively correct.

How does the speaker define a true statement in the context of answer choices?

A true statement in the context of answer choices is one that is 100% true and directly supported by the information in the passage.

What is the strategy suggested by the speaker to evaluate answer choices?

The strategy suggested by the speaker to evaluate answer choices is to break them down into smaller parts, assume they are wrong, and look for flaws such as broad, alien, narrow, or extreme statements.

Why does the speaker advise test takers to assume each answer choice is wrong until proven otherwise?

The speaker advises test takers to assume each answer choice is wrong until proven otherwise because there is a higher probability of an answer choice being wrong (three out of four chances) compared to being right.

What is the main idea the speaker is trying to convey about the process of creating wrong answer choices?

The main idea the speaker is trying to convey is that wrong answer choices are created by making statements that are broad, alien, narrow, or extreme, which deviate from the specific context and information provided in the passage.

How does the speaker explain the difference between a false statement and an uncertain statement in answer choices?

A false statement directly contradicts the information in the passage, while an uncertain statement lacks enough information to be confirmed as true, making it not definitively correct.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Understanding Reading Comprehension Question Creation

The paragraph discusses the challenges faced by students when tackling reading comprehension questions, particularly the difficulty of distinguishing between two seemingly plausible answer choices. It introduces the three components involved in setting such questions: the passage, the question stem, and the answer choices. The speaker identifies themselves as 'the question setter' and humorously refers to the author of the passage as 'the evil guy.' The focus is on the process of creating a correct answer and, more importantly, how to craft wrong answer choices that can trap test takers. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the techniques used to create wrong answers to improve reading comprehension skills.

05:01

📚 The Anatomy of a Reading Comprehension Question

This paragraph delves into the specifics of what makes a correct answer choice and what constitutes a wrong one. It explains that a correct answer must be entirely true and supported by the passage, while a wrong answer can either be false or uncertain. The speaker uses the example of a statement about their teaching experience to illustrate the difference between a true, false, and uncertain statement. The paragraph aims to prepare the learner for a pre-session test that will challenge their ability to discern between these types of statements.

10:03

🚫 Identifying Flawed Answer Choices

The speaker continues the discussion on how to identify incorrect answer choices, focusing on the characteristics that make them wrong. They highlight that wrong answers are not just those that are false but also those that are uncertain or not supported by the passage. The paragraph provides an in-depth analysis of a passage discussing women's fortitude during misfortune and how men tend to break down under similar circumstances. It then examines several statements, evaluating them as true, false, or uncertain based on the information provided in the passage.

15:07

🔍 Strategies for Eliminating Wrong Answer Choices

In this paragraph, the speaker outlines strategies for eliminating wrong answer choices by identifying them as too broad, alien to the context, narrow, or extreme. They reiterate the importance of assuming each answer choice is wrong until proven otherwise and finding flaws to eliminate them. The speaker provides a detailed analysis of each statement in relation to the passage, demonstrating how to apply these strategies to determine which answer choices are incorrect.

20:09

🏁 The Final Approach to Choosing the Right Answer

The final paragraph reinforces the importance of selecting the right answer choice by focusing on its veracity and eliminating the wrong ones. It stresses that there are no 'close' answer choices and that the feeling of an answer being close does not make it correct. The speaker provides a pointer for identifying wrong answers, which includes looking for broad, alien, narrow, or extreme statements. They encourage the use of this technique to evaluate answer choices and look forward to applying it in the next lesson with a different question.

Keywords

💡Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension refers to the ability to understand and interpret written text. In the context of the video, it is a skill that the presenter is helping viewers improve upon, particularly in the context of competitive exams. The video discusses strategies to tackle reading comprehension questions effectively, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between correct and incorrect answer choices.

💡Answer Choices

Answer Choices are the options provided to test takers in multiple-choice questions. The video script discusses the strategy of eliminating obviously incorrect choices and then focusing on the remaining options to determine the correct answer. The presenter also explains how question setters create wrong answer choices to challenge test takers.

💡Question Stem

The Question Stem is the main part of a question that presents the query or problem to be answered. In the video, the presenter explains that the question stem is created after selecting a passage and is crucial for focusing the test taker's attention on a specific aspect of the text.

💡Elimination

Elimination is a strategy used in answering multiple-choice questions where test takers rule out options that are clearly incorrect. The video emphasizes the importance of this technique, suggesting that by eliminating the obviously wrong choices, test takers can increase their chances of selecting the correct answer.

💡Uncertain

Uncertain refers to the state of being unsure or lacking information to make a definite judgment. In the video, the presenter advises test takers to be cautious of answer choices that introduce uncertainty, as these are often intentionally crafted by question setters to trap the unwary.

💡Extreme Choices

Extreme Choices are answer options that use words like 'always', 'never', 'all', or 'none', which tend to be too broad or sweeping. The video script warns that such choices are often incorrect because they overgeneralize and do not account for the nuances in the text.

💡Context

Context is the situation in which something exists or happens, and is important for understanding the meaning of a word, phrase, or passage. The video explains how understanding the context of a passage is crucial for answering questions correctly, as it helps to narrow down the scope of the discussion and avoid broad generalizations.

💡True Statement

A True Statement is one that accurately reflects the information presented in the text. The video script uses the concept of true statements to illustrate how the correct answer choice should align with the facts and details provided in the passage.

💡False Statement

A False Statement is one that contradicts the information in the text. The video script mentions that while identifying false statements is relatively straightforward, question setters often create more subtle incorrect choices that are not outright false but rather uncertain or extreme.

💡Main Idea

The Main Idea is the central theme or the most important concept of a passage. In the video, the presenter discusses how questions often ask for the main idea, and the correct answer choice should encapsulate this without introducing new or unrelated information.

💡Supporting Details

Supporting Details are specific facts or examples that back up the main idea or theme of a passage. The video script uses the concept of supporting details to explain how the correct answer choice should be supported by evidence from the text, rather than being a generalization or an extreme statement.

Highlights

Understanding the creation of wrong answer choices in reading comprehension questions can improve test-taking skills.

A reading comprehension question consists of a passage, a question stem, and answer choices.

The question setter's role is to pick a passage and create a question stem and answer choices.

The correct answer must be true and based on the passage, while wrong answers can be false or uncertain.

False statements are easy to identify as they directly contradict the passage.

Uncertain statements are those that cannot be confirmed as true based on the information provided.

Extreme statements, often using words like 'always' or 'never', are typically uncertain and wrong.

The context of the passage is crucial for determining the correctness of an answer choice.

Broad statements that go beyond the scope of the passage are often wrong.

Narrow statements that are too specific and not supported by the passage are also wrong.

Alien statements that introduce new and unrelated information are incorrect.

The main idea of a passage should be a statement that is 100% true and certain.

When evaluating answer choices, assume they are wrong and look for flaws to eliminate them.

The correct answer choice should not have any identified problems or flaws.

The technique to identify wrong answer choices involves checking for broad, alien, narrow, or extreme statements.

In reading comprehension, the ability to handle uncertain information is key to identifying wrong answer choices.

Practicing with a CAT question in the next lesson will help solidify the technique for evaluating answer choices.

Transcripts

how do they set

a reading competition question

every time it happens right in reading

comprehension

you read the question you have these

four answer choices

you eliminated two and then you are

stuck between two answer choice

and we are confused and one thing that

frustrates us a lot

is that whatever we try to do we always

get confused within two options

we tend to believe that there are these

two options which are close

and one of them uh i'm not able to

decide

in even after looking at explanatory

answers sometimes

people still not convinced as to why

some answer is right

and some answer is wrong and in this

video lesson

we're going to handle it head on we will

look at

how they create a wrong answer choice

now if you look at a

question setter a question center

are the reading component question for

the matter has got these three component

component number one is a passage

component number two

is a question stem or the question and

component number three

are these answer choices or options

now component number one is written by

someone else so there is

there is i don't know let me call that

person author

who kind of created the passage all

our question setter is doing so we'll

let's call him the

uh and why i've

put him as an evil guy it's okay now all

the questions that he is doing

uh so pick the passage and this is his

job

and to create the question that's what

he does

and we are the poor soul

we are we are the we are the test takers

trying to

break his logic okay time to figure out

which of the answer choices right or

wrong

now when when you think how how does

this gentleman create a question

the first thing he wants to create a

question stem so you could ask a

question what is the main idea

or which of the following author agrees

with or take a specific details

and create the question stem once you

create the question step

the first thing that he thinks is let me

create a correct answer

okay i believe that this right answer

and the

the biggest job that he has is to now

create these wrong ones

and when he creates a wrong one he's

always thinking about

us you're always thinking and saying

that i want to trap that guy

i'm going to trap the test taker i want

to trap you

kind of a thing and and it is important

for us to understand

how these wrong kinds of choices created

if i know that how is there any

technique images i created wrong as a

choice

if i know that then maybe just maybe

it will help me do reading comprehension

better

that's what we're going to do now there

is a pre-session test

you are supposed to take before i attend

this class i hope there was this one

short passage which which is solved and

i hope that you have the answer the

answer is not mentioned there i'm going

to reveal the answer to that question

this is the question on the screen

answer that question is answer choice

number d

did you get it right i don't know if you

marked a

b or c and those are wrong

okay we'll try and find out why abc are

wrong

as we obviously need to understand why

these correct but we also need to find

out

why abcd is wrong that's what we'll try

to do

right now

okay there is a statement that i

mentioned here jijo has been teaching

for the la

for for the last 20 years true statement

by the way

okay by the way i'm jijoh just in case

you forgot

so so let's say that if i have an answer

choice which is a

right answer choice let's say let's

create a true statement

and you you you would say the true

statement is something that is

jijo's teaching experience

is greater than five years oh that's a

true statement

it's very clearly said that these are

teaching for the last 20 years still

teaching experience definitely

greater than five years that's a true

statement let me create a false

statement

something that is not true so let's say

that uh

jijo's teaching experience

is less than two years you would say ah

that's false

because that directly contradicts now

please do understand

something that is not true is not

necessarily false

let me create a third statement let me

probably pick another color let's take a

let me pick a blue color

okay let's say that jijo

is married

let's take that from here can you infer

that

now what do you call this fellow in

maths i think that we call this

cannot be determined so there is this

one more thing

called uncertain things that are not

certain

we just call it uncertain please

understand your wrong answer choices

is not only those things that are false

the wrong answer child choices

or also those things that are uncertain

where i don't have enough information

to say or to so say some something for

certain

your right answer choice is something

that must be true

when i say something that is true and

what i'm saying is that

it must be something that is 100 days

true

now 100 percentage should be based on

the passage

let's just read this passage a bit okay

um in in the subsequent lesson we will

look at how to read effectively

but at this point in time let's just

read and understand what the passage is

trying to tell us

right it says i have often had an

occasion

to remark the fortitude with which women

sustained

the most overwhelming reverses of

fortune now the context

here is reverses of fortune that's the

context the discussion the context

reverse of fortune

and this talks about women sustaining

that oval universe of fortune and then

goes on to say

those disasters which break down the

spirit of a man

so it's also sake men break down

so what we know is that the context of

the discussion is that there are this

misfortune

or reversal of fortune in the misfortune

you know that there is women they

sustain

and men break down all let's say that do

not sustain let's let's let's just call

that okay

and if you look at the next part it says

uh and prostrate him in the dust

procedure does is very similar men not

sustaining okay

they say seems to call forth all the

energies of the softer sex

and give such interpretivity and

elevation to their character that at

times

approaches to sublimity so this part

seems to call for all screen energies so

this is simply saying that women sustain

so

so far from information point of view

what is given is women sustained men do

not sustain

during misfortune then it goes on to say

nothing can be more touching

than to behold a soft tender female who

had been all weakness independence

and alive to every trivial roughness

while treading the possible parts of

life

okay suddenly rising in mental force

to be the comforter and support of a

husband and a misfortune

comfort and support of a husband's

comforts and support husband hunter

misfortune so

these women comforts

supports their husband

or the misperch

and now i'm abiding with unstringing

firmness the bitter blast of adversity

yeah so this is basically the stories

the story is

that in the context of misfortune women

support their husband

women sustain men do not sustain and

women support and comforts their husband

right let's keep this in mind actually

what i'll do is i'll

i'll write this on top here so what we

said that during

misfortune

how women sustain i hope you can

read what i am writing men do not

sustain

and we said women comforts

that supports their husband okay that's

that's basically the story now i have

these

five statements one two three four five

six actually sixteen

so let us look at whether this is true

whether this is false whether it is

uncertain

based on whatever the information that

we have here right

true if it is under percentage true

false

if it is if it contradicts what is

mentioned

and nonsense if we have not enough

information at all

so let's go statement by statement the

first statement says

women do not support their husband

during times misfortune how can we say

that i am sure that you and i would

agree

how can they say that women do not

support when it's very clearly mentioned

that women support

this particular statement is definitely

false these false statements

are actually very easy to pick if

something content is very easy to pick

the question center does not want to

give you an option like this

this option is like one option where is

definitely not the right answer choice

the question center will not he can give

but usually avoids giving

answer choices wrong answers which you

can easily pick they do something else

let's look at statement number two now

the statement number two there stays

women support their husband

want to think of this and i'm sure

almost thinking

maybe true it's mentioned plus please

understand

this this context here the context of

discussion

is a context of misfortune please

imagine like this all the situation that

could have happened

that could have happened the whole

discussion is about the situation

of misfortune

and when you say women support the

husband that is kind of making a general

statement

what if husband cheat will the woman

support the husband

what if the husband decided that he

wants to go to thailand

on his own

the women support the husband i don't

know so you have this one

which says women supporting the husband

this particular choice

ladies and gentlemen is not true it is

not true because all we know from the

passage

is the context of misfortune and the

context is important what this

anti-choice has done

is that it has taken the context and

made it little broad

and therefore this answer choice is an

artist always uncertain

yes and look at number three no

man can sustain the verse of fortune not

even a single man

oops it's not a little extreme yeah

so the remember the passage i think

starts by saying i have

often had an occasion to mark the first

fortitude

this is too extreme and

and and usually extreme choices

you can say is uncertain i don't know

for sure okay

so this is not this is also an uncertain

answer choice

when you see things like most best

things like that extreme position should

must something that is definitive

always never these kind of words

very very forceful very negative or

strongest weakest

and so on and so forth these are usually

not the right other choice

but mind you if the author has taken the

position

extreme position author has taken a

position that every human being

is idiot if author has taken such a

position

then yes then i can draw the influence

but usually in

almost all the passages they don't take

the position so whenever you see

these words like most best should must

always never

immediately raise a red flag which means

that that

on all probability will not be the right

answer in this case

this is an uncertainty choice right so

we have

something that is extreme let's look at

statement number four women often well

that's a good word now that's a good

word

that's a good word women often the

support the family during terms of

misfortune so we have the context

women often that's all that quantity is

there the problem is

this word family what we know here

is women supporting their husband now

family

is different from husband husband is a

part of family but family may have other

members

we need to have no clue about what

happened to other member so ladies and

gentlemen

this is an alien to the whole discussion

not mentioned because it is alien to the

discussion

it is uncertain right now you might be

thinking it's probably true

but we want something that is definitely

true something that is hundred percent

certain

this is not 100 certain the passage does

not give information about family

perhaps it just gives information about

women supporting their husband

therefore ladies and gentlemen this

answer choice is something that

is uncertain and let's look at

statement number five today's women

support their husband during times of

misfortune okay we have

we have uh we have that women which is

good

supporting their husband during times of

misfortune and you say

that where did this come from today's

women

good woman where did that come from so

that is taking

the whole whole uh

narrowing the narrowing the context that

is given today's women western woman

indian woman not mentioned it's also

uncertain

and you have the sixth one husband

should be thankful to his wife during

times of misfortune

and you might be feeling that you should

be thankful the author

has not meant

said what the husband or husband should

or should not do

actually think about author's attitude

towards women in this passage it's

positive

right although other authors attitude

towards women

in this passage you can probably think

of an emoji which says he's pretty

positive

that's what his attitude was author's

attitude towards men

is actually pretty neutral

pretty neutral attitude towards men

he he did not swear at them we do not

say that what are you doing lying down

on the floor

nothing like that be pretty neutral he

is he did not make any value judgment

here

and this whole thing is a is a mismatch

of the tone of the passage all the

author never suggested any of these

things

right this is also uncertain so what you

see here

is if we can look at this and say that

the wrong answer choices

are are usually or the uncertain answer

choices are things that abroad

the things alien choices

not mentioned narrow choices

and extreme choices

and you can think of this as being

there are only few things that questions

that you can do to create a wrong answer

choice

few things and usually it revolves

around this

that's it now let's go back and look at

the passage

and see which one is wrong as a choice

and

more importantly why is the wrong hands

choice and we have to

kind of remember this particular part

right during this fortune

women sustained men do not sustain and

the women

comfort support the husband during that

time now

the question is asking about the main

idea right

the first thing first thing is the fact

that i have to look at

a statement that is true that that's my

most important thing the answer choice

must be true

what you have to do now is whenever you

look at a question

there are three questions which are

wrong and one question which is right

so the probability of a question

becoming right

is one fourth and probability of a

question that is wrong

is actually three fourth so it is more

likely that the

answer choice why am i saying question

option sorry

more likely that option is long than is

right so what you want to do when you

whenever you read any answer choice

whenever you read any answer choice what

you actually want to do is assume it is

wrong

okay or find the flaw don't

don't select look to eliminate and if

you feel that there is no flaw in the

nun's choice you keep it on hold

right that's all you do okay let's let's

look at this

answer choice here and and what

what i actually want to do when i

evaluate answer choices

uh i want to break this part so let's

say women are courageous

in times of fortune and we are

mispressing weaken different forces so

you have

part one part two and part three and

and evaluate this obviously i am not

asking to draw this line in while i'm

just i'm just saying that look at this

in small small part and evaluate

women are courageous in times of fortune

and weak in times of misfortune

did the author discuss this no this is

not

what the discussion of the passages

completely alien

to the whole discussion women is courage

uh courageous times of fortune and weak

in times of misfortune not right

so let's let's look at the second part

the author believes

that the weakest of the females can be

the source of strength when location

calls for it

okay let's look let's look at problems

here you suddenly see

weakest when you look at the word

weakest and you know that that ladies

and gentlemen

is an extreme as a choice

you can you can eliminate that that

straight how can i say it's weakest

a is eliminated but actually there are

more problems than answer choice if you

actually look at it

for example one other problem and the

choice is to say that women can be the

source of strength

when the occasion calls for it what

occasion

the whole passage talks about misfortune

as a context

now this is very broad yeah that's also

another problem

you don't need the you just need one

problem for it to be a problem as a

choice

you don't need all the uh uh

you don't need one or two just identify

one and you say chuck it there's

actually one more problem there

in the ranch choice this one talks about

women females can be the source of

strength and location calls for it now

so

saying for whom yeah for me for you

for the president for the prime minister

sources for whom

the whole passage is very very clear is

that the source of strength for the

husband

that's broad right so anyway that's

this con so you have this is this one

the author is amazed

that the character of woman can be

altered

by your circumstances i'm not too sure

about this author is amazed

probably by the look of how he's written

the passage

maybe he's amazed but definitely there

the the problem is the word

the character

women's character change is it a good

word i'm not too sure

women's character changes

and he says women's character can be

altered well that's not the problem with

it with an answer choice altered altered

what do you mean altered altered can be

the direction i can have a positive

positive alteration

i can also have a negative alteration

that can go both sides right

but the author was very clear come on

author was kind of positive anyways

but there is very easy one to uh

thing to look at which is this a buyer's

circumstances now we look at something

that is uh

something that is mentioned here which

says buyer circumstances ladies and

gentlemen

that is too broad the context is

definitely based on the context is a

misfortune by the way

so you eliminated a b c answer is d if

you actually check d

and break it down

you get everything how you see that

occupant women

often often as a good word provide

support and strength to their spouses

their spouses means their husband

in times of misfortune this statement is

100

is true now you might be thinking yes

that's a main idea this doesn't look

like a main idea this is like one part

of the

whole paragraph i don't care all i care

full force for sure is a can't be the

answer

be can't be the answer c can't be the

answer d is true

if the answer choice d would have been

the first answer choice what i've done

is okay i don't find any problem in this

i'll keep on keep it on hold and i will

evaluate the rest

that's what you do so the learning

ladies and gentlemen is that

is that there are no setting as a closed

answer choice

there are no clues on this choice just

because answer choice feels

close does not mean it is close you

feeling it close

does not mean it is close there are no

answers to close energy choices

there is a right answer choice and there

are wrong answer choice

and and the key of identifying the wrong

answer choice

is your ability to deal with things that

are uncertain

and i have given you a certain pointer i

said i i given you the pointer of

a beam strategy which is to say that

either it can be broad

it can be alien it can be narrow and it

can

or can be extreme and the third thing

that you look at

is eliminate look to eliminate right

as we go and solve more and more

question you keep

me using this simple technique

uh to evaluate that's a choice okay

in the next lesson let's pick up a cat

question and see

if this works see you then