TSA (Thinking Skills Assessment) Tips and Tricks

Summary

马特·威廉姆斯是牛津大学耶稣学院的访问研究员，他在视频中更新了关于思考技巧评估（TSA）的考试技巧。由于2020年新冠疫情的影响，TSA考试将不再提供纸质试卷，因此他建议考生将注释转移到其他允许的介质上。他强调了考试对智力耐力的测试，并提供了多项选择部分和论文写作的技巧。威廉姆斯通过分析2019年TSA考试的最后五个问题，分享了如何提高解题效率的策略，并提供了写作论文的关键建议。

Takeaways

• 😷 2020年由于新冠疫情，TSA考试将不再有纸质试卷，考生需适应在无纸化条件下进行考试。
• 📝 考生可以将注释转移到其他允许的书写介质上，比如纸张或小白板。
• 💡 TSA考试不仅测试智力，更考验在持续的智力压力下的表现，需要考生有良好的身心状态。
• 🥇 牛津大学招生时，TSA成绩的微小差异可能导致排名的巨大变化，因此保持最佳状态至关重要。
• 🍽️ 考生需要保证充足的休息、饮食和水分，以维持考试时的精力。
• ✅ 考试时先读题目再读其他信息，可以提高效率，避免重复阅读。
• 🔢 解决问题时，明确关键变量，忽略无关信息，有助于快速解题。
• 📉 理解题目中的逻辑结构，如'如果不是P，则不是Q'，有助于清晰解题。
• 📊 通过逻辑推理而非直觉判断，可以更准确地解答选择题。
• 📝 写作部分，要紧扣题目要求，使用题目中的关键词，确保回答切题。
• 🔑 写作时，明确回答问题，逻辑清晰，避免偏题，是获得高分的关键。

Q & A

马特·威廉姆斯在牛津大学的哪个学院担任访问研究员？

马特·威廉姆斯在牛津大学的耶稣学院担任访问研究员。

2020年TSA考试因为什么情况发生了重大变化？

2020年TSA考试因为冠状病毒大流行而发生了重大变化，考生将不再有纸质试卷。

在没有纸质试卷的情况下，考生应该如何进行注释？

考生可以将注释转移到其他允许的书写介质上，如一张纸或一个小白板。

TSA考试主要测试什么能力？

TSA考试主要测试学生的智力耐力，而不仅仅是解决问题和批判性思考的能力。

在TSA考试中，为什么后面的题目感觉更难？

后面的题目感觉更难是因为考生在考试后期会感到疲劳，但这并不意味着它们实际上比前面的题目更难。

在TSA考试的多项选择部分，马特·威廉姆斯有什么答题技巧？

马特·威廉姆斯建议先读题目，再读其他信息，以提高效率。

马特·威廉姆斯在视频中提到了哪种类型的逻辑论证？

马特·威廉姆斯提到了形式逻辑中的论证类型，特别是'如果不是p，那么不是q'的论证形式。

在TSA考试中，为什么考生需要照顾好自己的身体和心理状态？

因为TSA考试是一场智力耐力的马拉松，考生需要确保在考试时身心处于最佳状态。

马特·威廉姆斯在视频中提到了哪几种类型的题目？

马特·威廉姆斯提到了批判性思维题、解决问题题和空间推理题。

在TSA考试的论文部分，马特·威廉姆斯有什么写作技巧？

马特·威廉姆斯建议在论文写作中识别并重复使用问题中的关键词，确保精确回答问题。

马特·威廉姆斯在视频中提到了哪些关于TSA考试的重要提示？

马特·威廉姆斯提到了考试技巧、照顾好自己、以及如何高效答题等重要提示。

Outlines

00:00

📚 TSa考试更新与技巧分享

马特·威廉姆斯介绍了自己在牛津耶稣学院的访问研究员身份，并回应了评论者关于更新TSA（思维技巧评估）视频的请求。他提到2020年由于冠状病毒大流行，TSA考试将有显著变化，考生将不再有纸质试卷，因此需要将之前的注释技巧转移到其他允许的书写媒介上。他还强调了TSA考试对智力耐力的测试，而不仅仅是解决问题和批判性思维的能力，并分享了一些考试技巧，比如照顾好自己的身体和心理状态。最后，他提到将分析2019年TSA考试的最后五个问题，并提醒考生注意问题难度是随机分布的，并非最后的问题最难。

05:02

🔍 TSA考试逻辑问题解析

马特通过分析2019年TSA考试的第46题，展示了如何通过逻辑形式化来解决逻辑问题。他指出了正确理解问题中逻辑形式的重要性，并提醒考生注意不要混淆不同形式的逻辑论证。他通过排除法，逐步分析每个选项，最终确定了正确答案。此外，他还强调了在考试中效率的重要性，建议考生先读问题再读信息，以减少重复阅读，节省时间和精力。

10:03

📊 解决TSA数学问题的方法

马特解释了如何高效地解决TSA考试中的数学问题，以第47题为例。他建议考生首先确定需要提取的关键数据，然后忽略其他不必要的信息。他通过计算每天面团的重量变化，展示了如何逐步解决问题。他还提到，如果时间紧迫，可以通过理解问题的基本逻辑来快速确定答案，而不必完成所有的计算步骤。

15:06

🥜 TSA考试问题解决技巧

在分析第48题时，马特展示了如何通过专注于问题的关键变量来解决问题。他指出，即使面对大量数据，考生也应该清楚自己需要提取哪些数据，并忽略那些可能会分散注意力的无关信息。通过计算混合坚果袋中杏仁和花生的重量变化，他展示了如何系统地解决问题，并找到正确答案。

20:07

🎲 空间推理问题的解题策略

马特讨论了TSA考试中的空间推理问题，并分享了一些解题技巧。他建议考生首先理解问题的要求，然后根据这些要求来分析选项。他通过分析一个骰子的展开图，展示了如何确定哪些数字应该对齐，以及如何通过旋转来找到正确的答案。他还提到，如果考生有纸，可以尝试折叠来帮助理解问题，但这不是必需的。

25:08

✍️ TSA论文写作技巧

马特分享了TSA考试论文部分的写作技巧。他强调了精确回答问题的重要性，并建议考生在文章的开头就直接回答问题。他建议考生识别并重复使用问题中的关键词，以确保答案的准确性。他还建议考生将论点分解成不同的部分，并按照逻辑顺序组织文章。他通过分析2019年TSA考试的论文题目，展示了如何使用这些技巧来构建有说服力的论点。

🌐 探讨种族改变的可能性

在讨论最后一个问题时，马特探讨了在假设自动面部识别技术完全可靠的情况下，是否应该限制其使用。他建议考生应该从道德、法律和经济的角度来考虑限制，并按照逻辑顺序组织论点。他还提到了种族作为一个社会构建的概念，并探讨了在生物学和社会层面上改变种族的可能性。

💼 商业的主要目标是否应该是赚钱

马特以最后一个问题结束了他的视频，这个问题探讨了商业的主要目标是否应该是赚钱。他建议考生应该围绕'应该'这个词来构建论点，并考虑从道德和后果两个方面来分析。他提醒考生在回答问题时，要确保完全回答了问题，并避免偏离问题的主题。他还鼓励考生如果有任何后续问题，可以通过评论或电子邮件与他联系，并祝愿所有考生考试顺利。

Keywords

💡TSA

TSA是Thinking Skills Assessment的缩写，即思维能力评估，是牛津大学用于评估申请者批判性思维和问题解决能力的考试。视频中提到，2020年由于冠状病毒大流行，TSA考试将不再有纸质试卷，这对考生的准备工作产生了影响。

💡intellectual stamina

即智力耐力，指的是在持续的智力压力下进行思考和解决问题的能力。视频中强调TSA考试不仅测试考生的智力水平，更重要的是测试考生在压力下持续思考的能力，这类似于长跑而非短跑。

💡annotations

即注释，指的是在学习过程中对材料进行标记和解释的行为。视频中提到，由于考试形式的变化，之前视频中建议的注释方法可能不再适用，因此需要找到新的方法来记录关键信息。

💡physical paper copy

即纸质副本，视频中提到，由于疫情的影响，考生将不再有纸质试卷，这意味着考生需要适应在没有纸质材料的情况下进行考试。

💡logical terms

即逻辑术语，视频中通过逻辑术语来解释和分析论证的形式，帮助考生更清晰地理解逻辑结构。例如，使用'if not p, then not q'来描述一种逻辑关系。

💡principle

即原则，视频中提到，在解答某些题目时，需要识别并理解题目中使用的原则。例如，在讨论金钱是否应该用来改善生活质量时，'money enables'（金钱使能）是核心原则。

💡efficiency

即效率，视频中多次提到提高解题效率的重要性，尤其是在时间有限的考试环境中。建议考生通过直接阅读问题而不是所有信息来提高效率。

💡deontological

即义务论的，视频中在讨论道德原则时提到了这个概念，指的是行为本身的正确性，而不是行为的后果。例如，在讨论孩子们是否应该因为气候变化而罢课时，可以从义务论的角度来考虑。

💡utilitarian

即功利主义的，这是一种道德原则，主张行为的正确性取决于它们产生的后果。视频中提到，在讨论孩子们是否应该罢课时，可以从功利主义的角度来考虑其可能带来的积极后果。

💡hook words

即关键词，视频中提到，在回答TSA论文题目时，识别并使用题目中的关键词非常重要。关键词是理解并精确回答问题的关键，如'should'、'restrictions'、'could'等。

💡sourdough

即酸面团，视频中使用酸面团的增长问题来说明解题技巧。通过计算每天酸面团的增长量和蒸发量，来确定何时酸面团的量会达到所需的550克。

Highlights

2020年TSA考试将因新冠疫情有所变化，考生将不再有纸质试卷。

建议将之前的注释技巧转移到其他允许的书写介质上，如纸张或小白板。

强调TSA考试测试的是智力耐力而不仅仅是智力水平。

考试前的准备应包括充足的休息、饮食和水分补充。

考试技巧包括理解题目要求后再阅读其他信息。

TSA考试的多项选择题难度是随机分布的，并非后面的题目更难。

通过逻辑形式化来理解论证，如将论证简化为逻辑公式。

在解答问题时，识别并忽略掉不必要的信息以提高效率。

解答问题时先确定关键变量，忽略其他无关变量。

在解答数学问题时，先确定所需的具体数值，然后寻找数据。

理解考官在题目中设置的陷阱，专注于核心信息。

在解答空间推理题时，先确定数字的相对位置关系。

写作部分要精确回答问题，使用问题中的关键词。

在写作中，明确论点并围绕关键词构建段落。

写作时，将概念分解并按逻辑顺序组织论点。

在写作中区分道德、法律和经济层面的论点。

理解题目中的关键词，如'should'和'could'，并据此构建答案。

在写作中，确保完全回答问题，避免偏离主题。

Transcripts

hi everyone my name is matt williams i'm

the access fellow here at jesus college

at the university of oxford

i have been asked by a few commenters to

update my tsa

video the thinking skills assessment

video i'll link the old ones

up here so check those out if you

haven't seen them already but i'm very

happy to do so thank you so much for the

comments do keep them coming i'll try

and respond as quickly as i can

one update that's really important is

that this year 2020 of course there's

going to be some significant

changes as a result of the coronavirus

pandemic one of the most

impactful changes is that you will no

longer have a physical paper copy of the

tsa to work from

and that means that some of the

annotations that i suggested in previous

videos

won't work so easily so i'll explain

some of my techniques as to how you can

transfer the annotations onto another

writing medium that you will be allowed

to have either a piece of paper or a

little white board next to you

at the test center so that's one thing

to bear in mind

the other thing is just to emphasize

some of the top exam technique tips that

i provide in the other

videos and i think one of the key things

to stress is how much

the tsa test tests your intellectual

stamina it doesn't just test how smart

you are

in fact i think even more than testing

your ability to solve problems and think

critically

it tests how you can do that under a

sustained amount

of intellectual pressure it is a

marathon in other words not a sprint

and that has all sorts of implications

for how you treat

your mind in the preparation for the

test and most importantly that means

that you need to look after yourself

that when i've done admissions

using the tsa test in oxford so that's

mostly for the philosophy politics and

economics degree ppe

i've seen that the difference between

being in the top

quartile and the second quartile comes

down to a fraction of

one percent tiny tiny differences and it

really

therefore could make the difference

whether you tip over into that top

quartile or not

as to how fresh you're feeling because

if you're going through a test of

intellectual stamina you need to make

sure that your

mind and body are at their peak and so

that means you need to be very well

rested

you need to sleep and you need to eat

well and you need to drink plenty of

water

these physical and physiological

factors make substantial neurological

difference and therefore you really need

to take consideration of them

another consideration is how to work out

the most efficient way of answering the

questions certainly the multiple choice

components section one of the tests

and so i'm going to share with you some

of my tips as to how to maximize that

efficiency

so you can get through the questions

nice and quickly i'm going to go through

the

five finishing questions of the 2019

tsa section one the reason for going

through the last five questions is

because a lot of people suspect that the

finishing questions are the most

difficult

actually if you go and look at the

weighting of the questions which is all

provided on the oxford university

website you'll see that

the difficulty of questions is randomly

distributed around the paper so it's not

the case that the later questions are

more difficult than the earlier ones

but i suspect that the later questions

certainly feel harder because by that

stage

you're knackered you're just tired and

that's completely understandable

so i'll go through those last five uh

just to share some of my tips as to how

you can get through them more quickly

i'll then quickly go through section two

just to remind you some of my top essay

writing techniques

and that'll be that so i'm going to

share with you

my ipad screen okay so let's start with

question number 46.

now one of my first tips with regard to

maximizing your efficiency is always to

start by reading the prompt

the question before reading any of the

other extraneous information

because then you know the task that's

expected of you it's just a bit more

efficient

because what will often happen is that

you'll read the information then read

the question and then you'll have to

read the information again

it just cuts out that component for the

most part

so which one of the following most

closely parallels the reasoning used in

the above argument

now this little question crops up

earlier and one way to

help yourself with this is to formalize

the

form of argument that you've got here

now this is common in formal logic

and it's the sort of thing that

philosophers do it's not terribly

complicated however so i'll just show

you how to do it

so your cake will be tasty only if you

use fresh ingredients

which you can only buy at the market you

did not go to the market so your cake

will not be

tasty now this is a type of argument

along the lines of

not p therefore

three dot triangle is therefore not

q okay now why philosophers like p

and q i don't know but they do you can

use whatever letters or symbols you like

but it makes it relatively clear now the

examiners are looking for the same

type of argument if not p therefore not

q

it could be tempting to say that other

arguments where you have p

and therefore have q are the same form

of argument but according to the logic

of it

they aren't so be careful with that for

example if we look at

a you can only be happy if you are

healthy to be healthy you have to eat a

lot of vegetables you eat a lot of

vegetables

so you must be happy now that's a form

of argument along the lines of

p therefore q

and it's tempting to say that that's

basically the inverted logic of

the cake argument but that's and that is

precisely true but it's inverted logic

and therefore it's not the same form of

argument so in my first reading through

these questions i thought

it might be a but actually on thinking

about it more carefully

it's not the same form the examiner's

statement about cakes is if not

p therefore not q and a is p therefore q

okay so just be careful with that so we

can we can dismiss a

b she only went to school or to the

playground she's not in the playground

so she must have gone to

school so this is a case of not

p therefore q

which is again not the same form of

argument see

if you light a candle there is light and

if there's light i'm able to reach you

you must admit to candle because i can

read so this is the case of p

therefore q you lit a candle that i can

read

so let's not see listening to loud music

through earphones damages hearing his

hearing is fine which means that he must

not have

listened to loud music through earphones

so this is a case of

not p therefore

q and then finally good knowledge of the

car is necessary for fixing it

without fixing the car we will not

arrive at the wedding in time we will

surely be late

we do not have good knowledge of the car

so not

p therefore not

q and so e is the answer because it is

the only one

that is the same form of argument as the

original argument okay so hopefully that

makes sense

i can see how confusion easily emerges

because i was easily confused by this

but if you formalize it if you think in

logical terms

i think it makes things a lot clearer

okay so that's question

46 let's go to question 47 and question

47

is a critical thinking question and

again start by reading the question

don't uh waste your time by reading all

of this

and then read the question and then read

it all again because

that's part of what will contribute to

your fatigue and you want to be as

efficient as possible

okay so which one of the following

illustrates the principle used in the

above argument so we're looking for the

principle

okay so we can write down

principle on our piece of paper

and once we've found the principle we

don't necessarily need to read anything

else

so be fairly confident once you distill

the essence of what's being said

you can kind of move on because the

examiners will put in a lot of

fluff a lot of filler in order again to

just waste your time and to make you

feel fatigued so once you've worked out

the principle you can probably move on

so let's read it costs of health care in

the uk are

shared through taxation but some of

those who can afford to pay for a higher

standard of care choose to do so

some think it is immoral for rich people

to receive better health care simply

because they can afford to pay

pay for it but the whole point of money

is to enable those who have it to

improve the quality of

life of themselves and their families

the whole point now there's not much

more of a giveaway than that that this

is the essence of the argument the

principle

so the principle i would say is that

money

enables now again you can't write on

your

exam this year because of

covid but you can write principal equals

money enabled

now we could reach to the end if we want

uh but you know if you're getting

towards the end of the paper and you're

running out of time

you may just simply want to move on to

reading the five options but let's just

read to the end quickly

um if money did not offer such

advantages it would not motivate people

to develop

their skills or to work harder in order

to earn more since people are morally

entitled to use their money to buy

advantages for themselves and their

loved ones

there can be no objection to private

medicine

so which of the following illustrates

the principle used

so we're looking for the principle that

money is enabling all right

so a people who have been born rich

should not waste their inherited wealth

in gambling self-indulgence and

extravagant living

no that's not the principle b it is a

good thing for people from rich

countries to take foreign holidays

because the income generated below value

but no

see people who are born talented are

under a moral obligation to develop

their talents

no so you don't really need to read the

whole

prompt and that could actually waste

your time if you tried

d rich people should give away some of

their wealth to benefit those less

fortunate than themselves

no the inheritance tax should be set at

a fairly low rate so that the children

of rich parents inherent enough money to

make a substantial difference to their

lives

now i'd say e is closest to the

principle that money

is enabling of choice of of empowerment

okay so e is the correct answer

all right so question 48 is a

problem-solving question meaning that

it's a more mathematical

question and again you can with these

ones even read

the question first just so that you know

what you're hunting for so that you're a

bit like a detective who knows what

murder weapon they're searching out

so in which day am i going to have the

necessary amount of sourdough so we're

looking for a specific day

okay and we're looking for an amount of

sourdough so it's useful to know what

the amounts of sourdough are

we've got a sense of the key variables

in this question quantity of sourdough

number of days okay any other variables

are therefore somewhat extraneous

so even before reading the information

we know what data we need to extract

i think that's quite a sensible way of

going through it because there is so

much data given

too much data given deliberately in

order to tie you out so if you want to

maximize the efficiency

of your of your stamina then that could

be a good way of doing it

anyway so let's go through it sourdough

an ingredient of many bread products

is a fermented mixture of flour and

water i mean that's an example that's

pure filler you don't need to read that

at all

but it's there just to sort of draw some

more of your intellectual energy

at eight am on monday morning i start

with a mixture of 50 grams of flour and

50 grams of water

each morning at 8 a.m i double the

weight of the sourdough by adding equal

weights of flour and water

i know that one gram of water content

evaporates every hour

the bread recipe that i would like to

use requires 550 grams of

flat sourdough i also want at least 50

grams of sourdough left over so that i

can continue growing for next week's

bread

so which day am i going to have the

necessary amount of sourdough

so we now know that necessarily the

necessary amount of

sourdough is 550 grams and we're trying

to work out

on what day that much is produced given

that the amount doubles

daily so let's write it again in some

quite formalist

formalized terms so that we get a clear

sense

of what's going on so on monday morning

i start with a mixture of

50 grams of flour 50 grams of water

and one gram of the water evaporates

every hour

so in a 24-hour period we lose 24 grams

meaning that we have a total amount

of 50 plus 50 was 100 minus 24 which is

76 grams so on tuesday there are 76

grams

okay and

each morning at 8 am i double the weight

of the sourdough

okay by adding equal weights of flour

and water now we don't necessarily need

to worry about the equal weights of

flour and water we just need to know

that it's doubled

in scale so it's 76 grams multiplied by

two

and we know that of that 24 grams are

going to disappear through evaporation

so 76 times 2 is 140 152

minus 24 is 12828

grams so on wednesday we've got

128 grams which is doubled

minus 24. so 128

times two is 256. minus 24.

solutions to my mental arithmetic here

is

uh 252 232

okay like that so on thursday now again

if you're really

struggling for time you've probably done

enough maths now because

you know that it's doubling

minus 24 every day so we know that the

answer can't be thursday but we know if

you double 232

and you're gonna get uh

400 over 400 and that's going to be

doubled again on friday so you know that

it's got to be friday that you're going

to get over 550 grams so

if you're getting short on time you

don't really need to do all of the

mathematics but i'll just go through it

just to be clear so 232 grams multiplied

by 2 because we're doubling weight and

then we're losing 24 grams

so that's 464

464 minus 24 is

440 so that means that on friday

we're going to double it again 440 grams

multiplied by 2 minus 24 and we know

that we don't even need to do that final

mathematics but we know that

that is greater than 550.

so the answer has to be friday okay

so let's move on to question 49 and

again i would suggest you start by

reading the question

what is the largest possible peanut

content of the nuts remaining in the bag

after i've eaten all the almonds so we

know that we need to concentrate our

fire on peanuts and almonds

again the examiners are going to throw

loads of information in your face

they're going to try and put you off

they're

going to try and distract you you only

need to focus really on peanuts and

almonds okay

so a 250 gram bag of mixed nuts

this the contents of the packet as

follows

as they are my favorite i eat all the

almonds in the packet and re-weigh it i

find that the almond content was the

minimum it could have been whilst being

consistent with labeling

what's the largest possible peanut

content of the nuts remaining in the bag

after i've eaten the almonds okay

so we need to work out the weight of the

bag after eating the almonds

so the bag starts at 250 grams

the album content was the minimum it

could have been so that's 20

so we're looking for 20 250

uh which is 50 grams okay so without the

almonds the bag weighs

200 grams okay now we know that the

peanut content of the nuts remaining bag

was the largest possible okay

so we've got 40 of the original bag

not the new 200 gram bag but the

original brag

is peanuts so 250 grams

40 thereof is 100 grams

so we know that 100 grams of the newly

reduced bag without the almonds

is peanuts which is half right because

the 200 gram bag uh

divided by 100 is equal to

half okay and so the answer must be c

so again just go through it

systematically

work out what data you need and also

what data is extraneous that the

examiners are trying to just throw in

your face and distract you with

and move on okay as ever these sorts of

puzzles are pretty straightforward if

you've got

all the time in the world but it's the

stress and the fatigue that tend to

drag you down at this later stage of the

exam and so it's

finding those techniques to speed up the

process to be more efficient and to stay

calm

that's what we're looking for okay now

question 50 is a spatial

reasoning question these are the sort of

questions i really hate i really

struggle with

bending these shapes in my mind

but again there are ways that you can

make your life a little bit easier so

you could read the question first but i

mean there's a little writing here it's

not a big deal

the net below can be folded to make

roman at numerical dice

which one of the following dice could

have been made as a result of the

folding the net okay so again to start

with the information that you know

you know that there has to be

an arrangement of the numbers four and

one

such that four and one are in alignment

with each other

and you know the same must be true of

three and six

so when we're trying to work out how the

other numbers will align at least we've

got

some polarity we've got and we've got a

vector if you like

okay and we know that relative to one

and uh four that there's got to be

a 90 degree turn so if we're looking for

where

two is relative to four it's got to be

switched

90 degrees in a clockwise direction and

then we know that there is another

90 degrees angle here

another one here and another one

here sorry this is really terrible

uh drawing but uh anyway hopefully you

get the point but there are

490 degree angle so if if one and four

are in in an alignment

then we know that two is going to be

90 degrees off three and six will be 180

degrees and 270 degrees

and then five will be 360 degrees so

five will be the same alignment as one

and four

okay so now when it comes to looking at

the options

well let's start with the simple array

so we know that one and four must be

aligned we know that screen six must be

aligned so look for any examples where

that could be the case

so one and three no one and four

here you can see are not in alignment so

you know that b

is wrong uh we know that a is wrong

uh c one and three not sure yet

okay d one and four are in alignment one

is above the four so that's right and we

also know that five must have gone

through a 360 degree rotation

so d must be correct okay

there you go so there are various tricks

that you can

use to try and make this easier i mean i

did say if you're given

paper you could if you really wanted to

tear it up and fold it into a dice

but uh it's not strictly necessary okay

let's go through section two so what are

my key tips for this is the essay and

this again is from the 2019 paper

now as i've written in my previous

videos on the tsa essay they go into a

lot more detail

the first thing is you need to know what

you need to say in order to answer the

question precisely

one of the things that examiners really

dislike is when students don't

actually answer the question and the

best way to ensure that you're answering

the question is to

literally reuse the question wording

when framing your response

and that will also help you identify

what i call the hook words of the

question which is the parts of the

question

which you need to address in order to

satisfactorily answer the questions

so let's start with the first question

should children strike to demand action

on a major issue such as climate change

now if i was asked that in person if i

was to respond precisely without

deviation at all

from the question i would have to say

yes children should strike to demand

action on a major issue such as climate

change or no they shouldn't or whatever

response they want to give the word

should is clearly doing a lot of the

spade work it's one of the first words

that comes out and that's not

surprising because it's one of the

primary verbs okay

and so should is one of is the hook word

here

you need if you're to answer this

question properly you need to explain to

someone what it means

to should do something should it strike

and so should is going to form

the backbone of your argument and so you

want an introduction where you answer

the question very clearly and we're

going to say

do answer the question in the

introduction do not mess around

indeed you should answer the question in

your opening line imagine you're

in a conversation with someone you ask

them a question and they don't answer

the question until

30 minutes have elapsed it's going to be

quite frustrating

answer the question in the opening line

okay

and then structure your argument around

the word should so you need to break

your

paragraphs down into considering

different aspects of

should now a classic dichotomy would be

should in a deontological sense

and should in an instrumental or

utilitarian sense

and what that means is that should you

do something because it's just right to

do it it's intrinsically a good thing to

do it doesn't really matter what the

consequences are

versus should you do something because

it will lead to better outcomes

so should children strike they should

strike because striking

is a good thing it's an intrinsically

good thing because it shows their

protest it shows their anger their sense

of desperation

it doesn't really matter what the

consequences are and should because it

will actually

move things forward it'll progress the

debate it'll make people realize how

much needs to be done

so that you can you can talk about

should in both of those dimensions and

it you can pretty much always define

should in those two terms

and of course you can you can link them

together that

the the reason that children should

express themselves they should strike

is because it will help make a

difference and even if it doesn't have

direct

utility even if it doesn't make a direct

difference it can contribute to wider

debate that might

make a difference so it's not like we're

trying to completely separate out

the deontological and the utilitarian

but

it can be quite a useful way of taking

steps through the essay which will make

sense

okay so that's my key piece of advice

for the essays is identify the hook word

and for goodness sake use it use it and

use it and use it

don't use synonyms don't deviate from

the question wording

because then you're not answering the

question the key

the key thing to remember for yourself

in the essay is

you must answer the question the whole

question and nothing but the question

okay because otherwise if you deviate at

all you're just giving the examiners

the opportunity to mark you down and you

don't want that okay so question number

two

assume that automated face recognition

technology is completely reliable

what restrictions if any should there be

on its use so again if someone asked you

that face to face

you would have to start by saying well

the restrictions that there should be

are blah so the key words the hook words

are

restrictions and should okay

so again you could you could think about

should

and break that up but i think sort of

restrictions is perhaps more

obviously what we need to be talking

about

and so you need to deconstruct the

notion of restriction

so that you can define it deconstruct

means that imagine restriction as a

concept as a building you're going to

take the bits of the building off to see

how it's put together

so you could think of restrictions in

terms of

legal moral

economic maybe now

when you've worked out how to

deconstruct a concept work out what

logical sequence they could go in now i

would suggest that

moral is probably the most important

because that's

the the broadest so if you imagine a

funnel we're going for the broadest to

them to the narrowest

moral probably comes first than legal

then economic

i would suggest very simply put it also

means that the law is derivative of

morality and economics

derivative of law so you've got a

logical sequence if we go

moral restrictions legal restrictions

economic restrictions and having that

sort of logical progression of points

really helps your readers because they

can understand they can follow the story

if you jump around from point to point

as if you're hopping over stepping

stones it's very confusing

so at all costs try and avoid that okay

so okay we can talk about those sorts of

restrictions

uh could somebody choose to change their

race so

again if someone's asking you about face

to face the key word is could

it's not should it could if you talk

about should you'll get

a bad mark okay the examiners are very

precise to the degree

to the point of being pedantic and you

need to be pedantic as well

so could this is potentiality and could

here is the

um is the hook word so could in the

sense of

is it i suppose you could talk about

biologically feasible

but then you could also talk about

sociological

in other words it's what extent is race

a construct

of sociology that differences in skin

color

are so irrelevant that they're as

irrelevant as differences in eye color

or hair color

so someone could change their race

insofar as they could

change the very conversation about race

and they could even sort of transcend

race

uh if if you like so once you've

deconstructed could you can

deconstruct your argument you can come

up with a more

segmented argument and you can work out

a logical construction

i think it's fairly reasonable to start

with the biological and then go on to

the sociological because of course

anything about human society is

derivative to some extent from our

biology

so could somebody choose to change their

race you could argue

uh they could in biological terms

and they could in sociological terms or

they could knock on both senses it's up

to you to decide what argument you'd

like

okay finally number four should the main

objective of a business be to make money

yes it should be no it shouldn't be okay

remember if someone's asked you it

directly

you know what the hook word is it's got

to be should

oops and again you could go for that

split between

the intrinsic morality the deontology to

use a bit of

jargon and the consequences of it it's a

classic sort of distinction in should

it's up to up to you how to work that

out but somehow you need to deconstruct

should and then go through your

deconstruction in a way that makes

logical sense

hopefully that's clear if you do have

any follow-up questions do please either

put a comment in or send me an email at

matthew.williams at jesus.ox.ac.uk

bottom line is that it's in our interest

for you to perform as well as possible

so

i'm genuinely rooting for you and i wish

you all the best

and yeah i hope to meet you one day

thanks so much

bye

you