The moment to catch it
The flicker of recognition at a phrase. When a choice on an inference question feels right because you have seen its words before, ask what those words claim in this sentence.
A worked preview
The Free Error Check.
MCAT CARS
The book’s check is designed to give you a starting point: a short set of questions, about fifteen minutes, built around Chapter IX’s biases and patterns. The full check is coming. Explore one of those patterns below.
A short set of questions
About fifteen minutes
The passage’s own words
Chapter IXIt used the passage’s words,
so I trusted it.
This habit concerns inference questions. On retrieval, the passage’s words are what you want.
How the approach prevents it
Start with the question: retrieval or inference? On inference, look past the vocabulary to whose claim it is, how its parts are joined, and how far it goes. Match the choice’s key words to the passage words they stand for. Could the passage’s word be true while the choice’s is false? Familiarity is a reason to inspect the claim, never a reason to eliminate it by itself.
Read the full patternOne limit
On retrieval, you want the passage’s exact words when they come from the sentence the question asks about. That is why identifying the question type comes first.
MCAT CARS · Chapter IX
See the chapter’s scopeA closer look · Chapter IX
The words stayed.
The speaker changed.
A choice can reuse the passage’s language and put one person’s judgment in someone else’s mouth. Watch what happens when you track the claim.
In the passage
The critics
The reform was hasty.
The author
Its timing was compressed, but it followed years of quiet preparation.
Illustrative example from Chapter IX.
In the tempting choice
The reform was hasty in its timing, despite years of preparation.
Several words are familiar. That alone cannot establish what the author believes.
A judgment assigned to the wrong speaker
“Hasty” belongs to the critics. The choice imports their judgment into an account of the author’s position.
The book’s accurate restatement: less abrupt than it appeared.
The defect is the claim. The familiar wording is what alerts you to check it.
Reading a result
Follow the miss back.
The choice you selected, your account of how you answered, and a series of charted misses provide different evidence. A brief result begins the investigation.
A possible signal
The answer can suggest a pattern.
In the example above, a choice borrows the passage’s wording while changing whose judgment it expresses. Selecting it could point to recognition overriding a check of the claim.
It cannot establish why you selected it. You might have missed the speaker during the read, forgotten the question’s perspective, or trusted the familiar words.
Trace the speakerYour account matters
Some errors concern the process.
Did you cross out a choice because it read awkwardly? Did you ease off before the last, hardest step? The book’s check asks about these after each question because they may not show in the answer alone.
Record what you actually did while you can still remember it, before an explanation supplies a cleaner story.
Sound over senseA record across questions
Charting tests the first guess.
Some patterns are outside the check’s reach. Your chart lets you locate where an error entered and compare it with later misses. The result may hold up, or your own reasoning may overturn it.
A pattern label is optional. Use every label that fits, and finish with a prevention you can practice: when this, do this.
Work through the four questions