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Tips For The Selective School Test Thinking Skills

The Critical Thinking or Thinking Skills test can be quite challenging for people who have not thoroughly prepared. You may be familiar with some of the test’s subjects and information. However, it is doubtful that you will be able to go in and breeze through the entire examination. Here, we will provide you with essential critical thinking test strategies to ensure that you are prepared to take the actual exam, this article is all about the tips for the selective school test thinking skills.

You must take the time to familiarize yourself with the many sorts of questions that will appear on the test of critical thinking. The Critical Thinking test is tough to pass, but it is not impossible. If you follow these critical thinking exam recommendations, you should have no trouble passing the critical thinking test and landing your ideal job. These tips that we’ve listed for you can not only help you in passing the Thinking Skills section of the exam but can also help you throughout your life when you apply these tips.

Study Your Logical Errors

Both formal and informal logical fallacies are crucial for resolving problems about assessing arguments. Weak arguments frequently succumb to fallacies such as:

• Strawman; 

• Slippery slope; 

• Emotional appeal; 

• False cause; 

• Ambiguity

There are many more, so take the time to learn what the fallacy is and why it is a fallacy. Then, read instances of these fallacies in action so you can become accustomed to recognizing them.

Exercise Your Abstract Reasoning Skills

The abstract reasoning and inductive reasoning examinations are intended to evaluate your ability to recognize patterns. To pass them, you must practice detecting the unusual pattern. This is somewhat important for critical thinking since it requires the ability to distinguish between good and bad arguments, assumptions, conclusions, and interpretations. Making use of abstract or inductive reasoning will not make you a stronger critical thinker. It will, however, train your mind to pay attention to minute details. This is a vital skill for a critical thinker. As part of the application process, you may be required to complete abstract, inductive, or nonverbal reasoning exams in addition to a critical thinking evaluation. This means you may kill two birds with one stone by preparing for those examinations as well as the critical thinking evaluation!

Continue Reading Non-Fiction

Spending time reading non-fiction is one of the finest methods to get acclimated to detecting excellent and weak arguments, deductions, conclusions, assumptions, and interpretations. Read articles from a variety of sources, including editorials and journal papers. Discover subjects that interest you to make the work simpler to read, then browse through the body of work and highlight the good and poor arguments that you find. Furthermore, listen to or watch political discussions; they are a rich source of both powerful and poor arguments.

Practice papers should be attempted

Find several practice exams and take them under timed settings once you’ve figured out what tools you’ll need to be a competent critical thinker and pass the critical thinking test. This will help you read and evaluate arguments under time limitations. As a result, you’ll be more prepared for the actual thing. Here at Scholarly we have free practice tests for you!

Here is a sample test you can try!

a man holding a light bulb after reading tips for the selective school test thinking skills
Explanations for Example Questions

After you’ve attempted a few prior papers, read the answers and explanations. This is an essential step in the revising process. This is due to the fact that you will be able to determine where you went wrong with certain replies. It will also be handy even for correct responses. The explanation will help you understand the topic better and may increase your chances of passing the critical thinking assessment.

Ask Basic Questions

An explanation might sometimes grow so detailed that the original inquiry is lost. To avoid this, return to the first questions you asked when attempting to answer the problem.

When confronting any challenge, here are a few fundamental basic questions to ask:

• What are your prior knowledges?

• How did you find out?

• What are you attempting to prove, deny, demonstrate, critique, and so on?

• What are you missing?

Some of the most stunning answers to issues are stunning not because they are difficult, but because they are elegantly simple.

Inquire about Fundamental Assumptions

Some of history’s greatest inventors were individuals who merely looked up for a minute and pondered if one of everyone’s basic assumptions was incorrect. Questioning assumptions is where creativity happens, from Newton to Einstein to Yitang Zhang.

You don’t even have to be an aspiring Einstein to get the benefits of challenging your preconceptions. That journey you’ve been wanting to take? What about that pastime you’ve always wanted to try? That internship you’ve always wanted? That cute person in your World Civilizations class you’ve been meaning to approach?

All of this is attainable if you just challenge your assumptions and critically analyze your ideas about what is smart, acceptable, and possible.

Be Aware of Your Thought Processes

Human intellect is incredible, yet the speed and automation with which it occurs may be detrimental when attempting to think critically. Our brains utilize heuristics (mental shortcuts) to explain what is going on around us.

This was advantageous to humans when we were hunting enormous game and battling off wild creatures, but it may be terrible when we are voting.

A critical thinker is conscious of their cognitive biases and personal preconceptions, as well as how they impact what appear to be “objective” judgments and answers.

We all have biases in our thinking. It is only by being aware of them that critical thinking is possible.

Attempt to Reverse Things

Reversing things is an excellent method to become “unstuck” on a difficult task. Although it may appear evident that X causes Y, what if Y caused X?

A typical example is the “chicken and egg issue.” At first glance, it appears that the chicken has to come first. After all, the chicken lays the egg. But then you understand that the chicken had to originate from someplace, and since chickens are derived from eggs, the egg had to come first. Did it, or didn’t it?

Even if it turns out that the opposite is true, thinking about it might help you discover a solution.

Examine the Available Evidence

When attempting to solve an issue, it is usually beneficial to review previous work in the same field. There’s no sense to start from scratch when someone else has already built the framework.

However, it is necessary to properly assess this information, or you may easily make the erroneous conclusion. Ask the following questions about any evidence you come across:

• Who collected this evidence?

• How did they collect it?

• Why?

Consider a research demonstrating the health advantages of a sugary cereal. On paper, the study appears to be rather persuasive. That is, until you find that it was financed by a sugary cereal manufacturer.

You shouldn’t immediately conclude that this invalidates the study’s findings, but when a conflict of interest is so obvious, you should.

Always remember to think for yourself.

Don’t get too caught up in research and reading that you forget to think for yourself—this might be your most effective instrument.

Don’t be overconfident, but understand that thinking for yourself is necessary for answering difficult issues. When writing essays, I find this to be true—so it’s easy to become buried in other people’s work that I forget to have my own opinions. Don’t make this error.

Recognize that no one thinks critically all of the time.

It’s understandable that you can’t think critically all of the time. You should use critical thinking when making significant decisions or solving challenging situations, but you don’t have to think critically about everything.

Even in critical subjects, you will have gaps in logic. What counts is that you realize your mistakes and work to prevent them in the future.

5-step process in solving Thinking Skills or Criticial Thinking Skills 

• Create your inquiry. Know exactly what you’re searching for. If you’re thinking about starting a diet, consider if you want to reduce weight, gain energy, or just improve your nutrition. Reduce things to their most fundamental components.

• Collect your details. Now that you’ve identified what’s important to your problem or choice, do some study on it. Contact an expert, do some research, or speak with others who have dealt with similar issues. 

• Use the knowledge. What ideas are at work? What assumptions are there? Is your understanding of the information logical?

• Think about the consequences. Consider how your decision will affect things in the long run, rather than just the immediate term. Something that benefits you today may not benefit you afterwards. What really is at stake? What could possibly go wrong?

• Look at alternative viewpoints. You learn more about the issue by learning different people’s points of view. You are also given the opportunity to think on the knowledge you have and how you feel about it. For example, learning why individuals oppose the diet you’re contemplating may influence your decision.

Visit NSW Education Department’s official website. 

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