Steps
For these types of questions, you need to do the following 3 things in order…
- Read the question and realize that you are dealing with a ‘Summarizing the Main Conclusion’ type question
- Read the passage and look for the conclusion, when you have found it, underline it
- Match what you have underlined with one of the answers
Conclusions
A conclusion as it relates to the IMAT critical thinking section can be defined as the following…
- The most important opinion of the author
- The reason the author wrote the passage
- The essence of the passage
Ask yourself ‘what is the author trying to convince me of? What is the reason they wrote this passage’?
Conclusion Signals
Remember that a conclusion is the writers opinion. There are some signal words that hint that an opinion is coming, these signal words include (but are not limited to) …
- ‘‘In conclusion…’’
- ‘‘To sum up…’’
- ‘‘Therefore…’’
- ‘‘Thus…’’
- ‘‘Hence…’’
- ‘‘It thus stands to reason…’’
- ‘‘It then goes without saying that…’’
Also remember that the conclusion expresses what the author wants to convince you of. There are some signal words that hint that this is coming…
- ‘‘should…’’
- ‘‘could…’’
- ‘‘must…’’
- ‘‘it is vital that…’’
- ‘‘it is of uttermost importance…’’
- ‘‘we thus need to…’’