Study, Thinking, and Writing Skills

This part of the Gen Ed English test rewards good habits, not memorized trivia. The items describe a study routine, a line of reasoning, or a piece of writing and ask you to name the skill or spot the flaw. Learn the labels below and the exam becomes a matching game you can win.

Study skills that raise scores

The most tested study method is SQ3R, a five-step way to read a textbook chapter so it actually sticks.

Step	What you do
Survey	Skim titles, headings, and the summary to map the chapter first.
Question	Turn each heading into a question you will try to answer.
Read	Read a section at a time, hunting for the answers to your questions.
Recite	Look away and say the main points in your own words.
Review	Go back over the whole chapter to lock it in.

For note-taking, the Cornell system splits the page into three zones: a wide right column for notes during the lesson, a narrow left cue column for keywords and review questions, and a strip at the bottom for a short summary. The cue column turns your notes into a self-quiz later.

Put notes in your own words. Paraphrasing forces you to process the idea, which beats copying sentences you never really read.

Manage time with distributed practice: short study sessions spread across many days build far stronger memory than one long cramming session the night before. Massed cramming feels productive but fades fast.

On the test itself, use plain test-taking tactics. Read the directions before you start. When an item stalls you, mark it, skip ahead, and return after you have banked the easy points. Eliminate the choices you know are wrong to raise the odds on the rest.

Critical and creative thinking

An inference is a logical conclusion you draw from clues plus prior knowledge, even though the text never states it outright. Keep it separate from an observation, which is something you perceive directly. Seeing a wet umbrella is an observation; concluding that it rained is an inference.

Evaluating means judging quality. To weigh a source, ask whether the author has real expertise and cites evidence, not whether the page looks flashy or is widely shared. To weigh an argument, check that the evidence actually supports the claim and watch for bias and overgeneralizing from too few cases.

Problem solving follows a clear order. First identify and define the problem, then generate possible solutions, choose and carry out one, and finally evaluate the result. You cannot solve what you have not defined, so the first step matters most.

Two reasoning patterns show up often. Deductive reasoning moves from a general rule to a guaranteed specific conclusion (all X are Y; this is X; therefore it is Y). Inductive reasoning moves the other way, from specific cases to a general claim, so its conclusion is only probable.

Creative thinking generates new ideas. The core rule of brainstorming is to defer judgment: pour out as many ideas as you can first and criticize them only later, so early criticism does not choke off good ideas.

Writing in the discipline

Good writing is a process, not one burst. The stages are prewriting (planning: listing, clustering, and outlining ideas), drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Do not confuse the last two: revising reworks content and organization (reordering paragraphs, sharpening the argument), while editing and proofreading fix surface errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Two sentences steer any composition. A thesis statement states the central claim of the whole essay and usually sits in the introduction. A topic sentence states the main idea of a single paragraph; the other sentences in that paragraph support it.

Paragraphs grow through set development methods. Choose one to fit your purpose:

• Example or illustration: back a point with specific instances.
• Comparison and contrast: show likenesses and differences.
• Cause and effect: trace the reasons that produced a result.
• Definition: explain what a term means.
• Classification: sort items into groups.

A strong paragraph has both unity and coherence. Unity means every sentence supports the one main idea; a sentence that wanders off topic breaks unity and should go. Coherence means the ideas flow logically, helped by transitional words such as first, however, and as a result that signal how sentences connect.

Match the type of writing to the job. Expository writing explains, persuasive or argumentative writing convinces, narrative writing tells a story, and descriptive writing paints a picture. Technical writing (reports, manuals, lab reports, memos) delivers factual, procedural information as precisely as possible.

Finally, use basic citation honestly. Whenever you borrow an idea, you must credit the source with an in-text citation and a reference list. Paraphrasing changes the wording but not the ownership, so a paraphrased idea still needs a citation. Skipping it is plagiarism.

Exam-day strategy

• When an item names a study routine (previewing a chapter, quizzing yourself from a cue column, spacing your reviews), match it to its label: SQ3R, Cornell notes, or distributed practice.
• Sort observation from inference: if the statement goes beyond what is directly given, it is an inference.
• For reasoning items, ask the direction of the logic. General to specific is deductive; specific to general is inductive.
• For writing items, remember the split: a thesis covers the whole essay, a topic sentence covers one paragraph; revising is big-picture, editing is surface polish; unity is one idea, coherence is smooth flow.
• If a paragraph has an off-topic sentence, the tested skill is almost always unity. Remove the stray sentence.