The Journey Method for CLT Verbal Reasoning

Introduction

The Journey Method for reading CLT passages is a way to maximize your retention of the central aspects of a CLT Verbal Reasoning passage while setting aside less central ideas and details for later consideration. Why this approach? Because the CLT is an open-book (open-screen?) test. Many school assessments, if not all, require you to memorize material and reproduce it in a “closed-book” format. You have probably trained yourself to read in a way geared toward this kind of assessment. Don’t underestimate how different one’s reading can and should be when the test leaves the passage in front of you the entire time! The Journey Method will help you clothe yourself in this mindset.

The Journey Method

Imagine a typical road trip, beginning in a city and ending in a city but with hours of highway in between. The Journey Method invites you to read CLT passages at different speeds based on your place in the passages. When you’re in a city or town at the beginning or end of a journey, the speed limit is lower; stop lights and stop signs slow you down. On the open road (accidents and construction aside!), you are generally free to zip along at a much higher speed than in the city.

You should view a reading passage in a similar way. Although often selected as an excerpt of a larger work, CLT passages are still more or less self-contained. You’ll find that the opening paragraph is introductory in nature and that the last paragraph ends logically, often providing backward-looking insight into what you’ve just read. Although CLT passages will not be as formulaic as a five-paragraph essay with a thesis statement at the beginning and a conclusion at the end, reading the first and last paragraphs more slowly than you read the middle will allow you to process the passage efficiently. You’ll be able to retain vital information while leaving the “scenery” you might have missed as you sped down the highway sitting readily available for you to rediscover when you tackle the questions.

Practice Passage

Below, we reproduce a passage from the CLT Author Bank, in this case a selection from the Enchiridion by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (from Project Gutenberg). We’ll summarize the method later, but we think it’s better to show you the method rather than simply telling you all the details upfront.

Before we read the passage, it’s important to first read the title and author information. The CLT prides itself on including the richest possible material, the best that has been written in every age. Most excerpted works will be at least 50 years old; many will come from previous centuries or even previous millennia. Knowing when the author wrote will give you an idea of what kind of style of writing to expect. And CLT questions do sometimes ask directly about style!

Now, we take the passage one paragraph at a time. After each paragraph you’ll find a question based on that paragraph. Here’s the first paragraph:

As we read the first paragraph, we travel in a “slower gear.” Our reading of the passage title might give us some idea of what to expect, but we don’t know nearly enough about the content until we seriously absorb the first paragraph. Epictetus, in his opening, sets up a clear contrast: there are things in our power and things that are not. What are some of those things? The second sentence lists elements on both sides of the contrast. While reading the all-important opening paragraph, we should read actively rather than passively taking in the words. What distinguishes the things in our power from the things outside of it? It appears that the things in our power are internal (in our minds and hearts), while those outside our power are external (our physical bodies, our jobs and homes, what people think of us).

If we take the time to actively engage the first paragraph, reading slowly and thinking carefully, we can be confident that the ideas that follow will fit well within categories our minds have already established.

Here’s the second paragraph:

As you move past the first paragraph, you are nearing the “open road.” But that doesn’t mean we just skim through everything. Instead, we read smartly, paying special attention to topic sentences, words of sequences and contrast, and the way paragraphs end. With this framing in mind, you can, however, feel free to do some skimming in the middle of paragraphs.

The topic sentence to this paragraph shouldn’t surprise those who have read the first paragraph well. Epictetus is continuing to contrast the things within our power to those that aren’t. There is a great optimism about the internal things and a corresponding pessimism about those things outside of us. As we scan the following sentence, the word “but” should jump off the page like a bright neon sign. A key reading strategy is to always take special note of contrast words like “but” and “however”. Epictetus, we can trust, is further contrasting the two realms he introduced in the first paragraph; glancing at the end of this paragraph shows us that he is focusing on the consequences of setting our focus either within or without (“… nor will you suffer any harm"). That’s really all we need to take in for now. (But please consider the caution and the appeal we make at the end of this lesson!)

The next paragraph:

The logical movement of this paragraph is a little bit more complicated, but the meat of the ideas hangs clearly on the skeleton of three markers: therefore … but … But. The “therefore” tells us that the writer is likely drawing a conclusion or giving the reader instruction based on the ideas already put forward; indeed, the first sentence reveals that Epictetus is exhorting the reader directly for the first time (“you must not …”). And though the language gets a bit more challenging, we can confidently expect that the contrast implied in the two instances of “but” will still revolve around the central contrast of the passage. Note the power of this strategy: without reading every word, we realize that this paragraph contains a call to action along the lines we already understand. Put briefly: focus on the things under your control rather than those that are not!

The next paragraph:

Another “therefore” suggests that Epictetus is continuing to build his argument, and the opening imperative (“Seek …”) reveals that he continues to speak in commanding fashion. The first sentence, as a whole, introduces the idea of an “unpleasing semblance” that is not a “real thing.” Coupled with a glance at the end of the paragraph (“… say that it is nothing to you”), we can see that the command is to stop being concerned about those things outside of us, because they are not real. (How these are “not real” is a fascinating philosophical question, but beyond the scope of what we’re trying to do here!)

And the last paragraph:

This is the last paragraph. Time to slow down! Even though Epictetus’ Enchiridion goes on for many paragraphs beyond this place, the CLT will ask questions about what makes this particular excerpt hang together. So we would do well to use this paragraph to confirm and deepen our understanding of central themes.

The first sentence introduces some challenging words, but whether we know the meaning of “aversion” or not, it should be clear that Epictetus is describing something bad. Our previous understanding tells us that when we concern ourselves with those things outside our control, the outcomes are negative. Indeed, the second sentence tells us to “shun” what we can control but that shunning the things outside of our power will make us “wretched.” This must mean, in the context of the whole passage, that “shunning” involves trying to establish some control, and we know that Epictetus wants us to focus controlling desires only on the internal things within our power. We should “remove the habit” of doing anything else. Then we have another contrasting “But”, leading into what is (for us readers) a final encouragement to “altogether restrain desire” so that we avoid misery and gain, in the last words of the passage, “discretion and gentleness and moderation.”

Notice that the goal of our reading is to see the coherence and unity of the passage, to understand the central idea by noticing what is repeated. We support this goal by also focusing on what is contrasted, because writers often use contrast to make their ideas clearer. This passage is, in a way, entirely contained in its first paragraph, but in embryo form. All the following paragraphs build an argument and an exhortation, but the passage never fully leaves behind the central contrast between the “things within our power” and the “things beyond our power.” We can now go to the questions confident of two things: first, that we well understand the passage’s central theme, and second, that if the questions ask about more specific ideas we don’t remember well, we can return to the passage, usually with a solid idea about where to begin reading to find the answer.

Summary

Now that we have walked through a passage using the Journey Method, it makes sense to summarize it in outline form.

What About Taking Notes?

At this point we are almost ready to see some quiz questions, but first, let’s address a question many students ask at this point: Should I use my scratch paper to take notes while reading?

We don’t include note-taking in the Journey Method for the very practical reason that many students don’t have time to read the four passages and take notes and still be able to answer all the questions within 40 minutes. Our method is meant to help precisely those students by simplifying the way they read the passage and helping them remember key ideas without having to write anything down.

However, if you are note-taker by habit and find it helps you, feel free to add this to your strategy! Just watch your time carefully as you practice and make sure you have ample time to take notes. If you choose to do so, here’s what we recommend for your notes:

1. First paragraph: Write the central idea as clearly as you can.
2. Middle paragraphs: Copy down words like “but” and “however” and note which paragraph they are in; briefly note any change in tone or important expansion of the central idea. Put an idea next to a plus sign if the attitude toward it is positive and a minus sign if the attitude toward it is negative.
3. Last paragraph: If you need to revise what you wrote about the central idea after reading the first paragraph, do so here. Quickly note any conclusions about tone (positive or negative attitude).

A Word of Caution and a Final Appeal

We hope you’ll read this part. If you love good literature and enjoy savoring the profound concepts contained in CLT passages, you may feel a little uncomfortable with an approach that tells you to skim in your reading and skip over certain parts. If that’s true of you, please accept our congratulations! Reading slowly while reflecting deeply is a good and meaningful thing, and CLT reading passages will present you with jewels whose facets you could (and should!) consider at your leisure. We hope that reading CLT passages will inspire you to spend more time in the classics and challenge yourself with the best that has been thought and said throughout history.

But our task in this course is to help you approach a particular standardized test in a way that helps you succeed and sets you free from the frustration that time constraints can foist upon test takers. A few especially fast readers may have time to read every word of every passage and still finish the section on time, but we have found that most students benefit from the understanding that not every word, not every sentence, needs to bear the same weight. The skill of treating different parts of the passage differently has helped many of our students flourish on standardized test reading, and we hope it will do the same for you! And maybe, just maybe, some of the profound ideas you come across will stick with you long after you are finished with the CLT.