ADF YOU Session common mistakes
ADF YOU Session · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reads the answer options first, then hunts the passage for the words that appear in the option they already like, and picks it because the vocabulary matches.
Option writers deliberately reuse passage wording in the wrong answers and paraphrase the correct one. Under time pressure the brain treats familiarity as evidence, so word-matching feels like verification when it is actually the opposite.
What to do instead
Cover the options. Read the passage once and state the answer in your own words, then uncover the options and pick the closest match. For every option you choose, point to the exact line that proves it and say out loud which word in the option is doing the work.
Treats every statement as either supported or contradicted, so 'cannot say' is never selected even when the passage is silent on the point.
Most everyday reading tests reward using what the passage implies, and candidates carry in a habit that an unanswered question must have an answer. 'Cannot say' feels like a non-answer or a cop-out, so it gets avoided.
What to do instead
Before judging each statement, write two words in the margin: 'states' or 'silent'. If the passage never addresses the specific comparison, group, time period or quantity in the statement, mark cannot say immediately. Drill sets where roughly a third of the answers are cannot say so the option stops feeling wrong.
On main-idea questions, picks an option that is a true detail from the passage rather than the statement that covers the whole passage.
Every detail option is verifiable, so it triggers a satisfying 'yes, that's in there' response. The correct option is usually broader and more abstract, which feels vaguer and therefore less safe.
What to do instead
Test each option with the question: 'Is this the reason the whole passage was written, or one thing mentioned inside it?' Eliminate any option that matches only one paragraph or one example. The correct option should still be true if you deleted a supporting sentence.
Performs the full exact calculation for every numerical item with written working, then checks the answer choices afterwards.
School maths trained the habit of exact computation before selection, and answer choices feel like an afterthought. In a timed reasoning test this doubles or triples the per-item cost and the time runs out before the last questions are even read.
What to do instead
Estimate first: round the figures, get a rough value, and delete any option more than about ten per cent away. Only compute exactly if two options survive. Learn the standard shortcuts (10% then halve for 5%, divide by 4 for 25%, multiply by 1.5 for a 50% increase) and set a hard per-item ceiling so a stuck item gets flagged and skipped.
Reads numbers off tables and charts without checking units, denominators or axis baselines, then compares raw counts across groups of different sizes.
The numbers are visually dominant and the labels are small print, so scaling information is processed after a value has already been grabbed. Comparing 40 incidents in a group of 200 with 60 in a group of 600 feels like a straightforward bigger-versus-smaller judgement.
What to do instead
Before touching any figure, read the axis labels, the units line and the column totals aloud, and note whether the axis starts at zero. Whenever two groups differ in size, convert to a rate or percentage before comparing. Sanity-check every result against the rough magnitude you expected.
Finds one transformation in an abstract series (for example, the shape rotating 90 degrees) and picks the answer that fits that rule, without checking whether a second attribute such as element count, shading or position also changes.
The first rule spotted is usually the most visually obvious, and finding it produces a burst of confidence that shuts down further searching. Most items are built from two or three simultaneous rules precisely to punish stopping early.
What to do instead
Use a fixed checklist on every item: shape type, count of elements, rotation direction and amount, shading or fill, position within the frame. Score each option against all five attributes; any option failing one attribute is out regardless of how well it fits the others.
Solves the whole sequence in their head before looking at the answer options, and runs out of time or confidence without ever using the options to narrow the field.
The options are assumed to be a final check rather than a tool, so all the work is done blind. With four or five options, one cheap attribute such as the number of dots or the direction of the arrow will usually eliminate two or three immediately.
What to do instead
After the first ten seconds of scanning, glance at the options and identify the single attribute that differs most sharply between them. Apply only that attribute to the series and strike out the failures. Repeat with the next most discriminating attribute until one option remains.
Solves correctly for an intermediate value (total cost, distance, total hours) and selects that number, when the question asked for the per-person cost, the time, or the remaining amount.
The last number produced by the working feels like the answer, and the question stem was read before the working rather than after. Answer choices are usually built to include the intermediate value precisely to catch this.
What to do instead
Before starting, underline the quantity the question actually asks for and write its unit next to where the answer will go. After computing, re-read the final sentence of the stem and confirm the units match. If the units of your result differ from the units asked for, you have not finished.
Mishandles fractions, decimals and order of operations when working without a calculator, typically by adding numerators and denominators straight across, dropping a decimal place during multiplication, or evaluating a mixed expression strictly left to right.
These are low-frequency skills in daily life, so the procedures have decayed while confidence has not. Under time pressure the mind reaches for the simplest operation it can recall rather than the correct one.
What to do instead
Rebuild the handful of rules that actually appear: convert fractions to a common denominator before adding, do multiplication and division before addition and subtraction, and treat brackets first. Estimate the result before computing so a misplaced decimal or inverted fraction is caught immediately by magnitude.
Spends four or five minutes grinding on a single hard word problem while easier items later in the section go unattempted.
Sunk cost plus the belief that abandoning an item means losing the work already done. Because items are usually worth the same mark, the time is spent where it returns least.
What to do instead
Adopt a rule: if no route to the answer is visible within about sixty to ninety seconds, mark the item, pick the most plausible option as a placeholder, and move on. Return only after every other item is answered. Log which topics trigger the stall so practice time goes to those topics rather than to the ones already comfortable.