PrepTest 130, Section 4, Question 6
Beginners typically decide each chess move by considering(41 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ABeginning chess players(13 more words not shown)
- BA beginning chess(11 more words not shown)
- COne's chess skills(10 more words not shown)
- DIn playing chess,(10 more words not shown)
- EAny chess player(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Beginners think about the consequences of their moves. I might expect experts simply to think more moves ahead. But the passage describes a different emphasis: experts recognize positions like ones they have encountered before and use what happened then to decide what to do now.
An expert might recognize a familiar arrangement of pieces and recall that a certain move worked badly last time. The player does not have to work out everything anew. The earlier experience informs the current decision.
What we’re looking for
These are descriptions of two approaches, not an argument with a conclusion to attack. The question asks what they most strongly support. We should connect what the passage tells us about those approaches without turning the description into advice or adding a guarantee about how to improve.
Working the answers
- A
Thinking through consequences more often does not establish being better at it. Beginners might do this because they lack the experience needed to recognize patterns. Experts could be better at calculating consequences even though they primarily use another approach.
- B
The passage says what beginners and experts do, not what beginners should do. A beginner might lack the store of prior positions that an expert draws upon. Describing the expert's method does not show that a beginner should immediately adopt it.
- C
Nothing establishes that pattern recognition is the only way to improve. A beginner might become better at thinking through individual moves. Even if pattern recognition contributes greatly to expertise, the passage does not rule out all other sources of improvement.
- DCorrect
Recall is the connection to memory. Experts primarily use a method that involves recognizing earlier positions and remembering the consequences of earlier moves. Since that information plays a central role in their decisions, they rely crucially on memory when playing.
- E
Recognizing useful patterns in another game does not necessarily teach someone the patterns that matter in chess. Playing Scrabble, for example, might give someone experience with a different set of patterns without improving chess decisions. The passage does not establish that these skills transfer between games, much less that every player would improve.
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