USTEM Basics Course

Session (6)
 • Revision

• Geo conflicting View points

The
Content: • How to deal with the questions

• Tips and Tricks

How Can I prepare for URT science?

Practice and Feedback

Intro to passage types:
• Data Representation.

• Research summery

• Conflicting Viewpoints
Data Representation passage:
• Passage for (graphs, tables, Charts)

• Questions ask for read and interpret and analyze trends and
patterns correctly

• Structure:
• 1- Intro paragraph
• 2- Graph or table

• Important tips:
• 1- figures and graph the most important to focus than text.
• 2- look carefully at axis.
• 3- questions not much ask you about why or how.
The most important basics Skills:
• Where am I looking?
• Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, Table 2, etc. -Your most important
locator. This is your starting point for most questions.
• "Based on the results of study..." -Look at the data of a particular
study.
• "Based on study .... " - Your locator could be in the text of the study,
or the data.
• "According to the information provided" , "According to the
passage" , "Based on the passage" - Your locatoris in the text.
The most important basics Skills:
• What am I looking for?
• Units - in, s, kg, N, etc. Your most important second locator.
• Science terminology - pH, temperature bath, detector, deposit - Any
phrase that pops out and feels different from the directions of the
question.
• X and Y axes labels
• Answer choices. Sometimes your best locator is found by comparing
the key phrases of the choices.
The most important basics Skills:
• Numbers Behavior: Trends in tables and graphs
• It is not about the actual numbers, it is about how they behave

• You should develop a habit of instantly identifying

Trends, when you looking at a table or graph
The most important basics Skills:
• Extrapolation and Estimation?
• There will be questions on the URT Science section that require you
to extend the trend of a figure or table beyond its given boundaries.
For line graphs, extend the line with your pencil to ensure the best
estimation.
Research summery passage:
• Provide descriptions of one or more experiments that theoretically
could be conducted by scientists or students.
• Include: design, procedures, results.
• Questions: will ask you to interpret the design and procedures of the
studies and analyze the results

• Structure:
• 1- Intro paragraph
• 2-Study one paragraph and its graph

• Important tips:
• 1- Generally, more descriptions and text (skimming)
• 2- Introductory information and the purpose of the study on the end.
• 3- Harder questions: conclusions or results of the experiments.
 The Element of the experiment:

• What to change, What to measure, everything else is constant:

 The Element of the experiment:
• Look at the Figure or Graph:

First, look at the legend (pH) and the x-axis

(time). Both can be considered independent
variables because they are both being purposely
changed. However, when you see time as your
x-axis, we want to ignore it. For the purpose of
taking this test it is not optimal for us to think
of time as our independent variable. When
looking at this figure, understand that pfJ is the
variable being purposely changed and
concentration (kg/L) is being measured.
The most important basics Skills:
• Full sentence Answer choices
The most important basics Skills:
• The Data Bridge method:

• Find what the data have in common ... that's your Bridge:
The Data Bridge skill links multiple figures or tables to arrive at the correct answer.
The most important basics Skills:
• Cannot be determined:

• “If your answer is not there, that’s the answer”

The cannot be determined answer choice tends to distract students. When you see this as a possible
answer choice, do not change your approach. Search for your locators; if you fail to find them, you
can be confident it choosing cannot be determined as the correct answer.
The most important basics Skills:
• Scatter Plots:

• Scatter plots are very popular on the URT Science section. Knowing how to properly
read a scatter plot will help you better locate correct answers. On a scatter plot, each
point represents data that the experimenter obtained While conducting the experiment.
You will also notice a line of best-fit going through the pattern of points. Questions
dealing with scatter plots require you to find how often the experimenter obtained
results.
The most important basics Skills:
The most important basics Skills:
• The inference Question:

• Inference questions are the complete opposite of our main approach. There are two
main ways to identify if you have landed on an inference question. First, the question
does NOT say where to look. Second, the question will use one of the following
phrases: most likely, most likely reason, or best explains why. It is important to identify
these questions so you do not waste time looking at the passage. That's correct, DO
NOT use the passage. Instead, read the question, read the answer choices, take a few
moments to think, and you will be much more likely to spot the correct answer.
The most important basics Skills:
Conflicting viewpoints:
• Provides two or more alternative theories or hypothesis or
viewpoints on an observable phenomenon
• They might agree on some points, but there always disagree on some
major points

• Structure:
• 1- Intro paragraph and lot of text
• 2- maybe a simple diagram or graph

• Important tips:
• 1- Note any similarities or difference between the different viewpoints
that you see as you read
• 2- Be flexible, you might be more than two viewpoints
Fighting Scientists:
• Fighting Scientists passages sometimes come with figures, but
Fighting Scientists utilizes different skills and thus requires a
different basic approach.

• 4 Steps Strategies:
• 1/ Preview: Read the intro and identify the questions
• 2/ one side a time
• 3/ The other side
• 4/ Compare and Contrast
Unfamiliar terms:
• Terms:
• 1/ Explained in the passage
• 2/ Not explained in the passage but not needed to answer the
question
• 3/ not explained In the passage, appear in the question, however you
don’t need to know answer the question

• Tip: for almost all the questions on the URT science test, you don’t
need to understand the terms and units you just need to find them.
The most important basics Skills:
• The outside knowledge:

• outside knowledge questions on the URT are easy to identify. They typically, nowadays,
appear as the last question of some of the passages in a section and have science terms
or equations as answer choices. It is important to quickly identify an outside knowledge
question so time is not wasted going back to the passage attempting to chose the correct
answer.
Science knowledge questions:
• How much science should I know?

• 1 – 3 questions (more biology and chemistry)

• The majority of URT science questions do not requires outside

science knowledge

• How Can I prepare: introduction chapters, pay attentions in the

classes
The most important
basics Skills:

• The outside knowledge: