Whether you are studying and preparing to take the LSAT or looking to engage in more meaningful workplace discussions, you need to know how to properly answer critical thinking questions. Luckily, there are some key facets to critical thinking that can guide you along the way.
Thinking critically requires one to proceed beyond mere information recall. When asked to answer questions critically, one should engage their reasoning, evaluation, articulation, and questioning skills. You must closely examine the question in order to arrive at your justified answer.
In this guide, we’ll be sharing some tips to help you answer critical thinking questions adequately. Read along as we discuss the ways to answer by asking useful questions, relying on logic, anticipating specific problems and solutions, and clearly communicating your thoughts. Let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
We’ll be discussing the following 6 methods of answering critical thinking questions in order to give you a framework to start with:
- Ask the Important Questions
- Consider All Possible Solutions
- Articulate Yourself Clearly
- Examine and Reflect
- Research and Inform Yourself
- Organize Your Thoughts
Ask the Important Questions
Sometimes, answering a question effectively requires you to ask some questions yourself. When it comes to thinking critically in your response, you may need to investigate by asking for context clues or clearing up any ambiguous aspects of the question.
When you follow-up a question with your own questions, you are engaging in truth-seeking behavior, which is a key element of critical thinking.
Examples of questions you can ask to arrive at a critical answer include:
- Why is this question or problem important?
- How would I solve this problem?
- What would be the consequences if I solved the problem X way?
- How would someone with a different opinion or set of values answer this question?
- Why do I agree or disagree?
- Can you provide me with an example?
- Who is this question geared towards?
- Who will be affected by the solution to this question/problem?
Consider All Possible Solutions
Another thing that sets critical thinkers apart from traditional thinkers is the ability to anticipate multiple different outcomes.
Don’t merely stop at your first answer to the problem you’re being asked about. Take things a step further by drafting several different solutions. Follow step-by-step routes in your mind to try and anticipate how these solutions would play out in reality.
Would there be negative consequences to these solutions? Would there be positive consequences to these solutions? What are they? This can help you to narrow down your ideas and provide the best possible solution.
Articulate Yourself Clearly
Critical thinking requires you to communicate your thoughts effectively, in addition to arriving at those thoughts in the first place.
Whether you are answering a critical thinking question verbally in a debate, or writing your thoughts down on a paper exam, you should learn how to justify your answer.
For each point or claim that you make, you should have a valid justification or explanation. Let’s say, for example, that you are asked a question about how to distribute a low amount of resources to a large community.
If you claim that they should be distributed evenly among households, you should consider how that route would affect larger households vs. smaller ones.
Your answer can explore the advantages and disadvantages of your method, landing on an explanation of how it would best serve the community.
Examine and Reflect
When presented with a critical thinking question, it’s not enough to just read the question once and arrive at the first answer that pops into your mind. You should examine the question closely by reading it several times, carefully.
Each time you read the question, check to see if there are meanings or intentions in the question that you didn’t notice before. You can also take this time of reflection to discover ways in which your own assumptions or biases may be negatively influencing your answer.
You can take notes on these things and reflect on them before providing your answer to the question.
Only after examining and reflecting can you get to the precise heart of the question at hand. Then, you can pair it with an equally precise answer.
Research and Inform Yourself
Critical thinkers also rely on research and newfound knowledge to inform their answers to questions. This involves taking the time to learn about topics that you’re questioned about if you are unfamiliar with them.
For example, if you are asked a question about the economy of a country that you are unfamiliar with, you should research before answering.
Read up on recent economic reports for that country, using credible sources. Make sure that you fully understand every word in the question by pulling out a dictionary.
From there, you can make your answer more accurate and logical overall.
Organize Your Thoughts
Lastly, a good critical thinker should be able to organize the opinions and thoughts in their answers. Write out a draft of your answer before arriving at your final solution.
Read the answer back to yourself and see if your message is coming across clearly based on the grammar and syntax you’ve used.
If you need to break the answer down into parts and rearrange them to improve it, do so. An organized answer will be easier to understand and may make the difference between a good idea getting lost in the weeds or being championed.
Final Thoughts – 6 Critical Thinking Answer Tips
If you’ve been wanting to learn how to better answer critical thinking questions, then hopefully our guide has given you some inspiration. Some of the key aspects of critical thinking involve one’s ability to ask pertinent questions, examine and reflect on one’s thoughts, set aside biases, make judgments, and clearly communicate.
Make sure to refer to our critical thinking answer tips the next time you are faced with a tough question. Remember, sometimes, a critical answer relies on you taking extra time to research, re-read, re-write, and clarify your own thoughts.
References
https://louisville.edu/ideastoaction/about/criticalthinking/what
https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
https://www.utc.edu/academic-affairs/walker-center-for-teaching-and-learning/faculty-programs/faculty-fellow-programs/faculty-fellow-program-development/basic-elements-of-critical-thinking
