Tips on categorizing and timing:

Hi @AriAre, Thanks for the question! So with the acronyms, it’s whatever works best for you, but generally speaking, taking the first letters of all of the “important” words in the phrase makes sense. “Important words” includes the main verbs and nouns, sometimes adjectives if they matter, and you can usually leave out prepositions like “about” or “of,” as well as articles like “the” and “a/an.” Make sure that if the same concept is referred to two different ways, you diagram it the same way. I also like to use a squiggly tilde for “not,” though some people draw lines or other things. It’s helpful also to draw something indicating your conclusion. When I’m writing on paper, I like to use the three dots for “therefore” used in math proofs. Again, it’s whatever works for you. So take this question you commented on. I’d probably diagram it CM = climb mountains LROA = live to a ripe old age (I wouldn’t write out this key, this is for pedagogical purposes) CM —> ~LROA ~CM —> B C: LROA —> B (Since I’m typing, I used “C:” to signify the conclusion instead of the dots) You also don’t need to diagram everything you come across. For example, again for this question, you should be able to eliminate answer choices before diagramming them, which saves you time diagramming them. For example, take (A). Its conclusion isn’t a conditional, but our stimulus has a conditional for its conclusion. So you can eliminate (A) without diagramming it. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

Thank you. I think what I am really having trouble with is differentiating main points (conclusions) and principles. Could you help me understand key differences?

For answer choice E, I mixed up the second premise with Not Being Hungry ---> Spending all your money but apparently it's the opposite (Not spend all your money ---> Hungry). I can't for the life of me understand why this is. Can you please explain how the "unless" statement rules go again?