SAT, understanding a reading technique?

Question

ok, i have a SAT prep book, and one of the strategies it talks about is how to deal with a sentence in which one clause negates another. The example sentence they give is :

"Not making a decision is not the same as being ____"

and the answer choices are : adamant, confused, decisive, indecisive, inconclusive.

The book says to remove the second "not" in the sentence and this will help you find the correct answer which the book says is indecisive. I dont understand how removing the second "not" helps, doesn't that change the meaning of the sentence? Plz help

Answer 1

Adamant means steadfast in a decision.

Confused means not able to make a decision for whatever reason.

Decisive is the opposite of indecisive.

Indecisive infers the result that you are inconclusive.

But just indecisive for the question asked.

The reason they ask you to remove 'not' in the sentence is so that from there you have a direct definition. It's just a strategy, but it is certainly not neccessary and it is isolated to just one kind of sentence which is its fallback (the strategy).

You can ALSO work the sentence by seeing two 'nots' (two negatives) that's a double-negative...and we all know that two negatives make a positive! (:

Answer 2

Making a decision is being decisive (this statement is from the dictionary definition of decisive)

Switch it up a bit

Not making a decision is being indecisive.

Therefore:

Not making a decision is not being decisive.

Answer 3

Adamant means steadfast in a decision.

Confused means not able to make a decision for whatever reason.

Decisive is the opposite of indecisive.

Indecisive infers the result that you are inconclusive.

But just decisive for the question asked.

The reason they ask you to remove 'not' in the sentence is so that from there you have a direct definition. It's just a strategy, but it is certainly not neccessary and it is isolated to just one kind of sentence which is its fallback (the strategy).

You can ALSO work the sentence by seeing two 'nots' (two negatives) that's a double-negative...and we all know that two negatives make a positive! (: