How to NOT NOT Handle EXCEPT Questions on the GMAT

To set up this article, please try the following test:
For the next 10 seconds, do NOT think about a bear wearing a dress while riding a unicycle into a pool filled with Superbowl rings.
How did you do? If you passed that test, the next test should be easy.
As quickly as possible, name 2 people who are NOT former U.S. Presidents.
This last question should be painfully easy since almost every person in the world meets the condition of not being a former U.S. President. However, when confronted with this question, many of us are momentarily taken aback, because the vast majority of our schooling has taught us to look for answers to questions, and EXCEPT questions ask us to find something that is not the answer to a question. For this reason, many people are prone to making silly mistakes answering relatively easy EXCEPT questions.
Consider the following:
Each of the following people is a former U.S. President EXCEPT
This question is similar to the unicycle-riding-bear test. Once we’ve read the question, we immediately begin thinking of former U.S. Presidents. So, when we examine answer choice (A), we see that it matches what we were already thinking about and, as a result, we may instinctively select (A) by mistake.
To avoid this potential pitfall, it’s useful to take EXCEPT questions and reword them as positive, proactive directives. For example, we can take the above question and reword it