The SAT Prep Black Book(25)
Example:
he wanted to revolutionize the way society viewed glasses.
This wrong answer has nothing to do with anything mentioned in the citation. Once we know that the correct answer must be spelled out directly in the passage, it’s usually pretty easy to eliminate these irrelevant choices from consideration—but for the majority of test-takers, who have no idea how the SAT works, these kinds of irrelevant answer choices can often be quite tempting.
Wrong Answer Type 4: Confused Concepts
This type of wrong answer uses a lot of the ideas mentioned in the citation, but messes up the relationships between them. The College Board includes these types of wrong answers because they want to trap people who remember major concepts from the passage but who don’t bother to pay attention to the details—this is just one more example of the ways in which small details play a tremendously important role on the SAT.
Example:
his sister invested in a cure for his vision problems.
This made-up example mentions the ideas of the sister, the investing, the vision problems, and the idea that the bifocals would correct those problems, but it messes up the relationships among those ideas. Students who don’t read carefully often fall for these types of wrong answers.
Wrong Answer Type 5: Factual Accuracy
Sometimes the College Board will throw in a wrong answer that might be factually accurate, but that isn’t specifically reflected in the text. This type of wrong answer doesn’t appear too often, but if you do a few practice tests you’ll probably run into it at least once or twice.
Example:
he was tired of having to switch between different types of glasses.
Students who know why Franklin really invented bifocals, but who don’t know how the SAT actually works, might be tempted by such a factually accurate statement.
Wrong Answer Type 6: Off By One Word
This might be one of the most dangerous and insidious wrong answer types when it comes to trapping test-takers who know how the test works. For this type of wrong answer, the College Board provides a phrase that mirrors the text exactly—except for one or two words. Even when test-takers know they have to find answer choices that restate the passage, they can still fall for these kinds of wrong answers if they’re not in the habit of constantly attacking every single word they read.
Example:
his sister had a congenital vision problem.
In this wrong answer, the ideas of “sister” and “had a vision problem” directly restate the phrase “Franklin’s sister was visually impaired” from the fake citation. But the word “congenital” isn’t reflected at all in the citation, so this answer choice would be wrong if this were a real SAT question. Remember that you have to look for a textual justification for every concept in every answer choice.
Wrong Answer Type 7: Valid Interpretation
The College Board frequently creates wrong answers that would be valid, defensible interpretations of the text in a literature class. Students often fall for these types of wrong answers if they’re still mistakenly approaching the test in a subjective, interpretive way, instead of in the correct, objective way.
Example:
Franklin loved his sister and wanted to make her life easier.
In this imaginary example, the answer choice reflects the fact that the text mentions Franklin’s sister’s eye problems as a motivation for the invention. But the answer choice adds an interpretation when it speculates that Franklin was motivated by love and a desire to ease his sister’s suffering. While that would certainly be a plausible interpretation of the passage, any kind of interpretation—whether plausible or not—will be a wrong answer. Since the text didn’t mention Franklin loving his sister, we’re not allowed to assume that he did.
Conclusion
These wrong-answer types, or combinations of them, will account for most of the wrong answers you’ll encounter in SAT Passage-Based Reading questions. Basically, they all boil down to the idea that wrong answers provide information that differs from the information found in the relevant portion of the text, while the right answer for each question will restate concepts from the relevant portion of the text.
Now that we’ve explored the types of wrong answers we’re likely to encounter on Passage-Based Reading questions, you’re probably eager to see how we actually go about answering questions. But before we get into that stuff, there’s just one more thing we have to talk about: how to read passages on the SAT.
How To Read Passages On The SAT
One of the most common issues people have with the Passage-Based Reading questions is the issue of actually reading the passage. Another popular question is how to take notes on the passages.