Central Ideas & Command of Evidence
Fact: Over 50% of questions on the Reading-Writing module require you to identify main ideas and supporting details, and evaluate studies, quotes, graphs, and tables to support or refute claims and draw inferences and conclusions. The short reading passages accompanying these questions represent the subject areas of science, history/social studies, literature, and the humanities.
Fact: Central Idea and Command of Evidence questions can be found on the "Information and Ideas" section of the test.
Fact: Central Idea and Command of Evidence questions can be found on the "Information and Ideas" section of the test.
Central idea questions ask you to identify "the main idea" of the passage. Since the passages for these questions are fairly short, finding this main idea shouldn't be too tricky. To find the main idea, read the passage and ask yourself, "So? What's the point?" Your answer will tell you the central idea.
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Command of Evidence questions introduce a claim about an unfamiliar subject. The question will then ask you to identify the piece of evidence that most strongly supports that claim. You do not need any prior knowledge for Command of Evidence questions because all the information is in the reading passages.
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There are two types of Command of Evidence questions:
- Scientific Evidence: Think back to science classes where you had to validate or challenge a hypothesis based on the results of an experiment. Scientific evidence questions are similar. A hypothesis will be presented about a subject in science or social science, usually in the context of new research or an experiment. You will attempt to understand the proposed hypothesis, determine the research results that would validate it, and then pick the option that reflects those results.
- Literary Evidence: These questions are similar to English class assignments, where you've pulled quotes from a book, play, story or poem to prove your point in an essay. Here, the passage will make an argument about a literary work, like a poem or novel, and the answer choices will offer quotations from that literary work. You job is to select the quotation that best serves as direct evidence for the argument identified in the question.
How to tackle Command of Evidence questions:
- Read the question and answers first so you know what is being asked of you. Pay attention to keywords like "most strongly support," "most weakens," or "most effectively illustrates."
- For questions with graphs, tables and charts, pay close attention to titles and labels.
- If you are given a hypothesis, claim or quote to evaluate, try to put it into your own words to help you understand it better.