Central Ideas and Command of Evidence

The golden rule

Every correct answer is provable from the text. If you can't underline the words that prove it, it's wrong — no matter how reasonable it sounds.

The wrong-answer taxonomy

The SAT writes wrong answers in four predictable flavors:

1. Too extreme — words like "always," "never," "proves" when the passage says "suggests."
2. Half right — the first half matches the text, the second half quietly doesn't.
3. Right idea, wrong scope — true of one sentence but presented as the main idea.
4. Plausible but absent — sounds smart, appears nowhere in the passage.

Evidence questions

For "which choice best supports..." questions, work backwards: read each evidence option and ask what claim it would support, then match. Don't re-argue the previous question from memory.