Digital SAT Claims Questions: Practice Supporting & Weakening Arguments

Now that you're familiar with the three types of Claims questions on the Digital SAT – Illustrate, Support, and Weaken – and the unique way they often require evaluating external information against a passage's claim, it's time to put those skills to the test. Remember DeAndre from our last discussion? He initially struggled because he kept looking for the answers *inside* the passage for Support/Weaken questions. The key insight is that while the *claim* is inside, the evidence you evaluate is often *outside* (in the answer choices).

It's like being a detective: the passage gives you the central case theory (the claim), and the answer choices provide potential pieces of new evidence or witness statements. Your job is to determine which piece of new information best fits (illustrates), strengthens (supports), or contradicts (weakens) the original case theory from the passage. Let's apply this detective work!

Claims Question Practice: Applying the Method

Below are a variety of Claims questions, refreshed with new scenarios. For each one:

1. Identify the Question Type: Is it asking you to Illustrate, Support, or Weaken?
2. Pinpoint the Claim: Find the specific assertion, hypothesis, argument, or description in the passage that the question targets.
3. Analyze the Claim: Break down its core components. What exactly needs to be illustrated, supported, or weakened?
4. Anticipate (for Support/Weaken): Briefly think – what *kind* of external finding would affect this claim?
5. Evaluate Choices Critically: Read each option. Does it logically connect back to the passage's claim in the way the question asks? Eliminate flawed options.
6. Select the Best Fit: Choose the option that provides the most direct and logical illustration, support, or contradiction.

Practice Example 1 (Support):

The Andromeda galaxy exhibits a complex structure with a central bulge and surrounding stellar halo. Based on simulations analyzing photometric data (brightness, color) and metallicity (chemical makeup) of approximately 300,000 stars in the halo (using data from terrestrial and space-based observatories), astronomers Mei Lin and Carlos Ruiz claim that Andromeda's stellar halo primarily formed through a major merger event early in its history, rather than gradual accretion over time.