Bluebook Practice Test 10: Information & Ideas Walkthrough

The Bluebook test 10 Information and Ideas answers, in question order: Module 1 — 9 A, 10 D, 11 A, 12 B, 13 B, 14 A, 15 D. Module 2a — 7 D, 8 A, 9 A, 10 D, 11 A, 12 B, 13 A, 14 A. Module 2b — 8 D, 9 A, 10 C, 11 C, 12 A, 13 C, 14 C. That is 22 questions, and this page works every one of them from the real passage, the real stem, and the real four choices.

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Information and Ideas is the reading half of the Digital SAT Reading and Writing section. It covers four sub-skills: Central Ideas and Details, Command of Evidence with a text, Command of Evidence with a graph or table, and Inferences. On this form the domain runs from question 9 to question 15 in Module 1, question 7 to question 14 in Module 2a, and question 8 to question 14 in Module 2b.

At a glance — what is on this page
Item	Detail
Questions covered	22 of 22 Information and Ideas items on Bluebook Practice Test 10
Modules	Module 1 (7 items), Module 2a (8 items), Module 2b (7 items) — all three
Sub-skills	Central Ideas and Details ×5 · Command of Evidence (Textual) ×6 · Command of Evidence (Quantitative) ×6 · Inferences ×5
Figures rebuilt	6 — two bar graphs and four data tables, all rebuilt in HTML from the printed pages
Time in the actual test	32 minutes per module for 27 questions, about 71 seconds each. These 22 items are spread across three separate 32-minute modules.
Maths	None. This is a Reading and Writing domain, so there is no Desmos work anywhere on this page.
By the end you can	Name the two groups a support question needs, read a bar off a printed axis, spot a hedge word that flips a main idea, and rule a cause out with two dates

How to use this page

Work the questions in the order they appear here, which runs easy to hard inside each sub-skill rather than by module number. Open the try-it-first toggle only after you have committed to an answer, because the annotated passage underneath it gives the reasoning away.

Central Ideas and Details — 5 questions

Central Ideas and Details questions ask one of two things: what does the whole text say, or what does one line say. The stem tells you which. “According to the text” means one line. “Main idea” or “best describes” means the whole thing. Test 10 gives you two of the easy kind and three of the hard kind.

Question 7, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Easy)

I do

The following text is adapted from Sylvia Acevedo’s 2018 memoir Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist. The narrator is traveling by car with her family to Mexico City. Mario and Laura are her brother and sister.

Mario and I played games to see how many different license plates we could spot, and Laura liked to look for children in the back seats of the cars we passed. We were used to the forty-five-minute drive to El Paso and familiar with the six-hour ride to Chihuahua, but I wondered what the long journey to Mexico City would be like.
©2018 by Sylvia Acevedo

green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

According to the text, what did the narrator and Mario do while riding in the car?

A) They read books.
B) They sang songs.
C) They went to sleep.
D) They played games.

Correct: D) They played games.
The text says it in one clause: “Mario and I played games to see how many different license plates we could spot.” The stem names two people — the narrator and Mario — and that clause is the only place both of them do something together. Notice what you did not have to do. You did not have to work out what the games meant, or how the narrator felt. A Central Ideas and Details question that starts “According to the text” is asking you to find a stated fact and read it back.

A) They read books. — unsupported. Nobody reads anything in this passage. Laura looks at children in other cars; the narrator watches license plates and thinks about the drive ahead. Reading is never mentioned, so there is nothing to point at.

B) They sang songs. — unsupported. Singing never appears either. This is the kind of choice that sounds like a normal thing to do in a car, which is exactly why it is offered. Plausible is not the same as stated.

C) They went to sleep. — opposite. The narrator is plainly awake — she is spotting plates and wondering about Mexico City in the last sentence. Sleeping contradicts the passage instead of matching it.

The move — Answer From the Line, Not From Memory: When a stem opens with According to the text, put your finger on the sentence that answers it before you look at a single choice. Then pick the choice that repeats that sentence. If you cannot point at the words, the choice is wrong no matter how reasonable it sounds.

⚡ Shortcut: Read the stem first on short-passage detail items like this one. You are hunting one clause, and knowing what you are hunting for turns a 40-second read into a 15-second scan.

Question 8, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Easy)

We do

In the 1960s, Gloria Richardson led a movement to promote racial equality. Her involvement in this effort was inspired by her daughter, Donna Richardson. In 1961, Donna joined protests organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Cambridge, Maryland. Following her daughter, Gloria joined these protests too. Gloria soon became the cochair of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee. She was also the leader of what became known as the Cambridge movement.

According to the text, what did Gloria Richardson lead?

A) The Cambridge movement
B) Her daughter Donna’s high school
C) Protests to support environmental protections
D) A new business in Cambridge, Maryland

Stop here and decide: The passage gives Gloria three different roles: she joined protests, she became a cochair, and she was the leader of something. The stem uses one specific verb. Which of those three roles is the one the stem is asking about? Decide before you read on.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) The Cambridge movement
The last sentence is the match: “She was also the leader of what became known as the Cambridge movement.” The stem verb is lead, and leader is the only word in the passage that answers it. Cochair is a shared role, and joining a protest is not leading one. When a passage hands you several roles for the same person, the stem verb picks which one counts.

B) Her daughter Donna’s high school — detail swap. Donna is the daughter and she joined protests. Her high school is never mentioned at all, and Gloria is never connected to a school. This choice takes a real person from the passage and attaches an invented fact to her.

C) Protests to support environmental protections — wrong topic. The movement in this text is about racial equality. Environmental protections belong to a different cause entirely. The choice copies the structure of the right answer and swaps the subject.

D) A new business in Cambridge, Maryland — unsupported. Cambridge, Maryland is a real place in the passage, so the choice feels anchored. But no business appears anywhere in the text. A familiar place name is not evidence.

The move — Match the Verb in the Stem: When a passage gives one person several roles, the verb in the stem tells you which role is being tested. Underline that verb, then find the same verb or its noun form in the text. Joined, cochaired, and led are three different answers here, and only one of them was asked for.

⚠ Trap: Two of the three wrong choices here borrow a real name from the passage — Donna, Cambridge. Test writers do this on purpose. Seeing a familiar word inside a choice is the weakest possible reason to pick it.

Question 9, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Medium)

Your turn

Choctaw/Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson turns punching bags used by boxers into art by decorating them with beadwork and elements of Native dressmaking. These elements include leather fringe and jingles, the metal cones that cover the dresses worn in the jingle dance, a women’s dance of the Ojibwe people. Thus, Gibson combines an object commonly associated with masculinity (a punching bag) with art forms traditionally practiced by women in most Native communities (beadwork and dressmaking). In this way, he rejects the division of male and female gender roles.

Which choice best describes Gibson’s approach to art, as presented in the text?

A) He draws from traditional Native art forms to create his original works.
B) He has been influenced by Native and non-Native artists equally.
C) He finds inspiration from boxing in designing the dresses he makes.
D) He rejects expectations about color and pattern when incorporating beadwork.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The stem asks about his approach — the method he uses across his work, not one detail of one piece. Write your own one-sentence answer before you compare the four choices. Then check each choice for a word the passage never earns.

green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) He draws from traditional Native art forms to create his original works.
The passage describes one method twice. He takes punching bags and decorates them with “beadwork and elements of Native dressmaking,” and those elements are named as traditional: leather fringe and the jingles worn in the Ojibwe jingle dance. That is exactly “draws from traditional Native art forms to create his original works.” The punching bag is his own object; the decoration is the tradition he draws from.

B) influenced by Native and non-Native artists equally — unsupported comparison. The word doing the damage is equally. The passage names Choctaw, Cherokee, and Ojibwe traditions. It never names a non-Native artist, so there is nothing to weigh against anything. A comparison needs two measured sides.

C) finds inspiration from boxing in designing the dresses he makes — reversed direction. Gibson does not make dresses. He decorates punching bags with elements taken from dresses. The choice flips the source and the product, which is a favourite Central Ideas trap because both nouns really are in the text.

D) rejects expectations about color and pattern — half-right. He does reject something — the passage says so in the last sentence. But what he rejects is “the division of male and female gender roles,” not expectations about colour and pattern. The verb is right and the object is wrong.

The move — The Whole-Text Sentence: A “best describes the approach” stem wants the sentence that stays true for the whole text. Test each choice against every sentence, not just the one that inspired it. A choice that is true of one clause and false of the rest is a half-right trap.

Question 10, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Medium)

Your turn

Believing that living in an impractical space can heighten awareness and even improve health, conceptual artists Madeline Gins and Shusaku Arakawa designed an apartment building in Japan to be more fanciful than functional. A kitchen counter is chest-high on one side and knee-high on the other; a ceiling has a door to nowhere. The effect is disorienting but invigorating: after four years there, filmmaker Nobu Yamaoka reported significant health benefits.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A) Although inhabiting a home surrounded by fanciful features such as those designed by Gins and Arakawa can be rejuvenating, it is unsustainable.
B) Designing disorienting spaces like those in the Gins and Arakawa building is the most effective way to create a physically stimulating environment.
C) As a filmmaker, Yamaoka has long supported the designs of conceptual artists such as Gins and Arakawa.
D) Although impractical, the design of the apartment building by Gins and Arakawa may improve the well-being of the building’s residents.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

This passage has two halves: what the building is like, and what living there did to one person. A main idea has to carry both. Cover the choices and say the text in one sentence with the word although in it.

green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: D) Although impractical, the design of the apartment building by Gins and Arakawa may improve the well-being of the building’s residents.
The passage opens with the designers’ belief — impractical space can “heighten awareness and even improve health” — and closes with a resident reporting “significant health benefits” after four years. Choice D carries both halves: impractical (the design) and may improve well-being (the result). The hedge may matters too. One filmmaker’s report is one data point, and D is the only choice that keeps the claim that small.

A) … it is unsustainable — unsupported. Rejuvenating is fair. Unsustainable is invented. Nobody moves out, nothing breaks down, and Yamaoka lasted four years and reported benefits. The choice bolts a negative ending onto a text that does not have one.

B) … the most effective way … — scope shift. The superlative most effective way requires a comparison with other ways of building. The passage compares nothing. One building described with approval never proves a method is the best method available.

C) Yamaoka has long supported the designs … — true-but-off-goal. Yamaoka is a filmmaker and he did report benefits, so the choice is not false on its face. But he appears as evidence for the design, not as its long-time supporter, and a main idea cannot be a supporting detail about one named person.

The move — Main Idea Must Cover Both Halves: If the passage has a setup and a result, the main idea has to hold both. Drop any choice that only reports the setup, only reports the result, or adds a third thing the text never said. Extreme words — most, unsustainable, always — are the fastest thing to cut.

⚡ Shortcut: Scan the four choices for superlatives and absolutes before you re-read the passage. On main-idea items they are wrong far more often than they are right, and cutting one or two first makes the real comparison a two-way choice.

Question 8, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Hard)

Your turn

Eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith is famed for his metaphor of the invisible hand, which he putatively used to illustrate a robust model of how individuals produce aggregate benefits by pursuing their own economic interests. Note “putatively”: as Gavin Kennedy has shown, Smith deploys this metaphor only once in his economic writings—to make a narrow point about the then-dominant economic theory of mercantilism—and it was largely ignored until some twentieth-century economists eager to secure an intellectual pedigree for their views elevated it to a fully-fledged paradigm.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A) Although Smith is famed for his metaphor of the invisible hand, the metaphor was largely ignored until economists in the twentieth century came to realize that the metaphor was a robust model that anticipated their own views.
B) Some twentieth-century economists gave Smith’s metaphor of the invisible hand a significance it does not have in Smith’s work, but it is nevertheless a useful model of how individuals produce aggregate benefits by pursuing their own economic interests.
C) Smith’s metaphor of the invisible hand has been interpreted as a model of how individuals acting in their own interest produce aggregate benefits, but it was intended as a subtle critique of the economic theory of mercantilism.
D) The reputation of Smith’s metaphor of the invisible hand is not due to the importance of the metaphor in Smith’s work but rather to the promotion of the metaphor by some later economists for their own ends.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

One word in this passage is doing all the work: putatively. The author even stops to point at it. Work out what the author thinks of the “robust model” reading before you touch the choices.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: D) The reputation of Smith’s metaphor of the invisible hand is not due to the importance of the metaphor in Smith’s work but rather to the promotion of the metaphor by some later economists for their own ends.
Putatively means supposedly — the author is flagging a claim he is about to knock down, and he tells you so with “Note ‘putatively’.” The knock-down has two pieces. Smith used the metaphor “only once,” so it is not important inside Smith’s own work. And it was ignored until later economists “eager to secure an intellectual pedigree for their views” raised it up. Choice D states exactly that: the fame comes from the later promotion, not from the original importance. “For their own ends” is the passage’s eager to secure an intellectual pedigree, in plainer words.

A) … a robust model that anticipated their own views — opposite. This choice takes the robust-model reading and treats it as the truth the twentieth century finally discovered. That is the very reading putatively was placed there to reject. It reads the passage with the flag removed.

B) … it is nevertheless a useful model … — half-right. The first clause is right: later economists gave it a significance it lacks in Smith. Then the choice turns around and endorses the model as useful anyway. The passage never grants that. It only reports the promotion.

C) … intended as a subtle critique of mercantilism — scope shift. The text says Smith used the metaphor to make a narrow point about mercantilism. A narrow point about a theory is not the same as a subtle critique of it, and the passage never says what Smith intended the metaphor to argue.

The move — Putatively Means the Author Doubts It: Hedge words — putatively, supposedly, ostensibly, allegedly — mark the idea the author is about to reject. When one appears, mark it, and cut any choice that treats the hedged claim as the passage’s own position. Here it removes two choices in about ten seconds.

⚠ Trap: Choices A and B both smuggle in the exact phrase “robust model … aggregate benefits … own economic interests.” Long verbatim overlap with the passage feels like proof. On hedged texts it is usually the trap, because the borrowed words come from the sentence the author is arguing against.

Check yourself: If you missed either Module 2a question 7 or Module 2a question 8, the gap is not reading — it is that you answered before locating the sentence. If you missed two or more of Module 1 question 9, Module 1 question 10 and Module 2b question 8, the gap is main idea, and specifically the habit of picking a choice that is true of one clause. Study the free Main Idea lesson notes, then practice the skill.

From memory, no scrolling back: One word in the Adam Smith passage told you the author disagreed with the sentence he had just written. What was the word, and what does it mean? Then say what a “main idea” choice has to do when a passage has a setup and a result.

Main idea is the single most transferable Information and Ideas skill, because Craft and Structure items lean on it too. If the three hard ones above went wrong, run a set of graded main-idea questions rather than another full test: work the main idea items in the October 2026 English question bank one at a time instead of taking pot luck.

Command of Evidence, Textual — 6 questions

Evidence questions dominate Module 2b on Test 10. Get a free English section to see where you stand.

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These give you a claim, an idea, a conclusion, or a hypothesis, and ask which quotation or which finding backs it up. The work is always the same. Turn the claim into a short checklist, then test the four options against that list. What kills students here is picking the option that is true instead of the option that is relevant.

Question 9, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Easy)

I do

“To You” is an 1856 poem by Walt Whitman. In the poem, Whitman suggests that he deeply understands the reader, whom he addresses directly, writing,

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on

Which quotation from “To You” most effectively illustrates the claim?

A) “Your true soul and body appear before me.”
B) “Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem.”
C) “I should have made my way straight to you long ago.”
D) “Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams.”

Correct: A) “Your true soul and body appear before me.”
Read the claim as a checklist. It has one requirement: the speaker deeply understands the reader. Choice A says the reader’s “true soul and body appear before me” — the reader is fully visible to the speaker, inside and out. That is understanding, stated as directly as a poem will state it. Nothing else in the choice needs to match, because the claim only asked for one thing. That is how a Command of Evidence (Textual) item works: turn the claim into a short list, then find the quotation that ticks every box.

B) “Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem.” — off-claim. This line is about the speaker acting on the reader — laying a hand on them, making them into a poem. It is intimate, and intimacy is easy to mistake for understanding. But being claimed is not the same as being understood.

C) “I should have made my way straight to you long ago.” — off-claim. This is regret about delay. It says the speaker should have come sooner, which tells you he wanted to reach the reader, not that he already knows them.

D) “Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams.” — off-claim. “I fear you are walking the walks of dreams” is a worry about the reader’s state. Concern is a feeling about someone. The claim asked for knowledge of someone.

The move — Quote Must Show, Not Mention: A quotation-illustrates-the-claim item is decided by one word in the claim — here, understands. Circle that word, then ask of each quotation: does this line demonstrate that word, or does it merely stand near it? Warmth, closeness, and worry all live near understanding without being it.

⚡ Shortcut: On “which quotation illustrates the claim” items, never read the four quotations first. Read the claim, name the one thing it requires, and only then read the options. You will usually eliminate two on the first pass.

Question 12, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Medium)

We do

The Post Office is a 1912 play by Rabindranath Tagore, originally written in Bengali. The character Amal is a young boy who imagines that the people he sees passing the window of his home are carefree even when engaged in work or chores, as is evident when he says to the daughter of a flower seller,

Which quotation from The Post Office most effectively illustrates the claim?

A) “I see, you don’t wish to stop; I don’t care to stay on here either.”
B) “Oh, flower gathering? That is why your feet seem so glad and your anklets jingle so merrily as you walk.”
C) “I’ll pay when I grow up—before I leave to look for work out on the other side of that stream there.”
D) “Wish I could be out too. Then I would pick some flowers for you from the very topmost branches right out of sight.”

Stop here and decide: This claim is a two-part checklist, not a one-part one. Part one is that the person is doing work or a chore. Part two is that Amal sees them as carefree anyway. Before you read on, decide which single quotation contains both parts — and be strict about the first one.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on

Correct: B) “Oh, flower gathering? That is why your feet seem so glad and your anklets jingle so merrily as you walk.”
Choice B ticks both boxes in one line. “Flower gathering” is the work — she is a flower seller’s daughter, collecting stock. “Your feet seem so glad and your anklets jingle so merrily” is the carefree half, and it is Amal’s reading of her, which is exactly what the claim describes: he imagines the passersby are carefree. Work and gladness sit in the same sentence, said to the right person.

A) “I see, you don’t wish to stop …” — off-claim. No work appears here and no gladness either. It is a small exchange about not stopping. Neither half of the checklist is present, so it cannot illustrate the claim.

C) “I’ll pay when I grow up …” — right words, wrong person. The word work is right there, which is why this choice tempts. But the work belongs to Amal’s own imagined future, not to the girl walking past. The claim is about how Amal sees other people.

D) “Wish I could be out too …” — half-right. This is Amal wishing he could be outside picking flowers. It shows his longing, not his view of a working passerby as carefree. The flowers are the same; the direction of the sentence is reversed.

The move — Both Halves of the Claim, One Quote: When a claim contains even when, despite, or although, it is a two-part checklist and one quotation must satisfy both parts. Split the claim on the hinge word, write the two parts down, then test each quotation against both. A quote that ticks one box is engineered to be wrong.

Question 11, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Medium)

Your turn

Many insects are iridescent, or have colors that appear to shimmer and change when seen from different angles. Scientists have assumed that this feature helps to attract mates but could also attract predators. But biologist Karin Kjernsmo and a team had the idea that the shifting appearance of colors might actually make it harder for other animals to see iridescent insects. To test this idea, the team put beetle forewings on leaves along a forest path and then asked human participants to look for them. Some of the wings were naturally iridescent. Others were painted with a nonchanging color from the iridescent spectrum, such as purple or blue.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the team’s idea?

A) On average, participants found most of the purple wings and blue wings and far fewer of the iridescent wings.
B) On average, participants found the iridescent wings faster than they found the purple wings or blue wings.
C) Some participants reported that the purple wings were easier to see than the blue wings.
D) Some participants successfully found all of the wings on the leaves.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The team built the experiment with two groups on purpose: iridescent wings and plain-coloured wings. Before you look at the choices, finish this sentence in your own words: “If the idea is right, participants should find fewer of the ______ wings.”

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) On average, participants found most of the purple wings and blue wings and far fewer of the iridescent wings.
The idea is that shimmer makes insects harder to see. The experiment sets up the comparison that would prove it: iridescent wings versus plain purple or blue ones, same leaves, same path, same searchers. Choice A reports exactly the result the idea predicts — participants found most of the plain wings and far fewer of the iridescent ones. Fewer found means harder to see, and the plain wings are the baseline that makes “fewer” mean something.

B) found the iridescent wings faster — opposite. Finding the iridescent wings faster means they were easier to spot, which is the reverse of the team’s idea. This choice uses the right two groups and points the result the wrong way.

C) purple easier to see than blue — wrong comparison. Purple versus blue compares two control wings against each other. Neither is iridescent, so the result says nothing about shimmer. The comparison the idea needs never happens.

D) some found all of the wings — no contrast. If some participants found everything, the two groups came out level for those people. A finding with no difference between the groups cannot support a claim that one group is harder to see.

The move — Support Needs the Comparison the Idea Predicts: Before you read the choices on a support item, name the two groups the experiment created and the direction the idea predicts between them. Then keep only the choice that compares those exact groups in that exact direction. Wrong-group and right-group-wrong-direction are the two standard misses.

Question 9, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Medium)

Your turn

Archaeologist Petra Vaiglova, anthropologist Xinyi Liu, and their colleagues investigated the domestication of farm animals in China during the Bronze Age (approximately 2000 to 1000 BCE). By analyzing the chemical composition of the bones of sheep, goats, and cattle from this era, the team determined that wild plants made up the bulk of sheep’s and goats’ diets, while the cattle’s diet consisted largely of millet, a crop cultivated by humans. The team concluded that cattle were likely raised closer to human settlements, whereas sheep and goats were allowed to roam farther away.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the team’s conclusion?

A) Analysis of the animal bones showed that the cattle’s diet also consisted of wheat, which humans widely cultivated in China during the Bronze Age.
B) Further investigation of sheep and goat bones revealed that their diets consisted of small portions of millet as well.
C) Cattle’s diets generally require larger amounts of food and a greater variety of nutrients than do sheep’s and goats’ diets.
D) The diets of sheep, goats, and cattle were found to vary based on what the farmers in each Bronze Age settlement could grow.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The team’s reasoning is a chain: human-grown food in the diet → the animal ate near humans. To strengthen a chain, add a link that runs the same way. Ask which choice puts more human-grown food in the cattle and none in the sheep and goats.

green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) Analysis of the animal bones showed that the cattle’s diet also consisted of wheat, which humans widely cultivated in China during the Bronze Age.
The conclusion rests on one link: cattle ate millet, millet was grown by humans, so cattle lived near humans. Choice A adds a second human-grown crop — wheat — to the cattle’s diet only. Now the cattle’s food is human-cultivated twice over, and the sheep and goats still have wild plants. The gap the conclusion depends on gets wider, which is what “most strongly support” means.

B) sheep and goats also ate millet — weakens. If sheep and goats also ate millet, they were eating human-grown food too. That narrows the very difference the conclusion is built on. This choice does the opposite of what the stem asked for.

C) cattle need more food and more nutrients — alternative explanation. A general fact about cattle nutrition offers a different reason cattle might be kept close — feeding them is work. That competes with the team’s reasoning instead of backing it, and it says nothing about millet.

D) diets varied by settlement — true-but-off-goal. Diets varying by settlement is a plausible archaeological fact and it leaves the conclusion exactly where it was. It neither adds human-grown food to the cattle nor removes it from the sheep and goats.

The move — Support the Link, Not the Data: Split a conclusion into what was measured and what was inferred. Support items are almost never about the measurement — they are about the jump. Here the measurement is bone chemistry and the jump is “so they lived nearby.” Strengthen the jump.

Question 13, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Hard)

Your turn

Born in 1891 to a Quechua-speaking family in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Martín Chambi is today considered to be one of the most renowned figures of Latin American photography. In a paper for an art history class, a student claims that Chambi’s photographs have considerable ethnographic value—in his work, Chambi was able to capture diverse elements of Peruvian society, representing his subjects with both dignity and authenticity.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the student’s claim?

A) Chambi took many commissioned portraits of wealthy Peruvians, but he also produced hundreds of images carefully documenting the peoples, sites, and customs of Indigenous communities of the Andes.
B) Chambi’s photographs demonstrate a high level of technical skill, as seen in his strategic use of illumination to create dramatic light and shadow contrasts.
C) During his lifetime, Chambi was known and celebrated both within and outside his native Peru, as his work was published in places like Argentina, Spain, and Mexico.
D) Some of the peoples and places Chambi photographed had long been popular subjects for Peruvian photographers.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The claim has a technical word in it: ethnographic. Ethnography is the recording of how a people actually live — their customs, places, and daily life. With that definition in hand, decide which finding is about recording a way of life rather than about being a good or famous photographer.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) Chambi took many commissioned portraits of wealthy Peruvians, but he also produced hundreds of images carefully documenting the peoples, sites, and customs of Indigenous communities of the Andes.
The claim asks for two things: diverse elements of Peruvian society, and ethnographic value. Choice A delivers both in one sentence. Wealthy Peruvians and Indigenous Andean communities is the diversity. “Hundreds of images carefully documenting the peoples, sites, and customs” is ethnography, almost by definition — peoples, sites, and customs is what an ethnographic record contains. No other choice touches either half.

B) high level of technical skill, use of illumination — true-but-off-goal. Lighting skill is an artistic virtue. The claim is about the value of the photographs as a record of a society, not about how well they were made. A beautifully lit picture of one person documents nothing.

C) known and celebrated inside and outside Peru — true-but-off-goal. Fame in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico measures reputation. Reputation is not evidence of ethnographic content, and the passage already grants that he is renowned. Repeating something the text has already said adds no support.

D) his subjects had long been popular with other photographers — weakens. If his subjects were long-standing popular subjects for other photographers, his images look less like a distinctive record and more like a familiar genre. That pushes against the claim rather than propping it up.

The move — Off-Goal Praise Is Still Wrong: When a claim uses a technical word, define it before you read the choices. Then reject every choice that praises the subject on a different axis. Skill, fame, and popularity are the three standard off-goal compliments, and this item uses all three.

⚠ Trap: Three of the four choices here are things a reasonable person would call good news about Chambi. “Would most directly support the claim” does not mean “is complimentary.” It means “makes this specific sentence more likely to be true.”

Question 11, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Hard)

Your turn

In the mountains of Brazil, Barbacenia tomentosa and Barbacenia macrantha—two plants in the Velloziaceae family—establish themselves on soilless, nutrient-poor patches of quartzite rock. Plant ecologists Anna Abrahão and Patricia de Britto Costa used microscopic analysis to determine that the roots of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha, which grow directly into the quartzite, have clusters of fine hairs near the root tip; further analysis indicated that these hairs secrete both malic and citric acids. The researchers hypothesize that the plants depend on dissolving underlying rock with these acids, as the process not only creates channels for continued growth but also releases phosphates that provide the vital nutrient phosphorus.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis?

A) Other species in the Velloziaceae family are found in terrains with more soil but have root structures similar to those of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha.
B) Though B. tomentosa and B. macrantha both secrete citric and malic acids, each species produces the acids in different proportions.
C) The roots of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha carve new entry points into rocks even when cracks in the surface are readily available.
D) B. tomentosa and B. macrantha thrive even when transferred to the surfaces of rocks that do not contain phosphates.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

A rival explanation is hiding in plain sight here: maybe the roots simply slip into cracks that were already in the rock, and the acids are beside the point. Which choice would rule that rival out?

green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: C) The roots of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha carve new entry points into rocks even when cracks in the surface are readily available.
The hypothesis says the plants depend on dissolving the rock. The obvious competing story is that the roots just use cracks that were already there. Choice C kills that story: the roots carve new entry points even when cracks are readily available. A plant that ignores a free opening and makes its own hole is doing something active to the rock, which is what dissolving means. Ruling out the rival is the strongest kind of support a single finding can give.

A) other species with similar roots live in soil — weakens. Relatives with the same root structure living in ordinary soil suggest the hairs are a family trait, not a rock-dissolving adaptation. That loosens the tie between the hairs and the quartzite instead of tightening it.

B) the two species make the acids in different proportions — irrelevant detail. Different proportions of the same two acids in two species is a fine observation and it changes nothing. Both species still secrete both acids, and the hypothesis is about what the acids do to rock.

D) they thrive on rocks with no phosphates — opposite. Thriving on phosphate-free rock cuts against the passage’s own reason for the dissolving: releasing phosphates for phosphorus. If they do fine without any phosphate to release, the stated payoff disappears.

The move — Rule Out the Rival Explanation: On a hard hypothesis item, ask what else could explain the observation. The best support is usually the finding that eliminates that competing story, not the one that repeats the observation. Say the rival out loud before you read the choices — here it was “maybe the cracks were already there.”

⚡ Shortcut: Two of these four choices actively hurt the hypothesis. On “most directly support” items, sort into helps / hurts / does nothing before you rank. It usually leaves one survivor.

Check yourself: If you missed Module 2b question 9 or Module 1 question 12, the gap is that you are not converting the claim into a checklist before reading the options. If you missed two or more of Module 1 question 11, Module 2a question 9, Module 2a question 13 and Module 2b question 11, the gap is that you are rewarding true statements instead of relevant ones. Study the free Main Idea lesson notes and practice picking the relevant statement.

From memory, no scrolling back: The beetle-wing study and the Bronze Age bone study both had one thing you had to identify before the choices made sense. What was it in each case? Then name the two ways a support choice can fail even when it uses the right groups.

Command of Evidence, Quantitative — 6 questions

Six of the 22 items on this form hand you a graph or a table. Two are bar graphs and four are data tables. Every one of them is rebuilt below in HTML, with the printed axis and gridlines where the source has them, so you can answer the question from this page alone.

How the two graphs on this form are printed, and what that means for reading them

Both bar graphs in this domain — the spider count on page 13 and the mammal biomass on page 37 — print a numbered vertical axis with gridlines. Neither prints a number on any individual bar. That is the normal College Board pattern, and it is not the same as an unlabelled graph.

The axis and the gridlines are reproduced here exactly as printed, so you can read the bars the same way you would in Bluebook.
Bar heights below are described as approximate, read from the printed scale to about half a gridline step. Every such figure is marked APPROXIMATE in its caption and carries the word “about”.
None of the four tables needs any of this: their values are printed in the cells, so they are reproduced exactly.

Question 11, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Easy)

I do

Housing Starts in the US, January–April 2022 (in thousands)
Month	Housing starts
January	1,669
February	1,771
March	1,713
April	1,803

Rebuilt from the table printed on page 38. Every value is printed in the source table.

When construction of a single-family house begins, it is called a housing start. In the first four months of 2022, the highest number of housing starts in the United States was in

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

A) April.
B) March.
C) January.
D) February.

Correct: A) April.
The sentence asks for the highest number of housing starts. Read the second column top to bottom: 1,669 · 1,771 · 1,713 · 1,803. The largest of those four is 1,803, and 1,803 sits in the April row. So April completes the sentence. That is the whole item. There is no trend to describe and no comparison to build — a quantitative evidence question can be this literal, and when it is, the only way to lose the point is to read the wrong superlative or the wrong row.

B) March. — wrong rank. March is 1,713. That is third of the four, and it sits between February and January. Nothing in the sentence asks for a middle value.

C) January. — opposite. January is 1,669, the lowest of the four months. This is the choice you land on if you read the table for the smallest number, which happens when you skim past the word highest.

D) February. — close second. February is 1,771 — the runner-up, and only 32 thousand behind April. Second place is the most common wrong answer on a superlative item because the numbers look similar at a glance.

The move — Read the Row the Sentence Asks For: Before you look at the data, underline the superlative in the sentence — highest, lowest, greatest, least. Then read one column, find that one value, and read across to its label. Do not compare choices to each other; compare the data to the word you underlined.

⚡ Shortcut: With four rows and one column of numbers, the fastest route is to circle the biggest number first and only then look at the choices. That way the answer is decided before the distractors get a chance to argue with you.

Question 10, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Easy)

We do

Top Four Species of Wild Land Mammals by Global Biomass — rebuilt from page 37 (bar values APPROXIMATE, read from the printed scale)

The source graph on page 37 prints a numbered vertical axis (0 to 3.0 in steps of 0.5) with gridlines, but it does not print a value on any bar. The bar heights below are read from that printed scale, so each is approximate to about half a gridline step.

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

African bush elephant

eastern gray kangaroo

wild boar

white-tailed deer

Species

species — global biomass in millions of metric tons

Vertical axis label in the source: “Global biomass (millions of metric tons)”.

What the bars measure against the printed scale — APPROXIMATE
Species	Height read off the printed axis
African bush elephant	about 1.3 million metric tons
eastern gray kangaroo	about 0.6 million metric tons
wild boar	about 1.9 million metric tons
white-tailed deer	about 2.7 million metric tons

Every figure in this table is read from the printed scale, not printed on the bar. Treat each as approximate to about half a gridline step. The ranking is unaffected: the gaps between these bars are far wider than the reading error.

Global biomass is the total mass of living material, such as animals and plants, on Earth. A team of scientists estimated the global biomass, by species, of various wild land mammals. The team found that the species with the highest global biomass is the

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the sentence?

A) wild boar.
B) eastern gray kangaroo.
C) African bush elephant.
D) white-tailed deer.

Stop here and decide: Look at the rebuilt graph above and, before reading on, name the species whose bar reaches highest against the printed axis. Then ask yourself a second question that decides whether you even need a precise reading: how far apart are the top two bars?

Top Four Species of Wild Land Mammals by Global Biomass — rebuilt from page 37 (bar values APPROXIMATE, read from the printed scale)

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

African bush elephant

eastern gray kangaroo

wild boar

white-tailed deer

Species

species — global biomass in millions of metric tons

Vertical axis label in the source: “Global biomass (millions of metric tons)”.

What the bars measure against the printed scale — APPROXIMATE
Species	Height read off the printed axis
African bush elephant	about 1.3 million metric tons
eastern gray kangaroo	about 0.6 million metric tons
wild boar	about 1.9 million metric tons
white-tailed deer	about 2.7 million metric tons

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yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it

Correct: D) white-tailed deer.
The white-tailed deer bar is the tallest. Read against the printed axis it lands at about 2.7 million metric tons, and the next tallest — wild boar — is at about 1.9. The two are nearly a full gridline apart, so this is not a close call and the reading error does not matter. The sentence asks for the highest global biomass, so white-tailed deer completes it.

A) wild boar. — close second. Wild boar reads at about 1.9 against the printed scale. It is the second tallest bar, which is exactly the trap a superlative sentence sets. Second is not highest.

B) eastern gray kangaroo. — opposite. The eastern gray kangaroo bar is the shortest, at about 0.6. Picking it means you read the graph for the smallest value instead of the largest.

C) African bush elephant. — assumption over data. The African bush elephant is the biggest single animal on the list, and its bar reads at about 1.3 — less than half the deer. Biomass counts every individual of the species, not the size of one. This choice is what you pick if you answer from what you know about elephants instead of from the bar.

The move — Tallest Bar Wins Only If the Sentence Says Highest: On a bar-graph completion item, do two things in order. First read the printed axis and its units so you know what a tall bar means. Second, underline the superlative in the sentence. Then take the bar that matches that superlative — and ignore what you happen to know about the species.

⚠ Trap: “Biomass” is defined for you in the first sentence of the passage: total mass of living material. It is a species-wide total, so a huge animal with few individuals loses to a medium animal with tens of millions. Definitions printed in the passage are printed there because a choice is built on misreading them.

Question 12, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Medium)

Your turn

Employment by Sector in France and the United States, 1800–2012 (% of total employment)
Year	Agriculture in France	Manufacturing in France	Services in France	Agriculture in US	Manufacturing in US	Services in US
1800	64	22	14	68	18	13
1900	43	29	28	41	28	31
1950	32	33	35	14	33	53
2012	3	21	76	2	18	80

Rows in table may not add up to 100 due to rounding. Rebuilt from the table printed on page 66. Every value is printed in the source table.

Over the past two hundred years, the percentage of the population employed in the agricultural sector has declined in both France and the United States, while employment in the service sector (which includes jobs in retail, consulting, real estate, etc.) has risen. However, this transition happened at very different rates in the two countries. This can be seen most clearly by comparing the employment by sector in both countries in

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

A) 1900 with the employment by sector in 1950.
B) 1800 with the employment by sector in 2012.
C) 1900 with the employment by sector in 2012.
D) 1800 with the employment by sector in 1900.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

You need the pair of years where the two countries look alike at one end and unalike at the other. Read the 1800 row across, then the 1900 row, then 1950, then 2012, and ask each time: are France and the US close, or far apart? One year will jump out as the odd one.

Employment by Sector in France and the United States, 1800–2012 (% of total employment)
Year	Agriculture in France	Manufacturing in France	Services in France	Agriculture in US	Manufacturing in US	Services in US
1800	64	22	14	68	18	13
1900	43	29	28	41	28	31
1950	32	33	35	14	33	53
2012	3	21	76	2	18	80

Rows in table may not add up to 100 due to rounding. Rebuilt from the table printed on page 66. Every value is printed in the source table.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) 1900 with the employment by sector in 1950.
Line up the two countries year by year. In 1800 they are close: agriculture 64 and 68, services 14 and 13. In 1900 they are still close: agriculture 43 and 41, manufacturing 29 and 28, services 28 and 31. In 2012 they are close again: agriculture 3 and 2, services 76 and 80. Only 1950 breaks the pattern — France is at 32 agriculture and 35 services while the US is at 14 agriculture and 53 services. So pairing 1900 with 1950 shows two countries that were nearly identical pulling far apart in fifty years. That is what “very different rates” looks like in a table.

B) 1800 with the employment by sector in 2012. — shows sameness. Both 1800 and 2012 are years where France and the US nearly match. Comparing them shows the two countries starting alike and finishing alike, which is a claim about the same destination, not about different speeds.

C) 1900 with the employment by sector in 2012. — skips the split. 1900 and 2012 are the two closest-matching years in the table. Jumping from one to the other steps straight over 1950, the only year where the gap opens. The divergence is hidden rather than shown.

D) 1800 with the employment by sector in 1900. — shows sameness. From 1800 to 1900 French agriculture fell 64 to 43 and US agriculture fell 68 to 41 — almost the same drop. That century is evidence the two countries changed at the same rate, which is the opposite of the sentence.

The move — Different Rates Need the Years Where They Split: When a sentence claims two things changed at different rates, you need a pair of moments: one where they match and one where they do not. Scan every row for the year with the widest gap between the two, then pair it with a nearby year where the gap was small. A pair of look-alike years can never show a difference.

⚡ Shortcut: Six columns of numbers looks slow, but you only ever read across a row, never down a column. Four quick left-right reads — France versus US — and the odd year is obvious.

Question 12, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Medium)

Your turn

Approximate Rates of Speech and Information Conveyed for Five Languages
Language	Rate of speech (syllables per second)	Rate of information conveyed (bits per second)
Serbian	7.2	39.1
Spanish	7.7	42.0
Vietnamese	5.3	42.5
Thai	4.7	33.8
Hungarian	5.9	34.6

Rebuilt from the table printed on page 39. Every value is printed in the source table.

A group of researchers working in Europe, Asia, and Oceania conducted a study to determine how quickly different Eurasian languages are typically spoken (in syllables per second) and how much information they can effectively convey (in bits per second). They found that, although languages vary widely in the speed at which they are spoken, the amount of information languages can effectively convey tends to vary much less. Thus, they claim that two languages with very different spoken rates can nonetheless convey the same amount of information in a given amount of time.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support the researchers’ claim?

A) Among the five languages in the table, Thai and Hungarian have the lowest rates of speech and the lowest rates of information conveyed.
B) Vietnamese conveys information at approximately the same rate as Spanish despite being spoken at a slower rate.
C) Among the five languages in the table, the language that is spoken the fastest is also the language that conveys information the fastest.
D) Serbian and Spanish are spoken at approximately the same rate, but Serbian conveys information faster than Spanish does.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The claim needs one pair of languages that is far apart in column two and close together in column three. Go looking for that pair yourself before you read the choices — and when you check a choice, check every number in it, not just the first.

Approximate Rates of Speech and Information Conveyed for Five Languages
Language	Rate of speech (syllables per second)	Rate of information conveyed (bits per second)
Serbian	7.2	39.1
Spanish	7.7	42.0
Vietnamese	5.3	42.5
Thai	4.7	33.8
Hungarian	5.9	34.6

Rebuilt from the table printed on page 39. Every value is printed in the source table.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: B) Vietnamese conveys information at approximately the same rate as Spanish despite being spoken at a slower rate.
Vietnamese is spoken at 5.3 syllables per second and Spanish at 7.7 — 2.4 syllables per second apart, a wide gap in speaking speed. Yet Vietnamese conveys 42.5 bits per second and Spanish 42.0. Half a bit apart. That is the claim exactly: very different spoken rates, essentially the same information rate. Choice B is the only option that names a pair and reports both columns for it.

A) Thai and Hungarian have the lowest of both — false reading. Check it against the table. Thai is the slowest at 4.7, but the second slowest is Vietnamese at 5.3, not Hungarian at 5.9. And even if the ranking held, low-and-low is a pair that matches on both columns — the claim needs a pair that differs on one and matches on the other.

C) fastest spoken is also fastest conveying — false reading. The fastest spoken language is Spanish at 7.7. The fastest information rate belongs to Vietnamese at 42.5, not Spanish at 42.0. The two superlatives land on different rows, so the statement is simply untrue of this table.

D) Serbian conveys faster than Spanish — opposite. Serbian at 7.2 and Spanish at 7.7 really are close in speech rate. But Serbian conveys 39.1 and Spanish 42.0, so Serbian is slower at conveying information, not faster. And a pair that matches in speech is the wrong pair anyway — the claim is about languages with very different spoken rates.

The move — Check Every Number in the Choice: On a table item, a choice is one sentence containing several separate factual claims. Test them one at a time against the printed cells. Two of the wrong choices here are not merely off-goal — they are false, and a ten-second check of the second half of each sentence kills them.

⚠ Trap: Three of these four choices are shaped like a pattern statement, which makes them sound authoritative. Authority is not accuracy. If a choice names a superlative, find that superlative in the table before you believe the rest of the sentence.

Question 10, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Hard)

Your turn

Average Number and Duration of Torpor Bouts and Arousal Episodes for Alaska Marmots and Arctic Ground Squirrels, 2008–2011
Feature	Alaska marmots	Arctic ground squirrels
torpor bouts	12	10.5
duration per bout	13.81 days	16.77 days
arousal episodes	11	9.5
duration per episode	21.2 hours	14.2 hours

Rebuilt from the table printed on page 64. Every value is printed in the source table.

When hibernating, Alaska marmots and Arctic ground squirrels enter a state called torpor, which minimizes the energy their bodies need to function. Often a hibernating animal will temporarily come out of torpor (called an arousal episode) and its metabolic rate will rise, burning more of the precious energy the animal needs to survive the winter. Alaska marmots hibernate in groups and therefore burn less energy keeping warm during these episodes than they would if they were alone. A researcher hypothesized that because Arctic ground squirrels hibernate alone, they would likely exhibit longer bouts of torpor and shorter arousal episodes than Alaska marmots.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support the researcher’s hypothesis?

A) The Alaska marmots’ arousal episodes lasted for days, while the Arctic ground squirrels’ arousal episodes lasted less than a day.
B) The Alaska marmots and the Arctic ground squirrels both maintained torpor for several consecutive days per bout, on average.
C) The Alaska marmots had shorter torpor bouts and longer arousal episodes than the Arctic ground squirrels did.
D) The Alaska marmots had more torpor bouts than arousal episodes, but their arousal episodes were much shorter than their torpor bouts.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The hypothesis makes two predictions about the squirrels relative to the marmots: longer torpor bouts, shorter arousal episodes. Only two rows of the table are about duration. Find them, compare the two columns in each, and write the result as a sentence about the marmots before you read on.

Average Number and Duration of Torpor Bouts and Arousal Episodes for Alaska Marmots and Arctic Ground Squirrels, 2008–2011
Feature	Alaska marmots	Arctic ground squirrels
torpor bouts	12	10.5
duration per bout	13.81 days	16.77 days
arousal episodes	11	9.5
duration per episode	21.2 hours	14.2 hours

Rebuilt from the table printed on page 64. Every value is printed in the source table.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: C) The Alaska marmots had shorter torpor bouts and longer arousal episodes than the Arctic ground squirrels did.
Two rows matter: duration per bout and duration per episode. Duration per bout — marmots 13.81 days, squirrels 16.77 days — so the squirrels’ torpor bouts are longer, exactly as predicted. Duration per episode — marmots 21.2 hours, squirrels 14.2 hours — so the squirrels’ arousal episodes are shorter, again as predicted. Choice C states both results from the marmots’ side, which is the same comparison read backwards: shorter torpor bouts and longer arousal episodes for the marmots.

A) marmot arousals lasted for days — false reading. The marmots’ arousal episodes averaged 21.2 hours. That is less than a day, not “days”. The squirrels’ 14.2 hours is also less than a day, so the contrast the choice draws does not exist in the table.

B) both maintained torpor for several days per bout — no comparison. It is true — 13.81 and 16.77 days are both several consecutive days. But the hypothesis is a comparison between two species, and a statement that both did the same thing supports nothing. True and useless.

D) more torpor bouts than arousal episodes — wrong pair compared. This compares marmots to themselves: their bout count against their arousal count, their episode length against their bout length. Every number is real and none of it touches the squirrels, so it cannot support a between-species prediction.

The move — The Hypothesis Names Two Species — So Must the Answer: When a hypothesis compares group A with group B, cross out every choice that fails to mention both. Then check that the choice compares them on the right row. This table has a count row and a duration row for each behaviour, and the hypothesis only ever talks about duration.

⚠ Trap: Notice how much of this table is decoration. “Torpor bouts” (12 and 10.5) and “arousal episodes” (11 and 9.5) are counts, and the hypothesis never mentions how many. Two of the wrong choices live entirely in those two rows.

Question 13, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Hard)

Your turn

Spider Population Count — rebuilt from page 13 (bar values APPROXIMATE, read from the printed scale)

The source graph on page 13 prints a numbered vertical axis (Spider count, 0 to 90 in steps of 10) with gridlines, but it does not print a value on any bar. The bar heights below are read from that printed scale, so each is approximate to about half a gridline step.

Day of experiment

no lizards
with lizards

Vertical axis label in the source: “Spider count”. Horizontal axis: “Day of experiment”, with bars at days 1, 10, 20 and 30.

What the bars measure against the printed scale — APPROXIMATE
Day	No lizards	With lizards
1	about 85	about 85
10	just above 60	just above 30
20	about 50	just under 30
30	just above 40	just above 20

Every figure in this table is read from the printed scale, not printed on the bar. Treat each as approximate to about half a gridline step — that is, to within about 5 spiders. Every comparison the four choices ask for is much larger than 5, so the reading error never decides the question.

To investigate the effect of lizard predation on spider populations, a student in a biology class placed spiders in two enclosures, one with lizards and one without, and tracked the number of spiders in the enclosures for 30 days. The student concluded that the reduction in the spider population count in the enclosure with lizards by day 30 was entirely attributable to the presence of the lizards.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the student’s conclusion?

A) The spider population count was the same in both enclosures on day 1.
B) The spider population count also substantially declined by day 30 in the enclosure without lizards.
C) The largest decline in spider population count in the enclosure with lizards occurred from day 1 to day 10.
D) The spider population count on day 30 was lower in the enclosure with lizards than in the enclosure without lizards.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

The word to attack is entirely. To weaken “the lizards caused all of it,” you do not have to prove the lizards did nothing. You only have to show that something else was also pushing the numbers down. Look at the light bars — the enclosure with no lizards at all — and read them against the printed axis from day 1 to day 30.

Spider Population Count — rebuilt from page 13 (bar values APPROXIMATE, read from the printed scale)

Day of experiment

no lizards
with lizards

Vertical axis label in the source: “Spider count”. Horizontal axis: “Day of experiment”, with bars at days 1, 10, 20 and 30.

What the bars measure against the printed scale — APPROXIMATE
Day	No lizards	With lizards
1	about 85	about 85
10	just above 60	just above 30
20	about 50	just under 30
30	just above 40	just above 20

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: B) The spider population count also substantially declined by day 30 in the enclosure without lizards.
Read the light bars against the printed scale. Day 1 sits at about 85; day 30 sits just above 40. That is roughly a halving in an enclosure that never had a lizard in it. So some other factor — food, space, temperature, the spiders eating each other — was already cutting the population on its own. The student’s conclusion was that the drop in the lizard enclosure was entirely the lizards. Choice B shows part of that drop would have happened anyway, which is precisely what weakening an “entirely” claim requires.

A) same count in both enclosures on day 1 — strengthens. Both enclosures start at about 85 on day 1. Matching starting points make the comparison fair, which helps the student’s reasoning rather than hurting it. A good control is not a counterargument.

C) largest decline was day 1 to day 10 — consistent with the claim. The with-lizards bars fall from about 85 to just above 30 between day 1 and day 10, so the statement is true. But a fast early drop in the lizard enclosure is exactly what heavy predation would look like. True and on the student’s side.

D) day 30 count lower with lizards — opposite. On day 30 the lizard enclosure reads just above 20 and the lizard-free one just above 40. That gap is the student’s best evidence. Choosing it means answering the strengthen question instead of the weaken question that was asked.

The move — Weaken Means Find the Other Cause: A conclusion that says a result was entirely caused by X is weakened by any evidence that something else contributed. On a two-group graph, that evidence almost always lives in the control group. Read the control line or the control bars first — if the control moved too, the cause is not exclusive.

⚡ Shortcut: Absolute words in a conclusion — entirely, only, solely, always — are the weak point. You do not have to overturn the whole claim, just the absolute. That is a much smaller job and it is usually one bar away.

Check yourself: If you missed Module 2a question 11 or Module 2a question 10, the gap is the superlative — you are reading the data before you have read what the sentence asked for. If you missed two or more of Module 2b question 12, Module 2a question 12, Module 2b question 10 and Module 1 question 13, the gap is comparison design: which two things the claim requires you to line up. Work timed sets on the free practice tests and mark every quantitative item before you check answers.

From memory, no scrolling back: For the spider graph, say which group of bars decides a weaken question and why. Then say what a table needs to show if a sentence claims two countries changed at different rates.

Inferences — 5 questions

Every Inferences item on this form ends with a blank, and every stem is the same seven words: which choice most logically completes the text. The blank is never a guess. The words right before it tell you what kind of thing has to go there, and the passage supplies the reasons.

Question 14, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Medium)

I do

Although military veterans make up a small proportion of the total population of the United States, they occupy a significantly higher proportion of the jobs in the civilian government. One possible explanation for this disproportionate representation is that military service familiarizes people with certain organizational structures that are also reflected in the civilian government bureaucracy, and this familiarity thus

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) makes civilian government jobs especially appealing to military veterans.
B) alters the typical relationship between military service and subsequent career preferences.
C) encourages nonveterans applying for civilian government jobs to consider military service instead.
D) increases the number of civilian government jobs that require some amount of military experience to perform.

Correct: A) makes civilian government jobs especially appealing to military veterans.
Track the logic in order. Fact to explain: veterans hold more civilian government jobs than their share of the population. Proposed explanation: military service makes people familiar with structures that also appear in the civilian bureaucracy. The blank comes after “and this familiarity thus,” so it has to say what familiarity does that would produce the fact. Choice A says it makes those jobs especially appealing to veterans. Appealing jobs attract more applicants from that group, and more applicants explains the overrepresentation. Setup, mechanism, result — the chain closes.

B) alters the typical relationship between military service and subsequent career preferences. — vague and unsupported. Nothing in the text describes a “typical relationship” between service and later career preferences, so there is nothing for familiarity to alter. A choice that gestures at a change without naming a direction cannot complete a because-therefore sentence.

C) encourages nonveterans applying for civilian government jobs to consider military service instead. — reversed direction. This makes nonveterans consider joining the military. The passage is explaining why veterans end up in these jobs, and the chain runs service first, government job second. The choice runs it backwards.

D) increases the number of civilian government jobs that require some amount of military experience to perform. — wrong thing changes. Familiarity is a property of the person, not of the job listing. This choice has familiarity rewriting job requirements, which would explain the pattern by changing the jobs rather than by explaining the applicants.

The move — Finish the Sentence the Text Started: An Inferences item with a blank at the end is a sentence-completion, not a free guess. Read the words immediately before the blank — here and this familiarity thus — and require the answer to be a direct consequence of that exact noun. If the choice changes the subject, it cannot be what “this familiarity thus” does.
Also firing on this question: Finish the Logic Chain.

⚡ Shortcut: Cover the four choices and finish the sentence yourself in ten words. You will usually land within a synonym of the right answer, and you will spot the reversed-direction trap immediately because your version and the choice point opposite ways.

Question 14, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Medium)

We do

Many mosquito repellents contain natural components that work by activating multiple odor receptors on mosquitoes’ antennae. As the insects develop resistance, new repellents are needed. Ke Dong and her team found that EBF, a molecular component of a chrysanthemum-flower extract, can repel mosquitoes by activating just one odor receptor—and this receptor, Or31, is present in all mosquito species known to carry diseases. Therefore, the researchers suggest that in developing new repellents, it would be most useful to

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) identify molecular components similar to EBF that target the activation of Or31 receptors.
B) investigate alternative methods for extracting EBF molecules from chrysanthemums.
C) verify the precise locations of Or31 and other odor receptors on mosquitoes’ antennae.
D) determine the maximum number of different odor receptors that can be activated by a single molecule.

Stop here and decide: The passage gives EBF two separate advantages, and the blank should follow from them. Name both advantages in your own words before you read on — and be careful, because one of them is about EBF and the other is about the receptor, not the molecule.

green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: A) identify molecular components similar to EBF that target the activation of Or31 receptors.
EBF has two things going for it. It works by hitting just one receptor, and that receptor, Or31, appears in all disease-carrying mosquito species. Put those together and the useful next step is to look for more molecules with the same target: other components like EBF that activate Or31. That keeps both advantages — single target, universal across the species that matter — and it directly serves “developing new repellents,” which is what the sentence says the goal is.

B) alternative extraction methods — true-but-off-goal. Better extraction is a manufacturing problem. The passage is about resistance and about finding new repellents, not about getting more of an existing one out of a flower. Nothing in the text says supply is the obstacle.

C) verify the precise locations of receptors — already settled. The passage already tells you Or31 is on the antennae and is present in all disease-carrying species. Confirming where receptors sit does not move you toward a new repellent, and re-establishing a fact the text has stated is never the logical next step.

D) maximum number of receptors per molecule — opposite direction. The whole point of EBF is that one receptor is enough. Chasing molecules that activate as many receptors as possible walks back to the older repellents described in the first sentence — the ones mosquitoes are developing resistance to.

The move — Finish the Logic Chain: When a result word — therefore, thus, so, consequently — sits anywhere in the blank’s clause, the answer must be built from the reasons the passage just supplied, and from nothing else. List those reasons on your scratch paper first. A choice that introduces a new problem the text never raised is out, however sensible it sounds.

Question 15, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Medium)

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Your turn

Euphorbia esula (leafy spurge) is a Eurasian plant that has become invasive in North America, where it displaces native vegetation and sickens cattle. E. esula can be controlled with chemical herbicides, but that approach can also kill harmless plants nearby. Recent research on introducing engineered DNA into plant species to inhibit their reproduction may offer a path toward exclusively targeting E. esula, consequently

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) making individual E. esula plants more susceptible to existing chemical herbicides.
B) enhancing the ecological benefits of E. esula in North America.
C) enabling cattle to consume E. esula without becoming sick.
D) reducing invasive E. esula numbers without harming other organisms.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

This passage names a problem and then names a problem with the solution. Write both down. Then ask what a method that hits only E. esula would do about each one. The word consequently means the blank is the payoff.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it

Correct: D) reducing invasive E. esula numbers without harming other organisms.
The passage sets up two problems. E. esula is invasive and harmful, and the current fix — herbicides — kills harmless plants too. The new research inhibits reproduction and can target E. esula exclusively. Follow that through: fewer plants reproduce, so numbers fall, and because the targeting is exclusive, nothing else gets hit. Choice D says both halves — reducing numbers, without harming other organisms — and each half answers one of the two problems the passage raised.

A) more susceptible to existing herbicides — defeats the point. The herbicides are the thing the passage says causes collateral damage. A method whose payoff is making the herbicides work better keeps the exact problem the new approach was introduced to avoid.

B) enhancing the ecological benefits of the plant — opposite. E. esula is invasive, displaces native plants, and sickens cattle. The text presents it as a problem to reduce. Enhancing its ecological benefits reverses the goal of the whole paragraph.

C) letting cattle eat it safely — wrong problem solved. Sick cattle is one of the harms the plant causes, so this choice is at least on topic. But the research inhibits reproduction; it does not change the plant’s chemistry. Fewer plants is not the same as safer plants.

The move — Finish the Logic Chain: When the blank follows consequently, as a result, or thereby, the answer is the payoff of the method just described. Find every problem the passage named — there are often two — and prefer the choice that resolves them without reintroducing either one.

Question 13, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Hard)

Your turn

A team of biologists led by Jae-Hoon Jung, Antonio D. Barbosa, and Stephanie Hutin investigated the mechanism that allows Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) plants to accelerate flowering at high temperatures. They replaced the protein ELF3 in the plants with a similar protein found in another species (stiff brome) that, unlike A. thaliana, displays no acceleration in flowering with increased temperature. A comparison of unmodified A. thaliana plants with the altered plants showed no difference in flowering at 22° Celsius, but at 27° Celsius, the unmodified plants exhibited accelerated flowering while the altered ones did not, which suggests that

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) temperature-sensitive accelerated flowering is unique to A. thaliana.
B) A. thaliana increases ELF3 production as temperatures rise.
C) ELF3 enables A. thaliana to respond to increased temperatures.
D) temperatures of at least 22° Celsius are required for A. thaliana to flower.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

This is a swap experiment. One part was taken out and a different version put in, and one behaviour disappeared. Write down exactly what was swapped and exactly what stopped happening. The conclusion is the link between those two facts and nothing more.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: C) ELF3 enables A. thaliana to respond to increased temperatures.
Only one thing changed between the two sets of plants: the ELF3 protein. At 22°C both behaved the same, so the swap by itself is harmless. At 27°C the plants with their own ELF3 sped up flowering and the plants with the stiff brome version did not. Take away A. thaliana’s ELF3 and the heat response disappears, so ELF3 is what enables that response. Choice C says exactly that and stops there.

A) unique to A. thaliana — overreach. The study compared one species’ protein against one other species’ protein. “Unique” is a claim about every plant on Earth. Two species tested can never establish that no third species does the same thing.

B) increases ELF3 production as temperature rises — unmeasured mechanism. This says the plant makes more ELF3 when it gets warmer. The experiment swapped which protein was present; it never measured how much of it there was. The choice invents a quantity the study did not look at.

D) at least 22° C required to flower — misread the control. 22°C is the temperature where both groups behaved identically — the baseline. Both groups flowered there, so it is not a floor below which nothing flowers. This choice turns a control condition into a requirement.

The move — The Swap Test Names the Part, Not the Amount: When a study replaces one component and a behaviour stops, the supported conclusion is that the component is necessary for the behaviour. It is not a conclusion about how much of the component there is, and it is not a conclusion about other species. Say “X enables Y” and refuse to say more.

⚠ Trap: The 22°C result is there to be misread. Its job in the experiment is to prove the swap did no general damage — the altered plants are normal until the heat arrives. A condition where nothing happens is a control, and controls never make good conclusions.

Question 14, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Hard)

Your turn

The domestic sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) descends from a wild plant native to South America. It also populates the Polynesian Islands, where evidence confirms that Native Hawaiians and other Indigenous peoples were cultivating the plant centuries before seafaring first occurred over the thousands of miles of ocean separating them from South America. To explain how the sweet potato was first introduced in Polynesia, botanist Pablo Muñoz-Rodríguez and colleagues analyzed the DNA of numerous varieties of the plant, concluding that Polynesian varieties diverged from South American ones over 100,000 years ago. Given that Polynesia was peopled only in the last three thousand years, the team concluded that

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) the cultivation of the sweet potato in Polynesia likely predates its cultivation in South America.
B) Polynesian peoples likely acquired the sweet potato from South American peoples only within the last three thousand years.
C) human activity likely played no role in the introduction of the sweet potato in Polynesia.
D) Polynesian sweet potato varieties likely descend from a single South American variety that was domesticated, not wild.

Try it first — then open the reasoning

Two numbers decide this item and they do not overlap. Put them side by side: when the plants split, and when people first reached Polynesia. Then ask the question the passage is asking — how did the plant get there? — and see what the gap between those numbers rules out.

yellow, dotted underline = what the question turns on · green, solid underline = the evidence that decides it · red, dashed underline = what pulls you to a wrong choice

Correct: C) human activity likely played no role in the introduction of the sweet potato in Polynesia.
The DNA says the Polynesian and South American sweet potatoes went their separate ways more than 100,000 years ago. People did not reach Polynesia until the last 3,000 years. So the plant was already there, and separate, roughly 97,000 years before any human could have carried it. If nobody was present when it arrived, nobody brought it. Choice C draws exactly that conclusion: human activity likely played no role in the introduction. Note the hedge — likely, and no role in the introduction, not “no role in anything.” Humans still cultivated it later; they just did not bring it.

A) cultivation in Polynesia predates South America — scope shift. Divergence is about the plants separating, not about people growing them. The passage never dates cultivation in South America at all, so there is no way to say which region cultivated it first. The choice swaps a botanical date for a human one.

B) acquired from South Americans in the last 3,000 years — opposite. A transfer within the last 3,000 years is exactly what the 100,000-year divergence rules out. This is the explanation the study was run to test, and the data killed it. Picking it means using the setup and ignoring the finding.

D) descend from a single domesticated variety — unsupported detail. Nothing in the text says the Polynesian varieties came from one ancestor, and nothing says that ancestor was domesticated. The passage in fact traces the domestic sweet potato back to a wild plant. Single and domesticated are both invented.

The move — Two Dates That Don’t Overlap Rule Out the Cause: When a passage gives you two timelines, line them up before you read the choices. If the effect predates the proposed cause by a wide margin, the supported conclusion is that the cause is ruled out. Here 100,000 years against 3,000 years is not a close call, and the answer is the one that says so.

⚡ Shortcut: On any inference item that hands you two numbers, write them one above the other in the margin. Nearly every wrong choice on this item survives only if you keep the two dates apart in your head.

Those last two — the ELF3 swap and the sweet potato dates — are the hardest items in this domain on this form, and they are the point where most students stop making progress from self-study. If you keep landing on the overreaching choice, that is a habit, and habits are faster to fix with a person watching you work. Mr. Osama runs live small-group Digital SAT English in groups of 3 to 5, from $15 per session, and the first diagnostic session is free: see the live courses.

Check yourself: If you missed Module 2a question 14 or Module 1 question 14, the gap is that you are not reading the words immediately before the blank. If you missed either Module 2b question 13 or Module 2b question 14, the gap is overreach: you are picking the biggest conclusion the evidence allows instead of the exact one. Study the free Main Idea lesson notes and practice matching the exact claim.

From memory, no scrolling back: A study replaces one protein and a behaviour stops. Say what that licenses you to conclude, and two things it does not. Then say what a 100,000-year gap does to a 3,000-year explanation.

Rules and shortcuts from this test

Ten rules, each earned from a question above. Each one says when it fires, what you do, and what it saves you.

1. Answer From the Line, Not From Memory — taught by Module 2a question 7

Fires when: The stem opens with “According to the text”.
What you do: Find and touch the sentence that answers the stem, then pick the choice that repeats it.
What it saves: Kills every plausible-sounding invented choice at once. On question 7 that is three of the four options.

2. Match the Verb in the Stem — taught by Module 2a question 8

Fires when: One person in the passage has several roles.
What you do: Underline the stem verb and find its match in the text. Joined, cochaired and led are three different answers.
What it saves: About 20 seconds, and it stops you picking a real fact that answers a question nobody asked.

3. Main Idea Must Cover Both Halves — taught by Module 1 question 10

Fires when: The passage has a setup and a result.
What you do: Require the choice to hold both. Cut superlatives and absolutes first.
What it saves: Turns a four-way choice into a two-way one before you have re-read a word.

4. Putatively Means the Author Doubts It — taught by Module 2b question 8

Fires when: A hedge word appears — putatively, supposedly, ostensibly, allegedly.
What you do: Mark it, then cut every choice that treats the hedged claim as the author’s own view.
What it saves: Two choices on question 8, in about ten seconds, on the hardest main-idea item of the three modules.

5. Quote Must Show, Not Mention — taught by Module 2b question 9

Fires when: The stem asks which quotation illustrates a claim.
What you do: Name the one thing the claim requires, then ask whether each quotation demonstrates it or merely sits near it.
What it saves: Stops you rewarding tone. Warmth, worry and closeness all live near understanding without being it.

6. Support Needs the Comparison the Idea Predicts — taught by Module 1 question 11

Fires when: A study created two groups and the stem asks what would support the idea.
What you do: Name the two groups and the predicted direction before reading the choices.
What it saves: Removes both standard misses — wrong groups, and right groups pointed the wrong way.

7. Off-Goal Praise Is Still Wrong — taught by Module 2a question 13

Fires when: The claim contains a technical word such as ethnographic.
What you do: Define the word first, then reject every choice that praises the subject on a different axis.
What it saves: Three of the four choices on question 13 are compliments. Only one is evidence.

8. Read the Row the Sentence Asks For — taught by Module 2a question 11

Fires when: A table item asks you to complete a sentence containing a superlative.
What you do: Underline the superlative, find that single value, read across to its label.
What it saves: Under 15 seconds on an item that is worth the same as the hardest one on the page.

9. Weaken Means Find the Other Cause — taught by Module 1 question 13

Fires when: A conclusion says a result was entirely, only or solely caused by one thing.
What you do: Attack the absolute, not the whole claim, and look in the control group.
What it saves: Cuts the two true-but-unhelpful choices immediately, because both describe the treatment group.

10. Two Dates That Don’t Overlap Rule Out the Cause — taught by Module 2b question 14

Fires when: The passage hands you two timelines.
What you do: Write them one above the other, then check whether the effect predates the proposed cause.
What it saves: Decides the hardest inference on this form with arithmetic instead of judgement.

Cheat sheet — every rule on this page, with the question that earned it
Rule	From	When it fires	What you do
Answer From the Line, Not From Memory	Module 2a Q7	The stem says “According to the text”	Point at the sentence, then pick the choice that repeats it
Match the Verb in the Stem	Module 2a Q8	One person holds several roles in the passage	Underline the stem verb; find its noun form in the text
The Whole-Text Sentence	Module 1 Q9	The stem asks what best describes an approach	Keep only the choice that stays true across every sentence
Main Idea Must Cover Both Halves	Module 1 Q10	The passage has a setup and a result	Require both halves; cut superlatives and absolutes first
Putatively Means the Author Doubts It	Module 2b Q8	A hedge word appears in the first sentence	Cut any choice that adopts the hedged claim as the author’s view
Quote Must Show, Not Mention	Module 2b Q9	Which quotation illustrates the claim	Circle the one word the claim requires; demand a demonstration of it
Both Halves of the Claim, One Quote	Module 1 Q12	The claim contains “even when”, “despite” or “although”	Split the claim on the hinge; one quotation must satisfy both parts
Support Needs the Comparison the Idea Predicts	Module 1 Q11	The study built two groups and the stem says support	Name the two groups and the direction before reading choices
Support the Link, Not the Data	Module 2a Q9	A conclusion jumps from a measurement to a claim	Strengthen the jump, not the measurement
Off-Goal Praise Is Still Wrong	Module 2a Q13	The claim uses a technical word	Define it, then reject compliments on any other axis
Rule Out the Rival Explanation	Module 2b Q11	A hypothesis has an obvious competing story	Say the rival out loud; pick the finding that eliminates it
Read the Row the Sentence Asks For	Module 2a Q11	A table item with a superlative in the sentence	Find the one value, read across to its label
Tallest Bar Wins Only If the Sentence Says Highest	Module 2a Q10	A bar graph completes a sentence	Read the axis and units first, then match the superlative
Different Rates Need the Years Where They Split	Module 2b Q12	A sentence claims two things changed at different rates	Pair the year they match with the year the gap opens
Check Every Number in the Choice	Module 2a Q12	A choice makes several factual claims in one sentence	Test each half against the printed cells before believing it
The Hypothesis Names Two Species — So Must the Answer	Module 2b Q10	The hypothesis compares group A with group B	Cut any choice missing one group, then check the row
Weaken Means Find the Other Cause	Module 1 Q13	A conclusion says entirely, only or solely	Attack the absolute; read the control group
Finish the Sentence the Text Started	Module 2a Q14	A surviving choice has to finish the exact clause the blank sits in	Require the answer to be what the exact preceding noun does
Finish the Logic Chain	Module 1 Q14, Q15	A completes-the-text blank sits after a result word — therefore, thus, so, consequently — anywhere in its clause	List the facts stacked above the blank and pick the ending that uses all of them
The Swap Test Names the Part, Not the Amount	Module 2b Q13	A study replaces a component and a behaviour stops	Conclude the component is necessary; refuse to say more
Two Dates That Don’t Overlap Rule Out the Cause	Module 2b Q14	The passage gives two timelines	Line them up; if the effect predates the cause, the cause is out

Bluebook test 10 Information and Ideas answer key

All 22 correct letters in question-number order, by module. These come from the verified answer key for this form.

Information and Ideas answers, Bluebook Practice Test 10
Module	Question — answer
Module 1	9 — A	10 — D	11 — A	12 — B	13 — B	14 — A	15 — D
Module 2a	7 — D	8 — A	9 — A	10 — D	11 — A	12 — B	13 — A	14 — A
Module 2b	8 — D	9 — A	10 — C	11 — C	12 — A	13 — C	14 — C

Reading the two Module 2 branches

Module 2a and Module 2b are the two branches the test picks between after Module 1. You will only ever sit one of them. Both are printed here because the whole point of studying a released form is seeing what the easier and harder branch each look like on the same domain — and on Information and Ideas, 2b is where the two hardest inference items live.

What students said about this test

new evidence based reading questions — students working through the newer evidence-based reading items and comparing how they are worded.
SAT info and ideas, specifically inferences and quantitative evidence — the two sub-skills students most often name as their weak point in this domain, which matches the two hardest items above.
help with information and ideas questions, command of quantitative evidence — graph and table items specifically, the exact six questions this page rebuilds.

Questions students ask about this test

What are the Information and Ideas answers on Bluebook test 10?

Module 1: 9 A, 10 D, 11 A, 12 B, 13 B, 14 A, 15 D. Module 2a: 7 D, 8 A, 9 A, 10 D, 11 A, 12 B, 13 A, 14 A. Module 2b: 8 D, 9 A, 10 C, 11 C, 12 A, 13 C, 14 C. That is 22 items across all three modules, and every one is worked above with the passage, the stem and all four choices.

How do I answer inference questions?

Read the words immediately before the blank and treat them as an instruction. On Module 2a question 14 the blank follows “and this familiarity thus”, so the answer has to be something familiarity does. On Module 1 question 15 it follows “consequently”, so the answer is the payoff of the method just described. Finish the sentence yourself in about ten words before you look at the options.

How do I read the data in evidence questions?

Read the axis or the column headings before you read the sentence, so you know what the numbers measure. Then underline the superlative or the comparison the sentence asks for and go looking for exactly that. On this form the four tables print every value in the cells; the two bar graphs print a numbered axis with gridlines but no number on any bar, so bar heights are read against the printed scale.

How many Information and Ideas questions are on the test?

On Bluebook Practice Test 10 there are 7 in Module 1, 8 in Module 2a and 7 in Module 2b. Since you only sit one Module 2, you will face either 15 or 14 of them on a single run of this form. The split by sub-skill here is 5 Central Ideas and Details, 6 textual evidence, 6 quantitative evidence and 5 inferences.

What is the difference between supporting and weakening a claim?

Supporting means adding a fact that makes the claim more likely. Weakening means adding a fact that makes it less likely, usually by offering a second cause. Module 1 question 13 is the weaken item on this form: the student said the spider decline was entirely the lizards, and the answer shows the lizard-free enclosure declined too. You attack the word “entirely”, not the whole claim.

Which test 10 evidence question is hardest?

Module 2b question 10, the marmot and ground squirrel torpor table, is the hardest quantitative one, because the table has a count row and a duration row for each behaviour and the hypothesis only ever talks about duration. Module 2b question 11, the Brazilian quartzite plants, is the hardest textual one, because the correct answer works by ruling out a rival explanation rather than by repeating the evidence.

Why do I keep picking the answer that goes too far?

Because the overreaching choice is usually the one that sounds most like a scientific finding. Module 2b question 13 offers “unique to A. thaliana” after a study that tested two species, and Module 1 question 10 offers “the most effective way” after a passage that compares nothing. Scan for superlatives and absolutes before you re-read the passage and cut them on sight.

How do I practise main-idea questions?

Work single items with the choices covered. Write your own one-sentence main idea first, then uncover the four choices and eliminate. If you can only do this when you already know the answer, the gap is the habit, not the skill. The Main Idea SkillDrill on this site serves graded single items so you get many repetitions per hour instead of a handful per full test.

Keep going

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Questions, passages and answer choices on this page are quoted from College Board’s Bluebook Digital SAT Practice Test 10, Reading and Writing, Module 1 pages 9–15, Module 2a pages 34–41 and Module 2b pages 62–68. The two bar graphs and four data tables are rebuilt from those printed pages. All explanations, rules, annotations and commentary are The Test Advantage’s own.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is bluebook practice test 10 information and ideas?

Information and Ideas runs 6 questions in Bluebook Practice Test 10's Module 1, 6

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Central Ideas and Details — 5 questions

Question 7, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Easy)

Question 8, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Easy)

Question 9, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Medium)

Question 10, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Medium)

Question 8, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Central Ideas and Details (Hard)

Command of Evidence, Textual — 6 questions

Question 9, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Easy)

Question 12, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Medium)

Question 11, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Medium)

Question 9, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Medium)

Question 13, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Hard)

Question 11, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Textual) (Hard)

Command of Evidence, Quantitative — 6 questions

Question 11, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Easy)

Question 10, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Easy)

See which question types are costing you points

Question 12, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Medium)

Question 12, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Medium)

Question 10, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Hard)

Question 13, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Command of Evidence (Quantitative) (Hard)

Inferences — 5 questions

Question 14, Module 2a — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Medium)

Question 14, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Medium)

Question 15, Module 1 — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Medium)

Question 13, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Hard)

Question 14, Module 2b — Information and Ideas: Inferences (Hard)

Rules and shortcuts from this test

Bluebook test 10 Information and Ideas answer key

Questions students ask about this test

What are the Information and Ideas answers on Bluebook test 10?

How do I answer inference questions?

How do I read the data in evidence questions?

How many Information and Ideas questions are on the test?

What is the difference between supporting and weakening a claim?

Which test 10 evidence question is hardest?

Why do I keep picking the answer that goes too far?

How do I practise main-idea questions?

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