Does this sound familiar? You use process of elimination and get down to 2 options, and you always pick the wrong one.
First, you don’t always pick the wrong one. You just only check the questions you get wrong. When you pick the correct choice, you don’t check it. Instead, you pat yourself on the back for being brilliant. This is a little trick your brain plays on you. Don’t worry, it’s normal.
The bigger problem is that you should “never” be guessing. To get into the 700s, you should know why 3 of the answers are wrong.
Students who move from the 600s to the 700s shift from looking for the right answer to looking for the wrong answers. Eliminate 3 options with certainty, and the fourth must be the correct answer. Now don’t tell me about your cousin’s best friend’s sister who doesn’t do this and scored 780 on her first try. I don’t care about her, and neither should you. Your brain and experience are not hers, and so stop trying to do what she did.
Process of Elimination
How to be accurate and consistent in the Reading/Writing section
STEP 1- Understand the question
Yes, this seems obvious, but you might be surprised by how often students skim over the question, assume they know what’s being asked, and find an answer that fits the assumption. And are wrong. Start by reading the question carefully. The College Board is testing new question types (judging from reports from May and June tests), so it is vital to read the question. You might even want to highlight or write the key parts of the question.
Know the questions typically asked and the information required to answer them.
Don’t rush this step. I take the tests that I give to my students, and when I get a question wrong (yes, I am human, not a machine and I complete both RW sections in about 35 minutes), it always comes down to me assuming that I know what the question is asking and not reading it carefully enough.
STEP 2- Understand how wrong answers are made
The questions are created by people who craft both the right and wrong answers carefully. Standardized tests must have standards that are consistent. One consistency it the way wrong answers are created. Typically, wrong answers fall into the following categories.
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Contrary to Fact
This means that the answer says the opposite of what the passage says. Be wary of statements that express negative ideas. A negative of a negative creates a positive, which can be easily misread.
EXAMPLE
Imagine the passage describes a study that had results that surprised the researcher, but gave her new insight.
A) The researcher is not unhappy with the results. = the results are acceptable
B) The researcher is disappointed with the results. = the results are not expected and negative
C) The researcher is devastated by the results. = the results are unwelcome, may cause the researcher to lose funding and reputation.
If you are skimming through those answers and miss the “not” in option A, you can easily miss the correct choice. The summary indicates a positive response to the results, so options B and C are too negative.
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Partially Right
This type of answer catches you because it starts off correct, but either a word or idea becomes wrong at the end of the choice. It is important to read the complete answer choice before leaping on it because it sounds good.
EXAMPLE
Seahorses are unusual among marine organisms for their distinctive morphology and reproductive behavior. Unlike most fish, they possess prehensile tails, elongated snouts, and an upright posture that lends them an almost equine appearance. More striking, however, is their reversal of conventional reproductive roles: the male incubates fertilized eggs within a specialized brood pouch, regulating salinity and oxygen levels until birth. This biological anomaly challenges traditional assumptions about parental investment and highlights the remarkable diversity of evolutionary adaptations in aquatic ecosystems.
A) The seahorse is unusual because of its prehensile tail and its adherence to typical reproductive roles.
B) The seahorse is unusual because of its prehensile tail and its deviation from typical reproductive roles.
Option A starts off correct but the second half of its answer is the opposite of what is stated in the passage. Option B is the correct answer because the male seahorse incubates the babies, which is unusual.
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Extreme Language
Words such as all, never, always, every, only, absolutely, best, worst, everyone, and none create an extreme statement about an idea.
All students are lazy.
The best book is Pride and Prejudice.
I always pick the wrong answer.
He cares only about sports.
Because we often speak in these extreme terms with the implication that it is NOT all, always, or only, we sometimes miss that these words can make an answer wrong on the SAT. Consistent use of process of elimination can keep you from falling into these trap answers.
Example
Go back to the seahorse passage above and then think about which of the following answer choices could be accurate.
A) The seahorse is the only animal in which the male participates in incubating the babies.
B) The seahorse is unusual in that the males take on a key role in incubating the babies.
A is wrong because we don’t have any information in the passage that indicates that seahorses are unique in this respect. So, the word “only” is too extreme for what is mentioned in the passage. B uses a more moderate term “unusual”. Watch out for answers that use limiting language and check back in the passage to ensure the answer choice matches what is literally stated.
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Off Topic/Not Mentioned
These answers can be tricky because they might be factually true, but either not relevant to the question being asked or not directly mentioned in the passage. There is a balance between using your contextual knowledge to understand the passage and using that knowledge to answer the questions. Remember that the question needs to be equally answerable by everyone regardless of their outside knowledge, so a correct answer must have a connection to the provided text.
EXAMPLE
Contrary to popular assumption, bears do not undergo true seasonal dormancy. Instead, many species remain intermittently active throughout the winter, relying on cached food supplies and periods of torpor to conserve energy. During these intervals, their metabolic rate decreases, enabling survival amid scarce resources. This adaptive strategy allows bears to balance physiological conservation with opportunistic foraging when environmental conditions become temporarily favorable.
A) To prepare for hibernation, bears eat a lot of extra calories to have stores of fat to sustain them through the winter.
B) Bears slow down their metabolism and experience a type of sleep that allows them to conserve energy during the winter.
Option A describes what is typically known about bears and hibernation. However, the term “hibernation” is not used, and the passage doesn’t mention eating a lot before slowing down for the winter. Because we were taught about hibernation, Answer A seems obvious, but it is wrong because it isn’t mentioned in the passage and wanders off the topic of torpor into preparation for torpor.
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Wrong Tone
When talking about tone on the SAT, we are going to keep it simple with just positive, neutral, and negative. A neutral passage will either be purely factual or will have a combination of positive and negative statements about the topic. A positive passage will include positive language and focus on positive attributes, and a negative passage will do the opposite. The correct answer will align better with the tone of the original passage than an incorrect answer will. So if you are stuck between two options, tone can be the tiebreaker and using process of elimination can help you remain consistent.
EXAMPLE
POSITIVE
Dandelions, often dismissed as common weeds, exhibit a remarkable resilience that underscores their ecological value. Their bright yellow inflorescences provide an early and reliable source of nectar for pollinators, while their ability to thrive in varied conditions reflects notable adaptive efficiency. Moreover, their seeds disperse with precision on the wind, illustrating an elegant mechanism of propagation that contributes to biodiversity and environmental stability.
NEUTRAL
Dandelions are widespread perennial plants commonly found in lawns, fields, and disturbed soils. Characterized by serrated leaves and composite yellow flowers, they reproduce efficiently through wind-dispersed seeds. Their persistence is partly attributable to deep taproots, which enable regrowth even after removal. While they serve as a food source for certain insects, they are also frequently regarded as a routine component of unmanaged or minimally maintained landscapes.
NEGATIVE
Dandelions are frequently regarded as invasive plants that disrupt the uniformity of cultivated lawns and gardens. Their rapid reproduction and deep taproots make them difficult to eradicate, often requiring repeated intervention. Additionally, their prolific seed dispersal allows them to colonize large areas quickly, competing with more desirable vegetation. As a result, they are commonly viewed as a persistent nuisance in carefully maintained outdoor spaces.
STEP 3-Watch out for storytelling
Your brain’s job is to make the world make sense. So, it will provide you with explanations and logical connections to make what you read “make sense.” Be aware that sometimes your brain will produce a story about why an answer is correct. When this happens, check the passage for evidence. Correct answers will be literally stated in the passage, connect to the topic, match the tone, and won’t add a new idea to the passage.
TLDR
Be consistent in your approach to choosing answers.
- Understand the question
- Eliminate wrong answers based on the patterns wrong answers adhere to
- Check the topic and tone to ensure the answer choice matches the passage
- Avoid the “Makes Sense” trap