Hey guys!
So I've been improving recently on my SAT CR (today I took just a CR section from an official past test and got a 730! This is a huge jump from my previous 590-650 range. However, on the actual test I might have scored lower b/c I just took the CR (I would've been fatigued after many sections), and I knew a good deal of the vocab on this test).
I’ve heard the statement “the right answer must be right and the wrong answer must be wrong” for the SAT CR section. I’ve still had some trouble figuring out this statement and what it means in context of CR. There are a few occasions where I don’t quite understand why the right answer is right and the wrong answer is wrong (in the context of passage based reading).
Can someone clear this statement up for me? And give me an example as well (I want to be able to know when I get a wrong answer during a passage question, and most importantly, WHY).
Thanks!
AtharvaLarva
I think I’ve read a similar statement somewhere on CC about looking for why an answer is WRONG. The logic is that when we find an answer we like, we often try to prove (in our heads) to ourselves why it is right, why it works. But by doing this we often become myopic, maybe even forgetting a huge fact. So, instead of proving why a question is right, try to prove why it’s wrong. Many answers are obviously wrong, but the SAT often makes you distinguish between two ambivalent responses. This would be a good time to prove one of the responses wrong, right?
It’s pretty simple:
In CR passages, 3-4 answers can be eliminated due to a word or phrase in the answer itself. These choices are demonstrably WRONG.
The right answer can be found in the passage. This answer is demonstrably right.
My one quibble is that in hard questions, only three answer choices can be eliminated as demonstrably wrong, leaving two choices, the answer and the distractor. The distractor is NOT demonstrably wrong, but it’s not in the passage.