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Command of Evidence: SAT Reading and Writing notes
These questions ask you to choose the evidence (a finding, a quotation, or data from a table or graph) that best supports, weakens or illustrates a specific claim.
Study it with worked examples and 8 practice questionsPractise Command of Evidence questions
What this topic tests
Every Command of Evidence question hands you a claim and asks which piece of evidence fits it best. The claim might be a scientist's hypothesis, a critic's point about a poem, or a researcher's conclusion about some data. The evidence comes in three forms: a finding or quotation written out in the choices, a line from a literary work, or numbers from a table or graph. Almost half of the 123 College Board questions in this skill come with a table or graph.
Think of yourself as a judge. The claim is the case being argued, and your job is to decide which piece of evidence actually proves it. That means two checks every time. First, is the evidence accurate? For data, does the figure really show this? Second, is it relevant? Does it speak to the exact claim, all of it, and not to something next door?
Many questions say 'if true'. That means you accept every choice as a fact. Don't argue with the choices. Ask only which one does the job the question asks for: support the claim, weaken it, or illustrate it.
Key ideas
- Find the claim first and pick out its key words. The question is always about that one claim, not the passage in general.
- Break the claim into parts. If it says two things (for example, more toxin and less growth), the right evidence covers both.
- 'If true' means accept the choice as fact. Your only job is to judge whether it helps or hurts the claim.
- To weaken a claim, look for evidence that offers another explanation or shows the predicted pattern didn't happen.
- With tables and graphs, check every number in a choice against the figure. One wrong number makes the whole choice wrong.
- A choice can be perfectly accurate and still be wrong because it doesn't address the claim. Accurate is necessary but not enough.
- Watch words like more, less, both, every, increase and compared with. They tell you exactly what comparison the evidence must make.
The 4 kinds of Command of Evidence question
Sorted from every Command of Evidence question in the site's bank: each kind keeps coming up, and has a method that works every time.
1. Support or weaken a claim with a finding
How to spot it. The question asks 'Which finding, if true, would most directly support (or weaken) the claim?' about a hypothesis, conclusion or underlined sentence. Some versions ask for a quotation from a historian, critic or study participant that best supports a claim, or for a finding that would explain a puzzling result. There is no table or graph.
How to answer it:
- Find the exact claim. It is usually in the last sentence or in an underlined sentence. Note whether you need to support it or weaken it.
- Break the claim into its key parts: who or what it is about, and what it says about them. Predict what evidence would prove it, or, to weaken it, what would undercut it or offer another explanation.
- Read each choice as a fact and ask: does this connect directly to every key part of the claim?
- Pick the choice that hits the claim head-on. Cross out choices that share the topic but miss the actual point.
The trap. The trap choice is on topic but off target. It mentions the same animals, people or places, but it is about a different part of the story, such as a mother caring for her own baby when the claim is about helping with other giraffes' babies. On weaken questions, also watch for a choice that actually strengthens the claim.
2. Quotation that illustrates a literary claim
How to spot it. The passage names a poem, novel or play and makes a claim about it, followed by a blank. The question asks 'Which quotation from [the work] most effectively illustrates the claim?'
How to answer it:
- Read the claim carefully and list each part. For example, 'contrasting feelings about New York City and his home country' has three parts: feelings that contrast, New York, and the home country.
- Turn each quotation into plain modern English.
- Keep only a quotation that shows every part of the claim. Missing even one part is enough to cross a choice out.
- Double-check the details: the right speaker or character, the right thing being described, and the right feeling or action.
The trap. Most wrong quotations match half the claim. They have the right mood but the wrong subject, the right place but no feeling, or the speaker addresses the wrong person. Choose the quotation that fits the whole claim, not the one with the most striking language.
3. Read a table or graph accurately
How to spot it. There is a table or graph, and the sentence before the blank names exactly what to look up: a value, the largest or smallest, or a simple comparison. The question asks which choice 'most effectively uses data from the table (or graph) to complete the text'. There is no hypothesis to test, just facts to report correctly.
How to answer it:
- Read the title, the column headings or axis labels, and the key, so you know what each number means.
- Read the sentence before the blank and work out exactly what it needs: which row, which group, which year, highest or lowest.
- Find the answer in the figure yourself before you look at the choices.
- Check every number and comparison in your chosen answer against the figure. If any part is wrong, the whole choice is wrong.
The trap. Wrong choices use real numbers from the figure but take them from the wrong row, column or group, or they reverse a comparison. Some pair one correct fact with one wrong one. Check each part of a choice separately.
4. Data that support or weaken a conclusion
How to spot it. There is a table or graph, and the passage states a claim, hypothesis or conclusion. The question asks which choice 'best describes data that support (or weaken)' it, or asks you to complete an example that illustrates it.
How to answer it:
- Find the claim and break it into parts. Notice exactly what it compares: which groups, which conditions, and in which direction.
- Read the figure's labels and key so you know which bars, lines or columns match each part of the claim.
- Cross out any choice whose data doesn't match the figure.
- From the accurate choices, pick the one that makes the exact comparison the claim needs and covers every part of it.
The trap. This type is full of choices that are completely true but don't prove the point. They compare the wrong groups, describe only one group, or cover only half of a two-part claim. Being accurate is only the first test. The answer must also be relevant to the claim.
Practise Command of Evidence
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