SAT/ACT Reading Strategy: The 3 Reasons Answers Are Wrong

There’s a common misconception that multiple answers on SAT Reading and ACT Reading “could be right” or that the right answer is merely the “best” of multiple valid options.

This isn’t true. The right answer is indeed the “best answer”, but only because the wrong answers are wrong.

Now, what makes an answer “wrong” doesn’t have to be vague or subjective. In fact, there are only 3 reasons answers are wrong in SAT Reading and ACT Reading.

Simply put, if it doesn’t have one of these three problems, it’s the right answer.

For years, I’ve offered a cash prize to anyone who can find a wrong answer that doesn’t exhibit at least one of these three on any official SAT or ACT practice test. I’ve sweated through nights in fits of fear that one day the ACT or The College Board will catch wind of this offer and write a question to bankrupt me and generations of my descendants. For the time being, though, we remain well.

Keep in mind that to use this strategy properly, you should first and foremost be looking for wrong answers (a.k.a. Process of Elimination). For more, see [Test Meditations: Process of Elimination].

Anyway, here they are. Note that some answers may have more than one of these problems.

1. Goes against the passage

By “goes against”, I mean it contradicts the passage.

I don’t mean mean it doesn’t necessarily align with the main claim of the passage. I mean that the passage says the opposite of the answer.

This can be much harder to notice than it sounds. With the speed and pressure of these tests, it’s easy to misread something as the opposite of what it actually says.

2. Not stated

This is the most common reason an answer is wrong.

It’s not that the answer choice is outright contradicted – the passage just doesn’t say one way or the other.

The easier version of this is answers that clearly have little to do with the passage. The harder version is an answer choice that presents a very reasonable conclusion that an astute reader might draw from the passage, but that the passage itself never actually says.

3. Doesn’t answer the question

Unlike the first two types of wrong answers, these answers really do appear in the passage.

Problem is, the part of the passage referenced in the answer choice doesn’t answer the actual question at hand.

One common example is a Main Idea question that has a small detail from the passage as an answer choice. It’s there, but it isn’t the Main Idea. Another common example is parts of the passage simply taken out of context.

This is a modified excerpt from our Guide to the SAT, which incorporates examples and guided practice into this strategy.