Supporting Details and Explicit Information
Detail questions begin "According to the passage," "The author states that," or "The passage indicates that." The answer is printed on the page; your job is location and paraphrase matching, not interpretation. These are the fastest points in the section if you resist the urge to reason beyond the text.
A reliable method
- Pull the keyword from the question stem - a name, date, technical term, or place.
- Scan for that word or a synonym; details almost always appear in passage order, so a question about paragraph 4 is answered below a question about paragraph 2.
- Read the target sentence plus one sentence before and after, because the tested relationship often spans two sentences.
- Predict the answer in your own words before looking at the choices.
Paraphrase, not echo
Right answers usually restate the passage in different words. Wrong answers often lift phrases verbatim and then swap one element - a date, a cause, a subject.
Worked example
A passage says: "Although the library's collection began with only 400 volumes donated by a single family, by 1920 it held more than 60,000 titles, growth made possible by a city tax levied in 1904." Question: according to the passage, what enabled the library's growth? The answer is the municipal tax of 1904. The family donation explains the collection's origin, not its growth; 60,000 titles is the result, not the cause; a private grant is never mentioned.
Traps that cost marks
- A true statement from the passage that does not answer this particular question.
- Outside knowledge that happens to be correct.
- Reversed cause and effect.
- Shifted numbers, dates, or proper nouns slipped into otherwise accurate wording.
- On "EXCEPT" questions, answering the one option the passage does support.