Key Ideas and Details
What this domain tests
Key Ideas and Details asks you to identify a passage's central claim or theme, separate it from supporting details, summarize without distortion, and draw inferences that the text logically supports. Questions may also target sequence and cause-effect relationships, so you need to track how ideas connect, not just what each sentence says.
Rules that decide answers
- Main idea is the point the whole passage develops. It must cover the beginning, middle, and end; an answer that fits only one paragraph is too narrow.
- Supporting details are facts, examples, or reasons that answer a question the passage raises. They can be true and still be wrong answers to a main-idea question.
- Inference must be forced by evidence. If an answer is merely plausible or depends on outside knowledge, it is not supported.
- Summary retells the passage's core in neutral language, with no new claims and no minor data.
- Sequence and cause-effect are signaled by words such as first, later, because, therefore, and as a result. Contrast words such as yet and however often mark the author's real emphasis.
Worked example
A passage explains that cities plant trees along hot asphalt corridors; measurements show cooler surfaces beneath mature canopies; trees also absorb stormwater; yet sapling budgets are often cut first. The question asks for the main idea. The best answer: urban trees produce measurable environmental benefits but are undervalued in municipal budgets. Why? It covers both the benefits and the budget tension. An answer about asphalt absorbing heat is a supporting detail. An answer that trees are expensive is partly true but omits the benefits.
Traps
- Choosing a true but minor detail.
- Over-inferring from one word.
- Confusing the topic (urban trees) with the main idea (benefits versus budget priorities).
- Selecting a summary that drops the passage's final turn.
- Ignoring signal words that reveal emphasis.