Reading and Writing
What the domain tests
The Reading and Writing section is a 64-minute, two-module section of multiple-choice questions. Each question gives you a short passage or a pair of passages and four choices; you choose the single best answer. Questions cluster around four skill areas: Information and Ideas (central ideas, details, command of evidence, quantitative and cross-text connections), Craft and Structure (words in context, text structure, purpose, point of view), Expression of Ideas (rhetorical synthesis and transitions), and Standard English Conventions (sentence boundaries, agreement, punctuation, modifiers).
Core rules
- Answer the question asked. A choice can be true in the passage yet fail to identify the main purpose or provide the strongest evidence.
- For words in context, substitute each choice into the sentence and test the surrounding logic, not just the dictionary meaning.
- For transitions, name the relationship between the two sentences before looking at the choices: contrast, cause, example, addition, or sequence.
- For conventions, find the main subject and verb across interrupting phrases, then check commas, semicolons, and colons against sentence boundaries.
Worked example
Although the first trial produced no significant result, the second trial was ____: it replicated the effect in three independent labs.
Choices: inconclusive, decisive, preliminary, redundant. The colon signals an explanation of the blank; replicating in three labs supports a firm conclusion. Decisive fits. Inconclusive contradicts the evidence; preliminary is not supported by replication; redundant misreads repetition as unnecessary.
Traps
- Choosing a transition by tone (However sounds academic) instead of by logical relationship.
- Treating a comma as strong enough to join two complete sentences.
- Selecting evidence that mentions the topic but does not support the specific claim.
- In synthesis questions, summarizing both notes rather than fulfilling the stated goal.