Two answers that both look right: choosing the writer's main point under time pressure
You are 12 minutes from the end of the Reading section. Part 4 is a 450-word article about a city's bike-share scheme followed by five four-option questions. You have answered three. Question 4 asks: 'What is the writer's main point about the scheme's cost?' Two options survive: B - 'The scheme was more expensive than the city had expected'; D - 'Cost should not be the main measure of the scheme's value.' The relevant sentence reads: 'Costs overran by 40%, yet trips doubled in two years, and the health savings alone are estimated at twice the overspend.' You have a habit of picking the option whose wording most closely echoes the text. While reading you highlighted every figure, which took four minutes on this passage alone. You have not yet looked at Question 5, which refers to the final paragraph. You cannot re-read the whole text, and you do not know the word 'overran'.
1. Both B and D are supported by the sentence. Explain the reasoning that decides between them, and name the single piece of evidence that carries most weight.
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Both options are true, so truth is not the discriminator; the word 'main' in the question is. B restates a detail: 'overran by 40%' does mean more expensive than expected, and its wording ('expensive', 'expected') nearly echoes the passage, which is exactly the trap for word-matchers. D is a claim about how the writer wants us to weigh that cost, and the pivot is 'yet': the writer concedes the overspend and immediately sets it against doubled trips and health savings. The evidence carrying most weight is 'twice the overspend' - a figure that only earns its place if the writer is arguing cost is not the whole story. Quick test: delete D and the paragraph loses its conclusion; delete B and it loses only a fact. That is what 'main point' means. Answer: D.
2. You have 12 minutes, Question 4 decided and Question 5 unread. Set out a minute-by-minute plan and justify the uneven split.
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Budget: 2 minutes to lock in Q4, 3 minutes on Q5 (it points at the last paragraph, which you must read in full), 4 minutes to skim only the paragraphs your answers depend on, and 2–3 minutes to transfer answers and check you have not slipped a line. The split is deliberately uneven because Q5 is cold reading and costs more than confirming a decision you have already reasoned through. Practically: mark Q4 now from the sentence you already have, then read the final paragraph once, slowly, before looking at Q5's options. Re-skimming all 450 words is the one move you cannot afford. Also stop highlighting figures - it cost four minutes and no question here asks for a number except Q4, where the number is already in front of you.
3. You do not know the word 'overran'. Show how you would still answer Question 4 safely.
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'Overran' is not needed. The 40% and 'twice the overspend' give you the direction of the numbers, and 'yet' tells you the two halves of the sentence oppose each other. Method: (1) isolate the unknown word; (2) ask what job it does - 'overran by 40%' sits before 'yet', so it must be the negative half; (3) prefer the option that needs the weaker assumption. D only requires 'cost was a problem but not the deciding one', which the contrast structure guarantees. If a question really turned on the exact meaning, you would eliminate the option that makes the sentence incoherent rather than guessing from the word's shape. Cap this at 15 seconds: the marks live in the contrast, not the vocabulary.