Key Ideas and Details
What this domain measures
Key Ideas and Details questions ask what a passage says and what follows from it. Three skills carry most of the weight: identifying the main idea (what the whole passage is mostly about, not just its opening sentence), locating supporting details that back that idea up, and drawing inferences the text actually licenses.
Main idea and summary
State the main idea to yourself as a single sentence: topic plus what the author says about it. Then test each answer choice against the entire passage. A choice that is accurate but covers only one paragraph is a detail, not a main idea. A choice that stretches past the passage (for example, “all employers should do this”) is too broad. Correct summary answers capture the central point without adding opinion.
Inferences
An inference is a conclusion the author expects you to reach without stating it. Safe rule: the inference must be forced by the text, not merely compatible with it. If a choice could be true but the passage never commits to it, eliminate it.
Sequence and relationships
Watch for time-order words (first, after, later, meanwhile) and cause words (because, therefore, as a result, led to). Questions often ask which event happened first or what caused what; the words on the page, not everyday common sense, decide the answer.
Worked example
A passage describes a city replacing its buses with electric models, notes that fuel costs fell, and ends with a mechanic retraining program. Question: what is the passage mainly about? A choice about one mechanic’s new job is a supporting detail. A choice about the city’s shift to electric buses, including cost and staffing effects, matches the whole passage. A choice claiming electric buses are better for every city goes beyond the text and is wrong.