Command of Evidence: Textual and Quantitative

Textual Evidence Questions

These take two forms:

Form 1: "Which choice best supports the claim?"

You're given a claim and must select the quotation or paraphrase that provides the strongest support.

Strategy: The correct evidence must DIRECTLY support the claim — not merely be related to the same topic.

Example claim: "The author suggests that early industrialization harmed rural communities."

• Wrong evidence: "Factories were built in cities during the 19th century." (Related topic, but doesn't mention harm to rural communities.)
• Right evidence: "As young workers migrated to factory towns, many farming villages lost the labor force that had sustained them for generations." (Directly connects industrialization to harm in rural areas.)

Form 2: "Which finding, if true, would most directly support/weaken the hypothesis?"

You're given a research context and must select which result strengthens or undermines a claim.

Strategy: Match the specific claim. If the hypothesis is about cause, the evidence must address the causal link — not just show correlation.

Quantitative Evidence Questions

These pair a passage with a table, graph, or chart. The question asks you to integrate the data with the text.

Common question types:

1. "Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?"
2. "Based on the table, which statement about [topic] is supported?"

Strategy for data questions:

1. Read the passage and understand the claim being made
2. Read the table headers, labels, and units carefully
3. Find the specific data point(s) that relate to the claim
4. Select the choice that accurately represents both the data AND the passage's argument

SAT trap: A choice that accurately describes the data but doesn't connect to the passage's point. The correct answer must do BOTH.

Reading the Data Accurately

• Check whether values are in thousands, millions, or percentages
• Read row AND column headers — the SAT often includes similarly labeled rows to create confusion
• "Approximately" means you should estimate, not calculate exactly