8 original Command of Evidence: Textual questions, easiest first. Which quotation or finding would most strengthen — or weaken — a stated claim. Answer them all, then submit once to see every answer explained.
A transportation planner claims that installing protected bike lanes on a busy avenue would increase the number of children biking to a nearby school without significantly slowing bus routes along the same avenue.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the planner's claim?
B — A pilot program on a similar avenue in another city found that student biking rates rose 25% while bus route times increased by less than 90 seconds on average.. The planner's claim specifically concerns increased student biking with minimal bus impact; a pilot program directly measuring both outcomes on a similar avenue most directly supports this specific claim. The other options are irrelevant to the proposed bike lanes.
A nutritionist argues that placing water pitchers at eye level in a cafeteria leads customers to purchase fewer sugary bottled drinks overall, not just to occasionally drink more water.
Which finding would most directly support the nutritionist's argument?
D — A study found that after water pitchers were placed at eye level, sugary bottled drink purchases dropped by 17% at the cafeterias studied.. The claim is specifically about sugary drink purchases decreasing, not just water usage increasing. A finding showing sugary drink purchases actually dropped directly supports this specific substitution effect; the other choices address unrelated measures.
An archaeologist proposes that a newly excavated coastal settlement relied primarily on fishing rather than agriculture for subsistence.
Which finding would most directly support the archaeologist's proposal?
D — Excavators find that the majority of animal bone remains at the site are from fish species, while remains of farmed grains are minimal.. Direct evidence that the majority of food remains are fish, with minimal farmed grain, directly supports a claim of fishing-based subsistence over agriculture. The other choices don't address the specific subsistence question.
A labor economist argues that a recent expansion of unemployment benefits in a particular state did not lead to a significant delay in workers returning to jobs, contrary to some predictions.
Which finding would most directly support the economist's argument?
B — Employment records show that the average time workers spent unemployed in the state remained essentially unchanged in the year following the benefits expansion.. The claim is specifically about the time workers took to return to jobs; an unchanged average unemployment duration after the expansion directly supports the claim that no significant delay occurred. The other options address different, less directly relevant measures.
A cognitive scientist argues that solving puzzles that require switching between different types of reasoning improves general problem-solving flexibility more than solving many puzzles of a single, familiar type does, because the switching itself forces adaptive thinking.
Which finding would most directly support the cognitive scientist's argument?
C — On a novel problem-solving test given afterward, participants who practiced mixed, switching puzzle types scored higher than participants who practiced an equal number of single-type puzzles.. The claim is about flexibility transferring to novel problems due to switching between reasoning types; a test on a new problem showing the switching group's superiority, despite equal practice amounts, directly supports the switching mechanism. The other choices don't test transfer to novel problem-solving.
A cognitive scientist argues that generating one's own practice questions while studying improves long-term retention of material more than simply re-reading the same material multiple times does, because generating questions forces deeper engagement with the content.
Which finding would most directly support the cognitive scientist's argument?
D — On a test given two weeks after studying, students who generated their own practice questions scored higher than students who spent an equal amount of time re-reading, even though the re-reading group reviewed the material more times.. The claim is about long-term retention benefiting from deeper engagement via question generation; a delayed test showing the question-generation group's superiority despite less repetition directly supports the engagement mechanism. The other choices don't test retention.
A cognitive scientist argues that taking handwritten notes leads to better long-term retention of lecture material than typing notes on a laptop, because handwriting requires students to summarize rather than transcribe verbatim.
Which finding would most directly support the cognitive scientist's argument?
B — On a test given a week after a lecture, students who took handwritten notes scored higher on conceptual questions than students who typed notes, even though the typing group had recorded more total words.. The claim is about long-term retention benefiting from summarization rather than transcription; a delayed test showing handwriting-group superiority on conceptual understanding despite fewer words directly supports the summarization mechanism. The other choices don't test retention.
A cognitive scientist argues that explaining a concept aloud to an imaginary student improves one's own understanding of that concept more than silently re-reading source material does, because verbalizing forces the speaker to identify gaps in their own reasoning.
Which finding would most directly support the cognitive scientist's argument?
C — On a test given after the study session, students who explained the material aloud scored higher on questions requiring deeper reasoning than students who spent an equal amount of time silently re-reading the same material.. The claim is about deeper understanding benefiting from verbalization exposing reasoning gaps; a test showing the explaining group's superiority on deep-reasoning questions despite equal time directly supports this mechanism. The other choices don't test understanding depth.
Score:
Every question above is now marked up: the correct answer is highlighted, any wrong option you picked is flagged, and each explanation is open.
No. Every question here is original, written to the College Board's published Digital SAT Reading & Writing specification for the Command of Evidence: Textual skill. No retired or copyrighted College Board material appears anywhere on this site.
Command of Evidence (Textual) describes a claim, hypothesis or argument and asks which quotation, finding or example would most directly support it, illustrate it, or weaken it. The passage sets up the claim; the choices are the candidate evidence.
Restate, in one sentence, exactly what has to be proven — including any qualifier like "in cities", "before 1900", "for adults only". Then test each choice against that sentence alone. Evidence that is true, interesting and about the right topic still fails if it does not bear on the specific claim, and "weaken" questions are lost almost entirely by candidates who answer them as "support" questions.
No, and deliberately so. This drill is 8 Command of Evidence: Textual questions back to back; a real Reading & Writing module is 27 questions in 32 minutes drawn from all eleven skills. Use a drill to fix one weakness, then take a full module to practice the real thing.
No. The SAT has no penalty for a wrong answer — a blank and a wrong guess both score zero — so answer every question, including the ones you have to guess.