Get Tough with the Critical Reading Answer Choices

I was working with a student today who, like many of my students, was being too nice with the Critical Reading answers.

Her thought process went something like this: “Well, A could be right since they mention nature in the passage. B could be right since they mention mathematical forms. C could be right since they mention emotions…” She was looking for all the reasons why an answer might-possibly-possibly-possibly be correct – instead of having a strong grasp of the main idea of the passage and evaluating answers based on that.

Get Tough

I’ve found that if students shift their perspective  – from looking for why each answer might be right to searching for evidence why each answer is wrong – it will lead to an increase in their scores.

Only one of the five answer choices is correct – the others are wrong – and wrong for a reason.

Erika Meltzer, in her wonderful book The Critical Reader, identifies common reasons for wrong answers:

• off-topic
• too broad
• too extreme
• half-right, half-wrong (I call these pink ponies)
• could be true, but not enough information
• true for the passage as a whole, but not for the specific lines in question
• factually true, but not stated in the passage

By sharpening their deduction skills – why is this answer wrong? – students can often find the right answer more quickly and have a lot more confidence in their analytical skills.