{"id":2638,"date":"2014-09-09t09:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-09t09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2015-04-14t21:01:18","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14t21:01:18","slug":"choosing-between-two-answer-choices-on-the-sat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/choosing-between-two-answer-choices-on-the-sat\/","title":{"rendered":"choosing between two answer choices on the sat"},"content":{"rendered":"
if you\u2019ve ever taken an sat class and gotten to the reading passages, you\u2019ve probably heard someone say it before; you may have even said it yourself. this common refrain goes something like this: i narrow it down to two answers, and i always<\/em> choose the wrong one.<\/p>\n as a teacher, i might find it tempting to scoff and say, \u201cthat\u2019s not true, since you always remember the times you choose the wrong answer and forget the times you choose the right one.\u201d while there is some truth to this\u2014our memories are very selective and fallible\u2014there is something subtler going on: there are certain kinds of sat trap answers that you are probably gravitating towards.<\/p>\n to not fall prey to these wrong answer choices, you have to be better at identifying what makes them wrong. see, the common reaction is to pick an answer choice that you have constructed an elaborate argument for. instead of choosing the \u201cright\u201d answer, you should be more ruthless and find what is wrong with each of the remaining two answer choices. the one that better withstands your brutal scrutiny is the correct answer.<\/p>\n so what do some tempting wrong answer choices look like? well, let\u2019s take a passage lifted from the magoosh product. below are two questions with two answer choices. one of them, of course, is right. the other is the one that most students end up picking. see if you can avoid the trap!<\/p>\n