SAT inferences: review and practice

• Finish a passage with the conclusion its facts support.
• Connect two or three details to see what they imply together.
• Work out what a study's results mean, and what they don't show.
• Keep the conclusion as narrow as the evidence: same group, same conditions, same level of certainty.

• Dropping the condition. If a drug helped patients at high doses, a choice saying it helps patients at any dose has lost the condition the result depends on.
• Turning a correlation into a cause. "Students who slept more scored higher" doesn't support "more sleep raises scores" unless the passage describes an experiment.
• Choosing the idea that sounds smart. Wrong choices often say something reasonable about the topic. If no sentence in the passage leads there, it's wrong.
• Reversing the direction. If the passage says one language borrowed a sound from another, a choice saying the borrowing went the other way uses the right words in the wrong order.
• Treating "no difference" as "no effect." If two groups scored the same on a new task, neither method helped more. It doesn't mean neither group learned anything.
• Switching the subject. If the question asks what the narrator suggests about readers, a choice about the character's feelings answers a different question.

1. Question 1 · Easy

   Materials engineer Talia Brenner tested a handheld scanner used to inspect ceramic vessels without breaking them. On vessels with a glossy finish, the scanner reported walls as thicker than they actually were. On vessels with a matte finish, it reported cracks as shallower than they actually were. Brenner then used the same scanner on an unglazed storage jar whose entire surface was matte. Based on the tests, a crack detected in that jar would likely ______. Which choice most logically completes the text?

   • Abe measured more accurately than a crack in a glossy vessel.
   • Bextend deeper than the scanner’s reading indicates.
   • Clie within a wall thinner than the scanner indicates.
   • Dextend less deeply than the scanner’s reading indicates.
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   B. The jar has a matte surface, so the relevant test is the one in which the scanner underestimated crack depth. A reading that is too shallow means the actual crack extends deeper: choice B follows. Choice C applies the glossy-vessel result to the jar; choice D reverses the depth error; choice A compares accuracies that the tests do not compare.

2. Question 2 · Easy

   Linguist Odette Barbeau studied the speech of a coastal community where families speaking two different languages had lived together for generations. In the community’s variety of Lurian, speakers hold the final vowel of a question longer than speakers of inland Lurian do. Barbeau proposes that this feature entered coastal Lurian through contact with the other local language, Tavric. Her account traces the feature to the speech of Tavric-speaking adults whose children grew up using both languages in their homes. Information in the text best supports which statement about Tavric?

   • AIts speakers probably ask questions more frequently than speakers of inland Lurian do.
   • BIts contact with Lurian probably began among inland communities before reaching the coast.
   • CIts questions likely contain longer final vowels than those of inland Lurian.
   • DIts question endings probably developed through contact with coastal Lurian.
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   C. C follows from combining the longer coastal question endings with Barbeau’s proposal that Tavric supplied that feature. A replaces vowel duration with question frequency; B adds an inland stage of contact; D reverses the proposed direction of transmission.

3. Question 3 · Medium

   Similar decorative stamps appear on pottery from several settlements in the upper Arlan valley. Archaeologist Andrés Molina initially considered the possibility that finished vessels had circulated among the settlements. Chemical tests, however, showed that most stamped vessels were made from clay local to the settlement where they were found. The stamps also shared small irregularities unlikely to result from independent invention. Molina’s team noted that potters could carry a stamping tool when moving between settlements, whereas transporting finished vessels would not change the source of their clay. Together, the findings suggest that ______. Which choice most logically completes the text?

   • Athe irregularities developed separately because each settlement used a different local clay.
   • Bpottery production began at settlements whose clay most closely resembled that of their neighbors.
   • Cone settlement supplied most of the stamped vessels used at the other valley settlements.
   • Dmovement of tools or their users could help explain the distribution of the shared designs.
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   D. Local clay indicates local manufacture, while shared distinctive stamp irregularities support a connection among producers; mobile tools or potters could account for both. Choice C substitutes widespread distribution of finished vessels for mostly local manufacture; choice A leaves the shared irregularities unexplained; choice B invents a production chronology.

4. Question 4 · Medium

   Conservator Nessa Whitlock reconstructed a violet dye designated L8 from residues found on pottery at the former workshop of Taren. Her experiments showed that L8 retained its violet color only when mixed with water containing very little dissolved oxygen; otherwise, the dye turned brown. Workshop accounts place the production of the violet pottery between 1562 and 1574 and identify a nearby reservoir as the source of mixing water. Whitlock argues that the reservoir probably supplied water suitable for preserving L8’s color during that period, given that ______. Which choice most logically completes the text?

   • Athe workshop continued using water from the reservoir after production of violet pottery ended.
   • Bthe reservoir remained almost oxygen-free until a new inlet was opened in 1591.
   • Cthe reservoir’s water temperature remained relatively steady while the workshop operated.
   • Dthe reservoir supplied other workshops that used a brown dye rather than L8.
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   B. The experiments identify low dissolved oxygen as the condition needed to retain L8’s violet color. Choice B states that the reservoir remained almost oxygen-free until 1591, covering the entire 1562–1574 production interval and supplying the environmental premise for Whitlock’s claim. Choice C discusses an untested temperature condition; choice A establishes later water use without its oxygen level; choice D concerns another dye with no stated oxygen requirement.

5. Question 5 · Hard

   The following text is from a novel. Those readers who require a woman to dismiss a steward or board a train before crediting her with a purpose may grow impatient with Millicent Henshaw at the garden gate. The carpenter offered to finish its repair exactly as her brother had directed. For twenty years Millicent had added some instruction of her own to every instruction given in that house; even a delivery of coal acquired a second destination when she appeared. Now she put her hand on the unfinished wood and took it away. She nodded and stepped aside. I can hear a page being turned briskly in search of the event. The carpenter stood waiting for another direction, his pencil already resting against the wood. Based on the text, what does the narrator most strongly suggest about the readers who may grow impatient with Millicent?

   • AThey may interpret her response as ineffective because her effort to redirect the carpenter has failed.
   • BThey may admire her response chiefly because they expect it to produce a later confrontation with her brother.
   • CThey may share the carpenter’s uncertainty about which additional instruction she intends to give.
   • DThey may overlook a significant change in her behavior because they expect purposeful action to be more conspicuous.
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   D. D connects the readers’ preference for conspicuous decisions with the contrast between Millicent’s habitual interventions and her withholding one now. A invents a failed intervention; B supplies an expected later confrontation; C transfers the carpenter’s expectation to readers whom the narrator imagines looking past the moment for an event.

6. Question 6 · Hard

   Psychologist Mariama Sow compared two ways of teaching unfamiliar map symbols. One group repeatedly viewed each symbol beside its meaning; another attempted to retrieve the meaning before seeing corrective feedback. Immediately after training, the groups identified practiced symbols with similar accuracy, but a week later the retrieval group identified more of them correctly. A separate task used new symbols built from the same component shapes. On that task, neither group outperformed the other, either immediately or after a week. Training time and the number of exposures to each practiced symbol were matched. Sow’s findings therefore suggest that ______. Which choice most logically completes the text?

   • Aretrieval practice improved later identification of practiced symbols, while the absence of a group difference on new symbols shows that neither group learned their components.
   • Bretrieval practice improved retention of practiced symbol meanings, while a corresponding advantage in interpreting new combinations of components was not evident.
   • Cretrieval practice improved immediate identification of practiced symbols, while its advantage did not extend to identifying symbols with new combinations of components.
   • Dretrieval practice improved later identification of practiced symbols, while the groups’ similar performance on new symbols indicates that both forgot practiced symbols at similar rates.
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   B. Similar immediate scores followed by a retrieval advantage on practiced symbols support better retention, while neither new-symbol test shows a corresponding transfer advantage. Choice C moves the practiced-symbol benefit to the immediate test; choice D uses equality on new symbols to erase different retention of practiced symbols; choice A treats no group difference as no learning by either group.

Ashore's SAT course starts with a 15-minute check that finds the question types costing you the most points, then gives you lessons and practice for each.

• Sentence Boundaries and Punctuation
• Agreement, Verb Forms, and Modifiers
• Choosing the Precise Word
• Purpose, Structure, and Paired Texts
• Main Ideas and Details
• Using Evidence: Quotes and Data
• Writing from Notes
• Transitions Between Ideas
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