A module is a sequence, not a shuffle
Within a module the four domains arrive in a fixed order, and inside each domain the question types arrive in a fixed order too. The digital test has used the same sequence consistently:
- Craft and Structure — Words in Context, then Text Structure and Purpose, then Cross-Text Connections.
- Information and Ideas — Central Ideas and Details, then Command of Evidence (textual, then quantitative), then Inferences.
- Standard English Conventions — Boundaries, then Form, Structure, and Sense.
- Expression of Ideas — Transitions, then Rhetorical Synthesis.
Two things follow immediately. First, you always know what is coming next, so a question type never has to be identified from scratch. Second, the cheapest questions in the section — the transitions — sit near the end, behind the most expensive ones. A student who runs out of time loses cheap points, not hard ones.
Đây là lý do tuyệt đối không được ngồi lì ở một câu hai văn bản ở đầu module. Câu đó nằm ở cuối khối Craft and Structure, tức là chỗ khó nhất của khối; trong khi ở cuối module có những câu từ nối làm xong trong 30 giây. Ngồi 3 phút cho một câu khó là đang lấy tiền của ba câu rẻ ở cuối bài.
Name the type from the stem
Read the stem first. Each type announces itself in wording that barely changes from test to test.
Stem catalogue. most logical and precise word or phrase $\to$ Words in Context. function of the underlined portion / overall structure $\to$ Text Structure and Purpose. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 respond $\to$ Cross-Text Connections. main idea / according to the text $\to$ Central Ideas and Details. Which finding, if true, would most strongly support / weaken $\to$ Command of Evidence. most logically completes the text $\to$ Inferences. conforms to the conventions of Standard English $\to$ Conventions. most logical transition $\to$ Transitions. The student wants to…\ uses relevant information from the notes $\to$ Rhetorical Synthesis.
Botanists once treated the mangrove's stilt roots as an oddity of shape. Measurements of wave energy taken on either side of a mangrove belt have made the shape look instead: the tangle absorbs energy that would otherwise arrive at the shore intact.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
- decorative
- functional
- temporary
- familiar
The colon defines the blank: the roots do a job, absorbing wave energy. That is functional. Decorative is the opposite of doing a job. Temporary would need a claim about duration, and none is made. Familiar contradicts oddity, which the sentence keeps rather than cancels — the point is that the odd shape turns out to work. Answer (B).
Câu lệnh cho biết cách đọc, không chỉ cho biết dạng. “Most logical and precise” nghĩa là sẽ có hơn một từ đúng nghĩa chung, và bạn phải chọn từ khớp đúng quan hệ mà đoạn dựng. “Function of the underlined portion” nghĩa là ba nhiễu sẽ đều là mô tả đúng về đoạn văn.
The sawtooth
Inside each block the questions climb from easy to hard. At the first question of the next block the difficulty drops again. Plotted across a module, difficulty is a sawtooth, not a ramp.
What to do with the sawtooth. When a question feels much harder than the one before it, you are probably near the end of a block — which means an easier question is one or two items away. That is the cheapest moment in the whole test to flag and move.
A city's oldest bridge was scheduled for demolition until engineers found that its stone piers rested on timber piles still sound after two centuries. The piles had survived because they sat permanently below the water table, where the fungi that rot wood cannot live. The bridge was repaired instead of replaced, and the piles were left where they were.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
- It states the reason the bridge had been scheduled for demolition.
- It questions the engineers' conclusion about the piers.
- It explains the condition that made the survival of the piles possible.
- It describes the repair that the final sentence reports.
The sentence answers why were the piles still sound: they were permanently waterlogged, so the fungi could not work. (A) attaches the wrong content — the demolition plan is stated before the discovery and never explained. (B) needs a doubt, and the sentence supports the engineers rather than doubting them. (D) describes the next sentence, not this one. Answer (C).
Text 1
A palaeontologist argues that feathers first evolved for insulation and
were only later recruited for flight, since the earliest feathered fossils belong to animals whose
forelimbs were far too short for gliding.
Text 2
A second palaeontologist accepts the sequence but resists the word
recruited. Structures do not wait to be assigned a use: a feather that traps heat also
catches air, and both effects act on the animal from the moment the feather exists.
Based on the texts, how would the second palaeontologist most likely respond to Text 1's claim that feathers were “recruited” for flight?
- By denying that the earliest feathered animals had short forelimbs.
- By proposing that flight evolved before insulation.
- By suggesting that feathers had no function at all until flight appeared.
- By arguing that the word implies a sharper break between functions than the biology supports.
Text 2 says it accepts the sequence, so anything that reverses or denies the sequence is out: that removes (B), and (A) as well, since the fossils are what establish the sequence. (C) contradicts the insulation function both texts grant. What Text 2 objects to is the word: a single structure was doing both jobs at once, so “recruited” overstates the switch. Answer (D).
Câu hai văn bản gần như luôn có một nhiễu phủ nhận điều Text 2 đã công nhận. Trước khi chọn, gạch chân trong đầu câu mà Text 2 nói rõ là mình đồng ý — ở ví dụ trên là “accepts the sequence”. Mọi phương án đi ngược câu đó đều chết ngay, thường loại được hai phương án trong mười giây.
Flag economy
A flag costs nothing except the seconds already spent. What a module cannot afford is many questions eating double time. In 32 minutes, three questions at three minutes each consume the budget of eight ordinary questions.
- Quá 90 giây $\to$ đặt đáp án tốt nhất hiện có, gắn cờ, đi tiếp.
- Không bao giờ gắn cờ một ô còn trống.
- Đến câu cuối module thì mới quay lại cờ, theo thứ tự cờ nào rẻ nhất trước.
Instrument records of ocean temperature reach back only about a century and a half, and the earliest were made by hauling a bucket of seawater onto a deck and reading a thermometer. Because bucket design, deck height, and even the time taken to read the thermometer all affect the number, comparing those readings with modern automated measurements requires an adjustment before any trend can be read at all.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
- Ocean temperature records collected by bucket are too unreliable to be used.
- Early and modern ocean temperature measurements can be compared only after the difference in method is corrected for.
- Automated measurement of ocean temperature began about a century and a half ago.
- The design of the bucket was the largest single source of error in the early measurements.
The paragraph names three sources of difference and then says what must happen before a comparison is possible. (A) overstates: an adjustment is required, not abandonment. (C) misreads the date, which belongs to the bucket readings. (D) ranks the three sources, and the text ranks nothing. Answer (B).
Nhiễu “xếp hạng” rất hay gặp ở câu ý chính: đoạn văn liệt kê ba nguyên nhân, phương án chọn một cái rồi gọi nó là lớn nhất. Đoạn không xếp hạng thì phương án xếp hạng luôn sai — kể cả khi ngoài đời điều đó có thể đúng.
Eliminate on the relation, not on the content
Three of the four options usually say something true about the world or even about the passage. The one that is credited is the one that fits the relation the passage builds: contrast, consequence, restatement, concession, evidence for a specific claim.
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
- Lacquer is a resin tapped from a tree native to East Asia.
- Applied in thin layers, it hardens into a waterproof surface.
- A single object may carry dozens of layers.
- Each layer must dry completely before the next is applied.
The student wants to explain why lacquerwork is slow. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- Lacquer, a resin tapped from a tree native to East Asia, hardens into a waterproof surface.
- Lacquerwork is a waterproof craft that uses a resin from a tree and takes a long time.
- Because a single object may carry dozens of layers and each must dry completely before the next is applied, lacquerwork is slow.
- Applied in thin layers, lacquer is waterproof, and the objects made from it are native to East Asia.
The goal is stated in the stem, and only the last two notes bear on it. (A) is accurate but answers a different goal. (B) gestures at slowness without the reason, so it uses no relevant information. (D) misassembles the notes — the tree is native to East Asia, not the objects. Answer (C).
Câu Rhetorical Synthesis không hỏi câu nào hay hơn. Nó hỏi câu nào đạt đúng mục tiêu ghi trong đề. Đọc mục tiêu, gạch hai ghi chú liên quan, rồi mới đọc phương án — ngược lại là rơi vào phương án “đúng thông tin nhưng sai mục tiêu”, nhiễu nặng nhất của dạng này.
The last block is where time goes missing
Transitions are the cheapest questions on the test and Rhetorical Synthesis among the most expensive; they sit side by side at the end of the module. Reaching the last block with four minutes left is a good position. Reaching it with ninety seconds left costs points that were never hard.
Peer review was not a standard part of scientific publishing until well into the twentieth century; editors frequently decided alone what to print. The system that replaced editorial judgement has costs of its own, among them delay and a bias toward familiar results. , few working scientists propose going back to the older arrangement.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
- As a result
- For this reason
- Even so
- Likewise
The sentence before the blank lists what is wrong with peer review; the sentence after reports that scientists keep it anyway. That is a concession followed by a reversal. (A) and (B) both claim the costs cause the loyalty. (D) claims the two sentences run in parallel. Answer (C).
A set of drawings made by the engineer during the tunnel's construction, together with the notebooks she kept on site, now held in the city archive.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- is
- are
- being
- to be
The sentence needs a finite verb, which removes (C) and (D). The subject is A set, and together with the notebooks is a supplement between commas, not part of the subject. Deleting it leaves A set of drawings…\ is now held. Answer (A).