Command of evidence — textual

You're given a claim, a hypothesis, or an argument, and asked which of four pieces of evidence would most strongly support or undermine it — or which finding would most logically complete the text.

This is reasoning, not retrieval. The correct answer often isn't in the passage at all; it's a hypothetical finding.

#The method

1. State the claim precisely, in your own words. Include the direction. Not "the study is about sleep and memory" but "more sleep → better recall".
2. Ask what the world would look like if it were true. What would you expect to observe?
3. Read the choices against that. The right one is the one that observes exactly it.

#Direction is everything

Half the wrong answers on this question type are about the right thing in the wrong direction. If the hypothesis is "the coating slows corrosion", a finding that coated samples corroded faster is not weak support — it's the opposite. Under time pressure students see "coating" and "corrosion" and pick it.

Before eliminating anything, write the direction down: ↑ or ↓.

#What makes evidence strong

• It's about the same population or object the claim is about. Evidence about a different species, era, or material is irrelevant however striking it is.
• It tests the mechanism, not just the outcome. If the claim is that X works because of Y, evidence about Y is stronger than evidence about X.
• It rules out the alternative. The strongest support for "A caused B" is often evidence that C didn't.

#"Most logically completes the text"

Same skill, different frame. The passage builds to a blank, usually after therefore, this suggests, or the researchers concluded.

The answer is the conclusion that follows from what's above — no more. The trap is the choice that's a bigger, more interesting conclusion than the evidence supports. Watch for choices that jump from correlation to cause, from some to all, or from one study to a general law. If the passage describes one experiment on one group, the completion cannot be a universal claim.

Ask: could I defend this sentence using only the text above it? If it needs one extra assumption, it's wrong.