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Definition
| Uses the vocabulary out of passage. Designed to trap those who are not going back to the passages or who are not rereading the relevant parts of the passage carefully enough. |
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Term
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| These are "bait and switch" answers. Part or most of the choice is exactly what you are looking for, but another part is not supported by the passage. This is a trap set for people who make up their minds before they read the entire choice, or who try to "rehabilitate" an answer because part of it sounds good. |
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| These choices take a sentence or idea directly from the passage, but add or remove a crucial "not" or "un-." The statement therefore sounds just like the passage, but in fact directly contradicts it. |
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Definition
| This answer choice extracts a relationship from the passage but then reverses it to go in the opposite direction. It may flip a sequence of cause and effect, or confuse the order of events in a chronology. |
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| This choice gives you some familiar words, but is difficult or impossible to understand. The test-writers are hoping that you will pick it thinking that because it is confusing it must be correct. When you see garbled language, do not automatically eliminate it, but don't automatically pick it either. Use POE aggressively. |
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Term
| Right Answer/Wrong Question |
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Definition
| The statements in these Attractors, unlike in the other members of this category, are in fact directly supported by the passage. However, they aren't relevant to the questions being asked. When you are down to two choices, always reread the question stem in order to avoid this trap. |
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| Language that is too strong than the language in the passage. Ex: none, always, never, only |
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| The wrong answers include words like first, last, best, most, worst, least, or primary. For instance, it may describe a theory as the first or the best theory, but the author simply says that it's an important theory. |
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Term
| Moral Judgments and Recommendations |
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Definition
| The choice passes judgment on whether something is good or bad, but that thing is described by the author in a neutral tone. Or, the answer choice states that a proposal should be implemented or rejected, when that policy is merely described in the passage. |
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Term
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Definition
| This Attractor is specific to Strengthen and Weaken questions. Rather than being too extreme, it is too wishy-washy to significantly affect the author's argument in the passage. Always compare choices to each other; for this question type, you want the choice that goes farthest in the right direction. |
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| This answer choice brings in ideas or facts that are not discussed in the passage. You will usually eliminate these in your first cut. |
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| The wrong answer makes a statement that is true based on your own knowledge, but isn't directly supported by the text of the passage. |
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| The wrong answer predicts the future (but the passage doesn't) or goes beyond the timeframe of the passage. |
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| This incorrect choice will take something that is mentioned in the passage and compare it to something that is not. Or, it may take two things that are mentioned by the author and compare them in a way that is not supported by the passage. |
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Term
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Definition
| The "too narrow" Attractor is typical on General questions: it mentions or contains only part of the author's argument. Keep in mind however that correct answers to Specific questions (including Inference questions) can be quite narrow. Some answers overgeneralize too, so pick the right one. |
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