The 5 most common Reading & Writing traps
1. The extreme-language answer
Answer choices with words like "always," "never," "completely," or "proves" are usually too strong for what the passage actually supports. The correct answer is almost always more measured than the most dramatic-sounding option.
2. The half-right answer
Some choices get the first half of a sentence exactly right and then go wrong in the second half — a plausible topic paired with an unsupported claim. Read the entire answer choice, not just the part that sounds familiar from the passage.
3. The true-but-unsupported answer
An answer can be factually reasonable, even true in the real world, and still be wrong because the passage itself doesn't say it. Every correct answer has to be directly supported by the text in front of you, not by outside knowledge or common sense.
4. Answering the wrong question
Main idea, author's purpose, and specific-detail questions get mixed up more than any other pair. Before looking at answer choices, restate in your own words exactly what's being asked — a detail question needs a detail answer, not a summary of the whole passage.
5. Transition words that almost fit
On "which transition best completes the text" questions, wrong choices often signal the right relationship (contrast, cause, addition) but the wrong strength — "however" where the passage needs "although," or "therefore" where it needs "as a result." Identify the logical relationship between the two ideas first, then pick the word that matches it most precisely.