Levels of certainty can help you eliminate answers

One of the things you should look out for when answering reading comprehension questions is the presence of ‘absolute’ words.

These are words like:

• always
• never
• impossible

And they express extremes (0% or 100%) where something is completely certain or completely impossible.

Why are they important?

Well, because it’s easy for them to be ‘wrong’. When you get an option that says:

Sam is always happy.

For that to not be true, all you have to do is find 1 instance where Sam was not happy.

In the same vein, if you say "Sam is never happy".

For that to not be true, all you have to do is find 1 instance where Sam was happy.

In fact, you may be able to use this to your advantage - when your guardian says "You never clean up!" You can say that's false, as long as there's one instance in which you have cleaned up. Although, I'm not sure that such a comment would be received well by your guardian!

When you have a statement that says:

Sam is sometimes happy.

It’s harder to prove that wrong because sometimes can means instances when he is happy and not happy.

What does this mean for your reading comprehension test?

Well… when you see absolute words, you can pinpoint them as ‘easy’ targets to disprove and if disproven, they’re automatically out.

This means the process of elimination of options (and therefore, helping you get to the correct answer more sooner) is made easier.

Let’s see this in action on the question below (see video).

Example Question/s

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Over the past three years, our Making Music Work project has mapped the creative, social, cultural, and economic realities of a music career in Australia.

We surveyed nearly 600 musicians to understand their working lives, creative goals, career paths and economic circumstances. We also conducted interviews with 11 diverse musicians to explore their careers in more depth.

Our study shows the vast majority of Australian musicians undertake a portfolio career which encompasses concurrent and often impermanent roles. This is not a new phenomenon but in recent decades there have been major shifts in how music is made, paid for and consumed.

Now, the impact of COVID-19 on the funding and policy landscape has dramatically affected how musicians develop and sustain their careers – or not.

This article an extract republished from The Conversation under CC BY-ND 4.0.

According to the article, we can infer that a career in music:

A Often involves challenges.
B Is never an easy career path.
C Always involves a portfolio of multiple roles for the aspiring musician.
D Is no longer possible due to the impact of COVID-19.

Key Rules to remember

• Know words that are absolutes e.g. always, never etc… to pinpoint them for early elimination in options to make it easier for you to find the correct answer.

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let’s get started on your practice questions.

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