"Except" Questions

[German.Steel]

Is there a particular strategy for dealing "each of the following was stated in the passage/supported by the passage EXCEPT" questions? I reliably fail at these, spend a ton of time, aimlessly wander through the passage trying to eliminate all the wrong answers, then usually get down to two and realize I still have no idea which of the two was/wasn't in the passage. Sinks my timing, hurts my score. Thanks in advance!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi German,

These are a bit easier than they used to be because you can use control F to search! The exact phrasing of the answer choice may not be the phrasing from the passage, so you'll want to use this carefully. But you can likely eliminate several answer choices by searching for the keyword in the passage. You can likely find the others by thinking about where it would occur in the passage, and rereading just that section in the same way that you would for any questions that required you to find the specific information from the passage that you couldn't imagine.

Hope that helps!

[German.Steel]

Great, thank you!!

Hi German,

These are a bit easier than they used to be because you can use control F to search! The exact phrasing of the answer choice may not be the phrasing from the passage, so you'll want to use this carefully. But you can likely eliminate several answer choices by searching for the keyword in the passage. You can likely find the others by thinking about where it would occur in the passage, and rereading just that section in the same way that you would for any questions that required you to find the specific information from the passage that you couldn't imagine.

Hope that helps!