Which formats should you distinguish?
ETS describes two different tasks. For a multiple-answer question, you examine three choices and select all that apply; a partial answer earns no credit. In Select-in-Passage, you choose the sentence that matches a description in the designated portion of text. You can make the official selection with a mouse or keyboard.
A true sentence does not necessarily answer the question. If the prompt asks for a limitation of the study, an accurate finding may still be off topic. Before reviewing the choices, restate the task in a few words: “what the data allow,” “an alternative explanation,” or “the author’s caveat.” Keep that task in mind as you read.
How can you decide without guessing at a combination?
For each choice, find specific support and check its scope. An observation about the documents reviewed does not necessarily describe all the documents held. A finding from the morning alone does not justify a conclusion about the entire day. Words that broaden a conclusion deserve as much attention as the general topic.
Then decide without using a previous answer as a clue: selecting A does not determine whether B or C is valid. Finish with a two-way check. Does every selected choice have evidence? Is there a reason for every unselected choice to be excluded? The second question can help you spot a missed answer.
Workshop 1: distinguish a sample from a collection
Read the passage below as a fictional scenario. Select all statements supported by the text, then check your answers. The choices are keyboard-accessible, and the explanations remain available without JavaScript.
At the Marlow archive, volunteers first digitized the letters most often requested by visiting scholars. Online requests subsequently concentrated on these digitized letters, many of which concerned shipping. The director treated this pattern as evidence that shipping dominated the archive’s entire collection. A cataloguer objected that extensive holdings about public health had not yet been described in the online catalogue. Which statements are supported by the passage?
Select all correct answers.
The solution, step by step
A and C.
The method in action
- A restates the selection criterion: letters most often requested by scholars were digitized first. This choice then shaped which documents were visible online.
- B confuses requests for the accessible portion with the contents of the entire collection. The passage reports the director’s conclusion, then offers an objection; reporting a claim does not prove it.
- C respects the cataloger’s caveat. The public health holdings have not yet been described online, so the requests observed are not enough to represent them. Selecting only A would be incomplete; selecting A, B, and C would include an unsupported conclusion.
Workshop 2: identify an alternative explanation
For Select-in-Passage, start by identifying each sentence’s role. One may introduce an observation, another report an interpretation, and a third offer a different cause. Matching the topic is not enough; find the sentence that performs exactly the requested function.
Here, each sentence in the passage is offered as a complete choice. This layout provides explicit keyboard selection; it does not claim to simulate the exam interface.
Read the following four sentences as one passage. Select the sentence that offers an alternative explanation for the increase in attendance.
Choose an answer.
The solution, step by step
Sentence 3.
The method in action
- Free admission is another possible cause of the increase. The passage does not prove it is the actual cause: the question asks for an alternative explanation, not a proven one.
- Sentence 1 gives the observation, and sentence 2 gives the initial interpretation. Sentence 4 describes a missing comparison; it suggests further investigation but does not itself name a change that might attract visitors.
Workshop 3: one answer may be enough
Checkboxes do not mean you have to select multiple answers. Apply the same evidence check even if only one choice holds up.
An office tested a new appointment system for two weeks. Staff recorded shorter queues on the mornings they observed, but collected no afternoon data. The report recommends a longer trial before changing the system permanently. Which statements are supported?
Select all correct answers.
The solution, step by step
B only.
The method in action
- B reflects the explicit limitation of the observations. A improperly extends the result to all hours. C turns a recommendation for a longer trial into an immediate decision. Adding A or C to select multiple answers would make the selection incorrect.
The pitfall
Choosing a sentence because it contains the same words
A distractor may reuse a noun from the passage while changing its role or level of certainty. “The director claims” becomes “the data establish.” To avoid this shift, restate the choice without its familiar wording. If you cannot connect your restatement to the text, do not select it just because it sounds similar.
How can you learn from your mistakes?
Note the type of mismatch with the worked solution: an overbroad statement, an opinion mistaken for evidence, an incorrectly identified sentence role, or a missed answer. Then return to the exact sentence that decides it. The goal is to explain your selection without retelling the entire passage.
To extend this workshop, practice reading comprehension and then text completion. They also require you to read logical relationships, but the instructions differ; do not automatically transfer a selection rule from one format to another.
Key takeaways
- Read the task before judging the choices.
- Decide on each choice using its own evidence.
- Choose a sentence for its function, not just its wording.
- Check the choices you left blank, too.