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Course: Praxis Core Reading > Unit 1

Lesson 2: Quick guides
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Supporting ideas | Quick guide

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Supporting Ideas Questions

These questions ask you to identify the supporting ideas and specific details mentioned in a passage.

What does the passage say?

Perhaps the most basic task of the Praxis Core Reading Test is recognizing things that the passage text states on a literal, explicit level:
Examples:
The passage provides information for answering most fully which of the following questions about marmots?
Which of the following statements about antique furniture is best supported by the passage?
According to the passage, what is true about fantasy baseball leagues?
The answers to these questions will typically consist of a very close paraphrase of some part of the passage. Your task is to identify not the exact wording of something said in the passage, but rather the idea of it.
Questions like these might seem unexpectedly easy, especially to test takers for whom reading is a relative strength. There’s no hidden agenda or trap lurking in Supporting Ideas questions: you're simply asked to recognize information from the passage.

Strategies

  • First pass: eliminate what you can. After reading the passage, a good first step is to go through the choices one by one to see if you can cross out the ones that were not present in the passage.
  • Second pass: look for keywords. Some choices will feature specific terminology. When you see such terminology, underline or circle it in the choice, and then skim the passage to find a match. If you can’t find it, then eliminate the choice.
  • Checks (✔'s), X’s and O’s Some students like using ✔'s, X’s and O’s to mark the choices on these questions.
  • ✔ = Choices that contain info that is present in the passage.
  • X = Choices that contain info that is not present in the passage.
  • O = You’re not sure yet - go back to the passage to see if it deserves a ✔ or an X. Only one choice should have a ✔! It’s the answer.
Note: You can’t use this strategy on a computer, but some students like to quickly list the choices ABCDE on a piece of scratch paper and notate the choices there!

Supporting Ideas: Except questions

Sometimes, questions will ask you to identify the one choice that contains information that was not present in the passage or pair of passages:
Each of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason fish cannot walk EXCEPT
Which of the following attributes is NOT mentioned in the passage as being typical of heavy metal music?

Strategies for EXCEPT questions

  • Focus on the EXCEPT or NOT: these words can be easy to overlook—paying them extra attention will help make sure you answer the question as it's written!
  • As a first step, go through the choices one by one, and see if you can eliminate ones that you remember being mentioned in the passage.
  • Use the “✔'s and X’s strategy” mentioned above on scratch paper
  • Only one choice should have an X (it's not in the passage)! It’s the answer!

Your turn!

Practice these strategies with the examples below!
Example 1
Predominantly Black land-grant colleges in the United States have a long tradition of supporting cooperative education programs. These programs combine academic courses with work experience that carries academic credit. This tradition has made these colleges the leaders in the recent movement in American education toward career-oriented curriculums.
According to the passage, predominantly Black land-grant colleges in the United States are leaders in career-oriented education because they
Choose 1 answer:

Example 2
The women’s movement emerged in the United States in the 1830s, a period of intense reform and evangelism. Women were encouraged to speak out at religious revival meetings, and many women thus gained public speaking experience. When women sought and were denied leadership and the right to speak out in the abolitionist and temperance societies to which they belonged, they organized their own reform groups, and later worked to improve their own status.
According to the passage, women formed their own reform societies because women
Choose 1 answer:

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