An SAT Reading & Writing micro-topic under Command of Evidence: Quantitative (Information and Ideas). Free to read — no account needed.
Distractor answer choices are ones that are true, or clearly drawn from the passage, but that do not address the exact thing the question is asking. They feel tempting because they are accurate, yet they are off-target.
The reliable defence is to name, in your own words, the precise thing being asked before you read the choices: is it the aim, a finding, the method, a comparison, or a specific detail? Then eliminate any choice that answers a different one of those.
For instance, a passage says a research team wanted to discover why coral reefs bleach, describes how they measured water temperature at many sites, and reports that warmer water led to more bleaching. If the question asks for the study's aim, a choice about the temperature measurements is a distractor (that is the method), and a choice about warmer water causing more bleaching is also a distractor (that is a finding). Only the choice saying the team wanted to identify the cause of bleaching states the aim.
Distractors can also shift the focus. If a question asks what makes two things different, a choice about what they have in common is a distractor, because it addresses the opposite of what was asked, no matter how correct the shared detail is.
Worked examples
A passage explains that Tversky and Kahneman's research set out to understand why people fear losses more than they value equal gains. The question asks: which choice best states the study's aim? Choice A: "To understand why people tend to avoid losses even when the potential gains are equal or greater." Choice B: "Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer avoiding a loss over acquiring an equal gain." Choice B distracts from the question: it just restates the definition of loss aversion instead of giving the study's aim. Choice A is correct.
A passage compares two whale families. The question asks for the choice that best highlights a difference between them. Choice A: "Both families descend from a common ancestor and share adaptations for life in the ocean." Choice B: "One family has teeth for hunting prey, while the other filters food through baleen plates." Choice A distracts from the question: it describes what the two families have in common, which is the opposite of a difference. Choice B is correct.
A graph shows internet speeds rising sharply in both Asia and Europe. The question asks which choice supports the claim that region-specific factors drove the growth. Choice A: "Over the same period, internet speeds in Africa grew far more slowly." Choice B: "Asia and Europe had similar infrastructure yet grew at very different rates, pointing to local factors." Choice A distracts from the question: it reports a separate observation but says nothing about region-specific factors. Choice B is correct.
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