CARS Strategy

Everything needed to answer is contained in the passage and questions — no outside knowledge is required or rewarded. Answer only from what the passage supports; bringing in personal opinions or external facts is a trap.

(1) Foundations of Comprehension, (2) Reasoning Within the Text, and (3) Reasoning Beyond the Text. Reasoning Beyond the Text is the largest at ~40%.

Identify the central claim the whole passage exists to support — the one sentence the author would defend. It is broad enough to cover every paragraph but specific enough to exclude unrelated topics. Often signaled in the intro or conclusion and reinforced throughout.

The main idea is WHAT the author claims; the purpose is WHY they wrote it (to argue, critique, defend, compare, explain, persuade). Purpose is captured by a verb describing the author's intent toward the reader.

Ignore the dictionary default and read the surrounding sentences: the author may use a word ironically, technically, or in a special sense. Substitute each answer choice back into the sentence and keep the one that preserves the author's intended meaning.

A supported statement can be traced to specific text — a stated claim, a logical paraphrase, or a direct implication. An unsupported statement requires an assumption the passage never makes, even if it sounds true in the real world. Plausible-but-untraceable equals wrong.