Match principles | Quick guide

These questions are very similar to match structure questions, in that the stimulus is made up of an argument or situation, and each choice represents an argument or situation. Your job is to find the choice that exhibits the same principle as the argument or situation in the passage.

Wrong choices will often present a situation or argument that has a slightly (or very) different principle governing it than the situation or argument in the passage.

Predicting the answer isn’t possible for these questions, since the topic doesn’t matter, and so we wouldn't be able to predict the answer's topic—only the underlying principle matters. However, it’s best to have a strong idea of what the passage’s principle is before moving to examine the choices.

✓ Identify the principle that governs the passage: Keep that principle simple but accurate. If you’re having trouble identifying the principle, ask yourself what the arguer seems to value. why do they recommend or predict or compare what they do?

✓ Examine each choice in turn: Discard the situations or arguments that stray significantly from the principle that you identified.