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Course: LSAT > Unit 1
Lesson 9: Reading Comprehension – Articles- Getting started with Reading Comprehension
- Catalog of question types | Reading comprehension
- Main point | Quick guide
- Recognition | Quick guide
- Clarifying meaning | Quick guide
- Purpose of reference | Quick guide
- Organizing information | Quick guide
- Inferences about views | Quick guide
- Inferences about information | Quick guide
- Inferences about attitudes | Quick guide
- Applying to new contexts | Quick guide
- Principles and analogies | Quick guide
- Additional evidence | Quick guide
- Primary purpose | Quick guide
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Primary purpose | Quick guide
What’s the point?
Primary purpose questions ask us to identify why the author may have written the passage. As you read through the passage the first time, it’s a good idea to always be asking yourself: “So what?” “What’s the point?”
Examples
There isn’t much variance in how this question type is worded. They’ll look something like this:
“The passage is primarily concerned with…”
“The primary purpose of the passage is to…”
“The author's primary purpose in writing the passage is to…”
Strategies
Turn that verb into an infinitive, and use Prediction: Try rephrasing the question into "The purpose of the passage is TO __." Fill in the blank yourself before looking at the choices, and then see if there’s a choice that matches.
Common wrong choice types
Tempting wrong choices for primary purpose questions are:
- Too narrow: A choice that accurately reflects the purpose of a sentence or a paragraph in the passage, but is too narrow to be the primary purpose of the entire passage.
- Too strong: Be wary of extreme words like always and never. Authors rarely make points that are totally unqualified or all-encompassing.
- Mischaracterizations: Sometimes a single word will mischaracterize the author’s intention with the passage.
- Not directly answering the question: Again, enticing wrong choices may contain information that is true to the content of the passage, but doesn’t answer the fundamental question of purpose (“Why?”).
Comparative Reading variants
While paired passages will never have the same main point, they can have a shared purpose, so you may encounter comparative reading questions that ask you to identify it:
- “A central purpose of each passage is to...”
Ask yourself: What are both authors attempting to do with their passages? What is the shared why?
Perhaps both passages are primarily concerned with describing an artist’s influences, or identifying distinctive features of a literary movement, or examining the impact that a specific scholar had on their field, or critiquing the applications of a specific statute.
Remember: When you get this kind of a question, even though the two authors’ arguments will likely differ from one another, the ”why” (or “what’s the general goal”) may still be the same. That’s the question you’re answering.
Want to join the conversation?
don't know it. i am just a fourth grader.(9 votes)
How is a primary purpose question different than a main point question?(2 votes)- The primary purpose questions are aimed towards answering the "why?" of the passage, why did the author write this? While the main point questions are aimed towards answering the "what?", what is the author trying to say?(16 votes)
- The main purpose of the passage is to(6 votes)
- granting” most nearly means(2 votes)
- the example of an opera house primarily serves to(2 votes)
it was good reading this one(2 votes)
How do I find the primary purpose in an SAT passage?(1 vote)
