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Command of evidence: quantitative | Lesson

A guide to "command of evidence: quantitative" questions on the digital SAT

What are "quantitative evidence" questions?

On the Reading and Writing section of your SAT, some questions will provide you with a graph or table that presents information about an unfamiliar topic. The question will then offer some context for that information and ask you to complete a sentence by effectively using data from the graph or table.
Quantitative evidence questions will look like this:

Quantitative evidence: Example
A line graph is titled "Urban Population of Algeria, France, Japan, and Nigeria". The y-axis is labelled "Percent of population living in cities" and ranges from 0 to 100. The x-axis is labelled "Year" and ranges from 1970 to 2020.
There are four lines on the graph, one for each country. Nigeria starts around 20% in 1970 and increases steadily to over 50% in 2020. Algeria starts around 40% in 1970 and increases steadily to around 75% in 2020. France starts around 70% in 1970 and increases steadily to around 80% in 2020. Japan starts just under 80% in 1970 and increases steadily to over 90% in 2020.
The share of the world’s population living in cities has increased dramatically since 1970, but this change has not been uniform. France and Japan, for example, were already heavily urbanized in 1970, with 70% or more of the population living in cities. The main contributors to the world’s urbanization since 1970 have been countries like Algeria, whose population went from ______
Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the assertion?
Choose 1 answer:


How should we think about quantitative evidence questions?

The challenges of answering quantitative evidence questions can be split into three parts. Let's look at each challenge separately.

Understanding the argument

Every quantitative evidence question will provide more information than we need. One of the keys to successfully answering these questions is knowing what data to look for, so we can avoid being distracted by all the extra details and find the answer more quickly.
The way to do this is by carefully reading the prompt text. This paragraph will provide the context we need to understand the data in the graph or table. This paragraph will also outline the argument that our quantitative evidence must support.
This argument is the most important part of the question. Whichever data we use to complete the sentence must provide evidence in support of that argument. In other words: it tells us what to look for.

Reading the data

The data provided in a quantitative evidence question can be presented in a variety of forms. The question might include a bar graph, a line graph, a table, or any number of other formats that can be used to visually represent data.
Luckily, you've almost certainly encountered all of these types of data visualizations in your math and science courses. You can rely on this experience to help you accurately read graphs and tables on test day.
Remember, though: graphs and tables will include more data than you need, which will require you to sift through and read around that extra information. If you're working quickly, or looking back and forth between the question and the graph, your eyes can easily drift. Double check that you're looking in the right place and at the right data.

Evaluating the choices

Quantitative evidence questions will offer two different types of incorrect choices alongside the correct answer.
  1. False statements*
These choices are false according to the information in the graph or table. They misread or misrepresent data.
  1. True statements
These choices are true according to the information in the graph or table. They accurately represent data, but they fail to provide direct evidence for the argument being made.
False statements are easy to eliminate. You can simply compare the claim in the choice to the data in the graph. If those things disagree, you can eliminate that choice.
True statements, however, are trickier to handle. Instead of deciding if they're true or false, you'll need to decide if they support the argument made in the paragraph. This is why the first challenge of "understanding the argument" is so important.
*Note: If a question includes false statements among the choices, then all incorrect choices for that question will be false.

How to approach quantitative evidence questions

To solve a quantitative evidence question, follow these steps:
Step 1: Skim the graph
You don't need to dig into the graph or table yet, as you don't know what data to look for. However, it can still be useful to familiarize yourself with what the graph or table contains. You can read the title, the labels, the units, and the key. Those should give you a good idea of what the graph contains without taking up too much of your time.
Step 2: Read the paragraph
The text should be your main focus. It will tell you what data to look for.
Sometimes, like in our example question, the text will explicitly direct you to a specific piece of information: a certain time, place, or set of conditions that can be pinpointed within the graph or table. In these cases, you can simply identify the correct information in the graph or table and/or test the choices against the provided data.
Other times, the text will present a general argument, and you'll need to select data that backs up that argument. In these cases, there may be multiple pieces of information that could potentially serve as evidence, so you won't be able to just pull the correct data from the graph. The best thing to do here is to summarize the argument being made in your own words. Then you can test that summary against each of the choices to see which provides effective evidence.
Step 3: Validate the choices
As we identified earlier, quantitative evidence choices can contain both true statements and false statements.
Read the choices and check them against the information in the graph. Are the choices true or false?
  • If they're false, eliminate the false choices.
  • If they're true, proceed to step 4.
Step 4: Find the best evidence
Once you've validated the choices, you should have eliminated any statements that are false according to the graph or table. This leaves you with choices that are true, but that may not provide effective evidence for the argument in the text.
Take your summary of the argument and test it against each remaining choice. Only one choice will provide direct support for that argument. You can select this choice with confidence.

Top tips

Use your finger/cursor

When you're looking at a graph or table that contains multiple data points, your eyes can easily drift. Placing your finger or your cursor directly on the information you're looking for can help you avoid silly mistakes due to looking in the wrong place.

Check if the choices are true or false

Usually, when one incorrect choice makes a false statement, all the incorrect choices for that question will make false statements. And when one incorrect choice is true, all the incorrect choices will be true.
Determining this early can be helpful, as it changes the nature of your task. If the choices are false, you can easily eliminate your way to the correct answer. If the choices are true, you'll need to think more deeply about the argument being made.

Want to join the conversation?

  • blobby green style avatar for user Sham Kassam
    hello,
    is it really that the digital sat won't have long passages and will only have such type of questions?
    and are such questions in the reading or the writing section?
    (32 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • female robot grace style avatar for user Terence Tao
      yes, the new digital sat will only contain single para questions. Gone are the days of 75-line Shakespearean English passages, thankfully. And there are no longer 2 sections called "Reading" and "Writing", now it's combined into 1 section of "Reading and Writing" (Very creative indeed) with 2 modules within it that contain a mix of comprehension and grammar.
      (171 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user Lana Aljishi
    what do you mean by (If a question includes false statements among the choices, then all incorrect choices for that question will be false)?
    (13 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user jzassenhaus2026
      Basically it means that if one of the choices is wrong data, then all other choices will include wrong data except the right answer. For instance: lets say that according to the graph, the population of the United States of America increased from 300 million to 320 million from 2000-2015. A possible answer might be:
      The population increased from 290-310 million from 2000-2015.
      This is an example of a choice which is a false statement. If you see one of these, that means that the correct answer is the only answer that shows true data. This is as opposed to answers that may say:
      The population increased from 300-305 million from 2000-2002.
      Which might be factually true, but might not be what the text is looking for. In summary, either there is one answer that contains true information from the graph which is surrounded by clearly false information, or, all of the options are factually true but only one may represent what the question is asking. I am sorry if this explanation doesn't make sense.
      (69 votes)
  • purple pi pink style avatar for user ConfusedAF
    Though my accuracy is top notch, I'm taking too long for graph questions. Anybody got suggestions to improve speed except the cliché practice, practice, practice.
    (17 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Kuvonchbek
    how is everyone preparing for digital sat with only 4 practice tests? any sources? any materials? anything? feel free to leave a link or something
    (14 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user Jay Tea
      sadly, there isn't much more really.
      do all the Khan academy dSAT practice questions.
      you can do each 'practice' 3 times with a fresh set of questions.
      for the english section, that's about it since the format changed a lot, but for the math section i'm sure old sat questions will help! atb
      (14 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user halle
    Please explain more about this I did not understand
    *Note: If a question includes false statements among the choices, then all incorrect choices for that question will be false.
    (5 votes)
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    • duskpin seedling style avatar for user rs
      What I understood it to mean is that if you're looking at the answer choices, and one choice has an answer that is completely wrong when you look at the graph (e.g. the answer saying there are ten cats while on the graph it says there are five), then you can assume that out of the four answer choices, three of them will have completely incorrect information.
      You won't be in a confusing situation where one is completely wrong and the other three are kind of correct, you will be able to read the choices and pick out three wrong choices relatively easily.
      This can help save you time because you can just look at the graphs and eliminate the choices that don't match the data, instead of reading four partially correct choices super closely and trying to choose the best one.
      (17 votes)
  • mr pink red style avatar for user Faiaz
    Why dont graphs leave me alone ?from statistics,functions,equations,science,writing to reading they are everywhere
    (13 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user bardiya
    Some people have suggested that in "command of evidence" questions, in order to save time, it is better not to read the whole passage and skip to the claim/idea/hypothesis.
    What do you think about this? is it risky? or more efficient?
    (3 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
  • stelly yellow style avatar for user thekautilyaveer
    Isn't the theory for all three levels same ? Is medium and advanced level just for practicing questions ?
    (9 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Allen Watanabe
    wait, so the digital SAT has a pretty distinct type of questions compared to the traditional paper SAT?
    (8 votes)
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  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user Dishika Kanwal
    I don't understand what's wrong, I do pretty well on Khan Academy but could only score 630 on the practice test. Any advice to follow?
    (5 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user
    • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Simum
      Let me answer your question.
      First of all, you are timing yourself. So, you are gonna get exhausted but you have to get used to it.
      Next, You need to think quickly while also apply the strategies correctly.
      Furthermore, especially for the math section what you must do is think mentally which is a super boost. You might want to fix your mistakes after taking the test.
      And Finally , for the English section , think about how the sat is designed(Black book is great) which would help you to know how to get to the right answer. (But you will need to understand the strategies too)
      (12 votes)