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Course: Digital SAT Reading and Writing > Unit 3
Lesson 1: Command of Evidence: TextualCommand of evidence: textual (literary) — Worked example
Learn the best way to approach a literary command of textual evidence question on your SAT. Start by identifying the claim, then restate it in your own words, then find the best support in the choices. Remember, the answer needs to fully match your claim, not just partly! Created by Corey Kollbocker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Great video, but this question is from one of the limited Bluebook practice tests detracting from both the value of the video and the practice tests. It would be nice to see new questions being used in the videos.(62 votes)
- Hi Enrique, this is exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you for pointing it out. Are all the questions being solved on Khan academy from the official Digital SAT practice tests on Bluebook?(17 votes)
- These poems and literary stuff are so hard to understand, they are so implicit and include hard vocabulary, how do I improve on them?(20 votes)
- How can I save time usefully on the test day in r/w section?(3 votes)
- I personally would first see what the question is and then try to find that section in the passage with a few sentences before and after it for context. Then, I would select the answer that best fits my inference and if I doubt further, quickly skim through it and if I really doubt and, then I would thoroughly read through the passage...
Hope this helped!(13 votes)
- Good luck for the SAT in 2024, everyone!💖💖💖(4 votes)
- These poems and literary stuff are so hard to understand, they are so implicit and include hard vocabulary, how do I improve on them?(3 votes)
- Try reading more of them, and while you are, take notes and things on them. Also listen or read literary analysis. It helps a lot.(2 votes)
- he has a very nice voice :)(1 vote)
- the value of the video and the practice tests. It would be nice to see new questions being used in the videos(1 vote)
- Why dont most people use this method of elimation process during a test?(1 vote)
- How would this help me in the real world(1 vote)
- Great video for learn.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] Let's
give this question a try. "Ghosts of the Old Year"
is an early 1900s poem by James Weldon Johnson. In the poem, the speaker
describes experiencing an ongoing cycle of anticipation followed by regretful reflection: blank. Which quotation from
"Ghosts of the Old Year" most effectively illustrates the claim? Okay, if you'd like to give
this one a try on your own before I teach you some
specific strategies for this question type, please feel free to pause the video now. Cool, let's move on together. Now we are asked to
effectively illustrate a claim, that is, we're being asked
to back up an argument with evidence from a text. And that means that
this is, say it with me, a command of textual
evidence question, very good. Okay, so these questions
introduce a claim about a text. Your job is to identify
that claim, that argument, and find the evidence that
most strongly supports it. It's not a text that you
need to be familiar with. The question contains all
the context that you need. So you may or may not know
who James Weldon Johnson is, but any preexisting knowledge here isn't relevant or necessary. You'll encounter a couple
of these on test day. The texts that these questions ask about might discuss a scientific experiment or, like this question, they may ask you about
a work of literature, like a novel or a poem. Questions that focus
on literature passages ask you to think like
you're writing an essay for English class and
you wanna pull a quote from the text to support your argument. In this case, though,
they give us the argument and our job is to find the best support. Let's talk strategy real quick and then we'll return to the question and put that strategy into practice. The question will introduce
a central claim or argument and it'll be stated very clearly, so you won't have to go digging for it, but that's your first job, identify the claim. Once you do that, create a test phrase by restating that claim in your own words. Doing this will give
you control of the idea and allow you to see it
restated differently. Ideally, this test phrase will be as short and sweet as possible. Once you've got your own
words version of the claim, test it against the choices. Whichever choice matches your test phrase will be the answer. Let's put this into practice
with our example question. So we're looking for an
ongoing cycle of anticipation followed by regretful reflection. There's just not a lot of
other text to look at here. This is the claim that we
need to find support for. It's the only sentence in the question that isn't just a
straightforward description of what the poem is, so let me just take that
and restate it very simply. Looking forward, smiley face, looking backward, sad face,
anticipation, then regret, that's our test phrase. Simple, straightforward,
gets the job done, I don't even have to use letters. Now, let's take that test
phrase to the choices. Looking forward, smiley face,
looking backwards, sad face. Okay, choice A. "The snow has ceased
its fluttering flight, "The wind sunk to a whisper light, "An ominous stillness fills the night, "A pause, a hush." There might be a sense
of looking forward here. Everything's quiet and still as if something might be about to happen, but that's not explicit and there's no regret, no sad face, no sense of looking back. I don't think this one's it. Choice B. "And so the years go swiftly by, "Each coming, brings ambitions high, "And each departing leaves a sigh "Linked to the past." Okay, so we've got ambitions high, which is our sense of looking forward, but we've also got each
departing leaves a sigh linked to the past, which
feels very much to me like bummed about last year or
looking backwards, sad face. I think this is our answer. On test day, I'd select it and move on, but let's make sure there's not one stronger option lurking
somewhere in the choices. I feel pretty good about this one, though. Choice C. "What does this brazen tongue declare, "That falling on the midnight air "Brings to my heart a sense of care "Akin to fright?" This one mentions fear, which might be a type of anticipation, but not the happy kind. And I don't see any
looking backward at all. Not it. Choice D. "It tells of many a squandered day, "Of slighted gems and treasured clay, "Of precious stores not laid away, "Of fields unreaped." This is definitely backward
looking regret, right, fields unreaped, a harvest
not realized, right, but no forward looking anticipation, so this is not it either. So B is our answer. It supports both the looking forward excitement part of the claim and the looking backward regret part. Now let's talk through
a couple of top tips for questions like these. Top tip number one, be specific. You are looking for an answer choice that supports the claim
in the question step, nothing more, nothing less. So any choices that introduce
a new idea can be eliminated. We don't need evidence for anything else. Top tip number two, be strict. Anything that feels like it's
almost evidence for the claim is going to be too weak to be the answer For example, the correct choice in the question we just discussed very directly and strongly
supports the claim. It was the only choice that both explored the ideas of
anticipation and regret at the coming of a new year. Some of the choices in the question were about just regret
or just anticipation. The answer needs to be all
right, not just partly right. Good luck out there, test takers. You've got this.