Command of Evidence — Core Skills

Command of Evidence: The Basics

Part 1 of 2 — One Skill, One Idea

Evidence is proof. It is the fact, number, quote, or example that backs up a claim.

A claim is something someone says is true. Evidence is what makes you believe it.

Claim: This bus route is unreliable. Evidence: The 4:15 bus arrived late on nineteen of the last twenty school days.

The SAT asks one question in many outfits: which choice best supports the claim? Your job is to pick the fact that most directly backs up the exact claim in front of you.

Good evidence does two things

1. It is about the same thing as the claim. If the claim is about cost, evidence about color does nothing, no matter how interesting it is.
2. It actually proves the point, not just something nearby. "People like parks" does not prove "parks lower stress."

That first one has a name: relevant. Relevant means it connects directly to the claim being made.

Worked example

Claim: Teachers are spending their own money on classroom supplies.

Which fact supports it?

• "Teacher salaries differ from state to state." — About pay, not about spending on supplies. Not relevant.
• "Many teachers say they wanted to make a difference." — About motivation. Not relevant.
• "Sixty percent of surveyed teachers reported buying classroom supplies with their own money at least once a month." — This says the exact thing the claim says, with numbers behind it. This is the answer.

Notice the winner used the same words as the claim: teachers, own money, supplies. That overlap is the signal you are looking for.

If there is a graph

Read the title, the axis labels, and the units before you look at the bars or the line. Most graph mistakes happen because someone read the shape without reading the labels.

Command of Evidence: Practice

Part 2 of 2 — Run the Steps

The steps

1. Underline the claim. Find the sentence that says what someone is trying to prove. It is usually right there in the question.
2. Say what would prove it. Before reading the choices, finish this sentence: "To believe this, I would need to see ______."
3. Check each choice for topic match. Does it talk about the same thing as the claim? If not, cross it out right away.
4. Pick the one that settles it, not the one that just sits nearby.

The wrong answers almost always look like this

• Off topic — a true fact about the wrong thing. The claim is about cost; the choice is about history.
• Too vague — "many people are interested." Interest is not proof.
• Backwards — it actually argues against the claim.

A quick word on strong versus weak

Some evidence carries more weight than other evidence.

• Strong: measured data, results from a study, direct quotes or actions from the text.
• Weak: one person's story, a feeling, an emotional appeal with no facts behind it.

One person's experience is not nothing — but a study of two thousand people beats it.

One more term

A counterexample is a fact that works against a claim. If a question asks what would weaken or challenge an argument, you are hunting for a counterexample instead. Same skill, opposite direction.