do you think you have what it takes to solve the hardest reading questions on the digital sat I'm Nathan Greenberg founder of Ivy League mentors and I've been teaching sat since before many of my viewers were even born and for this video I've collected seven of the hardest reading questions to ever appear on the digital sat now before we begin I should note that hard is subjective you may not consider all of these questions hard and there may be other questions that you think are harder that said all of the questions I've selected are rated a three out of three in terms of difficulty by the College Board the company that makes the SAT and I've seen a lot of students get them wrong in the classes that I teach so I think it's safe to assume that they are among the hardest questions out there if you're up for a challenge then stick around now before we get to our first question I'd like to emphasize that I'm not just going to be explaining the answers to these questions I'm actually going to be walking you through the steps that I would use to solve them and I think that's a lot more helpful because on the actual test you're unlikely to see an old question repeated so the actual answer doesn't matter very much but you will see questions like these and if you want to solve them correctly on the real test you want a good approach which is something I'm hoping this video can help you develop that said if you'd like to try solving the questions yourself before I walk through them feel free to hit that that pause button as soon as the question appears and give yourself a moment to work through it first yourself now let's get to it I'm going to begin by reading the question which Choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement now this tells me that the important part of the text is the statement that appears in the final sentence but because the text is relatively short and I might need some context to complete the statement I'm going to read it from the beginning however I'm not going to worry too much about the details instead I'm going to focus on the overall flow of the text and especially transitional words and phrases that can provide clues about how to complete the statement over the past 200 years the percentage of the population employed in the agricultural sector has declined in both France and the United States while employment in the service sector which includes jobs in retail Consulting real estate Etc has risen however this transition happened at very different rates in the two countries this can be seen most clearly by comparing the employment by sector in both countries in blank so having read the passage a key word in the last sentence is this this refers to what comes before which is the idea that in both the United States and France agriculture has declined and service has increased but the rate of that change is different that means that the correct answer will show us a rapid or significant change in one of those countries and a slow or small change in the other now that we know what to look for we can run through our answers one by one and check them against the graph and our expectations comparing France and the United States between the years given let's start with a looking at the graph we can see that between 1900 and 1950 in France agriculture fell a little and services Rose a little and between those dates in the United States agriculture fell a lot and services also Rose a lot so we see the same general Trend in both countries agriculture is decreasing and services is increasing but it's happening at different rates which is exactly what we wanted therefore we can be relatively certain that a is the correct answer Mr Greenberg Mr Greenberg what is it student me aren't you going to read the other answer choices well student me if you have the time it's certainly not a bad idea to check the other answer choices and if those of you following along at home want to pause and do that go ahead however because we've done the work and determined what kind of information needs to go in the blank and because answer a gives us exactly that it probably isn't necessary that's what's so great about solving questions with this logical approach when you reach the correct answer you're usually going to recognize it instantly so let's move on to the next question as usual I'll begin by reading the question which Choice best describes the function of the underlying sentence in the text as a whole now the question tells me that the focus will be the underlined sentence but because I need to understand its function within the context of the text as a whole I'm going to start reading from the beginning the following text is from Edith Wharton's 1905 Mr Greenberg Mr Greenberg what is it students do we actually need to read the context good question student me need is an awfully strong word but in general I think it's a good idea to read the context you'll notice that most passages on the digital sat don't even have any context so if you see context offered it's an indication that you might need that context to understand the passage context is used most often for excerpts from a longer work like a novel so you may have a hard time understanding what's going on without reading it so again let's read the text starting with the context the following text is from Edith Wharton's 1905 novel The House of Mirth Lily Bart and companion are walking through a park Lily had no real intimacy with nature but she had a passion for the appropriate and could be keenly sensitive to a scene which was the fitting background of her own Sensations the landscape outspread below her seemed an enlargement of her present mood and she found something of herself in its calmness its breath and its long free reaches now I haven't read the final sentence but I'm not sure I'll need to because I've already read enough to begin analyzing the role of the sentence in the text as a whole the sentence seems to be emphasizing the connection between Lily's mood and the landscape and it builds on the sentence that comes before which emphasizes Lily's view of nature as a fitting background of her own Sensations so with that in mind I'm ready to move on to the answer choices a it creates a detailed image of the physical setting of the scene now this one may be tempting because it mentions physical setting but the sentence in question doesn't really create a detailed image of that physical setting rather it characterizes the setting as an extension of Lily's mood so it's unlikely to be the correct answer B it establishes that a character is experiencing an internal conflict so this one may also be tempting because the past does tell us about the internal situation of a character Lily however because the dominant emotion is calmness I don't see internal conflict so I think I can cross off that one and move on C it makes an assertion that the next sentence then expands on now this one may be a bit harder because we haven't read the next sentence so let's try that right now on the nearest slopes the sugar Maples wavered like PES of light lower down was a massing of of gray Orchards and here and there the lingering green of an Oak Grove so that next sentence seems to be providing a physical description of the setting but it's not really expanding on the assertion that the setting is an extension of Lily's mood so I'd be hesitant to pick this as an answer at least until I'm sure there's nothing better let's move on D it illustrates an idea that is introduced in the previous sentence at last we have an answer that matches our prediction we've already established that the first sentence emphasizes Lily's view of nature as a fitting background of her own Sensations and that the underlined sentence expands upon that idea by portraying the setting as an extension of her mood therefore we can pick answer D and move on as usual I'll start by reading the question which Choice most logically completes the text so I'm trying to complete the text which means that the most important information is probably going going to be in the final sentences however there may be essential context earlier in the passage too so I'm going to read from the start but I'm not going to let myself get too preoccupied with the details birds of many species ingest food containing carotenoids pigmented molecules that are converted into feather coloration coloration tends to be especially saturated in male birds feathers and because carotenoids also confer health benefits the deeply saturated colors generally serve to communicate what is known as an honest signal of the bird's overall Fitness to potential mates however ornithologist Allison J Schultz and others have found that in males in several species of the Tanager genus are use micro structures in their feathers to manipulate light creating the appearance of deeper saturation without the birds necessarily having to maintain a k ooid Rich diet these findings suggest that blank yikes there were a lot of complicated science terms in that text but I'm not going to let that distract me and you shouldn't either instead let's focus on Transitions and particularly the however in the middle of this text so the first half of the text ends with the observation that deeply saturated colors are usually considered an honest signal of a bird's overall Fitness as they come from these carotenoids which also confer health benefits but in the second half we can see that certain birds tanagers can find a way to create saturated colors without all these healthy carotenoids so it seems that we're challenging the idea in the first half that saturated colors are an honest signal of a bird's overall Fitness and that's what I'm going to expect to go in the blank something related to the idea a that deeply saturated colors are not always an honest signal of a bird's overall Fitness so let's examine those answer choices and see if we can find that a individual male tanagers can engage in honest signaling without relying on carotenoid consumption so this one fails to show that deeply saturated colors are not always an honest signal of a bird's Fitness so we can cross it off B feather micr structures May be less effective than deeply saturated feathers for signaling overall Fitness this answer also fails to show that deeply saturated colors are not always going to be an honest signal of a bird's Fitness so we can cross it off too C scientists have yet to determine why tanagers have a preference for mates with colorful appearances again this is nothing to do with the idea that deeply saturated colors are not always an honest signal of a bird Fitness so we can cross it off which leaves us with d a male Tanager appearance May function as a dishonest signal of the individual's overall Fitness at last an answer that closely matches our prediction the male Tan's appearance those deeply saturated colors is a dishonest or not honest signal of its Fitness so we pick it and move on to the next question as usual let's start by reading the question which finding from Washington and Malai Nathan study if true would most directly weaken the claim made by the people who favor the traditional view of voter Behavior now because I'm looking for information that would weaken the claim made by people who favor the traditional view of voter Behavior what I really need to know from the text is the traditional view of voter behavior and when you get a passage that discusses a traditional View and a new view the traditional view usually comes first so I might expect the beginning of this passage is going to be the most important that said it may help me to understand Washington and mly Nathan's study so I'll probably just read the whole passage to be safe let's try that political scientists who favor the traditional view of voter Behavior claim that voting in an election does not change voters attitude toward the candidates in that election focusing on each US Presidential election from 1976 to 1996 AB Washington and sill mulai Nathan tested this claim by distinguishing between subjects who had just become old enough to vote around half of whom actually voted and otherwise similar subjects who were slightly too young to vote and thus none of whom voted Washington and Malai Nathan compared the attitudes of the groups of subjects toward the winning candidate two years after each election now as we predicted the most important information was indeed in the first sentence the traditional view of voter behavior is that voting in an election does not change a voter's attitude toward the candidates in that election and because we're looking for something that would weaken that claim we want to find an answer that suggests that voting in an election does change a voter's attitude so the correct answer will probably show some difference between those who voted and those who didn't vote in terms of their attitude toward the candidates now let's examine the answer choices and see if we can find that a subject's attitude towards the winning candidate 2 years after a given election were strongly predicted by subjects General political orientation regardless of whether subjects were old enough to vote at the time of the election so this answer suggests that whether or not subject voted had no impact on their attitude so it goes against our prediction and we can cross it off B subjects who were not old enough to vote in a given election held significantly more positive attitudes toward the winning candidate two years later than they held at the time of the election now this answer only tells us about the subjects who didn't vote it doesn't tell us about the subjects who did vote which means we don't have enough information to deduce that voting in the election changed their attitudes about the candidates therefore we can cross it off C subjects who voted in a given election held significantly more polarized attitudes toward the winning candidate two years later V did subjects who were not old enough to vote in that election now this answer does tell us about the subjects who voted versus the subjects who didn't vote and it also indicates a difference in their attitude increased polarization therefore it's a perfect match for our prediction and I'm so confident it's the correct answer that I probably don't even need to read D although if you go ahead and try that you'll see that it shows a similarity rather than a difference between voters and non-voters confirming that C is in fact the correct answer now let's move on to the next question as usual we'll start by reading the question which Choice best states the main main purpose of the text so the question is asking for the main purpose of the text which means it's probably a good idea to read the whole text and when we do we should think not just about what is being said but why it's being said so let's try that the following text is adapted from Jane Austin's 1814 novel Mansfield Park the speaker Tom is considering staging a play at home with a group of his friends and family we mean nothing but a little Amusement among ourselves just to vary the scene and exercise our powers in something new we want no audience no publicity we may be trusted I think in choosing some play most perfectly unexceptionable and I can conceive no greater harm or danger to any of us in conversing in the elegant written language of some respectable author than in chattering in words of our own so the text seems to be focusing on Tom and his friends motivations for staging the play and he seems to be downplaying the risk insisting that they're just doing it for a little amusement and that it poses no greater harm or danger so the purpose of the passage seems to be to show Tom's assertion that the play is going to be harmless with that in mind let's move on to the answers a to offer Tom's assurance that the play will be inoffensive and involve only a small number of people now here's an answer that seems fairly close to our prediction we predicted harmless and here it says inoffensive the only part we may have some doubts about is where it says a small number of people but looking back at the passage the fact that they want no audience and are only doing it among themselves seem to match which means we found our answer time permitting I'd still probably want to read the rest of the answers and I encourage you to do that for yourself but I can be pretty confident even with without reading them and so rather than wasting your time right now I'm going to move on to the next question as usual we'll start by reading the question which Choice best describes data from the table that support Barrett and rayfield's suggestion now in order to find information from the table that would support Barrett and rayfield's suggestion we need to First understand Barrett and rayfield's suggestion so I'm going to read through the text focusing my attention on information that's going to help me understand their suggestion let's try that now together the largest Tyrannosaurs the family of carnivorous dinosaurs that includes Tarbosaurus Albertosaurus and most famously Tyrannosaurus Rex are thought to have had the strongest bites of any land animals in Earth's history determining the bite force of extinct animals can be difficult however and paleontologists Paul Barrett and Emily Rayfield have suggested that an estimate of dinosaur bite force may be significantly influenced by the methodology used in generating that estimate so it seems that Barett and Rayfield suggestion is that the methodology used has a significant impact on the estimate of an animal's bite force so we're going to be looking for an answer that suggests that different methodologies can lead to different estimates and remember that it also has to be true according to the table so let's try that so first first we'll look at a the study by mirors used body mass scaling and produced the lowest estimated maximum bite force while the study by cost at all used muscular and skeletal modeling and produced the highest estimated maximum now this answer does suggest that different methodologies lead to different estimates which means it matches our prediction however it suggests that the study by mirrors yielded the lowest estimate which is clearly not true according to the graph so we can reject it and move on B in their study jig Knack and Erikson used bone tooth interaction analysis to produce an estimated bite force range with a minimum of 8,000 Newtons and a maximum of 34,000 Newtons now this answer doesn't talk about different methodologies being used so even though it may be true according to the graph it doesn't give us what we need and we can reject it and move on C the bite force estimates produced by B and falkingham and by cost at all were similar to each other while the estimates produced by mirors and by jig Knack and Ericson each differed substantially from any other estimate now to interpret this answer we're going to need to look a little bit closer the answer Choice doesn't directly mention methodologies but it does tell us that Bates and falkingham and cost at all produced similar estimates and looking at the chart we can see that they also used the same estimation methodology meanwhile it tells us that the estimates by Mir and jig Knack and Erikson differed from other estimates and we'll notice that not only is this true but also that those particular studies also used different methods therefore answer C gives us information that is true and it also suggests that different methodologies can lead to different estimates therefore we can pick it and move on now if you've been accounting you may have realized that this is the last question we'll be solving in this video so before we jump into it a quick Public Service Announcement I recently started an Instagram account where I will be posting regular practice questions for the digital sat I also have a website full of free resources for the digital sat IV leag mentors prep.com I'll leave information to both of those in the description so you can check them out and find me there now back to the video as as usual let's begin by reading the question which Choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement so this tells me that I'll need to find information that will help me complete the statement which is most likely to occur near the end of the passage but it may also include important information earlier so I'm just going to be reading from the beginning let's try that together my Coral fungi in soil benefits many plants substantially increasing the mass of some a student conducted an experiment to illustrate this effect the student chose three plant species for the experiment including two that are mical hosts species known to benefit from mical fungi and one non-moral species a species that doesn't benefit and may even be harmed by mcol fungi the student then grew several plants from each species both in soil containing mic Coral fungi and in soil that had been treated to kill mosil fungi and other fungi after several weeks the student measured the plants average mass and was surprised to discover that blank so the big clue is in the final sentence just as we predicted I'm talking about the word surprised so what goes in the blank is going to be something that surpris the student and to determine what would surprise the student we need to know the student's expectations we see that in the experiment the student exposed mical hosts and nonhost to soil with and without mical fungi and mic corosal fungi is expected to benefit the hosts but it says that it could even harm the nonhosts since the student was surprised we want something that goes against that so the correct answer could show that my Coral hosts are not benefiting from the fungi or it could show that nonhosts are benefiting from the fungi ey it also needs to be true according to the table so with those considerations in mind let's move on to our answer choices a broccoli grown in soil containing mic Coral fungi had a slightly higher average mass than broccoli grown in soil that had been treated to kill fungi so the answer doesn't tell us anything about hosts and non-hosts but looking at the chart I see that broccoli is not a host which means that my oral fungi would be expected to not help or even to harm it but the answer tells me that broccoli grown in the soil with the fungi had a higher Mass which means that this result would indeed surprise the student it also matches the information in the chart which indicates that broccoli with the fungi had a mass of 7.5 which is more than the one grown in the soil without the fungi 7.0 therefore the the answer has everything that we need and we can pick it with confidence so there you have it seven of the hardest reading questions from the digital SAT but when we tackle them with a logical approach I think they're not so bad for those of you who are solving along at home I wonder what you thought did anybody manage to get them all and are there other hard questions that you'd like to see me solve in future videos feel free to leave a comment below as always thanks thanks for watching and good luck on the [Music] test