Wednesday Workout: Mastering SAT Reading Details Questions

Includes Practice Question, Example Passage Map, Answer Explanations, Key Strategy Takeaways, and Practice Assignment

Today, we're tackling one of the most common question types you'll encounter on digital SAT Reading: Details Questions. These questions might seem straightforward, but they're often trickier than they appear. Let's break down exactly how to tackle them.

What Are Details Questions?

Details Questions ask you to draw specific conclusions about particular elements in a passage. The key word here is *specific* - these questions aren't asking about the big picture, but rather about precise details and what we can conclude about them.

A Few Key Strategies

Before we jump into our practice question, let's cover three essential strategies:

1. Fact-Check Everything: Every answer choice needs to be directly supported by the passage. If it adds extra information or makes assumptions, it's wrong - no matter how plausible it sounds.

2. Map the Passage: While you might not have time to do this extensively on test day, creating quick visual maps during practice will help you develop a sharp eye for passage structure.

3. Watch Out for Confused Relationships: The SAT loves to test your attention to detail, including logical and chronological relationships. Always note how people and things are logically related and when events happen relative to each other.

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Practice Question

Let's put these strategies to work with an example question. Read the passage carefully, and try to map it as you go:

A popular belief among music historians is that the rise of electronic synthesizers in the 1970s led to the decline of the acoustic piano in popular music. The decreasing sales of pianos during this period seems to support this view. However, the influence of synthesizers may be exaggerated. According to industry sales data from 1950 to 1985, both grand and upright piano sales had already begun declining steadily before synthesizers became widely available.

Based on the text, what can be concluded about the declining sales of acoustic pianos in the 1970s?