- POE. Eliminate anything that isn’t consistent with your prediction. Don’t necessarily try to find
the right answer immediately, because there is a good chance you won’t see anything that you
like. If you can eliminate answers that you know are wrong, though, you’ll be closer to the right
answer. If you can’t eliminate three answers with your prediction, use the POE criteria (which
we’ll talk about in a few pages.)
Where the Money Is
A reporter once asked notorious thief Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. Legend has it that his
answer was, “Because that’s where the money is.” While reading comprehension is safer and
slightly more productive than larceny, the same principle applies: Concentrate on the questions and
answer choices because that’s where the points are. The passage is just a place for the test writers
to stash facts and details. You’ll find them when you need to. What’s the point of memorizing all 67
pesky details about plankton if you’re asked about only 12?Let’s see these steps in action!
A sample passage and questions appear on the next few pages. Don’t start working the passage right
away. In fact...you can’t! The answer choices are missing. Just go ahead to this page, where we will
begin going through the steps of the Basic Approach, using the upcoming passage and questions.
SAMPLE PASSAGE AND QUESTIONS
Here is an example of what a reading comprehension passage and questions look like. We will use this
passage to illustrate the reading Basic Approach throughout this chapter. You don’t need to do the
questions now, but you might want to paperclip this page so it’s easy to flip back to later.
Questions 11-21 are based on the following passage.
This passage is adapted from Linton Weeks’s “The Windshield-Pitting Mystery of 1954.” © 2015 by NPR History Dept.