SAT Reading Strategy

Best Evidence Selection with Data

How to Let the Numbers Speak on the SAT

Track the author’s logic, locate evidence quickly, and sharpen your reasoning.

7 Min Read

Reading Skill

Evidence-First

5 Practice Qs

Anchor every answer in the exact line that proves it. If you cannot point to the words, it is not the answer.

Read the question, then scan for the line that directly supports a choice.
Match wording, not vibe: synonyms are fine, new ideas are not.
If two answers feel close, eliminate the one with any extra claim.

Questions where the answer is literally written in a chart or table are among the most reliable sources of points on the SAT Reading and Writing section. These are not opinion questions, and they are not asking you to interpret the author's mood. They present hard data, a number, a trend, or a comparison, and test whether that data supports a given claim. Once you learn to read data with precision, these questions become some of the most predictable on the entire test.

The skill we're building today is called Best Evidence Selection (Quantitative). It asks you to look at a passage that makes a claim, then examine an accompanying figure, a table, bar chart, line graph, or scatterplot, and decide which answer choice is genuinely supported by the data. It sounds straightforward, and it is, once you know what to watch for. The SAT counts on students rushing, misreading axes, or confusing correlation with specific values. You're going to learn to slow down just enough to avoid every one of those traps.

What Is This Skill?

Best Evidence Selection (Quantitative) is the ability to identify which piece of numerical or graphical data most directly supports, weakens, or illustrates a specific claim made in a passage. Unlike purely text-based evidence questions, where you're scanning for a quote that backs up an interpretation, quantitative evidence questions ask you to read a figure and connect what it shows to what the passage says.

Think of it this way: a passage might claim that "participation in after-school programs declined sharply after 2018." A table next to that passage shows enrollment figures for 2016 through 2022. Your job is to find the data point or trend in that table that either confirms or complicates that claim. The right answer won't require you to calculate anything complex, it will require you to read carefully and match precisely.

This skill sits at an advanced cognitive level because it demands that you hold two kinds of information in your mind simultaneously: the verbal claim from the passage and the numerical reality from the figure. You need to translate between words and numbers fluently. That's a higher-order move, and it's exactly the kind of reasoning the SAT rewards.

How the SAT Tests This Skill

On the digital SAT, you'll encounter short passages paired with a data display, a table, chart, or graph. The question will typically ask something like:

"Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly support the researcher's hypothesis?"
"Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support the claim in the text?"
"Which choice best illustrates the trend described in the text?"

Notice the pattern: every question is asking you to bridge a passage claim to a data point. The SAT is not asking you to interpret the data freely or draw your own conclusions. It's asking you to find the match, the specific number, comparison, or trend that lines up with a specific statement.

The wrong answers are carefully designed. They often reference real data from the figure, so they look credible, but they support a different claim, describe the wrong variable, or reverse a comparison. The test is checking whether you can resist the pull of an answer that sounds "data-ish" and instead lock onto the one that actually corresponds to the claim at hand.

Wrong claim: The data is real, but it supports a different statement than the one in the passage.
Wrong variable: The answer cites the correct table but points to the wrong row, column, or condition.
Reversed comparison: The choice flips which group is higher, lower, or faster.

Here's a four-step approach you can rely on every time you face one of these questions. Internalize this process and it will become automatic.

Identify the Claim First
Before you even glance at the figure, read the passage and underline the specific claim the question is asking about. What exactly is being asserted? Is it that something increased? That one group outperformed another? That a variable had no effect? Get the claim crystal clear in your mind. If you can't state it in one sentence, reread the passage.
Orient Yourself to the Figure
Now look at the data display. Before reading any values, ask yourself three quick questions: What do the axes or column headers represent? What are the units? What time period or categories are shown? This takes five seconds and prevents the most common misreads. Students who skip this step often confuse which variable is which, and the SAT is counting on that confusion.
Find the Relevant Data
Go back to the claim from Step 1. Now scan the figure for only the data that relates to that claim. If the claim is about a comparison between two groups, find those two groups' values. If it's about a trend over time, trace the line or compare the columns across the relevant years. Ignore everything else in the figure, it's there to distract you.
Match, Don't Infer
Finally, go to the answer choices. The right answer will directly correspond to what you found in Step 3. It won't require a leap of logic or an assumption. If you find yourself thinking "well, this could mean..." you're probably drifting toward a wrong answer. The correct choice will feel almost boringly literal. That's how you know it's right.

A helpful self-check: after selecting your answer, ask yourself, "Could someone verify this by looking at the figure alone?" If the answer is yes, you're in good shape. If the answer requires outside knowledge or speculation, reconsider.

Practice Best Evidence Selection with Data with SAT-Style Questions

Note: The passages below are original, SAT-style constructions for practice; any names or details are fictionalized.

Let's put the strategy to work. Each question below pairs a short passage with data. Focus on identifying the claim first, then finding the data point that supports it. Take your time, speed will come naturally once the process is second nature.

Mean Live Coral Coverage by Site (2019–2023)

Site	2019 (%)	2020 (%)	2021 (%)	2022 (%)	2023 (%)
Site A (pollution reduced)	12	15	21	28	34
Site B (pollution reduced)	9	11	16	22	29
Site C (pollution unchanged)	14	14	13	15	14
Site D (pollution unchanged)	11	10	11	12	11

Percent of reef surface covered by living coral.

Passage

A team of marine biologists studying coral reef recovery published findings from a five-year monitoring project across four Pacific reef sites. The researchers concluded that reefs exposed to reduced local pollution showed significantly greater recovery in live coral coverage compared to reefs where pollution levels remained unchanged. The table reports mean live coral coverage by site from 2019 to 2023.

medium

Which choice best uses data from the table to support the researchers’ conclusion?

Library Access, Completion Rate, and Income by County Group

County group	Branches per 10,000	Completion rate (%)	Median income (USD)
County Group A (top quartile, library access)	4.2	91	52,000
County Group B (second quartile)	2.8	86	54,000
County Group C (third quartile)	1.5	79	48,000
County Group D (bottom quartile)	0.6	72	47,000

Library branches per 10,000 residents.

Passage

A sociologist examining the relationship between public library access and educational attainment analyzed census data from 120 urban counties. The study found that counties with more public library branches per capita tended to have higher rates of high school completion, even after accounting for differences in median household income. The table reports library access, completion rates, and median income for four county groups.

hard

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to illustrate the sociologist’s finding?

Average Sentence Length by Publication Decade

American novels, 1920s–2000s.

Passage

Literary scholar James Harmon argues that the American novel underwent a measurable shift in narrative complexity during the twentieth century. Specifically, Harmon claims that novels published between 1950 and 1980 used significantly longer sentences on average than those published in either the preceding or following decades, reflecting a mid-century trend toward stylistic density. The graph shows average sentence length by publication decade.

medium

Which choice best uses data from the graph to support Harmon’s claim?

Mean Reading Comprehension Score by Condition

Condition	Mean score (out of 40)	SD
Silence	32.4	3.1
Classical instrumental	33.1	2.8
Pop with lyrics	24.7	4.5
Ambient electronic	31.8	3.3

Scores out of 40; SD = standard deviation.

Passage

In a controlled experiment, psychologist Dr. Leena Patel tested whether background music affects reading comprehension differently depending on the type of music. Participants read identical passages under four conditions: silence, classical instrumental, pop with lyrics, and ambient electronic. Dr. Patel hypothesized that music with lyrics would impair comprehension relative to all other conditions, including silence. The table reports mean comprehension scores and standard deviations by condition.

hard

Which choice best uses data from the table to support Dr. Patel’s hypothesis?

Estimated Annual Trade Volume by City (1750–1850)

City	1750 (k metric tons)	1775 (k metric tons)	1800 (k metric tons)	1825 (k metric tons)	1850 (k metric tons)
Deepwater City 1	8	12	18	41	78
Deepwater City 2	5	9	14	32	65
Deepwater City 3	6	10	15	35	70
River-Port City 1	7	9	11	14	16
River-Port City 2	4	6	8	10	12
River-Port City 3	6	8	10	12	15

Values in thousands of metric tons.

Passage

Economic historian Dr. Anya Krishnamurthy examined trade records from six Southeast Asian port cities between 1750 and 1850. She argues that cities with direct access to deepwater harbors expanded their trade volume at a faster rate than inland river-port cities during this period, and that this advantage became more pronounced after 1800 as ship sizes increased. The table reports estimated annual trade volume by city across the period.

hard

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support both parts of Krishnamurthy’s argument?

Key Takeaways for Best Evidence Selection with Data

Identify the claim before touching the data. The single most important habit is knowing exactly what you're trying to support before you look at a single number. This prevents you from getting pulled toward interesting-but-irrelevant data points.
Orient yourself to the figure. Five seconds spent reading axis labels, column headers, and units will save you from the most common trap answers on the SAT. Never assume you know what a chart shows, verify it.
Match, don't infer. The right answer will feel direct and almost obvious once you've located the relevant data. If you're making assumptions or drawing conclusions beyond what the numbers literally show, you've gone too far.
Watch for partial matches. The SAT loves answer choices that use real data from the figure but apply it to the wrong claim. Always check that the data in your chosen answer supports this specific claim, not just any claim.
Two-part claims need two-part evidence. When a passage makes a complex argument with multiple components, the best evidence will address all parts. An answer that only covers half the claim is only half right, which on the SAT means fully wrong.

Conclusion: The Core Rule for Best Evidence Selection with Data

Quantitative evidence questions can feel intimidating at first, there's a passage and a figure, and the answer choices are dense with numbers. But here's what makes this skill so rewarding to develop: the answer is always in the data. You're not guessing what an author might have meant. You're not debating nuances of tone. You're reading numbers and matching them to claims. That's it.

The four-step strategy you practiced here, identify the claim, orient to the figure, find the relevant data, and match directly, works every single time because these questions are built on a predictable structure. The SAT can vary the subject matter from marine biology to literary history to trade economics, but the underlying logic is always the same: does this data actually support this statement?

As you continue preparing, pay attention to charts and graphs you encounter outside of test prep, in news articles, textbooks, even social media infographics. Ask yourself what claims they're being used to support, and whether the data genuinely backs those claims up. You'll find that this skill doesn't just help on the SAT. It makes you a sharper, more critical thinker in every context where someone uses numbers to make a point. And that's a skill worth far more than any test score.

About the Instructor

Thomas Meli

Founder, Deep Test Prep

"Viewing the SAT as a transformative rite of passage, my approach builds self-awareness, sharpens critical thinking, and fosters a love of learning that supports students far beyond test day."

With over 20 years of teaching and 500+ hours of training in compassionate communication, Thomas uses scientifically proven methods to help students target and achieve their SAT goals.