Global questions

Global questions make up approximately 6.5% of Section I questions. You should expect a small number on Test Day, around four to six in total. It’s unusual to find more than one Global question in a set.

Global questions ask you to consider the entire passage, not just specific details. The correct answer will typically summarise the passage or capture broad features such as the:

• author’s purpose.
• passage’s main idea.
• a character’s portrayal throughout a Fiction passage.
• a poem’s title or overall themes or meaning.

Unlike Detail or Inference questions that focus on particular lines or sections, Global questions ask you to step back and see the big picture.

Be cautious with phrases like ‘the passage’ or ‘the purpose’. These alone don’t automatically indicate a Global question:

• Some Inference questions use wording like ‘The passage suggests that …’, but ask about specific information from one part of the passage.
• Function questions may ask about the author’s purpose, but they focus on one specific detail or rhetorical strategy (for example, ‘The writer uses the example of cats in order to …’).

Inference and Function questions in Non-fiction, Poetry and Fiction sets usually include a hyperlink to direct you to the relevant part of the passage. Global questions don’t use hyperlinks, as you must consider the entirety of the stimulus to identify the correct answer.

If you’re unsure, ask yourself:

The wording of the question varies depending on the passage type:

• Fiction: ‘We are given the impression in the passage that Agatha is someone who …’ or ‘The passage as a whole suggests that Margot’s impression of Quin is …’
• Poetry: ‘In the light of the poem as a whole, the poem’s title suggests …’
• Diagram: ‘Figure 1 represents the process as …’
• Non-Fiction: ‘The passage argues that consciousness is …’

Remember, they all ask the same fundamental thing:

Global questions typically appear as the first or last question in a set, and you can take advantage of this format.

If you find the Global question at the start of the set:

• skip it initially and bookmark it for review.
• complete the other questions first.
• come back to the Global question at the end of the set once you’ve built up your understanding.

If the Global question comes at the end of the set, you can simply answer all the questions in order. The initial questions should give you a strong sense of the main points without needing to reread the stimulus in full.

Unlike other question types where you can work without reading the passage, Global questions may benefit from a quick 20–30 second skim:

• Look for the main idea and overall structure rather than detailed information.
• Focus on the author’s perspective on the topic and the passage’s general approach.
• Consider the narrator’s or speaker’s viewpoint in a Fiction or Poetry passage, along with the main emotions described or implied in the passage.
• Don’t try to understand every detail – just get a sense of what the passage is doing overall.

As you work through a set, take a few moments to mentally note:

• the general topic.
• the author’s main idea.
• the overall tone of the passage.

For Fiction and Poetry, go deeper:

• Identify emotional subtext in dialogue or description.
• Notice how imagery or symbolism reveals the narrator’s or speaker’s perspective.
• Observe how events are presented – neutrally or with clear judgment.

Establish whether the attitude is positive, negative, neutral, or nuanced. Connect tone to topic to evaluate the answer choices.

Most Global questions require analysis of the passage rather than a detail from a single part.

Occasionally, support for a Global answer appears in a specific part of the passage – perhaps a thesis statement or explicit summary of the author’s main idea. This might occur in:

• opening or closing sentences.
• a transitional statement between major sections.

Don’t hesitate if you notice direct support for a Global answer in a particular sentence: the answer is almost certainly correct. Trust it and move on quickly.

Pay attention to adjectives, verbs and phrases that signal the author’s attitude:

• Words like ‘effective’ and ‘achieves’ suggest a positive tone.
• ‘Wasteful’ and ‘threatens’ indicate a negative tone.
• Phrases like ‘some argue’ and ‘it remains to be seen’ suggest a more balanced, neutral tone.

Then, eliminate answers that don’t match the author’s attitude to significantly narrow your choices. This technique is particularly powerful in Global questions, because the author’s overall attitude often differs noticeably from at least some answer choices.

The correct answer should match the appropriate scope and scale of the passage itself – neither overstating nor understating what the passage conveys.

Eliminate answers that are too specific, focusing on details rather than the big picture. Other wrong answers may be too broad, making claims the passage doesn’t actually support.

The level of certainty in the correct answer must match the level of certainty in the passage.

• If an answer makes an absolute claim but the passage uses qualified language, eliminate any absolute answers.
• If an answer uses tentative or conditional language but the passage is categorical or absolute, eliminate any answers that are too soft or hesitant.

It can be much harder to answer Global questions in Poetry sets. Consider the main emotional charge of the poem and how this might change during the poem.

Reflect on any key images or symbols in the poem, as they will tend to be central to the poem’s meaning.

When in doubt, see if you can identify:

• the part of the poem where something pivots or changes.
• any individual lines or sentences in the poem that are most essential to its overall theme.

For Global questions in Diagram sets, examine the overall structure rather than specific content:

• Does it show a chronological sequence?
• Are there multiple pathways?
• Is the system hierarchical?

If only some elements match an answer choice but others don’t, eliminate that answer.

Correct Global answers must apply to the entire diagram. Wrong answers might:

• describe a small part (but not all) of the diagram.
• omit key aspects of the diagram.