Negative question types
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A few Verbal question types include negative words, or words that have a negative effect on the answer choices.
These words are normally bolded in the question stem.
In negative questions, the normal answer choice logic is inverted:
- All answers that are True are incorrect.
- The one answer that is False or Can’t Tell is correct.
Notice that this inverted logic is similar to a photographic negative, where light becomes dark and dark becomes light. Thus, you must alter your approach for negative questions to accommodate these variations.
In a negative question, it may be quicker to eliminate answers supported by the passage, leaving the answer with no support.
Sometimes, this is simpler than trying to justify the reason that the correct answer is the opposite of the passage or outside the passage.
In Except questions, the word ‘except’ is almost always bolded in the stem.
Answers supported by the passage are incorrect. The correct answer may contradict the passage, or it may provide outside information.
Whenever you see ‘except’ in bold in a Verbal Question stem, be ready to eliminate answers you find in the passage. Anything that matches the passage is a wrong answer.
If an answer is not supported, it must be correct.
If an Except question comes later in the set, you’ll be able to use your knowledge of the passage from working on the other questions to make quicker work of the wrong answers.
Once you are familiar with the passage, the answers that are supported – and thus, incorrect – may ‘jump out’ at you. Eliminate any such answers with confidence.
If an Except question is earlier in a set, you can leave it until last instead. The more familiar you are with the passage, the more quickly you can eliminate answers that match the passage and are therefore incorrect.
Walkthrough question
Except question (negative)
Let’s work through an Except Verbal question.
In Not questions, the word ‘not’ is bolded.
Answers supported by the passage are incorrect.
The correct answer may contradict the passage, or it may be external information.
Not questions tend to include key words since you have to pick the answer that does not match the passage’s information related to the key word.
Use the key words provided to navigate quickly to the relevant part of the passage and save yourself time.
Walkthrough question
Not question (negative)
Let’s work through a Not Verbal question.
When you see ‘not’ bolded in a question stem, eliminate answers you find in the passage.
If an answer contradicts the passage or falls outside the passage, it is correct.
If the word ‘not’ isn’t bolded, proceed as normal. Such cases are relatively rare, but a question with ‘not’ unbolded follows standard answer choice logic – the correct answer should match the passage.
In Not Supported questions, the word ‘not’ is bolded.
These questions are usually without key words. They tend to be full questions with a question mark.
You must search the passage for key words from each answer choice.
Eliminate answers supported by the passage. The correct answer may contradict the passage, or it may be outside information.
Walkthrough question
Not Supported question (negative)
Let’s work through a Not Supported Verbal question.
When answering negative questions without key words, sometimes it’s faster to eliminate the answers with support in the passage.
Other times, the unsupported answer will ‘jump out’ at you while making your scan or reading around a key word.
As soon as you spot the unsupported answer, click it as correct and move on.
In Least questions, the word ‘least’ is bolded.
These work like all negative questions: eliminate answers supported by the passage.
The correct answer will usually contradict the passage.
It could also be outside information, since outside knowledge is not supported by the passage.
You may see a variation of a Least question that is also an author question.
Example: The author of the passage would be least likely to agree with which of the following assertions?
Remember that every Least question is a negative question:
- The author would agree with anything that the passage states or implies. Thus, anything that matches the passage or a valid inference is incorrect.
- The author would not agree with anything that contradicts the passage, that is the opposite of a valid inference, or that falls outside the passage. Any such answer must be correct.
You do not need to interpret the author’s views in a general sense. Instead, you must compare answers to the passage as you do throughout Verbal Reasoning.
Walkthrough question
Least question (negative)
Let’s work through a Least Verbal question.
Do not stress yourself worrying about negative questions.
Except questions and Not questions are the most common negative types.
The negative word in the question stem is almost always bolded. The common exception is ‘except’, so look out for ‘except’ in a Verbal question.
Be ready to move quickly and eliminate answers supported by the passage.
Once you find the answer choice with no support in the passage, it’s time to click and move on.
Timed practice
Two negative questions
Let’s do some timed practice with a pair of negative Verbal questions.