Free-Text Questions

Free-text questions (also called "best answer" questions) make up approximately half of the Verbal Reasoning subtest. Unlike True/False/Can't Tell questions, where you evaluate a single statement, free-text questions ask you to select the best answer from four options. These questions test a broader range of reading comprehension skills, including identifying main ideas, making inferences, understanding author intent, and drawing conclusions.

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Question Format

Each free-text question presents:

• A passage of text (shared with 3 other questions)
• A question stem
• Four answer options (A, B, C, D)

You must select the single best answer. There is always one clearly correct answer, though distractors are designed to be plausible.

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Types of Free-Text Questions

Type 1: Main Idea Questions

What they ask: What is the main point, purpose, or argument of the passage (or a section of it)?

Typical question stems:

• "What is the main argument of this passage?"
• "Which of the following best summarises the passage?"
• "The primary purpose of the passage is to..."
• "The passage is mainly about..."