RC Main Point and Primary Purpose: two questions, one passage, different answers

Nearly every Reading Comprehension passage opens with one of these, and they are the most reliable points in the section — provided you notice which of the two you were asked.

Main Point asks what the passage SAYS: its central claim, in content terms. Primary Purpose asks what the author was DOING: arguing, describing, correcting, comparing, evaluating. The credited answers are worded completely differently, and the wrong-answer sets are built from each other.

Purpose answers start with a verb

That is the fastest way to tell whether an answer is even in the right category. Primary Purpose answers begin "to argue that…", "to describe…", "to reconcile…", "to challenge…". Main Point answers are statements: "the policy succeeded for reasons its designers did not anticipate".

If you were asked for purpose and the answer is a claim rather than an action, it is answering the other question. That check alone eliminates choices quickly, and it works before you have decided which content is right.

The scope test

Both types are won and lost on scope. The credited answer covers the WHOLE passage — every major section contributes to it — and nothing more. An answer describing only paragraph three is wrong even when it describes paragraph three perfectly, and it will be the most tempting choice on the page because it is verifiably accurate.

The reliable habit is to note each paragraph's job in three or four words as you read — "old view", "problem with it", "new evidence", "author's verdict". Then the main point is the sentence those four notes add up to, and you are choosing against your own outline rather than against your memory.

• True but partial. Accurate about one paragraph, silent on the rest. The single most common wrong answer in RC.
• Too broad. Describes the general topic without the passage's specific claim about it.
• The wrong voice. States a view the passage reports rather than the one the author holds — most dangerous when the passage spends two paragraphs explaining someone else's position.
• Right content, wrong verb. On a Purpose question: the author was comparing, and the answer says refuting.
• Overstated. The author's hedged conclusion promoted to a firm one.