1. Wrong answers
A field guide

3. Why bother studying wrong answers
Why bother studying wrong answers? Shouldn’t we be look for right answers?
Of course, right answers are the goal, but sometimes it helps to know how wrong answers are created in order to avoid them.
Knowing the common types of wrong answers can be very helpful when you’re in a 50/50 situation (i.e. you’ve eliminated 2 of the 4 answers)

4. Review of wrong answer types we’ve already covered
Math
Writing /english
Assume that you misread the problem (you found the diameter, but were asked for the circumference)
Assume that you made a common order of operations error
You solved for X, but they asked for 2X or X/2
Assume that you forgot a foundational concept (slope = rise/run)
Assume that you did not see the error
Assume that you saw an error where there was none
Fixes one error but creates another
Fixes the error but is too wordy and/or passive
Fixes the error but changes the meaning, point of view, or tone

5. Critical reading: Reading comprehension
Wrong answer type
How it works
Misused Detail
Takes a true but irrelevant fact from elsewhere in the passage
Distortion
Warps the logic of the passage: reverses cause and effect, alters author’s main idea, connects two unrelated ideas, etc.
Out-of-scope
Reasonable answer, but goes beyond the ideas covered in the passage
Opposite
Slips a “not” (or other negation) into the answer in case you’re not paying attention
Extreme
Goes in the right direction, but goes too far (“sad” becomes “tragic”; “often” becomes “always,” etc.
The 80%
Is right except for one word

6. See if you can find: Name the wrong answers! The right answer
The misused detail
The out-of-scope
The distortion
The distortion, part 2: book of secrets

7. See if you can find: Name the wrong answers! The right answer
The misused detail
The out-of-scope
The distortion
The opposite

8. See if you can find: Name the wrong answers! The right answer
The misused detail
The misused detail, part 2: electric boogaloo
The distortion
The 80%

9. Practice time!: See “Wrong answer Dissection Practice” on the site
In class: TBA
For Homework: Whatever we don’t finish in class