# SAT Command of Evidence (Quantitative): reading a table for a claim

Quantitative Command of Evidence pairs a short text with a table or graph and asks which reading of the data supports a stated conclusion. Three worked items, and the three ways a true option can still be wrong.

## The short answer

Command of Evidence: Quantitative pairs a short text with a table, graph or chart. Someone states a conclusion, and you pick the option that reads the data in a way that supports it. Most wrong options are accurate readings of the wrong numbers. The arithmetic stays simple, and the work is matching figures to a claim. It is one of four skills in Information and Ideas, about 26% of Reading and Writing.

## Key facts

- **Section:** Reading and Writing
- **Domain:** Information and Ideas
- **Domain share:** ~=26% of the section, 12-14 questions
- **Question format:** 4 options (A-D), with a table or graph
- **Passage length:** 25-150 words
- **If you are unsure:** Guess rather than leave it blank

Question counts, timings and domain shares come from College Board's test pages and the Digital SAT Suite Specifications Overview, checked 28 September 2026.

## How it's scored

There is no arithmetic here beyond percentages and comparisons. These questions are scored in Reading and Writing, so the figure is there to be read rather than computed.

College Board publishes the domain weight rather than the skill weight. Information and Ideas is about 26% of the section, 12 to 14 of the 50 operational questions, split across four skills.

> The items below state their figures in words, because this page carries no image. On the test you get the table or graph itself, with the same job to do: name the unit, then find the numbers the claim needs.

## Command of Evidence: Quantitative examples

Worked examples written for this page. Answer each one before you open the model response: memorizing a response is scored as an irrelevant answer in the real test.

**Example 1 -- a true reading of the wrong rows**

> A team sorted pottery fragments from four sites in one river valley by the clay they were made from. The table gives the share of fragments at each site made from clay found within five miles of it: Site A, 82 percent; Site B, 74 percent; Site C, 31 percent; Site D, 26 percent. Sites A and B lie inland. Sites C and D lie on the coast. A researcher concludes that the coastal sites got much of their pottery from outside the valley.

Prompt: Which choice best describes data from the table that support the researcher's conclusion?

- A. At Sites C and D, fewer than a third of fragments were made from local clay.
- B. At Sites A and B, more than 70 percent of fragments were made from local clay.
- C. Site A has a higher share of local clay than any other site in the valley.
- D. Sites C and D have higher shares of local clay than Sites A and B.
Answer: A.

Model response: A. The coastal figures are 31 percent and 26 percent, so most of what was found there did not come from nearby clay.

Why it scores: D reverses the figures, while B and C read the table correctly. The conclusion is about the coastal sites, so only the coastal numbers can support it.

**Example 2 -- a conclusion the data cannot reach**

> Researchers counted nesting pairs of a grassland bird on plots mowed at different times of year. The graph gives mean nesting pairs per plot: plots mowed in April, 3.1 pairs; May, 3.4; June, 1.2; July, 2.9. The birds nest mainly in June. The researchers claim that mowing during the nesting month costs more nests than mowing in other months.

Prompt: Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the researchers' claim?

- A. Plots mowed in June held about a third as many pairs as plots mowed in May.
- B. Plots mowed in July held fewer pairs than plots mowed in May.
- C. Mowing lowered the number of nesting pairs on every plot in the study.
- D. Plots mowed in April held more pairs than any other group of plots.
Answer: A.

Model response: A. June is 1.2 pairs against 3.4 in May, and June is the nesting month. That contrast is the claim.

Why it scores: C is the overreach. Every plot in the study was mowed, so the graph has nothing to say about a plot left alone. D simply misreads which month came out highest.

**Example 3 -- right numbers, wrong job**

> An analyst compared two countries' electricity in 2023. The table gives the share of generation from each source: Country X, wind 25 percent and solar 7 percent; Country Y, wind 8 percent and solar 24 percent. Total generation was about the same in both. The analyst writes that the two countries reached similar renewable shares while leaning on different resources, since ______

Prompt: Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

- A. Country X generated far more electricity in total than Country Y did.
- B. wind supplied 25 percent in Country X, while solar supplied 24 percent in Country Y.
- C. solar supplied 7 percent in Country X, and wind supplied 8 percent in Country Y.
- D. Country X's solar share was the smallest figure anywhere in the table.
Answer: B.

Model response: B. Each country gets close to a quarter of its power from one source, and it is a different source in each. The two totals are 32 percent either way.

Why it scores: C quotes the table accurately and does the wrong job. The blank needs the resource each country leans on, and C gives the one each country uses least.

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## Common mistakes

| What costs marks | Do this instead |
| --- | --- |
| Reading the options before reading the column header or the axis. | Name the unit first. Shares, counts and rates look alike in an option and are not the same claim. |
| Picking a statement because it is true of the data. | Several options are true. Only one of them supports the conclusion you were handed. |
| Letting an option conclude more than the figure can show. | Check what the figure actually varies. With no untreated group, no option can claim an effect of the treatment itself. |
| Comparing the wrong pair of numbers. | Find the two values the claim sets against each other, then check that the option uses those two. |

**Turn correct answers into a score** The SAT score calculator maps correct answers per module onto a 400-1600 range with College Board's own table, and superscores across test dates. [Open the SAT score calculator](/sat/score-calculator)

## How to practice

1. Describe the figure out loud in one sentence before you read the claim: what varies, in what unit, across which groups.
2. Cover the options and write the reading that would support the conclusion. Then find the option closest to what you wrote.
3. Label each wrong option: false reading, true but irrelevant, or beyond the data. Those three labels cover most of them.
4. Practice on tables in news reports. Read the claim in the article, then check whether the table under it does the work.

## Common questions

### Do these questions involve math?

Only reading. You compare two figures, or check a share against a claim, and the numbers you need are in the options. These items are scored in Reading and Writing rather than in Math.

### How is this different from the data questions in Math?

Math asks you to compute or to model. Here you read the figure and decide which reading supports a stated conclusion. Problem-Solving and Data Analysis is a separate Math domain, about 15% of that section, 5 to 7 of its 40 operational questions.

### What kinds of figures appear?

A small table, a bar graph or a line graph, set beside a short text. College Board publishes no catalog of figure types, so keep the habit the same for all of them: name the unit, then find the numbers the claim needs.

**Sources**
- [College Board: what's on the SAT Reading and Writing section (checked 28 September 2026)](https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/whats-on-the-test/reading-writing)
- [College Board: Digital SAT Suite of Assessments Specifications Overview (PDF)](https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/digital-sat-test-spec-overview.pdf)
- [College Board: how SAT scores are calculated (checked 28 September 2026)](https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/scores/understanding-scores/how-scores-are-calculated)

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