SAT Cross-Text Connections: compare claims and limits

Cross-Text Connections questions compare topically related texts. The important distinction is between each author's position and the relationship between those positions. Two texts can share a topic and still disagree; they can also agree on a benefit while differing about its limits.

Choose a reading order that keeps the question in view

Read the stem first. For a response question, identify the claim it names in Text 1, then read Text 2 to see how its author would evaluate that claim. For a question about shared agreement, read both texts and make one brief statement of each position. Starting with Text 2 can work in practice, but it provides no universal advantage.

Read enough to capture qualifications rather than deciding from the opening sentence. The task belongs to Craft and Structure; it should not be treated as a sequence of questions about a long paired passage.

Worked example: agreement with a qualification

This is an original exercise, not a released SAT question.

Text 1: Digital catalogues help researchers locate rare manuscripts held in distant libraries, reducing the need for exploratory travel.

Text 2: Digital catalogues are valuable for locating manuscripts. However, catalogue descriptions can omit physical features important to a study, so researchers may still need to inspect the originals.

Both authors would likely agree that digital catalogues help researchers locate manuscripts. Text 2 would qualify a claim that catalogues eliminate all need for travel, although Text 1 never makes that claim. “Text 2 rejects digital catalogues” is too strong. “Both authors believe catalogue descriptions include every relevant feature” is unsupported.

Worked example: method agreement, conclusion disagreement

Text 1: Excavated tools are useful evidence of exchange between the two towns because several distinctive designs occur in both places.

Text 2: Tool designs can reveal exchange, but these towns' similar designs could have developed independently. Without further evidence, the designs alone do not establish contact.

Both accept that tools can be evidence of exchange. They differ on whether the evidence described establishes exchange in this case. A response answer should name that evidential objection, rather than claiming Text 2 disputes the existence of the tools.

Four checks before choosing

• Is the answer about the exact claim the stem names?
• Does it keep each position attached to the correct author?
• Does it preserve words such as “can,” “alone,” and “in this case”?
• Does every part of the claimed agreement or disagreement have support?

A useful practice note has three lines: author 1's claim, author 2's claim, and the relationship. If a choice says one author would “reject” the other, ask whether the text shows a full rejection or a narrower qualification.

Use Craft and Structure for the broader domain routine. For single-text conclusions, use Inferences. These methods share careful reading while answering different tasks.

Official sources

• College Board: The Reading and Writing Section
• College Board: Reading and Writing question types