Main Purpose Questions

Main purpose questions are easy to identify. As always, you will jump straight to the question. Then you will see that it is worded exactly like this: "Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?"

Main purpose questions, which fall under the Craft & Structure domain and therefore will show up slightly earlier in the test, are similar to main idea questions, which wall under Information & Ideas, but they don't mean exactly the same thing. The main purpose is more about the main point or what the author is trying to achieve, while the main idea is asking what the passage is generally about, or what the main thing is that it is trying to convey. To be honest, there won't be a big difference in the strategy used between these similar question types. You will notice that main purpose answer choices are going to start with the word "to", because the purpose is always for the author "to" do something. On the other hand, main idea answer choices will just contain information that summarizes the gist of what he passage is about.

To solve a main purpose question, you will need to read the passage carefully make sure you fully comprehend what the test is saying. Try to dumb down each sentence and to a brief summary in your head, then try to briefly summarize in your head what the passage is trying to convey overall. Finally, look through the answer choices and search for the one that best summarizes the main purpose of the passage.

There are two main criteria that an answer choice has to fulfill to be the correct answer. First, whatever it says must be true based on what the passage says. It shouldn't make additional assumptions or claims that go beyond what is supported by the passsage. Second, it has to be reasonable to call it the "main purpose" of the passage. If it's true based on the passage, but only represents a minor detail, then it's not the main purpose. If it seems like two answer choices are both true based on the passage, then go with the one that seems to more broadly cover the main purpose, or what the author would be trying to achieve.

You'll want to keep an eye out for all of the common wrong answer types we discussed in Wrong Answers, but once to particularly look out for on main purpose questions are: