Why do I keep getting SAT® Reading questions wrong even though I understand the passage?
Because understanding the passage is only half of the question. The other half is the answer choices, and the wrong ones are not random: they are built on a small number of patterns, and each reader has one they fall for more than the others.
Understanding the text is not the same as choosing well
If you can explain the passage in your own words and still get the question wrong, the problem is not reading comprehension. It is what happens between the passage and the choices. Most students read the options looking for the one that “sounds like the passage”. The test knows this, and it writes wrong choices that sound exactly like the passage while saying something the passage does not say.
The common patterns are few: a choice that is half true and half not; a choice that is true but does not answer the question asked; a choice that goes further than the text (the text “suggests”, the choice “proves”); and a choice that reverses a relationship described in the passage.
One example
The passage says that a researcher found a species of bee visits one flower more often than others in cold weather, and suggests that temperature may affect its choices.
The choice you pick says: “The researcher found that temperature determines which flowers the bee visits.”
Every word in that choice comes from the passage — researcher, temperature, flowers, bee. That is why it feels right. But the passage said temperature may affect the choice; the option says it determines it. This is the pattern of exact words, stronger claim: the choice borrows the vocabulary of the text to say more than the text says.
What to do instead
Stop asking “does this sound like the passage?” and start asking “could I point to the line that says exactly this?” If you can only point to the same words used for a different claim, it is the trap. Pay special attention to verbs and qualifiers — may, suggests, some, often — because that is where these choices change the meaning.
It also helps to decide what the answer should say before reading the options, in five or six words of your own. The correct choice will match your idea; the traps will match the passage’s vocabulary.
Why it keeps happening to you
Each person has a favourite trap. Some readers almost always fall for the stronger claim; others for the true-but-irrelevant choice; others for the reversed relationship. If you review your errors only by topic (“inference”, “main idea”), the pattern stays hidden, because the same trap appears in every question type. Review them by why the wrong choice attracted you, and the pattern usually shows up in a week.
This happens to a lot of people. What you don't know yet is whether it happens to you, and with which one. Sixteen questions will tell you.
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