RC Detail.
What the passage actually says.
Where students miss by a single word. The four sub-patterns. The line-pointing habit that makes Detail the easiest RC question type to nail.
Also known as: Detail questions, Factual information.
RC Detail asks what the passage explicitly says about a specific topic. The trap is paraphrased answers that change a critical word or scope. Always anchor each answer choice to a specific line or paragraph in the passage before selecting.
The pattern
A Detail question asks which choice is true according to the passage. The right answer is stated in the passage or follows directly from a stated detail. Wrong answers are usually close paraphrases that swap one word, mix up two facts, or confuse what the passage states with what it implies.
The stem usually reads as one of these:
- According to the passage, which of the following is true?
- The passage states that...
- Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as...?
Sub-patterns
The right answer matches a specific phrase from the passage. Distractors swap a key word. Match the noun, the verb, the qualifier; not just the topic.
The right answer rewords a passage statement accurately. Distractors paraphrase but shift meaning. Read for what the paraphrase preserves and what it changes.
The right answer captures one specific detail. Distractors mix two adjacent details (e.g., the passage states X about weekday and Y about weekend; a distractor states X about weekend).
The passage implies something. A distractor asserts it. Detail rewards what the passage states, not what it leaves to inference. Inferences belong on Inference questions.
Three trap patterns.
The first slip
The plateau on RC Detail comes from answering by memory instead of by lookup. Students who skip the line-pointing habit miss off-by-one distractors at a higher rate than students who look up every choice. The fix is mechanical: point to the line every time, even when you are sure.
The compounding slip
Detail is the easiest RC question type to nail and the most-skipped lookup. The reason is time pressure: students believe lookup is slow. It is not. A 5-second lookup prevents a 15-second distractor analysis. The lookup wins.
Why it sticks
On Detail, point to the line. Always. The lookup costs less time than the wrong answer.
One RC Detail question. Pick before you scroll.
Pick your answer before scrolling. Commit to a choice, optionally record your confidence, then reveal the explanation.
Passage · 3 paragraphstoggle
Pinaka Books, currently located on Pennsylvania Avenue six blocks from the Supreme Court, draws roughly 400 weekday visitors. Owner Maya is considering a second location in Eastern Market, two miles south. Eastern Market sees about 1,200 weekend visitors and 250 weekday visitors at comparable retail venues. The neighborhood's weekday foot traffic comes mostly from federal employees walking to lunch from nearby agencies.
Sam, an employee at Pinaka Books, has voiced two concerns. First, Eastern Market's weekend volume comes mainly from tourists, who rarely return; weekday volume comes from federal employees, who often do. Second, the second-location lease would cost 80 percent of the Pennsylvania Avenue lease, despite half the weekday foot traffic.
Maya counters that weekend revenue at Eastern Market venues averages 60 percent higher per visitor than weekday revenue, citing local merchant association data. She acknowledges Sam's concern about repeat customers but argues that retention can be built through programming.
According to the passage, which of the following is true of weekday visitor counts at Eastern Market retail venues comparable to Pinaka Books?
Pick one of the five choices on the left. The explanation reveals after you commit.
The fix
- 01
Point to the line on every Detail choice.
For each choice you keep, identify the exact line in the passage that supports it. If you cannot find the line, the choice is unsupported. The habit is mechanical and fast: 5 seconds per choice. Locked in after 20 questions.
- 02
Read the noun, verb, and modifier.
On Detail distractors, one of three usually changes: a noun (weekday becomes weekend), a verb (states becomes implies), or a modifier (about 250 becomes at least 250). Read for those three explicitly. The distractor pattern becomes obvious.
- 03
Drill Detail in clusters of 20.
Take 20 Detail questions across passages. The off-by-one distractor pattern locks in fast. The habit transfers because the underlying structure repeats.
The drill set adapts to your weakness.
Every RC Detail question in Pinaka is tagged with one of four sub-patterns. After your first mock, your skill map shows accuracy at the sub-pattern level: quote verification, paraphrase match, off-by-one detail, implication vs assertion. Drills sort by your weakest sub-pattern.
The five-section explanation on every Detail item points to the exact line, names the noun-verb-modifier change in the distractors, and shows the lookup habit in action. The habit transfers to test day.
This is sample data. Your numbers arrive after one full mock. The chart shows your accuracy on each of the 21 LSAT subskills, with an evidence count on each. The lowest peak is where Pinaka starts your drilling.
Skills closely related to this one.
See how this skill fits in the full LSAT skill taxonomy.
RC Detail questions, answered.
How is RC Detail different from RC Inference?
Detail asks what the passage states. Inference asks what the passage commits to without stating word-for-word. The right answer on Detail can be quoted (or close-paraphrased) from the passage. The right answer on Inference is supported by the passage but is not in the passage. Detail rewards lookup. Inference rewards reading for evidence.
Why is RC Detail considered the easiest RC question type?
Because the answer is in the passage. There is no inference, no main-point judgment, no author-attitude reading. Find the line, match the choice. The cost of skipping the lookup is high; the cost of doing it is low. Detail rewards discipline more than skill.
How fast should I be on Detail questions?
60 seconds per question is the target. With consistent line-pointing, the working pace drops to 45-50 seconds. The savings carry over to harder RC question types. If you find yourself spending 90+ seconds on Detail, your reading-for-structure habit on the first pass is the actual problem; targeted reading-for-structure drills fix it faster than more Detail questions.
Recap
RC Detail. asks what the passage explicitly says about a specific topic. The answer is in the text.
Anchor first. tie each candidate answer to a specific line or paragraph before selecting. If you cannot find the line, the answer is wrong.
The trap. paraphrases that change a critical word or scope. "Some" rewritten as "all," "supports" rewritten as "proves."
One mock.Your RC Detail sub-pattern accuracy, named.
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