Asks the test-taker to identify the specific issue on which two authors (in a comparative passage) disagree. Not just that they differ in general, but the precise claim on which they take opposing positions. For the correct answer, one author must be for it and the other must be against it (or at least their positions must be clearly incompatible). This is the RC equivalent of the "Point at Issue" question in Logical Reasoning, adapted for paired passages.
Source: PT78, Q4 (Difficulty 4) > "The authors of the passages would be most likely to disagree over whether"
Answer Choices: - (A) juries should be more forthcoming about the reasoning behind their verdicts - (B) laws are subject to scrutiny and debate by reasonable people - (C) it is likely that elected officials are more biased in their decision making than jurors are - (D) it is within the purview of juries not only to apply the law but to interpret it - (E) police and prosecutors should have less discretion to decide which violations of the law to pursue
Correct Answer: (D) "it is within the purview of juries not only to apply the law but to interpret it"
For a comparative passage, the question writer creates a matrix of each author's positions on key issues:
| Issue | Author A | Author B | Disagree? | |——-|———-|———-|———–| | Juries should interpret law | Yes | No | ✓ | | Laws can be debated | Yes | Yes | ✗ (agreement) | | Jury system has value | Yes | Yes | ✗ (agreement) |
The correct answer must satisfy the attribution test: - Author A's position clearly supports (or rejects) the claim - Author B's position clearly takes the opposite stance - Both positions must be derivable from the passages (not speculative)
The correct answer states the claim as a proposition that one author affirms and the other denies. It must be: - Specific enough to distinguish from related but different claims - Clearly within both passages' scope (both authors address this issue) - Stated neutrally (not biased toward either author's framing)
Trap Type 1: Agreement Masquerading as Disagreement States a claim both authors would agree on. The test-taker assumes that because the passages have different perspectives, they must disagree on everything — but comparative passages often share common ground.
Trap Type 2: Only One Author Addresses It States a claim that only one author discusses. You can't have a disagreement if only one side has weighed in.
With only 1 question across 2,479 in the corpus, Point of Disagreement is tied with Method of Reasoning as the rarest type. Explanations for its rarity:
1. Absorbed by other types: Most comparative-passage disagreement questions are classified under Inference ("it can be inferred that the authors disagree about...") or Author's Attitude ("the two authors' attitudes differ in..."). Point of Disagreement is functionally a specific subtype of these.
2. Limited applicability: Only works on comparative passages (11.4% of passages), and even then, most comparative questions focus on agreement, shared subject, or relationship rather than specific disagreement.
The single stem is 14 words. The phrasing "would be most likely to disagree over whether" is the signature construction — "disagree over whether" frames the answer as a proposition.
The single example has choices averaging 16.2 words. Each choice states a proposition that one author might affirm and the other might deny (or both might agree on, for wrong answers).
By definition, Point of Disagreement requires two voices — it can only appear on comparative passages. (Theoretically, a single passage discussing two named figures could support this type, but no examples exist in the corpus.)
| Compared To | How Point of Disagreement Differs | |—|—| | Author's Attitude | Attitude asks about one author's evaluative stance. Disagreement asks where two authors' stances conflict. | | Inference | Many inference questions on comparative passages ask about disagreement ("it can be inferred that the authors disagree..."). Point of Disagreement is the explicit version of this — when the stem directly asks "what do they disagree about?" rather than wrapping it in inference language. | | Adapting to New Context | Adapting asks where two views converge or how they'd interact. Disagreement asks where they diverge. | | LR Point at Issue | Same fundamental skill, but applied to passage-length arguments rather than short stimuli. |
Classification note: With 1 question, this is a labeling rarity. Most passage-comparison disagreement questions are classified under Inference or Author's Attitude. The existence of this label suggests an intent to create a distinct type that was never widely adopted in test construction.