New claim questions | Types of questions | ACT Science

The most common question type on a conflicting viewpoints passage is the new claim question. This question introduces a new claim or hypothesis and asks you to decide which person (or hypothesis) in the passage would agree or disagree with it.

New claim questions are mainly reading-based. You’ll usually need to check each paragraph to see how each viewpoint relates to the new claim, so these questions often take longer than other question types.

Understand the new claim

A reliable strategy is to make sure you understand the claim before you compare it to the passage. Start by reading the entire question, then summarize the new claim in your own words and write it down.

You may be asked to identify which people or hypotheses:

agree with the new claim
disagree with the new claim
would be supported by the new claim
would be disproved by the new claim

Compare the current claims

If you created a table of each student’s/scientist’s/hypothesis’ claims and viewpoints (as suggested in the Conflicting viewpoints chapter), you can compare the new claim to the passage’s claims and eliminate answer choices systematically. If you didn’t make one earlier, you can also build the table as you work through the questions.

	Perihelion (P)	Aphelion (A)	Both P and A	Period
S1	once	twice	not all	proportion to semi major axis
S2	twice	once	all	square of period proportional to semi major axis
S3	once	once	all	square of period proportional to cube of semi major axis
S4	twice	twice	not all	cube of period proportional to square of semi major axis

S1 = student 1, S2 = student 2, S3 = student 3, S4 = student 4

You only need to compare the new claim to the viewpoints that relate to it. With a table, you can work quickly and methodically, even when the question is long.

Try the example below, then check the explanation.

Which of the students would likely agree that not all orbits pass through both perihelion and aphelion, but will pass through the aphelion at least once?

A) Student 2 and Student 3
B) Student 3 only
C) Student 1 and Student 4
D) The statement is not consistent with the descriptions of planet orbits made by any of the students.

(spoiler)

Answer: C

Start with the first part of the new claim: “not all orbits pass through both perihelion and aphelion.” In the table, only Students 1 and 4 say “not all” in the “Both P and A” column.

Then check the second part of the new claim: “will pass through the aphelion at least once.” In the “Aphelion (A)” column, both Students 1 and 4 indicate aphelion occurs (twice), so they also match this part of the claim.

Key points

New claim questions: These questions introduce a new claim relevant tothe passage and ask you to compare them to the claims found within the paragraphs of the passage.

Understand the claim: It is very important that you understand the new claim before you look to compare it in thepassage. Read the new claim found in the question and write it down in your own words!

Compare current claims: Create a table to keep the viewpoints organized and methodically compare the new claim to the current claims.