## SAT Reading & Writing -- Curriculum Overlay

This addendum applies only to Digital SAT Reading and Writing questions. Use it for
course-wide SAT R&W rules that are narrower than the base and type guidance.

---

## Required Stimulus

Treat every Digital SAT R&W item as Mode B: a stimulus is required. Missing or null stimulus
fails `stimulus_quality`.

---

## Cross-Substandard SAT R&W Rules

### factual_accuracy

Fail `factual_accuracy` for a false, fabricated, or materially misleading claim in the
stimulus, key, or explanation. This includes invented studies, fabricated data, fake
quotations, misattributed claims, or named people/institutions/events presented as real.
Vague phrasing such as "a researcher" or "an early twentieth-century author" is acceptable
only when the item does not present specific factual attribution or data as real.

### specification_compliance

- The `question` field must contain only the student-facing task line, not the passage.
  Passage text belongs in `stimulus`; passage text in `question` fails
  `specification_compliance`.
- If the task asks for a quotation, excerpt, span "from the text," support for a claim,
  the option that best illustrates a claim, or the option that best completes the text,
  answer choices must be verbatim spans from the stimulus. Ellipses are allowed only for
  shortening; paraphrased or fabricated options fail `specification_compliance`.
- If the task references a passage, text, chart, diagram, or figure, the referenced artifact
  must exist in the stimulus; otherwise fail `specification_compliance`.

### distractor_quality

- Distractors should reflect coherent wrong reasoning, not noise or unrelated content.
- For prose options, the correct answer should not be conspicuously longer or shorter than
  the distractors. Do not apply this length-parity check to short-form vocabulary or
  grammar options where length parity is not meaningful.

### educational_accuracy

A student should not be able to identify the key from the task line alone. A number, named
entity, or technical term appearing only in one option can telegraph the answer if it is
also cued by the task line; in that case, fail `educational_accuracy`. Ordinary topic-word
overlap is acceptable.

### curriculum_alignment

Items must exercise the targeted SAT R&W substandard, not describe the substandard in the
abstract.

---

## Difficulty Calibration

When the substandard supplies its own difficulty definitions, use them. Otherwise apply
the general definitions below.

**Easy**
- One inferential step from information literally stated in the stimulus.
- On-grade vocabulary; correct answer still requires the tested skill, not rote word matching.

**Medium**
- Synthesizes two distinct pieces of the stimulus.
- At least one distractor is a plausible misapplication of one piece of evidence.

**Hard**
- Three or more reasoning steps, or transfer of the skill to a novel but supported context.
- Distractors represent plausible rival interpretations, not surface errors.
- Length alone is not difficulty.

### Text Complexity and Declared Difficulty

College Board allows multiple text-complexity bands on a form; task demand matters more than
prose complexity. Do not fail `difficulty_alignment` solely because the prose seems simple.

Expected bands by `grade` metadata:
- SAT / Digital SAT / 11 / 12: grades 6-8 through 12-14 permitted; grades 11-14
  typical, with embedded subordination, college-admissions vocabulary such as
  *assiduous* or *equivocate*, abstract subject matter, and sophisticated paragraph
  structure.
- PSAT/NMSQT / PSAT 10 / Digital PSAT 10 / Digital PSAT-NMSQT and PSAT 10 / 10:
  grades 6-8 through 12-14 permitted; grades 9-11 typical, with multi-clause
  sentences, academic vocabulary, and some abstraction, but less complex than SAT and
  clearly above middle-school level.
- PSAT 8/9 / PSAT 8-9 / Digital PSAT 8/9 / Digital PSAT 8-9 / 8 / 9: grades 6-8 and
  9-11 only; grades 12-14 register is excluded. Expected register is
  accessible-to-academic vocabulary and clear sentence structure; college-admissions
  register is prohibited.

For PSAT 8/9, a grades 12-14 register fails `stimulus_quality`.

For other mismatch concerns, fail `difficulty_alignment` only when both are true:
- the stimulus register is clearly below the expected band, and
- the task demand also falls below the declared difficulty.
