October 2026 - Making Predictions Study Guide

Predictions run on the passage's pattern

Every predictable text has established something by the time you are asked: a trend in numbers, a habit in a character, a rule in a procedure, a cause that keeps producing an effect. A prediction question is asking you to apply that pattern once more.

So the first move is to name the pattern in a sentence — "each change has been followed by a partial improvement", "she avoids asking for help until forced" — and only then look at the choices. Answers that ignore the pattern will look plausible in the abstract and wrong the moment you hold them against it.

Prediction, inference, conclusion

The traps

• The dramatic outcome — a disaster or a triumph, where the passage supports something modest.
• Outside experience — what usually happens in real life, in place of what this passage has established.
• The reversal — a prediction that requires the pattern to break, with nothing in the text suggesting it will.
• The restatement — something already described, offered as a next step.

Terms to know

Prediction

A statement about what will probably happen next, based on the text's own pattern.

Pattern

The regularity a text establishes — a trend, a habit, a repeated cause and effect.

Extrapolation

Extending an established pattern beyond the data given.

Foreshadowing

A hint an author plants about what is to come.

Trend

The direction of change so far, which a prediction usually continues.

What the TEAS asks most

The same core ideas appear in different wording. If you can answer these without stopping to think, you have what this section requires.

Key points

• Name the pattern in a sentence before reading the choices.
• A prediction extends the passage; an inference stays inside it.
• Prefer the modest continuation over the dramatic one.
• Outside experience is not evidence here — the passage is.
• A choice restating something already described is not a prediction.