Inference Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is inference?
- A conclusion that can be drawn from a set of facts
- A properly drawn inference is a conclusion that must be true under all conditions, given the facts set forth. Inference questions demand necessity rather than possibility.
→ Eliminate “sometimes true,” “could be true,” and “definitely not true” options - The stimulus of an inference question simply presents us with a set of facts.
Basic Guidelines
- Never bring in outside info or knowledge: use only the facts provided to use in the stimulus
- An inference need not summarize the passage or provide a main conclusion to an argument: An inference is simply any conclusion that can be properly drawn from the set of facts that make up that argument.
- Don’t seek to predict answers: Given even a few facts, the number of valid inferences that can be drawn from them is large.
- Don’t confuse assumptions and inferences: An assumption is an unwritten premise that must be true in order for a conclusion to properly stem from a set of provided premises, while an inference is an unwritten conclusion that must be true if the facts provided are true.
Inference Strategy
- A properly drawn inference is a conclusion that must be true under all conditions, given the facts set forth. Eliminate “sometimes true,” “could be true,” and “definitely not true” options.
- The fact that an answer choice doesn’t conflict with the info in the passage doesn’t make it correct.
- Use negation: The answer that conflicts the most with the statements in the passage when negated is most likely the choice that “must” be true.
Inference Trap Answer:
1) Could Be True
An answer that could be true or is likely to be true. There are 3 types of truths:
- Absolute truth (whatever must be true)
- Mixed truth (whatever could be true, but might possibly be false)
- Un-truth (whatever is always false)
Inference Trap Answer:
2) Distorted Answer
An answer that presents info from the stimulus in a distorted fashion. The info in the answer will be distorted just enough to make the answer correct. “Almost correct” is “completely wrong.”
- The correct answer will sometimes use different words to discuss the same ideas.
- Trap answers sometimes will use the same words to discuss ideas that are different from those in the stimulus.
Inference Trap Answer:
3) Out of Proportion
An answer that is out of proportion to the information that is presented in the stimulus.
Key words that frequently go together:
- Some/many/most/all
- Never/seldom/rarely/sometimes/often
- good/better/best
- bad/worse/worst
- *Some** = one or more
- *Most** = more than half
- *Not guaranteed** = probability of < 100%
- *Unlikely** = probability of < 50%
Changes in tense can also make an answer out of proportion.
Inference Trap Answer:
4) Seems Supported by Stimulus but Actually Not
Watch out for answers that depend on new info not supported by what’s said in the stimuli of Inference questions.
Inference Trap Answer:
5) True in Real World but not Supported
Inference questions may include incorrect answer choices that say things that are true in the real world but are not supported by the statements in the stimuli.
Inference Correct Answers
- Answers that are conclusions based on the entirety of what is said in the passage
- Answers that are fully supported by small portions of the passages. A correct answer need not be supported by the entire stimulus.
- Answers that are supported by numerical information located throughout passages.
- When looking for the correct answer to an Inference question involving numerical info, be sure to be open to choosing any choice, not just the ones that seem to be based on all the info presented by the passage.
Inference Question Example
Sometimes a question introduces a plan being proposed. Answer choices might provide different plans.
The fact that the passage comes up with a plan other than the plan mentioned in the answer choices doesn’t allow us to infer that the plan mentioned in the answer choices aren’t practical.
