{"id":13512,"date":"2024-02-08T09:53:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T09:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grockit.com\/blog\/gmat\/?p=1524"},"modified":"2024-02-08T16:03:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T16:03:34","slug":"inferences-on-the-gmat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/gmat\/inferences-on-the-gmat\/","title":{"rendered":"GMAT Verbal: Inferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re having lunch with your friend Jane, and you suggest getting hot fudge sundaes for dessert; Jane tells you that she doesn\u2019t eat hot fudge sundaes. In real life, you could draw several valid inferences from this: she\u2019s lactose intolerant, she has sensitive teeth and so can\u2019t eat frozen desserts, she\u2019s on a diet and trying to avoid sweets, or maybe she just doesn\u2019t like ice cream or hot fudge.\u00a0In real life,<\/em> those would all be acceptable inferences, because the real-world definition of infer is to do any of the following:<\/p>\n

1. to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence: e.g., They inferred his anger from his heated denial.<\/em>
\n2. (of facts, circumstances, statements, etc.) to indicate or involve as a conclusion; lead to.
\n3. to guess; speculate; surmise.
\n4. to hint; imply; suggest.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfer\u201d is, as you can see, a word with fairly flexible meaning. We most often use it in day-to-day life to mean \u201cmake an educated guess.\u201d If your friend Jane says she doesn\u2019t eat hot fudge sundaes, you apply your existing knowledge about the possible reasons someone could have for not enjoying the hot fudge and ice cream deliciousness, and you make an educated guess as to what her reasons could be.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

GMAT Verbal Inference Questions<\/h2>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

On the GMAT, however, \u201cinference\u201d has a different meaning. Think of inferring as the process of deriving the strict logical consequences of assumed premises.<\/p>\n

On the GMAT, therefore, if you are told that Jane doesn\u2019t eat hot fudge sundaes, you can derive two logical consequences from that premise:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If Jane is eating, has eaten, or will eat something, it isn\u2019t a hot fudge sundae, and<\/li>\n
  2. If someone is eating, has eaten, or will eat a hot fudge sundae, that person is not Jane.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The correct answer to an inference question on the GMAT will follow directly from the evidence provided; it is NOT merely an educated guess but is instead the logical consequence of the assumed premises.<\/p>\n

    Notice that just based on six words\u2014\u201cJane doesn\u2019t eat hot fudge sundaes\u201d\u2014we can draw two possible inferences. Now think of how many words you might see in the average GMAT question<\/a>, and you\u2019ll understand that inference questions, unlike other types of questions, don\u2019t lend themselves well to prediction. Trying to guess the correct inference being drawn from several sentences worth of statements is generally a waste of time.<\/p>\n

    Your best bet in approaching GMAT questions<\/a> that ask for inferences is to use the process of elimination. Eliminate answers that are just \u201ceducated guesses,\u201d answers that aren\u2019t necessarily true, answers that are too extreme, and of course, anything irrelevant. Your answer will be the one choice that follows strictly from the statements in the question.<\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

    GMAT Verbal Practice Questions<\/h2>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \nLet\u2019s look at two sample GMAT-type questions. The first will walk you through how to solve an Inference question. The second one, try the method on your own:
    \n

    GMAT Verbal Question 1<\/h3>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \n\t
    \t\t

    \nRandall: Many of the productions of my plays by amateur theater groups are poorly done, and such interpretations do not provide a true measure of my skills as a dramatist.<\/p>\n

    Which one of the following can be properly inferred from Randall\u2019s statement?<\/p>\n

    (A) Some amateur theater groups\u2019 productions of Randall\u2019s plays provide a true measure of his skills as a dramatist.
    \n(B) All amateur theater group productions of Randall\u2019s plays that are not poorly done provide a true measure of his skills as a dramatist.
    \n(C) All of the productions of Randall\u2019s plays by amateur theater groups that do not provide a true measure of his skills as a dramatist are poorly done.
    \n(D) If a production of a dramatist\u2019s play is well done, then it provides a true measure of his or her skills as a dramatist.
    \n(E) At least some amateur theatrical groups\u2019 productions of Randall\u2019s plays fail to provide a true measure of his skills as a dramatist.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    Step 1<\/strong>: Identify the Question Type:\u00a0<\/em>The keywords \u201cproperly inferred\u201d in the question stem are a sure sign of an Inference question.<\/p>\n

    Step 2:<\/strong> Untangle the Stimulus:<\/em>\u00a0Randall\u2019s comments can be reduced to an if\/then statement: If productions of his plays are poorly done, then they don\u2019t provide a true measure of his skills as a dramatist. And many amateur theater groups perform his plays poorly.<\/p>\n

    Step 3:<\/strong> Predict the Answer:<\/em>\u00a0While we may not be able to predict what the correct answer choice will infer, we can be certain that it is a statement that must be true if we accept Randall\u2019s statement as true.<\/p>\n

    Step 4:<\/strong> Evaluate the Choices:\u00a0<\/em>Since many amateur productions are poorly done, and no poorly done production provides a true measure of Randall\u2019s skills, it must be true that at least some amateur groups\u2019 productions do not provide a true measure of his skills, so (E) is correct. Don\u2019t be afraid of (E) because it seems \u201cobvious.\u201d This is not a test-maker trick\u2014an \u201cobvious\u201d answer is one that must be true, so it works as a valid Inference.<\/p>\n

    (A) seriously distorts Randall\u2019s statement. Just because some amateur productions don\u2019t do him justice doesn\u2019t mean that there are other productions that do. If the GMAT tells you that some marbles are red, you can\u2019t automatically infer that some are not red.
    \n(B) is another sort of distortion. Randall\u2019s statement about certain poorly done productions in no way guarantees anything about productions that aren\u2019t poorly done.
    \n(C) is far too extreme. Randall does establish a correlation between poor production quality and failure to provide a true measure of his skills, but that correlation has only been established for a certain set of productions and can\u2019t be extended to all productions.
    \n(D) attempts to extract a broad principle from Randall\u2019s statement, but his statement is too particular to allow this kind of extrapolation.<\/p>\n

    The answer is (E).
    \n

    GMAT Verbal Question 2<\/h3>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>
    \n\t
    \t\t

    \nXYZ Corporation has two divisions, both of which performed consistently over the last five years.\u00a0 The Interment Services Division accounted for approximately 30% of the corporation\u2019s transactions and 50% of the corporation\u2019s profits; the Toxic Household Products Division accounts for the balance.<\/p>\n

    The statements above support which of the following inferences about XYZ Corporation over the last five years?<\/p>\n

    A. Measured in dollars, the total profits for XYZ Corporation have remained stable over the last five years.
    \nB. Interment Services is an increasingly competitive field, while Toxic Household Products are a largely untapped market.
    \nC. The Toxic Household Products Division yields a lower average profit per transaction than does the Interment Services Division.
    \nD. XYZ Corporation\u2019s Toxic Household Products line has remained consistent over the past five years.
    \nE. Most families will, over a given five-year period, spend more money on Interment Services than on Toxic Household Products.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    Only one of these answer choices MUST be true; let\u2019s take a look at the options:<\/p>\n

    A. We only know about percentages, or proportions, so we can\u2019t draw inferences about dollar amounts.
    \nB. No information is provided about competition for either Interment Services or Toxic Household Products.
    \nC. This is the correct choice; Interment Services has a profit to transactions ratio of 50%:30%, or 5:3, while Toxic Household Products has a ratio of 50%:70%, or 5:7.\u00a0 Therefore, the Toxic Household Products Division is doing more than twice as many transactions as the Interment Services Division, but yielding the same profits.
    \nD. Product lines are not discussed, and therefore can\u2019t be the subject of an inference.
    \nE. Per-family spending is never mentioned, so we can\u2019t infer anything about it.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s a pattern here: if it\u2019s not mentioned, an inference can\u2019t be drawn about it.\u00a0 Inferences MUST be supported by the evidence provided; remembering this one concept will give you a solid start in conquering inference questions on the GMAT.<\/p>\n

    \t\t\t

    <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>

    \t\t\t

    <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You\u2019re having lunch with your friend Jane, and you suggest getting hot fudge sundaes for dessert; Jane tells you that she doesn\u2019t eat hot fudge sundaes. In real life, you could draw several valid inferences from this: she\u2019s lactose intolerant, she has sensitive teeth and so can\u2019t eat frozen desserts, she\u2019s on a diet and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[56,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13512"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45831,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13512\/revisions\/45831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}