Hi folks,
let me say or to point out a couple of considerations on that
- this question is a bit flawed because analyzing the stimulus i do not see anything that could be infer and bringing what
pqhai said
Quote:
(1) Must be true
- Fact test / No “new info” accepted
- Correct answers (1) Paraphrasing OR (2) Combination
(2) Inference
- Subcategory of Must be true
- Have to pass “Fact test”
- Wrong answers: Only repeat premises
well this is correct but at the same time is too rigid. I noticed in the
OG (because this is the landmark, no matter what a question from a prep company is well formulated) this: is NOT as simple as it seems. more often is a mix of these things
One very important thing to keep in mind, while evaluating options on an Inference question, is that the correct option must be true under all conditions/possibilities. There may be some options which may be true under some situations and may not be true under others. These will not be the correct answer. Quote:
ANALYZE THE STIMULUS:
Fact #1: A new medical procedure replaces all three of the tiny bones in the inner ear with a single piece of ultra-thin fiberglass
Fact #2: . The procedure has been found to greatly improve hearing in people who have experienced damage to these bones, though it is useless to people whose hearing loss stems from a neurological malfunction
Conclusion: This procedure will benefit a relatively small percentage of the hearing-impaired population
fact #1 this just says that something new can replace something else. restoring the previous situation as much as possible
fact 2# who has a fisical damage can be helped to replanish that and gains improvement from that unless the damage comes from something else that is much deeper as cause, difficult to fix with a simple bones' replacement (i.e. neurological malfunction)
Conclusion: this is not a conclusion following the logic chain. moreover we have no signal words, such as: therefore and so on. I never see a conclusion on gmatland that has not been introduced by these words
Do remember that the stimulus of an Inference question may not necessarily be in the form of an argument. In fact, most often the stimulus will contain a set of facts. Quote:
ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:
A)It is possible to hear without the use of the three tiny bones in the inner ear.
Correct. The fact #2 says the procedure improves hearing in people who have tiny bones in the inner ear damaged. The word “improve” clearly indicate that people are still possible to hear even though the hearing quality is not really good.
Here the correct answer have the word without and the argument talks about improve......mmmm this seems a bit nonsensical to me.
Improve is something that starts from 1 or 2 not from scratch: I improve my skills but i have at least 1 skill already. Here instead we are talking about without.........
I can ear even a bit. That say, near the threshold of zero and i have my bones damaged but I can still ear but i cannot do that without my tiny bones.
Major takeaway from all this:
Inference does not mean to summarize the argument – An inference does not have to
provide a logical conclusion to the stimulus nor does it have to be a summary of the
argument. It just has to be a fact that can most definitely be concluded given the information
in the stimulus. It goes without saying that there can be multiple inferences that can be
arrived at from a given stimulus.
Don’t bother predicting the answer – Because multiple inferences can be made from a given
stimulus, it doesn’t make sense to predict the answer. Instead look at each option and try to
eliminate extreme options or those that are outside the scope of the argument.
Always avoid Extreme options – It is human nature to read too much between the lines. In
fact this quality may even be beneficial or an asset in real life. However, on the GMAT this
will prove to be a liability. If you read too much between the lines, you will most likely end
up with extreme or strongly worded options, which will almost never be the correct answer to
an Inference question. So avoid options that contain extreme words such as must, always, only,
cannot be determined, etc. Instead go with options that contain vague words such as usually,
maybe, might, sometimes, possibly, etc.
Never use outside knowledge to answer Inference Questions – If you avoid extreme
options, you will automatically end up avoiding making use of outside knowledge while
evaluating options
Assumptions play no role in Inference questions – Unlike the five question types we saw
earlier, Inference questions will not require you to identify the assumption in the argument.
In most cases the stimulus won’t contain an argument in the first place but just a set of facts.
Avoid Explain Answers – A common wrong answer trap in Inference questions is an option
that explains the situation in the stimulus. These options will look extremely logical to you
but remember that the question is not asking you to explain the stimulus but to infer
something from it.
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