On the GMAT, an 'inference problem' is a particular type of CR problem.
These problems
always ask you to draw your own conclusion/inference. They can use the word 'conclusion', the word 'inference', or neither. These questions would signal an inference problem:
"Which of the following conclusions is most properly drawn from the information above?"
"Which of the following would be a valid conclusion to the author's argument?"
"Which of these statements follows logically from the argument presented above?"
"Which of the following inferences is correctly drawn based on the argument?"
The terminology itself doesn't matter. They're always asking you to do the exact same thing, whether they use the term 'conclusion' or the term 'inference'. What they're asking you to do, is read the passage, and pick an answer choice that you can
definitely prove to be true based on only the information in the argument.
On
all other types of GMAT CR problem, the conclusion is already there in the argument. However, the conclusions that are already written in the argument,
aren't logically flawless conclusions. That's what makes this concept a little strange. When you're doing an inference problem, you have to pick a conclusion that doesn't really have flaws in it. The answer choice you decide on should be
provable. But, when the GMAT writes its own conclusions on other problem types, those conclusions typically do have flaws in them. In fact, a lot of other CR problem types are based on identifying those flaws.
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