AsadAbu wrote:
Hi, I've a question specially on RC inference and CR inference question. Actually, 'inference' question is tested both in RC and in CR. Why the same thing tested in 2 separate places?. Are these questions (RC inference and CR inference) have to track in same way?. If not, then WHY GMAC test the same thing in 2 different places?
Thanks__
While there are Inference type questions in both Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, answering Critical Reasoning Inference questions does not involve using quite the same skills that are used to answer Reading Comprehension Inference questions.
To answer a Critical Reasoning Inference question, you have to determine what can be inferred from a limited set of statements. All the information that you could use in choosing the answer is presented to you in a short passage. So, your task is simply to determine what can be properly inferred from that limited set of information. The correct answer differs from the incorrect answers in that the limited set of information supports the correct answer but does not support the other answers, and choosing correctly among the answer choices is mostly a matter of using logic and not getting seduced into choosing a seemingly correct but actually illogical trap answer.
Reading Comprehension is different from Critical Reasoning in general in that, whereas a Critical Reasoning question presents you with a limited amount of information, a Reading Comprehension question uses a much longer passage containing all kinds of information, much of which is not germane to the question being asked.
So, answering a Reading Comprehension Inference question requires not only determining what can be inferred from the passage, but also determining what information presented in the passage is even relevant for determining which answer choice is correct. Also, each of the Reading Comprehension Inference question answer choices may be closely related to a set of information in the passage different from that set of information that is related to the other choices. So, in answering a Reading Comprehension Inference question, not only do you have to find information to support the correct answer, you may have to consider somewhat different information when evaluating each choice in the same question.
So, in comparison with correctly answering Critical Reasoning Inference questions, correctly answering Reading Comprehension Inference questions is less a matter of using logic and not getting tricked and more a matter of using skills that are not really necessary for answering Critical Reasoning Inference questions, skills related to finding information, correctly interpreting statements, and determining which information is relevant.