Inference / Implication

Question

Dear GMAT Club folks, I have a question regarding inference / implication questions in GMAT Focus Edition. I gather, for Critical Reasoning, an inference must be true without fail, given the information in the question prompt. But what about inference / implication questions in Reading Comprehension and Data Insights (Multi-Source Reasoning, for instance)? For such questions in RC and DI, The GMAT official responses at times rule out answer options that only logically / somewhat loosely support information in the prompt and other times do not. Am I missing something? Thank you very much in advance!

bb · Answer

Hi. I think you are asking the right question however, I found that discussing general principles and rules is really tough without examples or questions so if you have any examples where you have struggled with, it would be helpful to share. Otherwise you’ll be asking the theoretical questions and getting very theoretical answers that will conflict with each other and eventually looks like a mess 😇

In general terms, I would say that the main concept that is tested on the GMAT for inference is not going too far, not going outside of scope and being fairly immediate and fairly simple. Also, inference will not require any assumptions or any other conditions to be true and therefore it will be very simplistic as mentioned. However, it will never be stated in the text so that’s another easy way to roll out the wrong answers.

ElenaFerrante · Answer

Thank you very much for your prompt response. Here is a link to a question (1), by way of an example: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gold-is-typi ... h1yEtyQawQ As per the official response, it is implied that chemicals were used to extract gold from the ore collected at the Grasberg mine as it is likely a lode mine by virtue of its size. But it is not implied that the Grasberg mine processed approximately 130 kilograms of raw ore for each 1 gram of pure gold it produced. Why so? The passage states "On average, such (lode) mining operations process approximately 130 kilograms of raw ore to produce 1 gram of pure gold", then isn't it likely true that the Grasberg mine approximates that average too? Of course the Grasberg mine might not operate at that average, but doesn't the passage imply that it is likely true of the Grasberg mine too? Why is the first statement considered implied while the second isn't?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi ElenaFerrante,

There are different points of view here, but it's generally not a good idea to look for absolutes in the verbal section (CR/RC). For example, within Critical Reasoning inference questions, what you're thinking about would apply only to "must be true" questions.

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Inference / Implication

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