Must be True Vs Inference Vs Main Point/Conclusion Questions

Question

Hi Experts,

I have tough time distinguishing Must be True Vs Inference Vs Main Point/Conclusion Questions

I have been following Powerscore CR Bible for CR , which states Must be true and inference as one and treats conclusion/Main Point questions different.

I get confused how to go around these different question types.

So far I have observed that main difference between must be true and conclusion type questions is ,must be true answer choice can be ruled out as incorrect if it doesn't capture the entire essence of the stimulus.

Now the real bone of contention is "New" information or out of stimulus information.

For must be true its said correct answer choice should not contain new information outside the scope of stimulus and the same should hold for other two types of questions(inference and mail point)

But i have noticed some questions where a fair deal of outside information ,although logical, is part of correct answer choice.

Kindly help me on how to go around these different question types.

Thanks

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

HI kanigmat011,

Since you're asking about CR prompts, you'll likely get more of a response to your question if you post it in the CR Sub-Forum:

gmat-critical-reasoning-cr-139/

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

You don't have that quite right.

If a CR or RC question asks you what "must be true" or wants you to "draw a conclusion," it's asking for an inference. This is  anything  that must be true based on the text in question. It does not need to be a "main point" or tie together all of the statements in argument/passage.

If a question asks you for the conclusion of an argument or the main point of a passage, it wants you to identify what the author's message is. This is a totally different task. In CR, the conclusion will be explicitly stated in the argument. In an RC passage, the main point/conclusion may not be stated precisely, but should be a distillation/summary of the author's message across the passage.

In short, you need to distinguish between questions that want you to draw  a  conclusion (conclude something yourself) and questions that ask you to identify  the  conclusion (simply identify what the author is getting at). In the former case, your conclusion should be logically valid and require no assumptions. In the latter case, you're simply describing the author's opinion, and this opinion does not have to be valid. Reading the question carefully up-front and making sure you understand what you're being asked to find will do wonders for your accuracy and efficiency.

I hope this helps!

Must be True Vs Inference Vs Main Point/Conclusion Questions

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