Imply and Inference Questions

[JoshuaLSAT]

Hello,

Hope all is well. I wanted to ask a question based on a trend that I noticed while completing the Powerscore Homework. In Lesson 2 of the Powerscore test prep book, I noticed that I got many of the inference and "author implies" questions wrong. Examples of these questions that I got wrong are:

Passage#2; October 2005 Questions 6-11
11. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would most likely agree with which one of the following views of Native soil?

Passage #6 June 1992 Questions 1-8
8.The author implies that which one of the following is nature of the economic development agreements?

I also had trouble with main point questions, but I read a comment on here to save those problems for last, and there has definitely been improvement on those types of questions. Are there general strategies that work well for questions that involve inference or say "The author implies"?. Sorry if this is vague- I can provide more information if needed. Any suggestions/readings on how to improve main point questions would also be much appreciated. Thank you for making this forum available.

[Jennifer Janowsky]

Hi, Joshua!

This is a broad question, but there are a few pointers that you can consider when you complete these "inference" questions.

The first thing to remember, which can be difficult, is that in these types of questions you are taking the facts of the stimulus to be true. There is no need to look for logical flaws or gaps in the argument, as you're only looking for what logically follows if it is taken to be true. For this same reason, you also have no need to look for any assumptions. In general treat it as a list of facts.

Additionally, although you are taking the facts of the stimulus to be true, this does not justify taking any leaps in deciding what is implied by the stimulus. It should be something that is given, and can even be something that was explicitly said in the stimulus already. Although the correct answer could act as somewhat of a conclusion to the stimulus, it does not have to be. It could just be a restatement! This is confusing for many students.

I hope this helps you a bit!