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Tips for GMAT Critical Reasoning: Inference vs. Assumption

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Critical reasoning section of GMAT is much complicated and it will not be wrong to claim that the most difficult part of GMAT Verbal reasoning is the Critical Reasoning. Around one-third of the GMAT verbal consist of questions from this genre and by understanding inference and assumption, it becomes easier to answer the questions here.

Inference in GMAT Critical Reasoning

Inference is a piece of information that can be logically deduced or conclude from a single statement or a combination of two or more statements.

It often appears that inference is about making a wise and reasonable guess. But, GMAT inference is the process to obtain logical consequences based on assumed premises.

Example:

Statement: Everyone who reads this article will be more informed about Inference and Assumption. Rohan read this article.

Inference: Rohan is more informed about Inference and Assumption.

Here, two or more statements are combined to produce the correct answer. In this example, the first statement is the general rule, which applies to the second premise that logically supplied the inference.

Assumption in GMAT Critical Reasoning

Assumption is a process of finding the missing links between the premises to get the conclusion. In GMAT CR, the connection is often hidden or unstated or unclearly stated.

As the connection is hidden anything cannot be logically derived from existing information easily and there are higher chances of making mistakes. Candidate sometimes forgets that they don’t need to assume – rather, they need to derive the answer logically from existing information.

In order to figure out the right answer in assumption-based questions, the candidate must figure out the main thrust of the given argument. The correct answer choice will have to be true for the argument to be logical. Remaining answers choices will be possibly true, but not necessary to prove the validity of the argument.

Example

Statement: Everyone who reads this article will be more informed about Inference and Assumption. Rohan received this article in his email. Hence, Rohan is more informed about Inference and Assumption.

Assumption: Rohan has read every mail that he has received so far.

The statement of the assumption is the missing link that the information provided in the question. Here the 1st and the second statements don’t validate the 3rd one – rather, the assumption does.

Critical Difference between Inference and Assumption in GMAT

In GMAT, inference and assumption questions often confuse the candidates, as they appear similar. The following difference can help them to distinguish:

Inference Assumption
Checks if the statements above are true Checks for an assumption on which the argument depends
Inference is a statement that must be true if the given information is true. Assumption is a statement that must be true, for which the given information is true
Inference can always be logically deduced from the given information. Assumption can never be logically deduced from the given information – it carries something new.
Inference questions rarely have a conclusion in the passage – inference itself can be the conclusion. Assumption-based question necessarily has a conclusion.

As these questions are way too critical than anyone can imagine, candidates need to make some strategies. GMAT Critical Reasoning strategies for inference and assumption questions are mentioned in the next sections.

Tips for GMAT Inference Questions

The following tips can help the test-takers to answer inference questions:

  • Draw conclusions only from the given information.
  • Review the words like ‘any,’ ‘best,’ ‘worst,’ ‘only,’ ‘all,’ or ‘none,’ as these are often overly general and can’t be verified by the limited information in the passage.
  • Choices with leaps are unverified and these mislead from finding the right answer.
  • Use odd one out to find the incorrect answer choices
  • The extreme answer options are often incorrect.
  • Off-topic answer choices or the ones addressing some tangential might be a red flag.

Tips for GMAT Assumption Questions

Assumption questions are more difficult compared to the inference questions, so proper practice of GMAT Assumption based practice questions is necessary. To answer the assumption based GMAT critical reasoning questions, the following tips can help:

  • Search for keywords to gain reliability.
  • Before proceeding, understand the premises, assumptions, and conclusions clearly.
  • Check whether premises logically support a conclusion.
  • One or more assumptions have to be true to validate the conclusion based on it.

GMAT critical reasoning: Inference and Assumptions is pretty complex, but proper understanding and thorough practice with the GMAT Verbal practice papers are the keys to answer these questions accurately, that too using less time. Altogether, these GMAT critical reasoning tips will help the candidates to secure a higher score in GMAT.

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.

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Answered Questions

DP

Daksh Prajapati

20 Apr 23

TAPMI’s WAT includes questions that are mostly related to general knowledge and current affairs. WAT is basically how strong you are in written skills. Try reading current affairs topics from there only. It's all about how you tell them. Write clearly point to point and do not use jargon or bug words. They don't fetch any more points. Just make your point clear.

PI mostly has questions derived from your past experiences, academics, and sometimes current happenings around the world. If you’re aware of and following at least one news source for around 4 months before your PI, you are good to go.

Read the form that you filled out. That's the first thing they are going to ask. Be confident and do not try to beat around the bush. If you do not know something it's ok as long as you say it. But that being said, do not go completely blank.

...Show More

BS

Bhavya Singh

18 Mar 21

Several factors affect the chance of a candidate getting a seat in ISB Hyderabad. Not only the GMAT score, but also the application profile, essays, and performance in the interview combined together decides whether a candidate should get a seat or not in such an elite institute. The points listed below are some important aspects to consider for admission to such institutes.

  • There is no fixed cut-off for ISB Hyderabad, as declared by the institute. There are examples of people with a GMAT score of 720 not getting a seat from the interviews. On the other hand, there are candidates with a score of 700-710 but are successful in getting a seat in ISB Hyderabad.
  • GMAT score is not the only criteria for getting a seat, but the door to get an interview call. The quality of essays written by the candidate, his/her application/ profile, and the performance in the interviews are also considered.
  • For candidates with an average profile, a GMAT score of 720+, along with a complete application and a good essay can be considered to have high chances to receive an interview call. After having a call, the rest depends on how the candidate will perform in his/her interview.

This is the overall scenario for admission in ISB Hyderabad, for a student with an average profile.

...Show More

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