![\"Manhattan](\"\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/04\/quick-gre-tips-inference-problems-chelsey-cooley.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Are you struggling with Reading Comprehension Inference problems? Here are my best quick GRE tips for this tricky problem type. <\/span><\/p>\n Inference problems look diverse, but they actually all follow one rule. The right answer to every inference problem is a fact you can <\/span>prove<\/b>, using only what\u2019s written in the passage. <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick example:<\/span><\/p>\n Government restrictions have severely limited the amount of stem cell research conducted by companies in the United States. Because of these restrictions, many scientists specializing in stem cell research have signed long-term contracts to work for foreign companies. <\/span><\/p>\n Which of the following can most properly be inferred from the information above? <\/span><\/p>\n (A) In the near future, U.S. companies will no longer be at the forefront of stem cell research. Both of the answers make perfect sense. However, you can only <\/span>prove<\/span><\/i> one of them. (B) is the right answer. The passage says that scientists have moved to foreign companies <\/span>because of the restrictions<\/span><\/i> in the U.S.\u2014if that\u2019s the case, the restrictions must not apply to those companies. <\/span><\/p>\n (A) is wrong, not because it\u2019s untrue, but because you can\u2019t prove it for certain with only the information you have. <\/span><\/p>\n How do you know that you can\u2019t prove (A)? Think of a <\/span>counterexample<\/span><\/i>. A counterexample is a \u201cwhat if\u201d scenario in which the answer choice <\/span>wouldn\u2019t<\/span><\/i> be true. <\/span><\/p>\n Is it possible that U.S. companies <\/span>will<\/span><\/i> be at the forefront of stem cell research in the near future? It\u2019s unlikely, but it is possible. For instance, the government might lift the restrictions tomorrow, and the scientists might break their contracts and return to the United States. <\/span><\/p>\n If you can think of a counterexample, then you know you\u2019re looking at a wrong answer. It shouldn\u2019t be possible to come up with a counterexample to the right answer\u2014not without going against what the passage says. <\/span><\/p>\n If you can\u2019t prove an answer choice, then it\u2019s wrong. And some things are extremely hard, if not impossible, to prove. <\/span><\/p>\n Value judgments: <\/span><\/i>If an answer choice says something like <\/span>better<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>worse<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>smart<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>risky<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>ethical<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>successful<\/span><\/i>, etc., you should question it. It\u2019s easy to prove dry, factual statements. It\u2019s much harder to prove subjective statements, like \u201ccats are better than dogs.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Predicting the future:<\/span><\/i> It\u2019s almost impossible to prove statements about the future! Things can always change tomorrow, after all. <\/span><\/p>\n Generalizations:<\/span><\/i> If the passage talks about one eccentric author, the right answer won\u2019t say \u201cmost authors are eccentric.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Strong language:<\/span><\/i> If you see language like <\/span>every<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>always<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>never<\/span><\/i>, or <\/span>cannot<\/span><\/i> in an answer choice, it\u2019s going to be hard to prove. Don\u2019t cross off these answer choices right away, but be wary of them. <\/span><\/p>\n No data:<\/span><\/i> These are easy to cross off! If the passage doesn\u2019t tell you anything about a topic, then you can\u2019t pick an answer that discusses that topic. For instance, if the passage discusses an author\u2019s personal life, you can\u2019t choose an answer that describes her writing. <\/span><\/p>\n The right answer won\u2019t tell you anything interesting, new, or radical: after all, you have to be able to prove it for certain.<\/span><\/p>\n Right answers often contain \u2018softening\u2019 or \u2018wishy-washy\u2019 language. Take another look at the problem we did earlier. The right answer opens with the words \u2018at least some.\u2019 This makes it a very weak statement. It really only says that there are at least one or two foreign companies with fewer limits on stem cell research. That\u2019s not very tough to prove. <\/span><\/p>\n The right answer might be based on only one or two sentences from the passage. It doesn\u2019t have to cover the general idea of the passage\u2014that\u2019s only necessary if you\u2019re doing a main idea question.<\/span><\/p>\n If you treat inference problems exactly the same way that you treat specific detail questions, you\u2019ll do fine. That\u2019s really what they are, after all! They might look trickier\u2014and they sometimes are\u2014but the rules are the same. Find the support for an answer in the passage, and if you can\u2019t find it quickly, make an educated guess and keep rolling! ?<\/span><\/p>\n See that \u201cSUBSCRIBE\u201d button in the top right corner? Click on it to receive all our GRE blog updates straight to your inbox!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Chelsey Cooley<\/a> You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here. Are you struggling with Reading Comprehension Inference problems? Here are my best quick GRE tips for this tricky problem type.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,474284,921840,6,7,733445,12],"tags":[1362548,1362547,1362549],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenge-problems","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-how-to-study","category-study-tips-2","category-verbal","tag-gre-tips","tag-inference-problems","tag-quick-gre-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11461,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11452\/revisions\/11461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11452"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1. Know the golden rule.<\/b><\/h4>\n
\n<\/span>(B) At least some foreign companies have fewer limits on conducting stem cell research than U.S. companies do. <\/span><\/p>\n2. Think of counterexamples.<\/b><\/h4>\n
3. Know the wrong answer types. <\/b><\/h4>\n
4. Boring is beautiful.<\/b><\/h4>\n
5. Small statements are fine!<\/b><\/h4>\n
6. When in doubt, treat inference problems like detail questions.<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"Chelsey](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2015\/11\/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Chelsey")
<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/i><\/b>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master\u2019s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170Q\/170V on the GRE.\u00a0<\/em><\/i>Check out Chelsey\u2019s upcoming GRE prep offerings here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"