How do RC Inference questions work?
RC Inference questions: what the passage commits to without saying
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RC Inference questions ask what the passage supports without stating. Stems read "it can be inferred from the passage that", "the passage suggests which one of the following", or "the author would most likely agree that".
The credited answer is never a restatement, and it is never a leap. It sits one small step past the text — close enough that you can point at the lines that force it.
The pointing test
For every answer you are tempted by, find the specific sentence or two that makes it true. If you cannot point at them, it is not the answer, however sensible it sounds.
This is the whole discipline of the type, and it is harder in RC than in Logical Reasoning because the passage is long enough that a plausible-sounding answer can feel familiar without being supported. Familiarity is not support. The passage mentioned the topic; that is not the same as committing to the claim.
Watch the strength of the language
RC passages hedge constantly — "suggests", "may indicate", "some researchers argue", "appears to". An inference cannot be more certain than the material it comes from. If the passage says a study suggests a link, an answer asserting the link exists has left the passage behind.
This cuts the other way too, and it is why weak-sounding answers are so often right here. "At least one" or "in some cases" is easy to support and hard to argue with. Bold answers are exciting and usually wrong.
- Too strong. Turns a hedge into a certainty, or a tendency into a rule.
- Attributed to the wrong person. Supported by a view the passage REPORTS rather than one it endorses — the classic RC error, and the reason it pays to track whose voice each paragraph is in.
- Outside the passage. True in the world, and unsupported by these lines.
- A restatement. Stated outright in the passage, so nothing was inferred. Right-sounding and disqualified by the question itself.
- Close but scoped wrong. The right relationship claimed about the wrong group, period, or case.
Sources
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