Inferences

Digital SAT · Reading and Writing · Information and Ideas. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The text ends with a blank, often after words such as "this suggests that" or "therefore." You choose the ending that must follow from what the text has said.

Treat the text as a chain of facts. Put the facts together and take one small step forward: that step is the answer. A correct inference is modest. It says only what the facts force you to accept, so it often uses careful words such as "may," "some" or "in part."

Wrong options go too far, bring in an idea the text never mentions, or contradict one of the facts. If the text describes a study, ask what the result does and does not show. Two things that happen together do not prove that one causes the other.

Rules to remember

Use every fact in the text. An answer that ignores one of them is usually wrong.
The answer follows from the text alone, not from outside knowledge.
Take one small step from the facts. Prefer the cautious option to the sweeping one.
"If the hypothesis is correct": pick the result that the hypothesis predicts.
A link between two things (correlation) does not prove cause: another factor may explain both.
Read your choice back into the sentence. It must fit the words just before the blank.

Common mistake

Choosing an ending that sounds likely in real life but has no support in the text. Point to the sentence that proves each part of your answer.

Worked example

"Plants of one species grow on both sides of a mountain. On the wet side their leaves are large; on the dry side they are small. When seeds from both sides were grown together in one greenhouse, all the plants grew leaves of the same size. This suggests that the difference in leaf size ______"

Fact 1: in the wild, leaf size differs between the wet side and the dry side.
Fact 2: when the conditions are the same, the difference disappears.
So the difference comes from the conditions, not from the seeds themselves.

Answer: "results from the conditions in which the plants grow rather than from an inherited difference between the two groups."

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