Improving at inference questions

[CourtneyH949]

Hi

Out of all RC questions, I'm struggling the most with inference questions. How can I improve at this question type?

[Laura Damone]

Hi Courtney, Please forgive the delayed response here. We had a technical issue that caused this post to get buried!

Most of my students who struggle with Inference questions in RC are too loose with the term "inference." In real life, we're rewarded for creative inferences. Not so on the LSAT. Inferences in RC must have solid backup in the text. In fact, lots of students skip over the right answer, thinking "well, the passage says this explicitly so it can't be an inference!" If you find yourself having that thought, you're probably looking at the right choice! If you can't find strong, almost explicit, textual support for an answer, it's wrong.

I tend to do inference questions in two passes. Pass 1 - eliminate the answers that I know are way off base. Then I go back to the passage to research my contenders. Pass 2 eliminates the contenders one by one until I reach an answer that is well supported.

Going back to the passage is crucial. It's not an extra step or a waste of time. Often folks who struggle with Inference questions are trying to do them from memory, and that approach simply doesn't work for 9 students out of 10.

Hope this helps!