GMAT Tip: Inference Questions

The GMAT Tip of the Week is a weekly column that includes advice on taking the Graduate Management Admission Test, which is required for admission to most business schools. Every week an instructor from a top test prep company will share suggestions for improving your GMAT score. This week’s tip comes from Andrew Mitchell, director of prebusiness programs and GMAT instructor at Kaplan Test Prep.

Think about how you would define the word “inference.” If you are like most people, you’ll come up with a definition along the lines of “a piece of information that is not explicitly stated but is still likely to be true.” On the GMAT, however, an inference is not something that is likely to be true but something that must be true based on the information provided. An answer choice that might be or could be true will be incorrect, whereas an option that has to be true no matter what will be right.