Please provide assistance with RC inference questions

[beatthegmat]

Posting on behalf of 'infamouswho':

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Hey folks, I am having a hard time with inference questions in the Reading Comprehesion. I have been doing all three of the verbal bin sections in the Princeston Review book and missed just about all of the RC inference questions.

The problem is that from previous practices in the OG11th, I recalled that the one of the key strategy for getting inference questions right was that the answer choice must not directly reiterate what was already stated in the passge but instead paraphrase of it.

For Example: Verbal Bin 3 question 14 It can be inferred from the passage that
(A) What is good for American companies is not necessarily good for older Americans.
(B) American companies are prohibted by law from practices that discriminate based on gender, color of skin, or age.
(C) Large monetary judgments from age discrimintion suits might prove more expensive than paying older employees' salaries
(D) By the year 2020, the percentage of older employees will be even higher than in the year 2010
(E) Some older employees may well be more productive than some younger employees.

The correct answer was B which was inferred from the orignal passage in the following: Business have the right to rate waorkers on their productivity and to rank them against their peers. But they are not allowed to prejudge individuals based on their GMAT, race or age. I did not choose B because the answer seemed more like reiteration rather than inference and thought it must have been one of those tricky answers. Any how, I was employing this strategy during the practice tests in Princeston review and it seems that every correct answer that Princeston deemed correct directly reiterates what was already stated in the passage. Is there something I missing? Anyways, thanks in advance for any inputs!!

[beatthegmat]

Hi infamouswho:

It's pretty difficult to help walk you through that specific question your wrote, since we can't see the prompt, but I can provide you some general advice on RC.

Reading Comprehension is really difficult to coach others on because very different strategies can be effective, depending on the person. Some people skim passages, some read thoroughly, some read the question first--these can all be viable depending on yourself.

For strategies on specific GMAT RC questions, it's the same--Princeton Revew's strategy might be effective to some people, but perhaps you need to use something else to approach these inference questions.

My advice is to experiment a lot, and to take a look at the RC resources available at:

https://beatthegmat.blocked
https://del.icio.us/beatthegmat

Good luck!