MCAT CARS Implication Questions

[strong oak]

Hi all. I noticed that I struggle with CARS questions that ask "the author implies what about ___?" and "what does the author imply by saying ___?"

Mainly, I've missed questions for choosing the answer that was overtly stated, and I've missed questions for avoiding answers I thought were overtly stated and instead choosing answers that were unsupported.

Does anyone have an approach for these questions, or just some advice?

Much appreciated.

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[Medical Muse]

Inference questions are (usually) the hardest questions on CARS, so your struggles are not unexpected. An inference question can be asked about any aspect of a passage, so formulating a one-size-fits-all approach is practically impossible. The goal is to find the answer choice that best fits the Goldilocks principle: not verbatim, not too much of a stretch, but just the right amount of an inference.

My first recommendation is to flag the inference questions and make sure you answer every non-inference question first. I know that sounds like giving up, but there is no shame in making sure you get every easy question right and using your left over time on the hard questions. On the actual MCAT (and AAMC's practice material), you won't find a correct answer choice to an inference question that is overtly stated in the passage. By definition, that isn't an inference. My other advice is to pick the answer choice most consistent with the main idea. Rarely can you infer something that disagrees with the author's argument. For the inferences where the question asks about "an assumption underlying the author's argument," it can help to approach it from the perspective of weakening the argument. If you ask yourself which answer choice, if found to be wrong, causes the most damage to the argument, this will likely be the correct answer.

Of all the recommendations, the most important one is to pick the answer choices that the author would most likely agree with. If you use the main idea/author's perspective as a guide, it can help you from being led astray.

 

[strong oak]

@TBR_Doc thank you so much for your thorough response! This is quite helpful.

 

[JustinM88]

Inference questions are (usually) the hardest questions on CARS, so your struggles are not unexpected. An inference question can be asked about any aspect of a passage, so formulating a one-size-fits-all approach is practically impossible. The goal is to find the answer choice that best fits the Goldilocks principle: not verbatim, not too much of a stretch, but just the right amount of an inference.

My first recommendation is to flag the inference questions and make sure you answer every non-inference question first. I know that sounds like giving up, but there is no shame in making sure you get every easy question right and using your left over time on the hard questions. On the actual MCAT (and AAMC's practice material), you won't find a correct answer choice to an inference question that is overtly stated in the passage. By definition, that isn't an inference. My other advice is to pick the answer choice most consistent with the main idea. Rarely can you infer something that disagrees with the author's argument. For the inferences where the question asks about "an assumption underlying the author's argument," it can help to approach it from the perspective of weakening the argument. If you ask yourself which answer choice, if found to be wrong, causes the most damage to the argument, this will likely be the correct answer.

Of all the recommendations, the most important one is to pick the answer choices that the author would most likely agree with. If you use the main idea/author's perspective as a guide, it can help you from being led astray.

I think the OP was asking about implication questions, not inference questions...? Although they are pretty similar I guess and this is still all great advice*

 

[Lawpy]

Hi all. I noticed that I struggle with CARS questions that ask "the author implies what about ___?" and "what does the author imply by saying ___?"

Mainly, I've missed questions for choosing the answer that was overtly stated, and I've missed questions for avoiding answers I thought were overtly stated and instead choosing answers that were unsupported.

Does anyone have an approach for these questions, or just some advice?

Much appreciated.

Here is a good resource: Testing Solutions' 30 Day Guide to MCAT CARS Success

 

[JustinM88]

Here is a good resource: Testing Solutions' 30 Day Guide to MCAT CARS Success

I second this^. After reading through that I think you can whittle it down to:
Implication - something that is forward looking. Eg. john's favorite food is a hamburger. John's lunch break is coming up. There's a hamburger joint right next door. It's implied that he'll go there for lunch (which is a possible future).
Inference - something that is backward looking. Eg. Men are mortal. Socrates is a man. It can be inferred that Socrates is mortal.
^I think these are actually the examples given in the Testing Solutions descriptions lol

 

[Medical Muse]

I've personally never found there to be any difference between an implication and an inference when selecting the correct answer. They are opposite sides of the same coin. Either the author implies an idea (since the author didn't explicitly state it, we must draw a conclusion) or we infer an idea (we must draw a conclusion since the author didn't explicitly state it). In one sense, inference/implication questions are like Reasoning Beyond the Text questions, where you either incorporate new information and see how it impacts the main idea or you apply the main idea to new information and see the impact. For both the inference/implication and Reasoning Beyond the Text questions, the key point is to use the main idea to prevent being led astray by a tempting distractor. The link provided by @Lawper has some good points. If their approach helps you answer more of the inference/implications correctly, run with it and don't look back. If you always select an answer with the main idea in mind (aka the answer the author would select), you're going to get the question right.