Fact Inference & Judgment ....

One of the most dreaded question type in Management Entrance Exam, this section has questions which compel even the best of minds to ponder.

Here is a little help in how to identify them and differentiate among them.

FACTS:
• They can be verified or discovered
• Applicable to all – Universal truths.
• Anything that is seen, heard or read is a fact.
• Anyone else’s opinion stated by the author is a fact. (The personal opinion will become a judgement)
• Figures, Statistics or other data without an opinion attached to it is a fact. ( with an opinion attached becomes an inference).
INFERENCES:
• A logical conclusion based on a set of facts. (Logical conclusion meaning, anyone seeing those set of facts should be able to arrive at that.)
• Change the facts and the conclusion will no longer be valid.
• Inferences are self-explanatory. It tells you “why”. (If you have a statement which looks like an inference and you form a “why” question on it, you should be able to get an answer. If you don’t, it will become a Judgement.)
• An inference is an opinion that doesn’t change according to perspective.
• If the set of sentences given to you are connected, you can only do UPLINKING to decide that a statement as an inference. Meaning – You should have the facts preceeding this statement. If the facts are provided as the next statements it cannot be an inference. It will be a judgement.
Ex:
•
o X is a good student when it comes to attendance.
o X attends college regularly.
In this example, statement A is a judgement, statement B is a fact.
If you change the order like below –
•
o X attends college regularly.
o X is a good student when it comes to attendance.
In this case A is a fact and B is an inference.
• One fact can lead to multiple inferences.
• Inference will have verbal bridges with facts ( words like leads to, points to, indicates, shows, explains, expresses)
• A cause and effect relation ship can be termed as an inference.
• A statement backed up by an example in the same sentence will be an inference.

JUDGMENT:

1.Any statement that could lead to an approval or disapproval.

2.It is the author’s personal opinion.

3.It is open to challenge.

4.It doesn’t tell you why. ( see point 3 of inference for clarity)

5.It changes according to perspective.


P.S. -> because of my project work, industrial training, aimcat and above all my laziness, I haven't been posting for past 2 days, but let me assure you that it will be taken care of.

P.P.S -> I have got quite a few suggestions to discuss the smart methods (aka option rejection, value putting etc) and some others regarding maximization/minimization using venn dig / set theory. I will definitely try to write about the same in my future posts.