DIGITAL SAT

INFERENCES
• SAT inference questions are some of the trickiest challenges in the
Digital SAT Reading and Writing section. These questions require
critical thinking, close reading, and the ability to deduce meaning
beyond what is explicitly stated in the text. These questions require
you to go beyond what is explicitly stated in the text and draw logical
conclusions based on the given information. To help you ace these
questions, we’ve created this comprehensive guide filled with
strategies, tips, and practice ideas to improve your SAT reading score
and master Digital SAT inference questions.
• What Are Inference Questions?
• Inference questions ask you to deduce information that is not directly
stated in the passage. Instead of looking for facts, you’re tasked with
interpreting context, understanding implications, or predicting
outcomes based on the text. These questions are easily recognizable
because the question text is always the same:
• “Which choice most logically completes the text?”
• Once you have identified that the question is an inference question,
be prepared to read the text closely.
• Why Are Inference Questions Important?
• Inference questions test your critical thinking and reading
comprehension skills, essential for improving your SAT reading score.
They measure how well you can:
• Connect ideas within a passage.
• Understand subtle nuances in the text.
• Make logical assumptions based on evidence.
Strategies for Tackling Inference Questions
1. Read the Question
For inference questions, the question is always the same. We are looking for a logical
conclusion to the text.
2. Identify the Relevant Text
Inference questions always ask you to complete the concluding sentence of the passage.
Use the first sentence of the passage to identify the main topic. The concluding sentence
will always be related to this main topic. Reading the topic sentence carefully is the best
place to start.
In this case, the main topic is ephemera and the collector John Johnson.
3. Summarize the argument
Look at the text as a whole. Identify the main ideas that are advanced in the passage. The argument is often
highlighted by a transitional term such as however, but, although, indeed etc. These terms introduce contrasts,
paradoxes, and juxtapositions which are often key to understanding the meaning of the text. Read carefully for
transitional terms to thoroughly grasp the main argument.
Example:
Argument: Prior to Johson’s death, his collection of ephemera was considered worthless. After his death, the
Bodelian library grasped its value and acquired it.
• Many animals, including humans, Which choice most logically completes the
must sleep, and sleep is known to text?
have a role in everything from healing A) it is more important to understand how
injuries to encoding information in widespread prolonged deep sleep is than to
long-term memory. But some understand its function.
scientists claim that, from an B) prolonged deep sleep is likely advantageous
evolutionary standpoint, deep sleep in ways that have yet to be discovered.
for hours at a time leaves an animal C) many traits that provide significant benefits
so vulnerable that the known benefits for an animal also likely pose risks to that
animal.
of sleeping seem insufficient to
explain why it became so widespread D) most traits perform functions that are hard
to understand from an evolutionary
in the animal kingdom. These standpoint.
scientists therefore imply that ______
• Several artworks found among the • Which choice most logically
ruins of the ancient Roman city of completes the text?
Pompeii depict a female figure fishing
with a cupid nearby. Some scholars • A) is not conclusive evidence
have asserted that the figure is the that the figure is Venus.
goddess Venus, since she is known to
have been linked with cupids in • B) suggests that Venus was often
Roman culture, but University of depicted fishing.
Leicester archaeologist Carla Brain • C) eliminates the possibility that
suggests that cupids may have also
been associated with fishing generally.
the figure is Venus.
The fact that a cupid is shown near the • D) would be difficult to account
female figure, therefore, _______ for if the figure is not Venus.
Many of William Shakespeare’s • Which choice most logically completes the
tragedies address broad themes that text?
still appeal to today’s audiences. For • A) many theatergoers and readers today are
instance, Romeo and Juliet, which is set likely to find Shakespeare’s history plays less
in the Italy of Shakespeare’s time, engaging than the tragedies.
tackles the themes of parents versus • B) some of Shakespeare’s tragedies are
children and love versus hate, and the more relevant to today’s audiences than
twentieth-century plays.
play continues to be read and produced
widely around the world. But • C) Romeo and Juliet is the most thematically
accessible of all Shakespeare’s tragedies.
understanding Shakespeare’s so-called
history plays can require a knowledge of • D) experts in English history tend to prefer
Shakespeare’s history plays to his other
several centuries of English history. works.
Consequently, _______
Ancestral Puebloans, the civilization from which Which choice most logically completes the
present-day Pueblo tribes descended, emerged text?
as early as 1500 B.C.E. in an area of what is now A) conditions of the terrains in the Rio Grande
the southwestern United States and dispersed Valley and Mesa Verde had greater similarities
suddenly in the late 1200s C.E., abandoning in the past than they do today.
established villages with systems for farming
crops and turkeys. Recent analysis comparing B) some Ancestral Puebloans migrated to the
turkey remains at Mesa Verde, one such village Rio Grande Valley in the late 1200s and carried
in southern Colorado, to samples from modern farming practices with them.
turkey populations in the Rio Grande Valley of C) Indigenous peoples living in the Rio Grande
north central New Mexico determined that the Valley primarily planted crops and did not
latter birds descended in part from turkeys cultivate turkeys before 1280.
cultivated at Mesa Verde, with shared genetic
markers appearing only after 1280. Thus, D) the Ancestral Puebloans of Mesa Verde
researchers concluded that _______ likely adopted the farming practices of
Indigenous peoples living in other regions.
One challenge when researching Which choice most logically completes the
whether holding elected office changes text?
a person’s behavior is the problem of A) struggle to find valid data about the
ensuring that the experiment has an behavior of politicians who do not currently
hold office.
appropriate control group. To reveal
the effect of holding office, researchers B) can only conduct valid studies with people
who have previously held office rather than
must compare people who hold people who presently hold office.
elected office with people who do not C) should select a control group of people who
hold office but who are otherwise differ from office holders in several significant
similar to the office-holders. Since ways.
researchers are unable to control D) will find it difficult to identify a group of
which politicians win elections, they people who can function as an appropriate
therefore _______ control group for their studies.