Glossary
inference
An inference is a conclusion the passage supports without stating — one step past the text, using only what the text gives.
An inference is a conclusion the passage supports without stating, and the test for one is mechanical: name the sentence or two that must be true for the answer to hold, then check that the passage actually gives them. If the answer needs a fact the passage never supplies, it is a guess dressed as a reading. Questions phrase the task in several ways — what the passage implies, what it suggests, what would most likely follow, what can be concluded — and all of them are answered from the text alone. The word likely is doing work there: an inference is the reading the passage points at, not the only thing that could ever happen. Keep the step small. One step past the text is an inference; a second step is speculation, and a choice that needs a second assumption to be true is too far. A question about how the author would treat a new case is still answered from a sentence on the page.
Taught in
Related terms
- main idea — The main idea is the claim a passage was written to deliver — broad enough to cover every paragraph, narrow enough that no paragraph sits outside it.
- text structure — Text structure is the outline a passage is built on — sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, or problem and solution — and naming it tells you where the claim sits.
- supporting detail — A supporting detail is a fact, example or reason that holds up the main idea of a passage rather than adding a new point of its own.
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)