Question 15·Hard·Inferences
During a 12-week pilot at three midsize firms, managers replaced most weekly status meetings with a shared dashboard and asynchronous comments. Company logs showed that scheduled meeting hours per employee fell by about one-third. However, average daily email volume rose substantially, and total time spent in collaboration (meetings, email, and chat combined) remained steady. In a follow-up survey, employees reported greater difficulty "disconnecting" after work, and the proportion of messages sent after business hours increased.
Which inference is best supported by these findings?
For SAT inference questions, first restate the passage’s measurable trends (what decreased, increased, and stayed the same). Then choose the option that accounts for all key facts while making the smallest necessary inference. Eliminate answers that (1) contradict an explicit statement, or (2) introduce a specific cause (preferences, failures, misunderstandings) that the passage never establishes.
Hints
Track what decreased, increased, and stayed the same
Identify one metric that went down, one that went up, and one that stayed steady. An inference should fit all three.
Use the survey detail as evidence, not background
The survey results about "disconnecting" and the increase in after-hours messages should directly shape your inference about when collaboration happened.
Avoid answers that add a cause
If a choice explains the change by claiming what employees preferred or what the dashboard could/couldn’t do, check whether the passage actually states that reason.
Step-by-step Explanation
Extract the key facts from the passage
List what the passage actually tells you:
- Weekly status meetings were mostly replaced with a dashboard and asynchronous comments.
- Scheduled meeting hours per employee fell by about one-third.
- Average daily email volume rose substantially.
- Total time spent in collaboration (meetings, email, and chat combined) remained steady.
- Employees reported greater difficulty "disconnecting" after work.
- A larger share of messages were sent after business hours.
These are the only facts you can use to support an inference.
Decide what kind of change happened
Ask: Did the initiative change how much people collaborated, or how and when they collaborated?
- Because total collaboration time stayed steady, the amount of collaboration did not decrease overall.
- Meeting time went down, while email volume went up.
- After-hours messaging increased, and employees found it harder to disconnect.
So the evidence points to a shift in format and timing, not a reduction in total collaboration.
Test each answer against the evidence
Compare each choice to the passage:
- Be skeptical of answers that imply employees collaborated less overall, since the passage says total collaboration time stayed steady.
- Be skeptical of answers that claim a specific cause (like preferences or a tool being inadequate) unless the passage directly states it.
- Prefer the option that accounts for both the channel shift (meetings down, email up) and the after-hours effects (harder to disconnect, more after-hours messages).
Select the inference that matches all trends
The best-supported inference is the one that matches the full pattern: meeting hours decreased, asynchronous communication increased, total collaboration time stayed the same, and more communication happened after hours.
Therefore, the best-supported inference is: The initiative likely shifted collaboration from meetings to asynchronous channels, increasing the likelihood of work spilling into after-hours periods.