From/Based on/According to. What's the difference?

[piangel]

Hi! Eveyone,

I'm kind of confused about the usages of 'From', 'Based on', and 'According to'. Here is the example sentence.

From the records, he's pretty good at English.
Based on the records, he's pretty good at English.
According to the records, he's pretty good at English.

Which one is better and what is the difference between them?
Thanks.

Jeff

[mykwyner]

Based on the records means that you came to a conclusion after you read the facts in the records, but the conclusion itself was not in the records.

According to the records means that the conclusion was in the records.

From the records is too ambiguous to be considered precise English. I would use one of the other two, depending on your meaning.