Student Majors SC problem from ETS GMAT exam

[JA750]

Hey all,

I was wondering if someone can walk me thru the grammatical errors (first and second level) on this problem. I just want to improve on my errors. I don't understand why answer choice (B) is correct over (C). Thanks.

As business grows more complex, students majoring in specialized areas like those of finance and marketing have been becoming increasingly successful in the job market.

a. majoring in specialized areas like those of finance and marketing have been becoming increasingly

b. who major in such specialized areas as finance and marketing are becoming more and more

c. who majored in specialized areas such as those of finance and marketing are being increasingly

d. who major in specialized areas like those of finance and marketing have been becoming more and more

e. having majored in such specialized areas as finance and marketing are being increasingly

[sudhanshu.jha03]

Hi ,
ans is b only...
first u found that such as should be used ..

As "As business grows more complex" is in present ..so latter part wud be also in present...whihc is not in c "who majored"....

Also finance and marketing are types of specialized areas...

Hope it helps !

[RonPurewal]

the biggest problem in answer choice (c) is the use of "those of" -- in this construction, you have to have some NOUN for which "those" can actually stand.
for instance:
the fats in olive oil are more healthful than THOSE in canola oil.
--> those, "those" stands for fats.

in choice (c) there is no noun for which "those" can stand -- there's no "NOUN of finance and marketing"; the specialized areas are finance and marketing themselves.

--

also, "majored" is a problem because of the context of the sentence. (note that all verb tenses are decided by context; verb tense is not decided by grammatical issues.)
specifically, the sentence talks about students. since students are still in school -- otherwise they would be graduates, not students -- it's inappropriate to say "majored" in the past tense.

[visitdhiraj]

Hi Ron,

I would like to know more about the following

Since you state that the word used is students and therefore "Majored" cannot be used. In the case, how can students be increasingly successful when they are still not graduate?

Thanking you in anticipation

Dheeraj

[visitdhiraj]

Hi Ron,

I would like to know more about the following

Since you state that the word used is students and therefore "Majored" cannot be used. In the case, how can students be increasingly successful when they are still not graduate?

Thanking you in anticipation

Dheeraj

[tim]

most students interview for jobs while they're still in school..

[manhhiep2509]

Hello.

Please explain why using present perfect in choice A is incorrect?

Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

Hello.

Please explain why using present perfect in choice A is incorrect?

Thank you.

For "have been xxxx" to make sense in context, you'd need "As business has grown..."

[HemantR606]

the biggest problem in answer choice (c) is the use of "those of" -- in this construction, you have to have some NOUN for which "those" can actually stand.
for instance:
the fats in olive oil are more healthful than THOSE in canola oil.
--> those, "those" stands for fats.

in choice (c) there is no noun for which "those" can stand -- there's no "NOUN of finance and marketing"; the specialized areas are finance and marketing themselves.

Hi Ron,

I still didn't understand why using 'those of' is incorrect. Why can't 'those of' mean some speciality area inside finance such as financial mathematics or behavioral finance?


Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

^^ common sense, basically.

GMAC will not write a "trick" sentence. if they want to indicate sub-fields within those fields, the sentence will definitely contain an explicit indication of those sub-fields.

[RonPurewal]

incidentally, all the choices with "those of" are also incorrect for other, relatively straightforward, reasons:

• in A and D, "like" doesn't make sense (are there any fields that are similar to BOTH finance and marketing? probably not ... and, even if there are such fields, that's clearly not the intended meaning)

• in C, "majored" doesn't make sense (the sentence is about students, so past-tense "majored" is nonsense)