As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive

[Luci]

<<As the former>> chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Pilkin attended more than 400 meetings adn reviewed more than 700 applications.

A-As the former
B-The former
C-Former
D-She was
E-As the

Well correct answer is E, as says the GMATprep, but what are the diferences between A) and E). Moreover A) includes former and seems to be correct, so if E) does not include it, why is E) better than A).

Am I missing somethig for being a non native?

I also would like to ask the experts: In this verval part I thought I did it really good, but at the end I finished with a 34. I got wrong questions number 7,8,12,14,17,18,22,24,25,31,34,37,38,39,41

(At the end I was obviously runnig out of time so I had to more or less made a guess. I read through the questions really fast).

I got the first 6 right, which I think it should have boosted me to a high level, and actually the questions have been quite hard during the whole exam (that is why I runned out of time). And then I havent fail many questions in a row, actually my errors are spread trough all the exam, getting 3 correct answer and 2 wrong, or similar that I thought it will keep improving my performance smoothly. So when I saw the 34 I was very dissapointed, I thought I was going to get arround a 38 or so.

What do you think? Since the GMATprep is the most reliable exam, this result has lower my confidence, because I´ve been preparing verbal quite hard and since I felt I did this one pretty good now I dont really know what to expect.

I just one to add one more thing. In my opinion, MGMAT tests for the RC part are considerably easier than the real GMAT ones, which by the way are sometimes quite short but very complicated (at least for non native). Actually in MGMAT is the part I do better within verbal, and in the GMATprep is the part I do worst. I have noticed also that MGMAT test are easier but the questions might be trickier (the 700-800), while the GMATprep tests are by far more complicated but the questions are easier.

The examples for SC and CR are really well done in MGMAT tests. And for the quant part, I thing the problems are harder in MGMAT but very similiar, so they are a great training for the real test.

Thanks

[dbernst]

Luci, you are missing a nuance in the meaning of the sentence that is difficult even for a native speaker of English to identify. An individual would not be the former chair of a planning board for 18 consecutive years; instead, the sentence is attempting to say that Joan was actully the chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and that she attended these meetings during those 18 years. Thus, choices A, B, and C and be eliminated. As D is a run on sentence, E is the best answer.

As for your scoring questions, I have two thoughts. First, there is basically no benefit to answering the first 6 questions correctly if you are unable to work relatively accurately through the entire section. I am not sure who created or perpetuated this myth about the early questions, but answering them correctly is only beneficial if you are then able to continue to correctly answer those questions above your "ability level" throughout the remainder of the test. If not, your score will regress, especially when you miss 5 of the final 6 questions (as you did). Second, the number of questions you answer correctly, though important, is not vital to your score. What truly matters is which questions you answer correctly. To achieve your goal score you must answer most of the questions below this difficulty level correctly. If you are inconsistent with questions of a difficulty below your "ability level," you will never rise to a point that places you firmly within your desired range.

Hope that helps. Please feel to reply with further questions.
-dan

As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Pilkin attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 applications.

A-As the former
B-The former
C-Former
D-She was
E-As the

[Guest]

Could someone clarify as to why E is the correct answer. I know AS can only introduce a subordinate clause, therefore it must contain a subject and verb. As could never introduce a prepositional phrase if I am correct. In this case it seems to introduce an article such as the is this the reason the correct answer is E? If E is the correct why is the word former eliminated?

Thanks....

[guest]

former must be removed not for grammatical reasons but to correct the meaning of the statement. With "former" left in there it would imply that the women had the role of "former chair" for the 18 consecutive years. Instead she was the actual chair for those 18 years. She is now the former chair but was not such during those 18 cons years. hope this helps.

[RonPurewal]

former must be removed not for grammatical reasons but to correct the meaning of the statement. With "former" left in there it would imply that the women had the role of "former chair" for the 18 consecutive years. Instead she was the actual chair for those 18 years. She is now the former chair but was not such during those 18 cons years. hope this helps.

indeed.

[soundok]

Could I use " The chair of..." rather than" AS the former chair" ?

[RonPurewal]

Could I use " The chair of..." rather than" AS the former chair" ?

you could probably do that, but it wouldn't be as clear as the correct option here.

if you did that, it wouldn't be 100% clear that she undertook all these actions while she was chair.

it wouldn't be grammatically correct, but "as" makes it crystal clear that the cited actions took place during her tenure as chair.

[tankobe]

Could I use " The chair of..." rather than" AS the former chair" ?

you could probably do that, but it wouldn't be as clear as the correct option here.

if you did that, it wouldn't be 100% clear that she undertook all these actions while she was chair.

it wouldn't be grammatically correct, but "as" makes it crystal clear that the cited actions took place during her tenure as chair.

excellent explanation...

[RonPurewal]

Could I use " The chair of..." rather than" AS the former chair" ?

you could probably do that, but it wouldn't be as clear as the correct option here.

if you did that, it wouldn't be 100% clear that she undertook all these actions while she was chair.

it wouldn't be grammatically correct, but "as" makes it crystal clear that the cited actions took place during her tenure as chair.

excellent explanation...

thanks

[teal777]

I still don't understand what is wrong with (B)? I though (B) has special idiom used correctly -

'article + designations of the person + , + main clause beginning with the name of the person........

[RonPurewal]

I still don't understand what is wrong with (B)? I though (B) has special idiom used correctly -

'article + designations of the person + , + main clause beginning with the name of the person........

(b) has a nonsense meaning.

for an excellent explanation, read the fourth post in this thread, the post written by "guest" (in all lowercase -- i.e., not the post by "Guest" that appears directly before it).

[davetzulin]

just read this little clinic by Stacey on one of the leading gmat sites.

I have a comment about why B and C are incorrect, and I want to know if I'm mistaken.

(B) The former
(C) Former

It was mentioned these are wrong because it's illogical to say Joan Philkill did the things she did as a "former" chair. While I agree that choice A "as the former" does not make sense, since "as" means "in the role of", I don't understand why it would be wrong to modify Joan Philkill (as in B,C) and go and talk about what she did.

i thought of this example

if you saw a chameleon that was BLUE, then went back later and saw the same chameleon, which is now GREEN, you might say

"formerly blue, charlie, blended in with the blue sky"

both modifier and main clause are in past tense, and charlie is presently green.


I don't disagree that B/C are wrong, I just felt they are wrong because the modifier of being "former chair" doesn't seem to really express the idea of the following main clause. the main clause talks about the things Joan did in the role of former chair, so preposition "as" expresses it better than just a modifier.

a police officer, bob pulled over random cars
as a police officer, bob pulled over random cars

the first doesn't seem to suggest the meaning of doing something in a particular role.

[RonPurewal]

dave, you're neglecting the timeframe in the modifier. it's not possible to be a "former X for 18 years".

you can be an X for 18 years, whatever X may be, but "former X" is something that lasts forever.

[davetzulin]

thanks Ron, that makes perfect sense.

[RonPurewal]

thanks Ron, that makes perfect sense.

you're welcome.