Why "As" is wrong in following question

[gauravtyagigmat]

The Coast Guard is conducting tests to see whether pigeons can be trained to help find survivors of wrecks at sea.

A. to see whether pigeons can be trained to help find
B. to see whether pigeons can be trained as help to find
C. to see if pigeons can be trained for helping to find
D. that see if pigeons are able to be trained in helping to find
E. that see whether pigeons are able to be trained for help in finding

I got this question in GMAt Prep
OA is A but i marked B

I thought "As" is followed by a phrase "help to find survivors of wrecks at sea".All mentioned in last sentence shows pigeons in role of help. (When "as" is used as preposition and a noun or noun phrase follows "as", it describes in role of).

I know "to+verb" is used to show intention so no doubt on "to+verb" front

[gauravtyagigmat]

I can post the screen shot as well if required in fact I already tried posting screen but wasn't able to do so.
kindly let me know how to post an image, if posting an image is required to answer my question

thanks

[RonPurewal]

The Coast Guard is conducting tests to see whether pigeons can be trained to help find survivors of wrecks at sea.

A. to see whether pigeons can be trained to help find
B. to see whether pigeons can be trained as help to find
C. to see if pigeons can be trained for helping to find
D. that see if pigeons are able to be trained in helping to find
E. that see whether pigeons are able to be trained for help in finding

I got this question in GMAt Prep
OA is A but i marked B

I thought "As" is followed by a phrase "help to find survivors of wrecks at sea".All mentioned in last sentence shows pigeons in role of help. (When "as" is used as preposition and a noun or noun phrase follows "as", it describes in role of).

The pigeons are not literally "help", so that construction is technically a lie.

"Help" means "assistance". (In informal and spoken language, "help" is sometimes used to refer to people/animals who provide help, but that usage is not ok in formal writing. In formal writing, words are used much more literally.)

[RonPurewal]

I can post the screen shot as well if required in fact I already tried posting screen but wasn't able to do so.
kindly let me know how to post an image, if posting an image is required to answer my question

thanks

1/ Go to postimage.org
2/ Upload your picture
3/ Copy the link
4/ Paste it here

(There's also an image posting button somewhere on the forum software, but that's too hard for computer-illiterate fools like me.)

[gauravtyagigmat]

screen shot of gmat prep
http://s14.postimg.org/nyhlr6v6p/Untitled.jpg

[gauravtyagigmat]

Hi Ron

Q.1 How do i know that something is wrong in formal written english in particular question?

I have a question regarding prepration of verbal section.
When i solve verbal questions in book/hard copy, I am more efficient as compared to When i solve verbal questions on computer screen.
I feel my metal aptness and efficiency decreases on computer screen.
What should i do to improve on this front

[jnelson0612]

Hi Ron

Q.1 How do i know that something is wrong in formal written english in particular question?

I have a question regarding prepration of verbal section.
When i solve verbal questions in book/hard copy, I am more efficient as compared to When i solve verbal questions on computer screen.
I feel my metal aptness and efficiency decreases on computer screen.
What should i do to improve on this front

Hi Gaurav,
These are good questions. Let me address them:
1) How do you know that something is wrong?
a) Learn the grammar rules. The GMAT tests certain rules over and over: parallelism, pronouns, modifiers, subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, comparisons, and idioms. There is no substitute for knowing these rules.
b) Learn the proper strategies. The concept of "splits" in answer choices is very useful; when you see differences it can help you identify grammar rules (or meaning issues) that are being tested.
c) Read good quality publications in English, such as the Economist magazine. This will not only help you with Sentence Correction, but also with the entire verbal section.

2) What do you do if you do much better in the book than on the screen?
My answer: do more questions on the screen! For instance, purchase the GMAT Prep Pack from mba.com. There are 400+ new GMAT questions and you can put them on your computer and do them. If you are a course student of ours, you can also work our online homework banks and question banks on the screen.

Keep in mind that you may feel that you do worse on the screen because you only work screen questions during CAT tests, and these tests are adaptive. If you're doing well you'll continue to get difficult questions. On the other hand, in the OG 13 you get questions of all difficulty.

[RonPurewal]

You can also tear the pages out of the OG, put them through a scanner, and then put the scanned pages on a computer screen.

(As a bonus, if you have a scanner with OCR capability, you can make a file with searchable text.)

[gauravtyagigmat]

You can also tear the pages out of the OG, put them through a scanner, and then put the scanned pages on a computer screen.

(As a bonus, if you have a scanner with OCR capability, you can make a file with searchable text.)

Thanks Jamie and Ron for advice.

question 1.
Gmat prep which you mentioned contains Quant questions also.I need more questions only on verbal front.I am good at quant section of gmat.Is there any pack of verbal question only in gmatprep , manhattan gmat or any other.

Even I am looking to buy online exam.Can i get exam which contains only verbal section.Actually when i will improve my verbal section then i am looking to practice full gmat practice exam
Please guide which online exam will be better gmatprep or manhattan gmat

Thanking you
Gaurav Tyagi

[RonPurewal]

Even I am looking to buy online exam.Can i get exam which contains only verbal section.

If you are specifically looking to improve your skills on the verbal section, then you shouldn't be thinking about practice tests at all.
Practice tests are NOT a tool for improvement. You won't get any better at the material by taking them.

To improve your skills, you need to focus on one type of task at a time. E.g., you need to practice several CR questions together, or several SC questions together, etc. (Ideally your practice will be even more focused; for instance, you could do a few Assumption questions in a row, or search a bunch of SC's only for parallelism.)
Practice tests don't have a focus. They jump around between topics and formats, and don't concentrate on anything.

The only reasons for taking practice tests are:
1/ Get a (very rough) idea of where you stand, and get a sense of your strengths and weaknesses;
2/ Practice your timing.

For what you're talking about, practice tests are useless. Just get the official verbal material (OG, OG verbal supplement, GMATprep archives) and practice in a way that actually concentrates on things.

[RonPurewal]

By the way, Gaurav, please don't post questions about general study strategies and/or materials here; they don't belong here. Questions about study strategies and/or practice materials belong in the General GMAT Questions folder.

Thanks.