Sentence Correction

It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank, with whom I have had a savings account for over twenty years, could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

a. same
b. that the bank with which I have had a savings account for over twenty years
c. that the bank, with who I have had a savings account for over twenty years
d.that the bank, with that I have had a savings account for over twenty years
e. that the bank, where I have had a savings account for over twenty years

OA B

focusgmat wrote:It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank, with whom I have had a savings account for over twenty years, could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

a. same
b. that the bank with which I have had a savings account for over twenty years
c. that the bank, with who I have had a savings account for over twenty years
d.that the bank, with that I have had a savings account for over twenty years
e. that the bank, where I have had a savings account for over twenty years

OA B

where -- has no referend
where should stand for a place ..

Thank you for your prompt response.
However, I am still unclear on why E is not the answer choice.
Isn't 'where' in E referring to 'the bank' ?

focusgmat, you are correct; 'where' refers to 'the bank' in answer E.

E needs to have a comma at the end of the underlined portion to separate the subordinate clause 'where....20yrs' from the sentence core. By placing a comma at the beginning of the this subordinate clause, the author makes it necessary to close the subordinate clause with another comma.

Correct: The bank, where I have an account, has declared bankruptcy.
Correct: The bank where I have an account has declared bankruptcy.
Incorrect: The bank, where I have an account has declared bankruptcy.

What is the source of the Q please? This question is not, in my opinion, an accurate reflection of what you will see on the GMAT. I've never seen an official GMAT or GMAT prep SC question that uses the pronoun 'I', or a question in which the only thing missing from a wrong answer is a comma. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Good luck,
-Patrick

Hi Patrick,

The source of this question is Powerscore SC bible. I rechecked the question and the part underlined after reading your post.

I am sorry that I extended the underline until the second comma.Following is the corrected underlining of the sentence in PS SC bible.

It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank, with whom I have had a savings account for over twenty years, could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

Could you please explain.

What is the source of this question? I don't think that the question accurately reflects SCs on the GMAT.

E contains an error of punctuation. The commas should be removed so that it reads:

It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank where I have had a savings account for over twenty years could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

No commas should surround where I have had a savings account for over twenty years because this information is necessary for the meaning of the sentence. Which bank is the sentence discussing? The bank where I have had a savings account for over twenty years.

The unneeded commas are the only error in E. I've never seen on the GMAT an answer choice whose only error was one of punctuation.

Hey focusgmat. Thanks for providing the source and double-checking what is underlined. In light of your update I can say that I have no idea why B is better than E. If we put aside E for a second, I don't see how B can be correct because it has only 1 comma instead of the 2 that would be needed to offset the subordinate clause. B says something like "It was bad to learn that the bank with which I worked, could not open an account". The placement of this comma, in my opinion, would make this an incorrect sentence.

Sorry I can't help. I may be missing something.

Patrick_GMATFix wrote:Hey focusgmat. Thanks for providing the source and double-checking what is underlined. In light of your update I can say that I have no idea why B is better than E. If we put aside E for a second, I don't see how B can be correct because it has only 1 comma instead of the 2 that would be needed to offset the subordinate clause. B says something like "It was bad to learn that the bank with which I worked, could not open an account". The placement of this comma, in my opinion, would make this an incorrect sentence.

Sorry I can't help. I may be missing something.

Answer choice B correctly removes all the commas:

It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank with which I have had a savings account for over twenty years could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

No commas are needed as per the reason I gave above.

GMATGuruNY wrote: Answer choice B correctly removes all the commas:

Thanks for your help GMATGuru. Your comment above may not be accurate. Please consider focusgmat's last post.

focusgmat wrote:I am sorry that I extended the underline until the second comma.Following is the corrected underlining of the sentence in PS SC bible.

It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank, with whom I have had a savings account for over twenty years, could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

In fact, the 2nd comma is not underlined, so it is part of every answer including B.

On a related note, I don't know what's wrong with E

-Patrick

Patrick_GMATFix wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote: Answer choice B correctly removes all the commas:

Thanks for your help GMATGuru. Your comment above may not be accurate. Please consider focusgmat's last post.

focusgmat wrote:I am sorry that I extended the underline until the second comma.Following is the corrected underlining of the sentence in PS SC bible.

It was extremely discouraging to learn that the bank, with whom I have had a savings account for over twenty years, could not open a checking account for me because I did not have proper identification.

In fact, the 2nd comma is not underlined, so it is part of every answer including B.

If the comma is not underlined in the original source material, then there is no correct answer. Another webpage that discussed this question did include the comma in the underlined portion of the sentence.

Since this question seems inherently flawed -- even without the comma issue -- best just to take away the following advice:

Information not necessary for the meaning of the sentence often will be surrounded by commas; information necessary for the meaning of the sentence generally shouldn't be surrounded by commas.

So, in order to be correct, answer choice B should not include the surrounding commas.

(Notice that in the sentence above the phrase in order to be correct is surrounded by commas. Why? Because the phrase could be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence: So answer choice B should not include the surrounding commas.)