Sentence Correction

Uninformed about students' experience in urban classrooms, critics often condemn schools' performance gauged by an index, such as standardized test scores, that are called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as that in higher-level reasoning.

A. an index, such as standardized test scores, that are called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as that
B. an index, such as standardized test scores, that are called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as what is made
C. an index, such as standardized test scores, that is called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as what is made
D. a so-called objective index, such as standardized test scores, that can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as what is made
E. a so-called objective index, such as standardized test scores, that can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as that

Source Kaplan Online Test

OA E


query :

When do we use what is / are type constructions on GMAT ?

Maybe, this is not a precise reply to your question but an explenation could be:

"Such as what is made" seems to be unnecessarily wordy, it is simliar to such as that, which is shorter and more accurate. Generally, if you have a choice always prefer a shorter version.

Moreover "such as what is made" tells us there is sth. made by sth/sb but not WHAT is made!

I hope it helps...

I agree with deichgraf (apparently a fellow north german? that "what is made in ..." is not correct, therefore B, C and D are out

The singular/plural problem is caused by the additional information "an index, for example a test score, ...". The sentence refers to the index which is singular. The only remaining answer is, imo, E

here is my explanation

three things are mentioned after "that",
are called objective
can be quantified
overlook

now 'and' is used twice in this list, where as it could have been used only once with the last element in the list.
that brought down my options to D and E, where the above condition has been satisfied.

"what is made" in D is concisely presented by "that" in E (progress), so I went for E.

mmslf75 wrote:Uninformed about students' experience in urban classrooms, critics often condemn schools' performance gauged by an index, such as standardized test scores, that are called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as that in higher-level reasoning.

A. an index, such as standardized test scores, that are called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as that
B. an index, such as standardized test scores, that are called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as what is made
C. an index, such as standardized test scores, that is called objective and can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as what is made
D. a so-called objective index, such as standardized test scores, that can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as what is made
E. a so-called objective index, such as standardized test scores, that can be quantified and overlook less measurable progress, such as that

Source Kaplan Online Test

OA E


query :

When do we use what is / are type constructions on GMAT ?

dude, both refer to 'progress' over here, hence both are correct on context. However why should we want to form a redundant 'what is make' when the same objective can be achieved by 'that'.

my way of solving the que was:
are refer to INDEX which is S-V error and hence A&B rejected.
C: requires 'that' after 'objective and'
D/E: only difference is 'that' and 'what is made' which I hope above reasoning narrows to answer.

Guys just have a query..
I came across the same question in kaplan.

And it has "overlooks" in option in E rather than overlook

Shouldn't it be

critics often condemn schools' performance gauged by an index... and overlook less measurable progress....

plural critics needs a plural verb.

Or Is critics considered singular..