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tricky SC question (1000sc)

by hutch27 » Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:08 am
According to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice in socioeconomically deprived areas.

(A) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice
(B) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates who plan on practicing
(C) minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
(D) it is nearly four times more likely that minority graduates rather than other graduates will plan to practice
(E) it is nearly four times as likely for minority graduates than other graduates to plan to practice

OA is C

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by challenger63 » Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:12 am
Explanation below.
hutch27 wrote:According to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice in socioeconomically deprived areas.

(A) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice

>> "likely ... in" is incorrect. It should be "likely to".

Fake split: "four time more likely" = 5 <> "four times as likely" = 4
Fake split: "plan on doing something" vs "plan to do something", both are fine.

(B) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates who plan on practicing
>> it still should be "likely to"
Moreover, if we exclude "who plan on...", we will get strange sentence "minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates"

(C) minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
>> This one is ok.

(D) it is nearly four times more likely that minority graduates rather than other graduates will plan to practice
>> "more" requires "than"

(E) it is nearly four times as likely for minority graduates than other graduates to plan to practice
>> Two problems: 1) "as" is required instead of "than" 2) "FOR minority graduates" is compared with "other graduates" without FOR. Ellipses (Word Omitting) can not be justified here.

I hope it helps.
Last edited by challenger63 on Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by nisagl750 » Sat Feb 02, 2013 6:06 am
challenger63 wrote: (B) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates who plan on practicing
>> "plan to" not "plan on"

(C) minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
>> This one is ok.
Hi Challenger,

Can you please explain, why plan on in statement B is wrong and plan on in statement C is correct?

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by challenger63 » Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:50 am
heh, I made a mistake in the solution for B.
Corrected initial post. It should be fine now.

"plan to do" vs "plan on doing" should be both correct.

nisagl750 wrote:
challenger63 wrote: (B) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates who plan on practicing
>> "plan to" not "plan on"

(C) minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
>> This one is ok.
Hi Challenger,

Can you please explain, why plan on in statement B is wrong and plan on in statement C is correct?

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by Tommy Wallach » Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:25 pm
Hey Guys,

Just to explain the grammar of Challenger's great explanation a little more, and to correct a couple things:
According to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice in socioeconomically deprived areas.

(A) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice
(B) minority graduates are nearly four times more likely than other graduates who plan on practicing
(C) minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
(D) it is nearly four times more likely that minority graduates rather than other graduates will plan to practice
(E) it is nearly four times as likely for minority graduates than other graduates to plan to practice
(B) The reason you can "ignore" "who" onwards is because it's a modifier of graduates. That means this sentence suddenly lacks an infinitive to go with the "likely" idiom. We don't know what the minority graduates are more likely to do!

(D) As far as I know, you do not need to use "than" with "more," but Challenger is right that the comparison here is broken. But, just for a fun example, you could say:

Muggles are known to be happier than magicians, even if the latter are four times more likely to have the ability to fly.

However, it is incorrect to say "It's more likely that X rather than Y will plan to practice." This is because the "rather" is being both redundant and confusing. It implies that we thought Y would be more likely than X to be more likely, and it turns out that X is more likely than Y. But that's not the meaning we want. Also, the GMAT usually doesn't approve of the ambiguous "it" construction, even if it's technically grammatical (i.e. "It is well known that cheeseburgers are delicious, but only if you have no moral center.").

(E) We've got the weird "it" issue. Again, the comparison "More likely for minority graduates than other graduates to plan..." is crazy broken and confusing, for the reasons Challenger laid out.

Hope that helps clarify!

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