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Comma before that

by neeti2711 » Sat Mar 04, 2017 6:43 am
Uninformed about students' experience in urban classrooms, critics often condemn schools' performance as 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

OA: E

I answered the question correctly, but my concern is the comma before "that". I read somewhere that the comma before 'that' is wrong since 'that' is used in case of essential modifier and for non-essential modifier 'which' is used.

Please explain.
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by GMATGuruNY » Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:10 am
neeti2711 wrote:I answered the question correctly, but my concern is the comma before "that". I read somewhere that the comma before 'that' is wrong since 'that' is used in case of essential modifier and for non-essential modifier 'which' is used.

Please explain.
Critics often condemn schools' performance as gauged by an index, such as standardized test scores, that can be quantified.
Here, the second comma in red has no relationship with the that in blue.
Rather, this comma -- in conjunction with the first comma in red -- serves to indicate that the phrase in red is a NON-ESSENTIAL modifier.
If we remove this nonessential modifier, we get:
Critics often condemn schools' performance as gauged by an index that can be quantified.
When the nonessential modifier is omitted, no comma precedes the that-modifier in blue.
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by Mo2men » Sun Mar 05, 2017 12:24 pm
GMATGuruNY wrote:
neeti2711 wrote:I answered the question correctly, but my concern is the comma before "that". I read somewhere that the comma before 'that' is wrong since 'that' is used in case of essential modifier and for non-essential modifier 'which' is used.

Please explain.
Critics often condemn schools' performance as gauged by an index, such as standardized test scores, that can be quantified.
Here, the second comma in red has no relationship with the that in blue.
Rather, this comma -- in conjunction with the first comma in red -- serves to indicate that the phrase in red is a NON-ESSENTIAL modifier.
If we remove this nonessential modifier, we get:
Critics often condemn schools' performance as gauged by an index that can be quantified.
When the nonessential modifier is omitted, no comma precedes the that-modifier in blue.
Dear Mitch

In OA: E, what the last 'that' refer to?

What is the problem with 'such as what is made in high-reasoning'??

Thanks
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:39 am
Mo2men wrote:In OA: E, what the last 'that' refer to?
less measurable progress, such as that in higher-level reasoning
Here, that serves to refer to progress:
less measurable progress, such as progress in higher-level reasoning.
What is the problem with 'such as what is made in high-reasoning'??
B, C and D: less measurable progress, such was what is made in higher-level reasoning
Here, the usage of what conveys that SOMETHING UNDEFINED is made in higher-level reasoning.
The intention of the original sentence is to discuss PROGRESS in higher-level reasoning.
Since B, C and D do not convey the intended meaning, eliminate B, C and D.
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