BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Target Test Prep · GMAT

Choose how you want to prepare

Learn live with an expert or move at your own pace. Every option includes the complete TTP study system.

★★★★★5.0559 reviews
GMATBootcamp Starts Sep 21
Chris Peckover, Target Test Prep GMAT expert
LIVE ONLINE BOOTCAMP

Live Online Bootcamp Class with Top GMAT Expert Chris Peckover

Sep 21 to Oct 9, 2026

Schedule
Mon to Fri · 7:00 to 10:00 PM ET
Included
Live classes + 6 months of TTP OnDemand
  • Boost your GMAT score in less than one month in a live online class
  • 6 months access to TTP OnDemand video courses included
View bootcamp & enroll
Limited cohort · enrollment openTarget Test Prep
EALiveTeach 5 seats left
Logan Thompson
EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT

Sep 6 to Dec 6, 2026

with Logan Thompson

Schedule
Sun · 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET
Included
40 hours of live online classes plus six months of access to the complete TTP EA OnDemand course.
  • 165+ EA Score Guarantee
  • 4,100+ Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning practice questions
  • 400+ hours of in-depth video lessons
  • 3,000+ step-by-step video solutions
View EA class & enroll
Limited cohort · enrollment openTarget Test Prep
GMATOnDemand Start anytime
SELF-PACED MASTERCLASS

Target Test Prep GMAT OnDemand

Complete access from day one. Study on your schedule.

715+ score guarantee
$0to start then $127/mo
  • Personalized study plan and analytics
  • Thousands of lessons and practice questions

Compare the format, schedule, and included access before enrolling. Prices and seat counts shown reflect the supplied offer details.

SC question from GMAT prep software

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
Expert replies
by fay » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:51 am
nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed through the stomach into the bloodstream and was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however, have led them to conclude that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol before it reaches the liver.
A have led them to conclude
B have led to their conclusion
C have led doctors to conclude
D lead to doctors concluding
E lead to the doctors' conclusion
Hi, guys, could you please tell me why I can't use a present tense verb of lead?
Join the discussion
Source: — Verbal Reasoning |

by fay » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:52 am
the OA is C
Join the discussion

by fay » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:52 am
the OA is C
Join the discussion

by fay » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:52 am
the OA is C
Join the discussion

by fay » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:52 am
the OA is C
Join the discussion

by fay » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:53 am
the OA is C
Join the discussion

by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:09 am
Here's the tricky thing about verb tenses: sometimes several possible verb tenses could be correct in the same context. Consider:

New information leads me to believe that we were wrong. Present tense - just fine. It's what I'm believing now.
New information lead me to believe that we were wrong. Past tense (because "lead" is one of those weird verbs who past tense looks the same as present tense, but is pronounced differently. English is weird!) - also totally fine! I changed my belief in the past.
New information has lead me to believe that we were wrong. Present perfect - also totally fine! I changed my belief very recently, or am still in the process of doing so.

In this case, don't choose the verb tense that you think it should be, because the present could be right, but so could the present perfect. In fact, although all 3 examples above are perfectly correct, the 3rd one (present perfect) is the one you'll see most often used when we're talking about something that happened in the recent past (in your example, "recent studies") that have ongoing effects in the present (what the doctors conclude). That's what the present perfect is designed to indicate.

That alone doesn't make D or E wrong, though. In D, "lead to doctors concluding" is not idiomatically correct. "LEAD TO" should take a noun, so "lead to a conclusion" is better than "lead to concluding."

E is tricky, because it comes down to a subtlety in meaning. If we say "the doctors," we assume that we mean the same doctors who were mentioned before - the 19th century doctors. This doesn't make sense - they'd be 200 years old! In fact, that's the same issue that makes "them" and "their" wrong in A and B. We can't indicate that it's the same doctors.

So, that just leaves us with C.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Join the discussion