Even though more money was removed out of stock funds in July as in

its 2-3 split on as/than. you use than because you are clearly comparing 2 months and the money "more than". The "than in any month" sounds awkwrd because it could mean July itself! which makes no sense - more money removed in july than july??? So E

A and B are out as we need than for comparison.
C is wordy and wrong

it comes to D and E.
There are two errors in D.
1. it has to be any other month because July is also considered if we say any month
2. We need what to make sure that we are comparing the sales of shares in july with the estimated sale.

E corrects all the flaws mentioned above and clearly the winner

Even though more money was removed out of stock funds in July as in any month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as an industry trade group had previously estimated.


Meaning Analysis :
1. In july (as compared to any other month since Oct 1987) more money was removed.
2. Still Sales of fund is not as low as it was estimated.

Error Analysis
1. Comparison Error (First part) :
As when used to compare must be followed by clause - "as in any month since October 1987" - here it is not followed by clause, moreover it tried to comapare "Removal of money in July" and "any month"

2. Incomplete Comparison marker - Idiom Error
More is used, but sentence lacks "than"
I watch movies more - Seems to be incomplete , shouldn't it be "i watch movies more than Documentary"

3. Comparison error (Second part) :
"sales of fund shares in July were not" as low as "an industry trade group had previously estimated" - Invalid comparison, we need some reference to sale in later part of as low as ,
without that this comparison seems to compare, sales with estimation


A. as in any month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as
Incorrect - Reason discussed above.

B. as had been in any other month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as what
Lack of "than" for "more"
as had been what, as had been removed or as had been deposited - Sentence is incomplete in itself

C. than there was in any other month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as that which
July (noun) should be compared with any other month (Noun phrase) - Here July is compared with action "there was in .. " - Incorrect
"as low as that which" - is highly incorrect construction

D. than in any month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as
partially Rectified the first "July" comparison error - Still it is not best
sales of fund shares in July were not as low as an industry trade group had previously estimated - Repeats Error #3 discussed in error analysis

E. than in any other month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as what
July compared to any other month - Correct
Use of what, make the reference clear to sales of funds - Rectified Error #3
Correct

Split 1: more x than y .Eliminate A & B.
Split 2: it should be 'any other' not 'any' to show proper comparison. eliminate D
Split 3: Comparison is between shares 'in July'.... than 'in any other month' . Prepositional phrases should be parrallel and logical . In choice C 'there was' use of verb spoild parallelism and the 2 compared components doesn't make sense.
Therefore , answer is E.

Option A: ‘more… as’ is the wrong idiom here. ‘more… than’ is idiomatic expression. ‘any month’ is incorrect as ‘July’ itself is part of ‘any month’. Eliminate.

Option B: wrong use of idiom ‘more… as’. Eliminate.


Option C: Does not answer the question - What was there? 'as low as that which' is incorrect construction. Note that we cannot use the past tense "was" with a period indicator such as "since October 1987". We need a perfect tense. Eliminate.


Option D: 'any month' is incorrect as 'July' itself is part of any month. Eliminate.


Option E: Correct. 'More than' used correctly. 'Any other month' used correctly.

Hope this helps!

Even though more money was removed out of stock funds in July as in any month since October 1987, sales of fund shares in July were not as low as an industry trade group had previously estimated.

Meaning Analysis: Compared to any other month since October 1897, In July more money was removed. But despite this huge amount removed, the sales of fund shares did not drop as compared to what a trade group previously estimated

Sentence Structure:
Even though (contextual word stating that an event will take place "despite" of an other event)
more (beginning of comparison marker "more...than")
money (subject)
was removed (verb)
out of stock funds (prepositional phrase modifying "money" as in where was the money removed from)
in July (element 1 of comparison)
as (end of comparison marker)
in any month since October 1987 (element 2 of comparison)
, sales (subject) (element 1 of comparison)
of fund shares in July (prepositional phrase modifying "sales")
were not (verb)
as low as (comparison marker)
an industry trade group (element 2 of comparison) (subject)
had previously estimated. (verb)


There is a comparison error w.r.t the comparison marker used. It is ALWAYS "more...than" not "more...as". The comparison between "in July" and "in any month since October" is correct

One may say that "any other" is a better option since "any" includes July. Take a look at the following example that illustrates this point:- (~ SaraiGMAT explained this point in this official question https://gmatclub.com/forum/local-reside ... 76729.html)

(1) Texas is bigger than any state in the U.S. - Incorrect - 'any state' includes Texas, in which case the sentence says that Texas is bigger than itself
(2) Texas is bigger than any other state. - Correct
- Hence in this particular case we need "any other" instead of "any"

If we read the non underlined portion of the sentence we can see that there is another comparison error out here. "sales of fund shares in July were not as low as an industry trade group had previously estimated." We see that "sales" are compared to "an industry trade group" and that is completely illogical. What the author is trying to say is that the "sales" were not as low as the "sales figures" estimated by an industry group. We need to compare "sales" with "sales"



We see that the "more...as" error has been repeated. I am not sure with the usage of "had been" out here. We need to compare "in July" to "in any other month" I don't think using the verb is completely wrong out here. Why? because we can compare "more money was removed in July as had been (removed) in any other month" But this structure does make the sentence a bit wordy.

The usage of "what" at the end of the sentence rectifies the second comparison error made in (A) Here "what" refers to the "sales"


The comparison error "more...than" has been rectified. However, the usage of "there was" in the first comparison and the usage of "that which" in the second comparison makes the sentence structure of this choice inferior. One can argue that the sentence uses "since" as a time marker and hence we need "present perfect" tense but I would try an be a tad flexible out here. My first reason of elimination would be the sentence structure

Note: - whenever "since" and "within" are used as time markers we need to use present perfect tense. E.g. Hoozan hasn't visited India since 2001.


We again have the two comparison errors out here. We need "any other" in the first comparison and "what" (or some other word that refers to sales" in the second comparison.


Correct. All the comparison errors are rectified. The comparison markers used are correct and all logical entities are compared.

Correct Choice: (E)

GMATNinja ChiranjeevSingh egmat VeritasKarishma AjiteshArun please could you help me with the following doubt
While I agree with the usage of "any month" and "any other month" (as mentioned above) I believe in this particular question we can use "any" instead of "any other". Why? because the sentence states that in July more money was removed that any month since October 1987. Doesn't this mean that in July (of this year) more money was removed compared to any month (including July) since 1987 from October onwards? I hope I m clear with my doubt.

in choice E] is 'what' necessary to make the comaprison right?

Nope. "What" shouldn't be there.

This problem is *definitely* not official (despite being marked 'GMAT Prep'). Do you happen to have any idea what the actual source might be?

Thanks...

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