Griffith‘s cameraman Bitzer was a mechanical wizard, and what skill

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


• HIGHLIGHTS

Option A does not determine meaning. If a word changes or meaning changes and the sentence is grammatical and logical, the changes are fine.
Sentences can end in a preposition (except between), although this one doesn't end in a preposition.

What vs. whatever -
1) Use whatever to emphasize "of any kind at all" and to acknowledge that we are not too sure which skills he lacked, but whatever they were (of any kind at all), he compensated for them. (whatever skills = any or all of the skills, even though we can't name them)

2) Use what to indicate specific skills he lacked. Using what in a context like the one in this sentence is relatively rare. What is used in questions: What skills [which skills] does he lack?

compensate for is a phrasal verb (Longman dictionary online, here.)
To compensate for [an unstated or unrepeated lack of something = X] by doing Y is fairly standard usage. See here, in the Washington Post.
Or Google "compensate for by" (use quotation marks). You can add New York Times or The Economist if you'd like. You will get plenty of hits.

Verb parallelism - it's okay to shift verb tenses in a sentence if the shift is warranted.
In this sentence, though, no reason exists to change simple past tense.
GMAC and SWE prefer both simple present and simple past when they are possible.

Subject parallelism - if you can avoid switching between his ___ and he (as in option C), do so
Keep the subjects parallel
Focus either on HIS lack and HIS compensation
or on HE lacked and HE compensated.

• Split #1: Meaning

In Option E, it sounds as though he "paid" his "lack of visual composition."
To compensate [no preposition] someone or something is to repay:
Correct: The company often compensates employees with surprise bonuses.
Nonsensical noun-thing in option E: his lack of visual composition.
A person does not lack visual composition. A person lacks visual composition skills.

Eliminate E

• Split #2: stay consistent with verb tenses

The non-underlined portion commits us to simple past: Bitzer was a technical wizard

Option A switches: . . . Bitzer was . . .skill was lacking . . . was more than compensated for by

Option B switches: . . . Bitzer was . . . skills he was lacking . . . he compensated . . .

Both A and B incorrectly shift verb tenses from simple past to past progressive and back to past tense for no reason.
It is better to keep all the verbs in simple past tense.

Option A is entirely in passive voice. Do not eliminate on that basis alone; correct GMAT answers use passive voice quite often. (I saw an estimate of 40%; even if that figure is high, be careful with passive voice.)

Option B switches from passive he was lacking to active he compensated for.
GMAC does not like such switches.

The passive voice and switch from passive to active are not quite not enough to doom these options, but those items coupled with the verb tense inconsistency doom (A) and (B).
And: compare to (D). No contest: (D) contains none of the problems that (A) and (B) do.
Eliminate A and B

• Split #3: compare C and D

Option C: whatever his visual composition lacked, he more than compensated in

(D) whatever skills he lacked in visual composition, he more than compensated for by

Option (D) uses the same subject: HE lacked and HE compensated for
Like option B, Option (C) uses a passive subject (HIS visual composition lacked) and then switches to active subject: HE compensated,

Furthermore, Option C has the same problem as that in E:
a person does not lack visual composition.
A person lacks visual composition skills.

In order to make up for something, we do not say "compensated in."
Option C uses compensated in and is not idiomatic. (Option A, already eliminated, has the same problem.)
Option D, compensated for, is standard usage

Eliminate option C.

The answer is D

COMMENTS

This question is a bit of a challenge. Stay with basics:
-- do not shift verb tenses mid-sentence without reason
-- do not shift from passive to active voice (as in Option C)
-- check for meaning (E is silly)

Attention to those four small details would get you to option D.

The construction of this sentence is a bit unusual—I'll be blunt: the sentence is highbrow.
You'd read a sentence like option D in the art pages of The NY Times.
The phrase "compensate for by" is often used in science and especially in AI. (Don't ask. I have an unnatural fear of what I call robotons.)

I have an idea. Read 15 minutes a day of Harvard Magazine.
I discovered it when I attended law school. It has short passages and long passages on many subjects.

It's free. Most of its writers and editors are outstanding. (I can't guarantee that every passage will be well-written . . . but I almost can do so.)

Go HERE. On the ribbon you will see archives. The magazine is published every two months.

Today kudos go to those who got the correct answer and explained. People who got to the correct answer wrote good posts. Have a good weekend.