However much the students of this school may agree that the

However much the students of this school may agree that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that

Our beliefs may sometimes elude success in GMAT, as one can see from the following popular GMAT Prep question, which also merrily starts with however much in the correct choice.

However much United States voters may agree that there is waste in government and that the government as a whole spends beyond its means, it is difficult to find broad support for a movement toward a minimal state.

(A) However much United States voters may agree that
(B) Despite the agreement among United States voters to the fact
(C) Although United States voters agree
(D) Even though United States voters may agree
(E) There is agreement among United States voters that

Ans; A.

Even the $2B- revenue Kaplan sanctimoniously follows the edict of GMAT through the given topic here; why can't we?

However much the students of this school may agree that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that
The correct answer is A in this question also.

However much the students of this school may agree that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that

Hello GMATNinja egmat,

However much the students of this school may agree that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

Please note my analysis:

'and' suggests parallelism --> the 2nd element of the parallelism is 'that ...' clause. So the first part of the parallelism structure should also have 'that....' clause

This eliminates B, C, D

Between A and E. E doesn't have any contrast keyword to emphasize the contrast between two clauses.


A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that

Please suggest any faults in my analysis.

Thank you in advance!

Hello niyatisuri,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your analysis is broadly correct, but there is a more important factor you seem to have overlooked.

The construction "However much..." in Option A implies a sense of degree, conveying that regardless of to what degree the students agree that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school will shut down; this implication is missing from all other answer choices, leading to a meaning error in Options B, C, D, and E.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team