The Sunrise policy at Melvin Prexart & Co states that,

Tommy,
I guess the reason is that quicker is an adj and quickly is an adv and we need to adv to modify implemented
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/quickest

The Sunrise policy at Melvin Prexart & Co states that, henceforth, the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they had been in the past.

(A) the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they had been in the past
(B) the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they have been in the past
(C) the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they did in the past
(D) the strategy guidelines should be implemented more quickly than they have been in the past
(E) the strategy guidelines should be implemented more quickly than they had been in the past

Hi Experts,

the strategy guidelines should be implemented more quickly than they did in the past?

Will this be correct ?

The Sunrise policy at Melvin Prexart & Co states that, henceforth, the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they had been in the past.

(A) the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they had been in the past. Contender (in the last two choices, doesnt sound right)
(B) the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they have been in the past Incorrect. (we need past perfect)
(C) the strategy guidelines should be implemented quicker than they did in the past Incorrect (wrong tense; means as if guidlines did something)
(D) the strategy guidelines should be implemented more quickly than they have been in the past Incorrect (wrong tense)
(E) the strategy guidelines should be implemented more quickly than they had been in the past Correct. (sounds better, right tense)

I like the point that Navpre makes. When we are looking at verb tense, we have some grammatical things to consider as well as some meaning concerns. Grammatically, there are no issues between D and E. Therefore, we need to look at the meaning.

Past perfect is for past actions, but so is present perfect. The difference is that past perfect is for actions that happened in the past before another past action, while present perfect is for actions that happened in the past at an unspecified time, that happened in the past at multiple times, or that happened in the past and either affect today or are still true today. This is why "in the past" does not affect the outcome.

So, which tense? As others have mentioned, in order to use past perfect, we need to have another past action that comes after the past perfect action (and usually this past action needs to be the point in time at which the past perfect action stops). However, we do not have that here. Instead we have the present tense verb "states." This means we need to use either simple past or present perfect to describe the past action (no progressive tense because we are not referring to something happening during the past action).

So, why present perfect? In situations like this, look at the time modifier. Here, "henceforth" tells us that the change in policy starts now. Therefore, the past way of implementing the policy occurred until the present. This is exactly one of the uses for present perfect (occurs until now). We cannot use simple past unless we want to refer to a specific time period in the past instead of up until now.

Navpre: We always pay attention to things in between the commas (often times they create funny modifier errors) - the reason why you are told to ignore them is that they present extraneous information (information that is not necessary to distinguish the subject from other, similar subjects).

Therefore, I think the OA and OE are wrong. D is the correct answer.

This is a good example of why I advise test-takers to avoid questions that are not official GMAT questions. Often times they have major mistakes. You should only work verbal questions from the official guides, from GMATPrep, and from GMAT Paper Tests if you want accurate questions/answers.


If you had to choose between "has" and "have," which are both for the present perfect construction, then you would be correct. However, "had," which is for the past perfect construction, is correct for both singular and plural subjects.

Sir, need small clarification over the same question, its really confusing for me, because i was under assumption of eliminating options with quickly and checking with quicker..
so can we always eliminate options if they say quicker?? and look for more quickly or most quickly ???

Dear Tommy,

Justification on past perfect is very well explained.
Can we consider "should" as the simple past equivalent of "shall" and then use past perfect in passive voice.

Thanks.

OA should be D.
Present perfct cont used for the things started in the past the continuing in the future.
Here we need to see the words henceforth and should. They are suggesting that the changes to be made from now on-wards....

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