William Shakespeare, though long considered as being one of the finest

I've underlined the 3 splits in the answer choices above.

Start with the final split: attributed by him / attributed to him

Meaning:The works are attributed to Shakespeare. Eliminate (A) and (E)

Look at the middle split: has been the subject / was the subject

Verb/Tense Form: We need Present Perfect "has been" because we are starting with a the speculation "though long considered a great writer..." and then continues into the present. Eliminate (C)

Look at the first split: considered / considered as

Idiom:"considered as" is an idiom error Eliminate (B).

Official MGMAT Explanation:


The original sentence contains the unidiomatic "considered as being". The correct idiom is simply "considered", as in "I considered you a friend." Also, "was the subject...over the years" is incorrect. The sentence should use the present perfect "has been the subject," since the speculation began in the past and continues to the present. Finally, "attributed by" is not the correct idiom for this sentence. It should be "attributed to."

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice repeats the original idiom error "considered as," though it corrects the other two errors.

(C) This choice repeats the original idiom error "considered to be" (with a slight variation) as well as the verb tense error "was."

(D) CORRECT. This choice corrects all of the original errors: "considered" instead of "considered as"; "has been" instead of "was"; and "attributed to" instead of "attributed by."

(E) This choice repeats the original idiom error "considered to be" (with a slight variation) as well as the verb tense error "was." It also introduces new errors: "or any other language" was removed from the sentence entirely, which changes the meaning; "over the years" is placed awkwardly; and "he had not been" is in the past perfect tense, when the correct tense is simple past.

Hello Expert CrackverbalGMAT

In option D - shouldn't 'he was not the real author' be 'he is not the real author'.
Since we used perfect tense, the speculation is still ongoing and although the book was written in the past, the author of the book will always be the same (a fact). Hence shouldn't we use present tense for this?

Please suggest.

Hello NischalSR,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, since Shakespeare is no longer alive, it makes more sense to say that he "took" action rather than to say that he "takes" the action. When referring to the actions of individuals who have passed, it is typical to use the past tense.

For example, "My father was a good parent."

We hope this helps.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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