A recent study published by the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psy

A. as taking anti-depressants and that it can relieve symptoms of chronic depression
- We can eliminate "it" on basis of pronoun ambiguity. But if you want you can keep this answer choice for now and we will def find a better answer

B. than taking anti-depressants and that to do so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression
- Wrong usage of idiom. Should be "as...as". Eliminate

C. as taking anti-depressants is and that doing it can relieve chronic depression symptoms
- Again pronoun ambiguity, plus the meaning is also slightly different. "Chronic depression symptoms". I will eliminate this answer choice based on meaning. Eliminate

D. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression
- seems perfectly fine to me, Keep and this is much much better than (A),so get rid of (A) at this point

E. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can actually lead to the relief of the symptoms of chronic depression
- Very wordy and awkward. (D) is clearly superior. Eliminate

IMO D

Eliminate A and C because 'it' cannot represent an action, which here is participating in cognitive therapy.
Eliminate B because than is not correct.
Eliminate E because it is wordy.

D remains and is the correct answer.

Although I don't like the 'is' after 'as taking anti-depressants'. I wonder if we could do without that 'is'. Anyone, any thoughts?

A. as taking anti-depressants and that it can relieve symptoms of chronic depression

"Participating... and that it can" breaks the parallelism. Eliminate

B. than taking anti-depressants and that to do so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression

"As effective than" is just wrong. Correct usage is "as effective as". Eliminate

C. as taking anti-depressants is and that doing it can relieve chronic depression symptoms

We don't know for sure what "it" is referring to in the sentence. Eliminate

D. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression

Clear, Concise and parallel. Uses as effective as form. Keep

E. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can actually lead to the relief of the symptoms of chronic depression

Unnecessarily Wordy. Eliminate

Answer choice D is the best choice in my opinion.

A recent study published by the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology claims that participating in cognitive therapy is as effective as taking anti-depressants and that it can relieve symptoms of chronic depression.

A. as taking anti-depressants and that it can relieve symptoms of chronic depression -> "that participating" is not parallel to " that it ...." Incorrect.

B. than taking anti-depressants and that to do so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression -> Idiom is "as X as Y". "than" is incorrect to use.

C. as taking anti-depressants is and that doing it can relieve chronic depression symptoms -> "doing it" is incorrect, as "it" refers to "participating in cognitive therapy", which is not a noun. Incorrect

D. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression -> "doing so" is correct, as "so" refers to "participating in cognitive therapy", which is an action. Let's keep it.

E. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can actually lead to the relief of the symptoms of chronic depression -> Meaning changed.

So, I think D.

A recent study published by the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology claims that participating in cognitive therapy is as effective as taking anti-depressants and that it can relieve symptoms of chronic depression.


A. as taking anti-depressants and that it can relieve symptoms of chronic depression
Pronoun it has no clear antecedent

B. than taking anti-depressants and that to do so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression
as........as structure error

C. as taking anti-depressants is and that doing it can relieve chronic depression symptoms
same as A

D. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can relieve symptoms of chronic depression
No remarks

E. as taking anti-depressants is, and that doing so can actually lead to the relief of the symptoms of chronic depression
D is precise

IMO D

1. do you need an "is" after antidepressants?
2. can't say say that participating is a noun? Is yes, then it can refer to it?

GMATNinja @e-gmat daagh can you please explain how to eliminate between A and D?

Biggest difference is the pronoun 'it' in A vs 'doing so' in D.



Is 'it' the study? Or 'participating in cognitive therapy?' I know what 'it' is supposed to be, but by replacing that pronoun with the phrase 'doing so' (meaning: 'participating in cognitive therapy,' there is no other interpretation), the sentence cleans up ambiguity.

Biggest difference is the pronoun 'it' in A vs 'doing so' in D.



Is 'it' the study? Or 'participating in cognitive therapy?' I know what 'it' is supposed to be, but by replacing that pronoun with the phrase 'doing so' (meaning: 'participating in cognitive therapy,' there is no other interpretation), the sentence cleans up ambiguity.

Hello trulyness,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A incorrectly uses the pronoun "it" to refer to the action "participating in cognitive therapy"; remember, pronouns can only refer to nouns.

Option D correctly uses the appropriate construction "doing so" to refer to the action "participating in cognitive therapy".

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

ExpertsGlobal5 Actually your explanation is not correct. ING verb alone is never a verb. In this case, "participating" is a gerund, which is a special type of noun, and it can be referenced with a pronoun. If you check properly, "participating" is the subject (which is always a noun) and "is" is the verb.