Although the school board members agree there are

Question

Although the school board members agree  there are substantial inefficiencies in the school budget and that the principal and other administrators should be paid less, it is difficult to garner enough interest and support in the community to implement the necessary changes.
 
A. Although the school board members agree
 
B. However much the school board members may agree that
 
C. Despite the school board members’ agreement about the fact that
 
D. Even though the school board members may agree
 
E. There is agreement among the school board members that

KyleWiddison · Accepted Answer

Responding to a PM on this question. The use of 'however' at the beginning of the sentence is an uncommon but acceptable use of however. In English, sentences can begin with 'however' + ',' to transition from one sentence to another: "I love riding my bike to work. However, I can't ride today because it is raining." The word 'however' in the example above gives the reader an indication that the 2nd sentence will work in opposition to the 1st sentence. Because this use case for 'however' shows a distinction between an earlier and later part, we don't see however used this way at the beginning of a sentence on the GMAT.

The use of 'however' in this GMAT question, however,   is to show the relative unimportance of magnitude. It's not really 'however' but rather 'however much'. You could state this phrase, 'however much', another way by saying 'regardless of how much': "Regardless of how much the school board members may agree that there are substantial inefficiencies in..." It's a use case that we don't see very often, but it is an appropriate use of however at the beginning of a sentence on the GMAT.

Hope that helps...

KW

pqhai · Answer

IMO, B is correct.

First, the structure should be parallel: agree that...............and that.......................... 
Down to B, C, E
B is correct because: The usage of "much" is correct,  it does not mean how many members agree, but means how much members agree (much vs little)

C and E are wrong because they change meaning. The intended meaning here is "although......., it is difficult........"

daagh · Answer

There is a substantial difference in meaning between' agree' and 'may agree'. Agree is sent per cent whereas may agree is not cent per cent. There is a significant shift of meaning from A to B and D. Hence IMO, B and D are infidel and incorrect. C is meandering and wordy. E is a run-on. A is the best.

Carcass · Answer

I have a lot of concern about this question because in formal english is difficult to have a word such as HOWEVER in the beginning of a sentence. Moreover, the same is always after a full stop and followed by a comma. https://www.sonoma.edu/users/f/farahman/ ... owever.pdf I have never see such construction on gmat

sdas · Answer

Couldn't agree any less with Carcass.
Though between the given choices, B and C are close. C distorts meaning, thus B is the best, but I am not convinced with the use of However

Also Daagh, the first D/C starting with Although - will it not required "that" - I picked B and C considering this, though of course there are other errors in other choices.

egmat · Answer

Received a PM about this question. This question is based on OG VR2 Question #3. So please attempt the official question and understand the correct and incorrect choices in the official question. Once you have understood the essence of the official question, you may not worry about this one.

Thanks,

Payal

Thanks, Payal

daagh · Answer

Sdas
I agree with you, It would be ideally parallel to have another that after the DC. But none of the good choices has it. Those that have that are problematic both in usage and grammar. Something is odd here . Verita’s examples seem to be in bind and frustrating.

bagdbmba · Answer

Hi Payal,
Answer to this qs should be B.
And OG VR2 Question #3- OA :A

'However much' implies 'No matter how much'...Let me know if my understanding and explanation are correct.

Appreciate your feedback.

blueseas · Answer

Hi all,

in my opinion OPTION B is the best of all...

==>firstly for parallelism THAT is MUST..
 therefore option A and D are OUT.
E==> RUN ON 
C==>changes the meaning.
 AND we cannot say that option B is a TYPO.....(MAY is not a typo)...the use of MUCH in OPTION B clearly indicates....MAY is required...so i will say B is the BEST OF LOT.(may makes it noun countable)

hope it helps.

SKM

ankurgupta03 · Answer

Although the school board members agree there are substantial inefficiencies in the school budget and that the principal and other administrators should be paid less, it is difficult to garner enough interest and support in the community to implement the necessary changes.

A. Although the school board members agree

B. However much the school board members may agree that

C. Despite the school board members’ agreement about the fact that

D. Even though the school board members may agree

E. There is agreement among the school board members that

The parallelism removes the answer choices A, D
C, E change the meaning of the sentence,

The only answer choice left over is B, hence the answer cannot be anything but B
We need to find the best option of the provided on the GMAT not the correct sentence :twisted:

bagdbmba · Answer

Hey Payal,
Can you please confirm my answer to your question and let me know whether the above explanation is correct..?

GuidoVdS · Answer

Sorry guys, but I am really confused about this OA.

According to what most of you has been saying, option C, "Despite the school board members’ agreement about the fact that", changes the meaning. I'm not able to understand why...

On the other side, option B, "However much the school board members may agree that", seems wordy, I personally don't like the However in the beginning of the sentence (without any other sentence before) and it seems to distort what is said in A.

If we were to correct option A, it would say: "Although the school board members agree that", it does not say "may agree that". And is different to say that "they agree with X" or "they may agree with X"...

So, can anyone help me to understand how come B be the correct answer and how does C changes the meaning of what is said?

Thank you!

KyleWiddison · Answer

See my post above about "however" in answer choice B.

As for C, the problem really isn't a change in meaning. For meaning questions we aren't looking for a change in meaning from the original - we are looking for illogical vs. logical meaning. The problem with C is wordiness/awkwardness. The meaning is conveyed more clearly and directly in A/B.

Answer choice A would be fine if we included the word "that".

KW

XavierAlexander · Answer

As per Veritas, Option 'C' is wrong NOT because there's any meaning error (as mentioned by many above), but because it's redundant and unnecessarily wordy.

Official explanation:-   The primary error to address in this problem is parallelism. Answer choices (A) and (D) are both wrong because they are structured like this: “Although/Even though school board members agree this is true and THAT this is true” Should be “Although/Even though school board members agree that this is true and that this is true” In (E), the clause needs to begin with something to contrast the “it is difficult…” clause that follows. You cannot say: “There is agreement about…, it is difficult….” (C) is wrong because of the redundant and unnecessarily wordy “agreement about the fact that…”, which should be “agreement that”. Only (B) is parallel and correct. It does, however, use an unusual structure “However much they may agree” that confuses people. Remember that many of the correct answers on difficult questions will contain unusual, but correct, structures.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Although the school board members agree there are

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