shanks2020 wrote:
Hi Daagh or any other expert,
There was another official question in which "considered to be" was used in all the options. Hence, how do we know which is a "Bigger error" which warrants rejection?
Clearly, if the same flaw appears in all the choices, you don't have to worry about that flaw, because it's not a decision point if it appears in all the choices.
Regarding your question, when faced with a Sentence Correction question with five flawed choices, the move is to compare issues and, hopefully, find a clear difference.
For instance, if one choice has a subject-verb agreement error, while another uses "considered to be," the one with the subject-verb agreement error is blatantly and unarguably incorrect, while the one that uses "considered to be" has a minor flaw, and in fact, in using "considered to be," uses an expression that many people use often.
So, in that case, there is a clear difference between the two issues, and you'd choose the one that uses "considered to be" over the one with the subject-verb agreement error.
Generally, you can find that kind of difference between the flaws.
If, somehow, you are forced to choose between choices that are flawed in ways that are not clearly different in terms of egregiousness, then you have to do your best to figure out which the writer of the question felt to be the better choice. Doing so is not always easy, but generally, there's some aspect of the wording of one choice or a theme in the question that tips you off to the fact that a certain choice is the one that the question's writer considered correct.
Thanks a lot Marty for your detailed explanation. How often do you think or based on your experience, would one have to go through such situations?
I have recently come across a series of exceptions, which otherwise i would reject straightaway, for eg. which modifying a noun by jumping over a verb, If used with a present perfect, etc.