People with schizophrenia experience miscarriages at a higher rate of

Question

People with schizophrenia experience miscarriages at a higher rate of frequency than people without schizophrenia, whose overactive immune systems tend to be indiscriminately rejecting  the foreign DNA of the fetus.

A- People with schizophrenia experience miscarriages at a higher rate of frequency than people without schizophrenia, whose overactive immune systems tend to be indiscriminately rejecting

B- Miscarriages are more common among people with schizophrenia than among people without schizophrenia, being that their overactive immune systems tend to indiscriminately reject

C- Miscarriages are more common between people with schizophrenia than they are between people without schizophrenia, because the overactive immune systems of people with schizophrenia tend to be indiscriminately rejecting

D- The miscarriage rate of people with schizophrenia is higher than the rate for people without schizophrenia because the former's overactive immune systems tend to reject

E- People with schizophrenia have more common miscarriages than do people without schizophrenia, because their immune systems tend to indiscriminately reject

The official answer for this question is D. Is the use 'miscarriage rate "of" people' in choice D correct? Shouldn't it be rate "among" people ? I doubt the official answer.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear RaghavSingla , I'm happy to respond. :-)

To be honest, I am not a big fan of this question. Technically, the meaning of the prompt is different from the meaning in most of the answer choices, including the OA. We can figure out what the prompt is trying to say, especially if we happen to know a little about neurobiology, but such expertise should not be required. Also, in (D), I think " former " should refer to the first term, which is a miscarriage rate, not a group of people: there is something awkward about referent of that word. I don't think the word " of " is problematic. The miscarriage rate of people with schizophrenia . . . The miscarriage rate among people with schizophrenia . . . The miscarriage rate for people with schizophrenia . . . All of those would be correct. This is the tricky think about idiomatic constructions: sometimes only one thing is correct and all others are incorrect, and other times, there are multiple correct options. It depends on circumstances. Here's a much higher quality SC practice question: With American cryptanalysts Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

HMC · Answer

Can anyone help me with the problems with option E 
One is that their does not have a clear referent 
Is there anything else wrong in option E?

thapliya · Answer

HMC : "have more common miscarriages ..." does not make sense in E.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear HMC , I'm happy to respond. :-)

I will echo thapliya 's point. The construction " more common miscarriages " does NOT mean " more frequent miscarriages ," although this is a common mistake in colloquial English. Technically, the phrase " more common miscarriages " implies that some miscarriages are common, some perhaps are more unusual or more rarely seen, and on the spectrum of the commonality of miscarriages, people with schizophrenia have the kind that are more toward the common end of this spectrum. That's the literal logical meaning, which is 100% different from anything the prompt says or is trying to say. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

AdityaHongunti · Answer

mikemcgarry  I'm following up on your statements :

To be more common between two A and B , A has to occur more than B (pardon me if I screwed up the comparison , and please correct me if I'm wrong) . when one thing happens more than once or occurs more than something else occurs , doesnt the thing become a frequent event??

my point is - to become common, doesnt a thing have to be frequent??
I am definitely missing something here... please enlighten me

sanpreetsingh · Answer

People with schizophrenia experience miscarriages at a higher rate of frequency than people without schizophrenia, whose overactive immune systems tend to be indiscriminately rejecting the foreign DNA of the fetus.

A- People with schizophrenia experience miscarriages at a higher rate of frequency than people without schizophrenia, whose overactive immune systems tend to be indiscriminately rejecting
>>Whose incorrectly referring to schizophrenia

B- Miscarriages are more common among people with schizophrenia than among people without schizophrenia, being that their overactive immune systems tend to indiscriminately reject
>>their is ambiguous (either first group of people or second)

C- Miscarriages are more common between people with schizophrenia than they are between people without schizophrenia, because the overactive immune systems of people with schizophrenia tend to be indiscriminately rejecting
>>usage of they to refer Schizophrenia is wrong.

D- The miscarriage rate of people with schizophrenia is higher than the rate for people without schizophrenia because the former's overactive immune systems tend to reject

E- People with schizophrenia have more common miscarriages than do people without schizophrenia, because their immune systems tend to indiscriminately reject
>>same as B

Hence, D is the answer.

NinetyFour · Answer

POE:
A) WHOSE is modifying the wrong noun
B) BEING as a modifier is incorrect, and THEIR is vague
C) BETWEEN X & Y, TEND TO BE is incorrect
D) CORRECT
E) THEIR is vague

Jayshoot · Answer

I chose C because I failed to notice the mistake in using "between" when comparing in a group.

However, my problem with D is that the "former" seemed to be referring to first "rate" in the answer. Is this a mistake on their part, or is there some kind of explanation for this?

Kushchokhani · Answer

Hi  mikemcgarry   DmitryFarber   KarishmaB   ExpertsGlobal5   AjiteshArun   ryanstarr   ReedArnoldMPREP

As per MGMAT's SC Guide on Idioms, "rate of" is used in case of speed/frequency whereas "rates for" is used in case of prices. It further states that the opposite usage is wrong. Accordingly, option D should ideally contain "rate of" at both the places, thereby making choice E better than D for the pronoun "their" in E should logically refer to the subject of the previous clause which is correct. IMO the mistake "more common miscarriages" in choice E is preferred over the mistake "rate for" in choice D as GMAT is more strict with Idioms (Idioms are mathematical- either correct or incorrect although MGMAT also specifies Suspect in its Guide).

Hi  RaghavSingla

Can you post OE of this ques?

ryanstarr · Answer

For what it's worth, I'd disagree most with this proposition: GMAT is more strict with Idioms (Idioms are mathematical- either correct or incorrect although MGMAT also specifies Suspect in its Guide).

There are some cases in which the GMAT is strict with idioms, and as such some idiom issues are basically mathematical. However, even as a native speaker, I won't make a decision on an idiom issue until I've exhausted just about every other option in the answers. The reason is basically that the GMAT isn't reliable or consistent on idioms (just as it isn't super reliable on comma usage). Indeed, the GMAT subverts its own idioms left and right. For instance, in one old question, it justifies the right answer by claiming that  estimated at  is an incorrect idiom for talking about ages etc. and that  at  should only be used if we want to talk about where the estimation takes place. Then, in another question, it uses  estimated at  in the non-underlined portion. Another decent example (in the current OG) is the Argentine ant question, in which the phrase  consider all their fellows  to be  close relatives appears in the correct answer despite the fact that  consider X Y  (that is, without  to be )is nominally the correct idiom. Basically, the GMAT itself doesn't always respect its established idioms.

The other reason I don't take idioms seriously is simply that through experience, I've found other things more reliable. For instance, the phrase  more common miscarriages  is unequivocally a modifier issue, making the miscarriages themselves seem common (that is, ordinary) rather than correctly making the  having  of miscarriages seem common (that is, frequent). Modifier/meaning issues are definitely prioritized by the GMAT. And as to the pronoun issue in (E), it's sort of a mixed bag. If the pronoun were in the nominative case rather than possessive (that is, if it were  they  rather than  their ), I'd agree that it unambiguously referred to the subject of the previous clause, as in this case the pronoun would  also  be acting as a subject. As it's written, though, (D) has a clear advantage in being totally unambiguous.

So my ultimate mathematical analysis would be this: 
(D) has an idiom issue. That's -1 for (D). (Though for my part, I'd subjectively give (D) a -0.5 for that idiom issue, because again, I tend to discount idiom issues based on their unreliability.)
(E) has a modifier/meaning issue and a pronoun issue. That's at least -1.5 for (E).

As such, I'd happily pick (D) over (E).

Kushchokhani · Answer

ryanstarr

Based on your reply, it seems MGMAT needs to relocate "rate of" usage for prices and "rates for" usage for speed/frequency from wrong to suspect in its SC Guide. I am sure you can take forward this feedback to the concerned. In fact, other idioms may also be open for relocation in the SC Guide based on this discussion. Looking forward for the thoroughly revised one soon.

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