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Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.


(C) that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than

(D) that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than

Question to clarify:

1.)
Can we say to determine whether is always right and to determine that is always wrong in GMAT ?
Or Is it a preference but not necessarily true in gmat?

2. We know that fact should be presented in present tense. But I don’t know what was the result of their research whether ultrasound came out to be better than balloon angioplasty.
So can we say that if there is a sentence :
more research was needed to determine whether Doctor A IS any better for heart attack patients than doctor B.
“is” always true ?
more research was needed to determine whether Doctor A WAS any better for heart attack patients than doctor B.- always WRONG ?
is it because whether makes the sentence in present tense? It is because whether makes the sentence more like a fact ?
Please clarify.

3.
Researchers agreed that A was important but that B was needed to determine whether C is better than D.

I read that there should be a comma before FANBOYS especially if sentence is proceeded by a clause . But I didn’t see any comma before but in non-underline sentence
It is because B was needed is proceeded by “ that” and this doesn’t make it an independent clause. ?
is Comma only needed if its an independent clause with FANBOYS?

please give your comments AndrewN AjiteshArun EMPOWERgmatVerbal

thanks

Thanks for asking us imSKR! We think that AndrewN did an amazing job of covering all of your questions, so we'll leave this be for now. If you have any other questions, feel free to tag us or send us a PM!
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Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.

(A) more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than When presenting a choice (better or not), "whether" should be used and not "that". Since it is talking about a general truth (better or not), simple present "is" should be used and not "was". Eliminate.

(B) more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is "to determine" is the correct idiom, not "for determining". The "is" at the end is redundant since we already have "is any better...". Eliminate.

(C) that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than Correct answer. Tense and idiomatic errors have been corrected and no new errors have been introduced.

(D) that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than Same errors as in (A). Eliminate.

(E) that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is "that" followed by "is or is not" is too wordy. A better construction is simply using "whether...is". Eliminate.

Hope this helps.
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Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.


(A) more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than -> But hints a parallelism. Let's check, "that the study..." is not parallel to "more research was...". Incorrect.

(B) more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is -> Same as A.

(C) that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than -> Parallelism error is corrected. Tense agreement, "was needed" is also correct. Finally, "whether" makes sense too as ultrasound is better or not. Let's keep it.

(D) that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than -> "preceded with ultrasound" is incorrect.

(E) that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is -> "for determining" is incorrect, we have more error in this option.

So, I think C. :)
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EducationAisle VeritasKarishma GMATNinja egmat

Quote:
(C) that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than

Shouldn't we need is before "the balloon procedure by itself." If one assumes a for before the phrase "the balloon procedure by its self" one would read the comparison between "for heart attack patients" and "for the balloon procedure by itself" which of course is illogical
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Hoozan
If one assumes a for before the phrase "the balloon procedure by its self" one would read the comparison between "for heart attack patients" and "for the balloon procedure by itself" which of course is illogical
Yep...and because this interpretation is illogical, the only logical interpretation is:

...whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than (is) the balloon procedure by itself.

The verb is is implied after than.
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Hi Experts,

I get really confused about the usage of idioms such as for determing or to determine. I am not sure when to use for and to and I end up making mistakes. Please help, my exam is in 2 days.

Thanks a lot
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ankitapugalia
Hi Experts,

I get really confused about the usage of idioms such as for determing or to determine. I am not sure when to use for and to and I end up making mistakes. Please help, my exam is in 2 days.

Thanks a lot
Hello, ankitapugalia. I understand feelings of uncertainty surrounding particular grammatical, idiomatic, or semantic issues. We all encounter grey areas from time to time, even if we would not like to admit it. Regarding idioms, though, the modern exam is much more likely to present other considerations in the different answer choices that will allow you to make a more informed decision, so you should not worry too much about idioms that fall into this side camp. Case in point: this question can be answered correctly without even thinking about the split you have identified. (In fact, I came across this very question in my own studies on 7 February, and I answered in 21 seconds.) Look again at the question. I will remove the idiomatic split to point out other concerns.

Quote:
Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.


(A) more research was needed... that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than

(B) more research was needed... whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is

(C) that more research was needed... whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than

(D) that more research was needed... that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than

(E) that more research was needed... that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is
A quick look at each of the options other than the correct one reveals redundancies or grammatical problems. Preceded by is the passive form of the verb to precedeto precede with does not make sense, since with is used to indicate accompaniment, while precede means to come before. Answer choices (A) and (D) can be dropped from contention. The former also uses a redundant and implied or was not. The question is whether something is better, a comparison, than something else, so the or need not be mentioned explicitly. Answer choice (E) suffers from the same problem, while (B) adds or not to whether. Again, since nothing is known for certain, or not is implied. Notice how answer choice (C) avoids all these issues. Furthermore, we do not even have to worry about that at the beginning of the underlined portion. Whenever you see easier targets, go for those before you fixate on something that makes you doubt yourself. SC will go much more smoothly for you, and your performance will improve.

At this point in your preparation, you should not be looking to make last-minute fixes. Just relax as much as you can, reinforce your methods for taking on each type of question, and, if possible, get your mind off the test.

Good luck.

- Andrew
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