Hey All,

Lots of great conversation surrounding this one. At MGMAT, we use this question to demonstrate a fundamental rule of sentence correction, namely that the correct answer often sounds terrible. The reason the correct answer here sounds so bad (and why many of you didn't pick it), is because of the use of the rare idiom so X as to Y, and the present participle. I'll explain:

Students in the metropolitan school district lack math skills to such a large degree as to make it difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries.

(A) lack math skills to such a large degree as to make it difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming
PROBLEM: So x as to Y is the idiom, as many of you pointed out. Also, the subject of "to absorb" is highly unclear. Who's absorbing them?

(B) lack math skills to a large enough degree that they will be difficult to absorb into a city’s economy that becomes
PROBLEM: "large enough degree that" is not idiomatic. "City's economy" makes it seem that there is some specific city, which is odd (though not inherently wrong). Finally "becomes" makes it seem as if this hasn't happened yet, but the point is that it is happening at present.

(C) lack of math skills is so large as to be difficult to absorb them into a city’s economy that becomes
PROBLEM: You can't really have a "large" "lack of math skills". Same two points at the end as before.

(D) are lacking so much in math skills as to be difficult to absorb into a city’s economy becoming
PROBLEM: Again, the so X as to Y is wrong. City's economy remains weird.

(E) are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming
ANSWER: So X as to Y is correct. Becoming is a present participle modifying city economy, and it makes it clear that this is currently happening.

For what it's worth, all of these answer choices also have an ambiguous pronoun ("them" could be math skills or students), but apparently GMAT figured it wasn't important here. Silly GMAT.

Hope that helps!

-tommy

Thanks. OA is E.

SC is from OG.

In D OG says: so much....as to be difficult is not a correct idiomatic expression.

Hey Cano,

Nice of you to say that, but I realize I kept referring to the idiom as "so X as to Y" when the sentence itself uses it as "so X that...", which is also legit. : )

-tommy

Hey Seek,

The problem here is that the idiom is NOT in the form you described. The idiom is "so X as to Y".

D) are lacking so much in math skills as to be difficult to absorb into a city’s economy becoming

But this says "They are X so much as to Y". The "so" needs to go BEFORE the X (in this case, "lacking".

-tommy

But in case of E, the placement of "so" does not seem to be quite correct to me. What is the problem with D?

A. Such is used here as an intensifier.So Large is redundant...2. should be city's economy
B 1. large enough degree is awkward.. enough is misplaced 2. simple present (becomes) indicates fact was true before, is true now, and will be true in the future , thus changes the meaning of original sentence
C.simple present (becomes) indicates fact was true before, is true now, and will be true in the future , thus changes the meaning of original sentence
D. ABSORB is a transitive verb thus requires an object
E.should be correct

A - such a large degree as - wrong idiom used
B/C - that becomes - changes the meaning as in it is not happening now as we speak.
D - So X ... as to be - wrong idiom

Lacking is right in E as it speaks of something that is happening now or an ongoing action and hence the present participle.

IMO E.

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Confused why E is right over C

With all the options its difficult to see whether it is the students or the skills that are to be absorbed. E clears that up quite well.
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I would have never thought "students are so lacking in math skills" would ever be the correct choice on a GMAT SC question. That just sounds off. But I guess on the harder questions, that's what it comes down to. Trusting your ears and understanding the meaning is not enough. You need absolute mastery of all the subtopics to get these questions correct.