The popular professors suggest that a university permits their failing

Question

The popular professors suggest that a university permits their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue a different course of study at their leisure until they improve their grades.

A that a university permits their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue

B universities to permit their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education that they can pursue

C that a university permit its failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue

D universities permitting a failing student whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned the pursuit of

E universities to permit a failing student whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned the pursuit of

viv007 · Answer

C

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vishwash · Answer

i suppose suggest + that is necessary.... some one can correct me if i am wrong... also "a university permits" is wrong hence... 
imo C

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi aaba,

Thank you for your quetsion. This one was trickly, so I took some time to look over this question, and I think I have a good strategy for answering it quickly.

One of the first things that jumped out at me when looking over the answers quickly was pronoun usage. So let's look over each answer, checking to make sure there are no vague pronouns or pronoun agreement issues:

A: that a university permits  their  failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue 
This is a  WRONG  answer because the pronoun "their" is too vague. It's unclear whether that's referring to the professors' students or the university's students.

B:  universities  to permit  their  failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education that they can pursue 
Since we're talking about a group of professors proposing one plan for failing students, it's more likely that the professors all work at the same university. Therefore, this is  WRONG  because it messes with the intended meaning.

C: that a university permit  its  failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue 
This is  CORRECT  because the pronoun "its" is clearly referring to "a university," which is a collective noun that always gets a singular pronoun. There is no mistaking "its" as referring to the plural "professors."

D: universities permitting  a failing student  whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned the pursuit of 
This is  WRONG  because it uses the singular phrase "a failing student." This doesn't agree with the later plural phrase "until  they  improve their grades."

E: universities to permit  a failing student  whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned the pursuit of
This is  WRONG  for the same reason as D - the use of the singular "a failing student" doesn't agree in number with the plural "until they improve their grades."

So, by looking at pronoun agreement and vague pronouns alone, we can easily narrow it down to one correct answer!

MvArrow · Answer

C because of the need of the subjunctive construction :D

Adi93 · Answer

GMATNinja 
In C shouldn't it be University  permits 
Please help

benejo · Answer

Hi Adi, the sentence is in subjunctive mood (command/demand/ suggestion /necessity). In subjunctive mood, the most basic form of verb is used. (no -s at the end) check out the video below from 6:00 on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK19l5JfrBQ

renjana · Answer

that a university permit its failing  students who  would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue - Can anyone tell me if a singular WHO CAN Follow the plural Students ?

viv007 · Answer

Who is relative pronoun, which did not care about singular or plural u have to chose verb accordingly wrt singular or plural.

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adkikani · Answer

renjana

Who vs whose is not a determining factor in this Q. Did you get to PoE ie knowing why an option is incorrect?

I think you are concentrating more on active vs passive voice when there are few other issues to worry about.

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EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  renjana ,  all   relative pronouns  (including  who ) can refer to both  singular  and to  plural  nouns.

For example, both the following are  correct :

i)  The child who visits me, is in grade III. 
-  who  refers to  singular  child

ii)  The children who visit me, are in grade III.  
-  who  refers to  plural  children

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  Relative Pronouns , their properties and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

prabugmat · Answer

IMO C

A and E -- Pronoun issue
B and D -- Meaning issue.

aaba · Answer

The popular professors suggest that a university permits their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue a different course of study at their leisure until they improve their grades.

A that a university permits  their  failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue

B universities to permit their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education  that they can pursue 
 
C that a university permit its failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue

D universities permitting a failing student whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned  the pursuit of

E universities to permit a failing student whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned  the pursuit of

AdityaHongunti · Answer

Hello Adi,

I'll help you if you don't mind.

The word suggest is a subjunctive verb. And hence needs a subjunctive verb structure.

Structure- subjunctive verb+ that + subject + plural verb.

There is a list of subjunctive verbs which you shld memorise.

Second distinction between answer choices for POE is the pronoun usage - university is singular entity hence should be followed by a singular pronoun.

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dabaobao · Answer

A that a university permits  their  failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue  - Wrong: University is singular, and hence it requires "its" insted of "their".

B universities to permit their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education  that  they can pursue  - Wrong: Correct idiom is "permit to" and not "permit that".

C that a university permit its failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue  - Correct

D universities permitting  a failing student  whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned the pursuit of  - Wrong: "a failing student" doesn't agree in number with the non-underlined part "their leisure until they improve their grades. "

E universities to permit  a failing student  whose postgraduate education would otherwise be abandoned the pursuit of  - Wrong: "a failing student" doesn't agree in number with the non-underlined part "their leisure until they improve their grades. "

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

The correct idiomatic structure involving 'suggest' is:  ...suggest that.... .

For violating this condition, (B), (D) and (E) can be eliminated.

In (A),  a university permits their failing....  is grammatically incorrect as 'A university' is  singular  and hence cannot be matched with  'their' . Therefore, we can eliminate (A)

Hence, (C) is the right answer choice.

Hoozan · Answer

The popular professors suggest that a university permits their failing students who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education to pursue a different course of study at their leisure until they improve their grades.

Meaning Analysis:   A group of professors are making a suggestion. They suggest universities to allow their students who fail to pursue a different course and thereby improve their grades. These students otherwise would abandon postgrad education.

Sentence Structure: 
The popular professors  (subject) 
suggest that  (subjunctive)  
a university  (singular subject) 
permits  (singular verb) 
their failing students  ("their" refers to singular "university")  
who  (relative pronoun referring to "students") 
would otherwise abandon  (verb) 
postgraduate education  (object of the sentence) 
to purse a different course of study at their leisure until they improve their grades.  (information about "permits their failing students")

"Suggest that" is a trigger word and hence we need Subjunctive "permit". Hence we see a verb error out here. We also see that a plural pronoun "their" is used for a singular noun "universities"

Learning:-  (as taught by @eGMAT) 
(1) Subjunctive is a plural verb used despite of the presence of a singular subject 
(2) Trigger word + that + subject (singular/plural) + subjunctive (plural verb).
(3) Trigger words: Demand, dictate, insist, recommend, request, proposal, mandate, suggest, stipulate.

If we remove the relative clause we get  "The popular professors suggest universities to permit their failing students  who would otherwise abandon postgraduate education  that they can pursue a different course of study at their leisure until they improve their grades.  The sentence is incomplete as we now have "suggest universities to permit their failing students that they can pursue..." Ask yourself "what do the universities permit their students to do?" we don't get an answer to this question.

Suggest (trigger word) that a university (singular subject) permit (subjunctive). As we see, the structure of subjunctive is correctly written. The sentence conveys a complete idea.  Correct

The sentence appears to say that the professors suggest the universities the pursuit of something. That is not what the sentence is trying to say. In essence we wish to say that the professors suggest the universities to allow its failing students to do something.

Moreover, in the non-underlined part we have the plural pronoun "their" referring to students. Hence singular "a student" is incorrect

Same pronoun error of (D). The structure "the pursuit of a different course" makes this sentence awkward.

Correct choice:  (C)

manikantanutakki · Answer

IMO C subjunctive and no pronoun errors

VerbalBot · Answer

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The popular professors suggest that a university permits their failing

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The popular professors suggest that a university permits their failing

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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