Graduation rates in the US, that is the lowest among the developed nat

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, to narrow it down to the correct choice! To begin, we need to take a quick look over the original question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Graduation rates in the US, that is the lowest among the developed nations, are predicted to be higher this year over last since the government spends about $100 per student more than it did last year.

A. Graduation rates in the US, that is the lowest among the developed nations, are predicted to be higher this year over last since the government spends about $100 per student more than it did
B. It is predicted that graduation rates in the US, lowest among the developed nations, will be higher this year than last year’s since the government spends about $100 per student more than it did
C. Predictions are for graduation rates in the US to be lowest among the developed nations and to be higher this year than last year’s since the government is spending about $100 more per student than it did
D. Graduation rates in the US, lowest among the developed nations, are predicted to be higher this year than last since the government is spending about $100 more per student than it was
E. It is the prediction that graduation rates in the US, which are the lowest among the developed nations, will be higher this year over last since the government is spending about $100 more per student now than what it was

After a quick glance over the options, there are several differences we can focus on:

1. Graduation rates / It is predicted that graduation rates / Predictions are for graduation rates / It is the prediction that graduation rates
2. that is the lowest / lowest / to be lowest / which are the lowest
3. are predicted to be / will be / and to be
4. over last / than last year's / than last
5. spends / is spending
6. it did / it was

With so many problems to choose from, where do you start? To narrow down answers more quickly, start by focusing on items that will eliminate 2-3 options right away. For this question, that means starting with #4-6 on our list!

Let's start off with #4 on our list, which focuses on COMPARISONS! Whenever we see comparisons in our GMAT questions, there are 2 things we need to check: idiom structure & parallelism! Let's focus on just this part of each option and check for idiom or parallelism errors:

A. Graduation rates...are predicted to be higher this year over last --> WRONG
("X is higher over Y" is not idiomatically correct; it should be "X is higher than Y")

B. It is predicted that graduation rates...will be higher this year than last year’s --> WRONG
(This is not parallel! In this section, we are only comparing this year to last year, not this year's rates to last year's rates.)

C. Predictions are for graduation rates...to be higher this year than last year’s --> WRONG
(This has the same parallelism problem as option B.)

D. Graduation rates...are predicted to be higher this year than last --> CORRECT
(This is parallel because it's clear that it's comparing "this year" to "last (year)." It's also idiomatically correct because it uses "than" instead of "over.")

E. It is the prediction that graduation rates...will be higher this year over last --> WRONG
(This has the same idiom problem as option A.)

There you have it - option D is the correct choice! We eliminated 4 options because they didn't follow the rules for comparisons! By focusing on a simple "either/or" grammar problem, we got to the correct answer rather quickly!

There are different routes you can take to get to this answer, but it may take you longer or not eliminate as many options as you might like!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Apart from other comparion/subtle errors, "Spends" vs "is spending" gives us easy elimination option to do away with option A & B..

Since the prediction is for "improvement of passing rates" a general statement like "Government spends" is incorrect, since this means that the Government has spent earlier also. So there is nothing new that is going to happen to increase the passing rates. But when we say "Government is spending" then it means that government is presently spending, which can lead to an improvement.

C has a clear meaning issue and E uses "which" incorrectly.

So IMO D is the answer.

Well done, Shivan21! This is a great example of an alternative path to get to the correct answer! Glad to see you're using the 50/50 splits to knock out options quickly - it really does work!

Correct answer: D

A: Incorrect modifier ("that is" is unnecessary). Incorrect comparison / idiom (higher this year OVER [idiom, should be than] LAST YEAR'S [incorrect comparison --> should be higher this year ... than last year.]
B: Ambiguous use of "It." Incorrect comparison as in A.
C: Wordy. Meaning distortion: "Predictions ... to be the lowest among the developed nations" suggests a prediction regarding the US's ranking.
D: Correct
E: Ambiguous use of "It." Incorrect idiom as in A. Incorrect use of "what."

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