Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career

Question

Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program, makes it likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization.

A. Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program, makes it likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization.

B. An employee who over-specializes while in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program, makes it likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization

C. An employee who over-specializes while in training for a particular career track is likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization, even if it is a high-quality training program.

D. Employees’ over-specializing while in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program, makes them likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in their field of specialization.

E. Over-specializing while in training for a particular career track, even in a high-quality training program, is likely to make an employee miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in his or her field of specialization.

Kritisood · Answer

Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program, makes it likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization.

A.  Over-specialization  by an employee in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program,  makes it  likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization.

B.  An employee  who over-specializes while in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program,  makes it l ikely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization

C. An employee who over-specializes while in training for a particular career track is likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization,  even if it is a high-quality training program.

D. Employees’ over-specializing while in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program, makes  them  likely to miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in their field of specialization.

E. Over-specializing while in training for a particular career track, even in a high-quality training program, is likely to make an employee miss out on opportunities for career development that are not directly in his or her field of specialization. A is a better version of this

IMO A.

lakshya14 · Answer

(A) and (E). Ended up choosing (A). Any major difference to eliminate (A)?

frankgraves · Answer

If we see answer A, "Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career track, even if it is a high-quality training program,  makes it likely to miss out on opportunities for career development  that are not directly in the employee’s field of specialization"
The subject-verb agreement is not clear in the underlined part. Who will miss the opportunity for career development? The over-specialization? Hence, A is not the correct answer. 
While in E, over-specialization  is likely to make an employee miss out  on opportunities for career development. It is clear.

AndrewN · Answer

Well said,  frankgraves . I also wanted to share with everybody that the above question is most definitely patterned after  this official question , one that mentions  heavy commitment by an executive . (I guess one way to avoid plagiarism is to copy nearly every aspect of a question but swap out key nouns. There is no copyright on sentence structure or verbs, after all.)

Happy studies, everyone.

- Andrew

Nikeshag · Answer

In option A the pronoun 'it' is referring to the noun employee which makes it incorrect

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

Each answer choice here makes progressive improvements, but it is not until  Answer (E)  that all the problems with the original sentence are resolved. Though the meaning of the original sentence may be relatively clear, its logical expression is muddled. There are two vague pronouns: each  “it”  lacks an antecedent. The vague pronouns cause another problem: there is a missing subject in the phrase  “makes it likely to miss out on opportunities”  (who or what is missing out?). And there is a second-tier concern: there are so many prepositions in the sentence (by, in, for, to) that the sentence lacks brevity and clarity.

Answer (B)  changes the subject of the sentence to  “an employee,”  which reduces the number of prepositions but causes a subject/verb problem in making the employee responsible for missing out on opportunities, when in fact it is the character of the training program that is the problem.

Answer (C)  works well until the last clause, which is a misplaced modifier that retains the vague pronoun  “it.”

Answer (D)  also retains the vague pronoun  “it”  and introduces another pronoun without an antecedent,  “them.” “Them”  cannot refer to  “employees”  because  “employees”  is possessive.

Finally,  (E)  solves these problems. Using Slash and Burn, you can see that the main clause is  “Over-specializing…is likely to make an employee miss out on opportunities,”  a grammatically correct and concise clause. The vague pronouns are eliminated.

Correct answer: (E)

Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Over-specialization by an employee in training for a particular career

Prep Toolkit

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards