V06-03

In most industries the rising cost of support services does not hurt business owners, but it does pass a greater financial burden on to customers; in the legal profession, for example, a climb in the cost of court reporting in recent months has forced many attorneys to raise their hourly rates.

A. has forced many attorneys to raise their hourly rates.
B. has made many attorneys raise their hourly rates.
C. has meant that many attorneys are being forced to raise their hourly rates.
D. is forcing that many attorneys to raise their hourly rates.
E. is meaning that many attorneys are raising their hourly rates by force.
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Official Solution:

In most industries the rising cost of support services does not hurt business owners, but it does pass a greater financial burden on to customers; in the legal profession, for example, a climb in the cost of court reporting in recent months has forced many attorneys to raise their hourly rates.

A. has forced many attorneys to raise their hourly rates.
B. has made many attorneys raise their hourly rates.
C. has meant that many attorneys are being forced to raise their hourly rates.
D. is forcing that many attorneys to raise their hourly rates.
E. is meaning that many attorneys are raising their hourly rates by force.


Choosing the correct answer to this question requires the recognition of subtle clues to distinguish whether the verb form should be past or present tense. The phrase in recent months indicates that the climb in court reporting costs has already occurred, indicating a need for present perfect tense in the sentence. The wording of the rest of the sentence should also be clear and concise. This sentence is correct as written.

A. CORRECT. The sentence correctly uses the present perfect tense has forced, and the wording of the rest of the sentence is clear an concise.

B. The phrase is both informal and imprecise.

C. The verb forms has meant and are being forced display inconsistent tenses.

D. The verb form is forcing incorrectly uses present progressive tense.

E. By force is a misplaced modifier that confuses the meaning of the sentence by suggesting that force is the method by which attorneys will raise their rates.


Answer: A
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Usually SC questions contain only one sentence. First time encountering a sentence with 2 sentences. I think its is wrong. Pl check.

I had a dillema of choosing A or B.
How come "made" is less formal then "forced"?
As a non-native speaker, it seemed pretty good to me - so I picked it up for being shorter (thus more efficient) than A.

Bunuel, can you please explain this question further.
1) why does it need to be present perfect? Why can't it refer to a future event?
2) Why can't the lawyers now be forced to increase the price? or why can't they be forced to raise prices in the future?

I think this is a poor-quality question and I agree with explanation. GMAT only tests only one sentence per question. Please confirm.

I think this is a high-quality question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate. Guys check this- v2-85020.html

answer given here is D...

Hi Bunuel,
Can you please explain why B is not the right option?
Thank you.

Why is 'has made' less formal and imprecise than 'has forced'? Also, in what way would you know if something is less formal

Wouldn't the rise on court reporting give the lawyers a reason to raise their rates, not "force" them? Is this an issue with the question? I chose option "B" because I thought "made" was a less strong term than "force"

MartyMurray , daagh

The OE to this question seems confusing. I am still not convinced with the POE for option B. Can somebody please help??

As discussed in the official explanation, "has made" is somewhat informal and does not convey a meaning quite as clear as that conveyed by "has forced".

So, if forced to choose between the two, probably we should choose "has forced".

That having been said, the difference between the two expressions is not as clear as or typical of the differences between choices that generally exist in GMAT Sentence Correction questions. So, this question is not a good example of the challenges that you will face in answering GMAT Sentence Correction questions.
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I took a mock test from the gmat club test centre. The answer to this question was given something else even though option A was there.

How reliable are the gmatclub tests?

GMATNinja Bunuel bb

I noticed this too. As per @Raj30's post above, there seems to be a discrepancy in the answers of the CAT on GMATClub. Could someone please address this? I immediately stopped reviewing my performance on these tests.

Why is ''has made'' in option B is informal?

"a climb in the cost of court reporting in recent months has forced many attorneys to raise their hourly rates." — This is the part that is the difference b/t the test you just took and this question. Like you, I am confused with the explanation in the test, which I just took this afternoon. I picked present perfect. I don't understand why present tense is correct.
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I think this is a high-quality question.

I had faced the same problem as Raj30 has mentioned here. My previous test showed that Option A is incorrect and this test says that Option A is actually correct.
GMATNinja Bunuel Please help.

How can a climb in cost force employees? It should be written as a result of the climb in cost. A climb in cost, as a result has forced...

I also had the same issue when I saw the question. But if you read the two questions side-side, you will see that the passages are different
The question in the picture says "current climb" i.e. the climb is happening now. So you cannot have a present perfect tense.