High school students are often encouraged by their parents to study di

Question

High school students are often encouraged by their parents to study diligently for AP exams,  which allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs .

(A) which allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs

(B) which allow the students to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition

(C) which, if the score is high, allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on tuition costs

(D) as high scores allow the students to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition

(E) as high scores allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs

BillyZ · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION 
Whenever you see certain relative pronouns (who, which, where, whose) in a sentence correction problem, you should hone it on those as an initial decision point.

Here you see the obvious choice between “which” and “as” to start each answer.

The broad rule for non-restrictive relative pronouns (those used with a comma and giving extra information about what they are beside) is that they must be beside (or very close to) a noun that they can logically modify.

For (A), (B), and (C), it is not the AP exams that allow students to skip courses and save tuition – rather it is a good performance on those exams! =Given this you can eliminate (A), (B), and (C).

(D) and (E) properly use the conjunction “ as ” to link together a separate clause that explains what high scores will do for students.

(E) contains two errors seen in some of the other answers: there is a reference error with the pronoun “ them ” and the “ costs ” after tuition is unnecessary and redundant.

The correct answer is (D) .

kunalsinghNS · Answer

Would go with option B

Since "Which" is preferred over "as" 
In option A "their" seems to be ambiguous and Option C has the same problem as A but the phrase "if the score is high" should'nt be between two commas.

KS15 · Answer

D for me . Sentence is trying to say that scoring high or high scores allow the students to skip certain courses.

elegantm · Answer

Hi Broall,
 
Just wanted to confirm whether the word COSTS is omitted intentionally or erroneously in option B & D.

broall · Answer

The question is as is. Regards.

vishalbalwani · Answer

Options A,B,C can be crossed out because  which  is trying to modify the noun  AP exams 
the word  them  in option is confusing as it can refer to either parents or students. Hence this option is wrong

D is the correct option as per me.

gmatexam439 · Answer

High school students are often encouraged by their parents to study diligently for AP exams,  which allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs .

(A) which allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs - "them" is dangling pronoun. Meaning error --> Exams don't allow the students to save costs

(B) which allow the students to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition - Meaning Error

(C) which, if the score is high, allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on tuition costs - Meaning Error

(D) as high scores allow the students to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition - Correct

(E) as high scores allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs - "them" is dangling pronoun

sandysilva · Answer

the high scores allows them to skip and save. Exams themselves can not help them skip and save tuition cost.

D it is.

varun4s · Answer

High school students are often encouraged by their parents to study diligently for AP exams,  which allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs.

(A)  which  allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs  (High Scores allow the students not exams)

(B)  which  allow the students to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition  (Same as A)

(C)  which , if the score is high, allow them to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on tuition costs  (Same as A)

(D) as high scores allow the students to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition  (Correct)

(E) as high scores allow  them  to skip certain required college courses and save substantially on overall tuition costs  (Them could be students or parents)

mohshu · Answer

narrowed down to D and E.... but experts 
how can anyone save on "tuition" ???? it should be "tuition costs" according to me,,,,

Nightmare007 · Answer

I chose D despite having a doubt- 
should'nt we use an infinitive "to save" than just "save" ?

NeverGiveUp- Arpit · Answer

Sentence is as below. To applies to both skip and Save.

as high scores allow the students to 
 skip certain required college courses and 
 save substantially on overall tuition

rahul16singh28 · Answer

Hi @e-gmat,  DmitryFarber ,  EducationAisle 
 VeritasKarishma

I have he following query for this question, can you please help.

In option E, "them" can theoretically refer to "parents" or "students". But when we put parents in place of them the sentence doesn't make sense as parents cannot skip courses. So, logically them should refer to "students". Hence,can we say E doesn't have pronoun ambiguity??

Can you please advise as to where I am going wrong.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

rahul16singh28 You're right that "them" is not really ambiguous. Sometimes the GMAT will use a noun in place of a pronoun for clarity, though, and it's not generally a good idea to bet against the noun. It's never wrong to use the noun (as long as it's the correct noun), while a pronoun can be bad. D also ditches the word "costs," which I'd imagine the authors found redundant in this context.

So is E wrong? No, and normally all the wrong choices in a real SC question will be wrong in some way. However, I can see why D is preferred here.

So is E  wrong?  No, and normally all the wrong choices in a real SC question will be wrong in some way. However, I can see why D is preferred here.

VerbalBot · Answer

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High school students are often encouraged by their parents to study di

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