Prior to purchasing a corporate bond, investors are advised to request

Question

Prior to purchasing a corporate bond, investors are advised to request important information  regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which depends on the seller's financial status .

A. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which depends on the seller's financial status

B. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating, which may range from very secure to highly speculative depending on the seller's financial status

C. regarding the note, which includes the maturity date, interest rate, and its credit rating, which may range between very secure and highly speculative, depending on the seller's financial status

D. in regards to the note, including the maturity date and interest rate, and also its credit rating, which ranges from the very secure to the highly speculative, depending on the financial status of the seller

E. in regard to them, including maturity date, interest rates, and if the credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which is dependent on the sellers' financial status

SohGMAT2020 · Answer

Prior to purchasing a corporate bond, investors are advised to request important information  regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which depends on the seller's financial status .

A. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative,  which  depends on the seller's financial status :  Incorrect : " Which must logically refer to "credit rating", but in this case, the which cannot refer to credit rating as a verb ("is") comes in between.

B. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating, which may range from very secure to highly speculative depending on the seller's financial status   : Correct: Looks good , No errors.

C. regarding the note, which includes  the  maturity date, interest rate, and  its  credit rating, which may range between very secure and highly speculative, depending on the seller's financial status  : Incorrect : It is not necessary to have "its" in between.

D. in regards to the note, including the maturity date and interest rate, and  also its  credit rating, which ranges from the very secure to the highly speculative, depending on the financial status of the seller  : Incorrect : It is not necessary to have " and also its" in between.

E. in regard to  them , including maturity date, interest rates, and if the credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which is dependent on the sellers' financial status  : Incorrect : What "them" refers to is unclear.

IMO "B" is correct

jatin093 · Answer

A. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which depends on the seller's financial status 
->>  WRONG.  whether.... or -> not required.. also, verb-ing modifier should be used.

B. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating, which may range from very secure to highly speculative depending on the seller's financial status ->  CORRECT

C. regarding the note, which includes the maturity date, interest rate, and  its credit rating , which may range between very secure and highly speculative, depending on the seller's financial status -> NOT PARELLEL

D.  in regards to  the note, including the maturity date and interest rate, and also its credit rating, which ranges from  the  very secure to  the  highly speculative, depending on the financial status of the seller -> changes meaning... also, regarding is better

E. in regard to  them , including maturity date, interest rates, and if the credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which is dependent on the sellers' financial status ->SV error

Dibab · Answer

Let's deal with the first two option A and B which are very similar.

A. regarding the note, including  its  maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative,  which  depends on the seller's financial status

B. regarding the note, including  its  maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating,  which  may range from very secure to highly speculative depending on the seller's financial status

First what jumps out to me is the use of the pronouns its and which. 
The most logical referent for the "its" clearly is the "note" (or the bound but anyway both these words describe the same thing), we may argue that there is ambiguity, afterall information (which is a uncountable noun and therefore singular noun) could be that "its". But considering the meaning we clearly see that we are describing the information about the note (its maturity date, interests ...). Not the information's maturity date which clearly would be a non sense. Those kinds of ambiguity can remain in those cases, where the referent clearly is logical. We may consider that this is an ambiguity error but lets be conservative and keep it until we find (or we don't) a better option.
Furthermore, the use of which in A and B clearly tends in favor of B. Indeed the which in A doesn't seem to have a clear referent. It is supposed to refer to the risk's range of the note, but we are lacking such a clear noun in A. B in the contrary is way more clear. Therefore, even if we are conservative we keep B over A.

Now let's look at the other answer choices

C. regarding the note,  which  includes the maturity date, interest rate, and its credit rating, which may range between very secure and highly speculative, depending on the seller's financial status

Here the which seems to refer to the note. So if we try to understand the conveyed meaning here, what can we infer ? The note would already include the informations concerning its maturity date,rates ... therefore what would be the point of the sentence ? Why would an investor even bother to request information if the note already includes it ? 
Even if we, let say consider that the which can jump to refer to the word "information" as "regarding the note" could be considered a prepositionnal phrase that would allow such jump (I'm not even sure about that), it would be more or less the same issue : :requesting information which includes" would not mean anything. In my opinion we have proven with a meaning based approach that we can discard.

D. in regards to the note, including the maturity date and interest rate, and also its credit rating, which ranges from the very secure to the highly speculative, depending on the financial status of the seller

First the "and also" is close to a redundant issue, even though GMAT doesn't always consider that as an issue by itself.
I'm not a native speaker so I'm not 100% sure of the difference between "in regards to" and "regarding", I think the most idiomatic formulation is "regarding" but I can't dimiss D for that reason.
So on what basis could I choose D over B or not ? In my opinion the 'depending on the financial status of the seller' part as it stands creates ambiguity, it is an -ing modifier and it may well modify the 'are advised to request' (while is supposed to modify the ' ranges from ... if we want to convey a correct meaning) part of the sentence. We may understand 'The investors are requested to ... depending on their status', a nonsensical meaning.

E. Here we won't develop that much, the 'them' clearly has not logical referent, E out.

Finally I have chosen B. Even if the ambiguity of the 'its' remains I think the points I have mentionned concerning D tend to favor B over D.
I would be glad if one of the experts could enlight me concerning wether or not the reasons I've presented to choose D are correct or not, also about the idiomatic usage of in regards to\regarding.

It is one of the first time I post an answer so I hope it will help the others and it will be accurate.

mdsaddamforgmat · Answer

IMO B:

…..” including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating”….. is not parallel
Therefore A, C, D & E are out.

Option B – 
“including its maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating” – Parallel
“Which” after comma clearly referring to “Credit Rating”
And overall structure is clear.

karnavora1 · Answer

Prior to purchasing a corporate bond, investors are advised to request important information regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which depends on the seller's financial status.

A. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and whether its credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which depends on the seller's financial status
   Incorrect - whether its credit....speculative is redundant and which is placed incorrectly

B. regarding the note, including its maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating, which may range from very secure to highly speculative depending on the seller's financial status
   Correct - which is placed correctly here

C. regarding the note, which includes the maturity date, interest rate, and its credit rating, which may range between very secure and highly speculative, depending on the seller's financial status
   Incorrect - range between is the wrong idiom

D. in regards to the note, including the maturity date and interest rate, and also its credit rating, which ranges from the very secure to the highly speculative, depending on the financial status of the seller
   Incorrect - This has everything all over the place, "and also" is not required, which ranges from the is incorrect, financial status of the seller is awkward

E. in regard to them, including maturity date, interest rates, and if the credit rating is very secure or highly speculative, which is dependent on the sellers' financial status
   Incorrect - in regard to them is incorrect because them refers to investors but should refer to the note

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

Here you see items in a list, strongly hinting that there may be a parallelism error. Indeed, the list consists of two nouns but then the  "whether"  construction and so is not parallel. Investors need to request three pieces of important information: maturity date, interest rate, and credit rating. You also see a phrase set off by a comma—a classic sign of a potential modification error. The information at the end of the sentence must clearly modify credit rating.

In this case, grouping the answers is less efficient than reviewing each answer choice in turn, paying close attention to the parallelism and modification errors you identified.

As noted,  (A)  has errors, so eliminate it.

(B)  presents the information in a clear, correct, and parallel manner. This seems to be the correct answer, but check the other answers.

In  (C) , it is not clear what the first  “which”  refers to  (“which includes ...”) . According to its position, it would seem to modify  “note,”  but it should actually modify the  “information”  that investors should request.

In  (E) , it is not clear what the pronoun  "them"  refers to. In addition,  (C), (D) , and  (E)  all contain faulty parallel structures;  (D)  also contains  "in regards to”  when the proper expression is  "in regard to" ; and  (E)  uses  "if"  where  "whether"  should be used to introduce two alternatives.

(B) is correct.

TAKEAWAY:  Knowing what error to look for will save you time on Test Day; here, there were classic signs pointing to parallelism and modification errors.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Prior to purchasing a corporate bond, investors are advised to request

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