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 didB.
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 didC.
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 didD.
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 wasE.
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 wasAfter 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 wasWith 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.