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Jue
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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor Updated on: 11 Jul 2021, 04:45
Originally posted by Jue on 11 Jul 2021, 03:09.
Last edited by Bunuel on 11 Jul 2021, 04:45, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic.
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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45% (medium)

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47% (00:57) correct 53% (00:58) wrong based on 113 sessions

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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its own systems for converting these items into images.

A) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its

B) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has their

C) each competitor in the World Memory Championships have their

D) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have its

E) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have their

--Source: Erica L. Meltzer / GMAT SC Guide
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E
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Jue
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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor 11 Jul 2021, 03:10
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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor Updated on: 11 Jul 2021, 08:24
Originally posted by v12345 on 11 Jul 2021, 03:25.
Last edited by v12345 on 11 Jul 2021, 08:24, edited 1 time in total.
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Jue
When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its own systems for converting these items into images.

A) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its

B) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has their

C) each competitor in the World Memory Championships have their

D) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have its

E) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have their

--Source: Erica L. Meltzer / GMAT SC Guide
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Instead of each competitor, all of the competitors will come as systems is used and with all of the competitors ..... have their will come.

Hence, OA is E.
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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor 11 Jul 2021, 03:30
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Jue
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The choice is between A and E.
The non-underlined portion has "systems". It shows that the usage of "all of the competitors" is more apt than the singular "each of the competitors".
So, option E is correct.
Rest of the options have clear pronoun ambiguity, so those can be eliminated easily on those grounds.
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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor 11 Jul 2021, 04:05
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Jue
When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its own systems for converting these items into images.

A) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its

B) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has their

C) each competitor in the World Memory Championships have their

D) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have its

E) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have their

--Source: Erica L. Meltzer / GMAT SC Guide
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The competitors are presumably people, so we can't say "each competitor... has its", because "it" can't refer to a person, and A and D are wrong. C is wrong because "each competitor" is singular, so the plural "have" is the wrong verb choice.

But both B and E are acceptable in contemporary language, and these days, I'd be surprised if a GMAT question preferred one answer to the other (so the GMAT wouldn't ask a question like this). We use "they" in the singular in everyday speech all the time when gender is unknown or irrelevant ("someone left their watch on the table", for example). If you go back in time a few decades, strict grammarians would insist on using "his" or "her" or "his or her" when referring to a singular person (so they would argue you need to say something like "someone left his or her watch on the table", which sounds a bit ridiculous). But these days, most professional style guides not only consider "they" and "them" perfectly acceptable in situations like this, these guides actually consider it preferable to "his" or "her" (which, as a factual matter, are incorrect if you don't know the gender of the person involved) or "his or her", which is more awkward than necessary.

I'm sure the source justifies E here because it insists you need to say "the competitors... have their" and not "each competitor... has their", but that's a dated way to look at English usage. Both are perfectly fine in modern English, though if I was forced to choose between the two on a standardized test, I'd choose E just because of the strict plural/plural agreement.
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When it comes to remembering numbers or binary digits, each competitor 11 Jul 2021, 10:25
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Issue with the original sentence is subject being Singular but expected Subject should be plural.
In the non Underlined part you can observe the word own systems that implies Plural subject is expected.
Let's analyze the options

A) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has its - Incorrect Singular subject Each competitor, hence we'll eliminate this option

B) each competitor in the World Memory Championships has their - Incorrect Singular Subject Each competitor with plural pronoun their

C) each competitor in the World Memory Championships have their - Incorrect Same as B with incorrect verb has

D) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have its -Incorrect Singular pronoun its for plural subject all of the competitors

E) all of the competitors in the World Memory Championships have their - Correct, Eliminates all the above errors, correct plural subject for own systems

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