While most graduate students find that their education has prepared

Hello plaverbach.

Really appreciate if you can underline your question and use A, B,...E for answer choices next time.

While most graduate students find that their education has prepared them well for their future careers, some express concern over their education lacking real-world application, having, for example, been given homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios or having been assigned to group projects that do not adequately consider the skills of the individual participants.

A) having, for example, been given homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios or having been
Correct. Good parallel structure. "having been...." is the modifier.

B) having, for example, homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios or being
Wrong. "being" always raises red flag if it is used as modifier.

C) as, for example, having too unrealistic a scenario in their homework, or being
Wrong. Same as in B.

D) when they have, for example, been given unrealistic scenarios in their homework, or were
Wrong. Why use two tenses? D does not keep parallel structure. In addition, "when" is necessary.

E) for example, when they have homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios, or been
Wrong. No auxiliary verb for "been". Absolutely wrong grammar. Note, "have" is not the auxiliary verb for "been" in this sentence.

Hope it helps.

Experts pls comment...

Can we eliminate options D and E since they use 'when' but there is no time period to refer to, i.e. when is not preceded by a time period.

Yes, we can say so. ("When" typically is used to refer to time connotation).

In addition, we can also check for tense parallelism to eliminate D & parallelism w.r.t sentence structure in E

I rejected all the choices except D and E. In D, I thought author changed the tense unnecessarily so I finally selected E . Wrong choice

Can anyone please guide why did they reject choice and prefer A? Thanks

For option E, why would we need a full clause? Isn't it true that we can leave the subject after and/or when the subject is the same when two actions are separated by And/Or?

Thank you.

Not necessarily. I think comma in your first example comma is optional. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I went to the market, and purchased some fruits. - this is also correct, I think.

I went to the market, talked to supervisor, and purchased some fruits. - in this case, it's correct definitely.

I marked B. Later got the issue ..

in B ->some express.....,for example, HOMEWORK (wrong)
in A -> some express.....,for example, BEEN GIVEN HOMEWORK (correct)


am I correct ? or are there any other problems with B ?

First remove ",for example ," because this is a non-essential modifier, not a part of the main construction.

A. having been given OR having been assigned ... both are correct.
B. having homework OR being assigned .. both are wrong.

The first sentence is incorrect. When two verbs are joined, no comma is to be used.
I went to the market, and I purchased some fruits... correct (two clauses are joined)
OR
I went to the market and purchased some fruits... correct (two verbs are joined)

However the second sentence is correct because when there are more than 2 items in a list, comma before "and" before the last item is optional.

(Here we are discussing two different rules of using "comma").

I was stuck between A and B and chose B. Please explain the flaw in my choice here

While most graduate students find that their education has prepared them well for their future careers, some express concern over their education lacking real-world application, having, for example, been given homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios or having been assigned to group projects that do not adequately consider the skills of the individual participants.

a) having, for example, been given homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios or having been = I thought having been is repeated twice - "having been given hw or having been assigned to group projects. Why is this correct despite the repetion?
b) having, for example, homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios or being "having been given ...blah blah..homework or being (past continuous) assigned to blah group. What is wrong here? 'Being' seems to have been applied correctly

Would like some clarity on the same!

Whenever there is an idiomatic usage, the parallelism must be maintained between both the parallel entities.
Here the parallelism must be between the two entities
X - given homework that is unrepresentative of realistic scenarios
Y - assigned to group projects that do not adequately consider the skills of the individual participants

The construction is as follows: having been X, or having been Y

Hope that helps!

sayantanc2k chetan2u daagh
could you please shed some light on B

i rejected B for parallelism. Also "being"indicates the action is presently done or is a fact.

though the later reasoning seems to be in grey area. Please shed some light.

Aditya
1. May I know the reason why you feel the technically so-called present participle 'being' indicates a current ongoing event? It need not be so; present participles are tenseless expressions.

For example:

Being addicted drinks, Tom was suspended from service. Here 'being' denotes something of the past.

Being addicted to drinks, Tom finds it difficult to cope with his job. Here is it present tense.

Being addicted to drinks, Tom may lose his job anytime sooner than later. Here it denotes a future action.

Therefore, 'being' does not per se indicate or imply a tense.

2. Being as a fact: It is not clear as to what the word 'fact' means. 'Having been' is as much the same as 'being,' whether a fact or a state of existence. Therefore, I feel it has nothing to do with parallelism per se.

But what is more important is that, in GMAT, the word 'being' whenever used as a modifier is 100 percent wrong and requires to be ditched the moment one sees it. Until GMAT says that it is willing to tolerate the use of 'being' as a modifier, any further musing about this aspect will only impact the performance in the hall

If we are learning it for the sake of knowledge, then it is a different thing.

Being addicted to drinks, Tom may lose his job anytime sooner than later. Here it denotes a future action. -so here "being addicted ... (Modified Tom)

So will this be wrong in GMAT?
And could you please provide me with. An example including the placement of being as a modifier so that I can concretise my understanding.
Thank you for the reply

Posted from my mobile device

Aditya

Yes. It is wrong as 'being' is modifying TOM. The point is: please do not consider extraneous things such as past, present, and future when you are evaluating the word' being' unless it is accompanied by a suitable auxiliary verb such as is, was, were, and the like.

For examples of the wrong use of being as a modifier in GMAT, consider the following.

1. Even though Galileo did not invent the telescope, but when he heard, 1609, of such an optical instrument being made, he
2. Due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce inter-colony struggles that limits
3. Due to its being so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce inter-colony struggles that limit
4. because of being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce inter-colony struggles that limits
5. Canals and eventually railroads reached into the region, with substantial supplies
of coal being
6. charge, with federal prosecutors who were unlikely to pursue criminal copyright infringers, offenders being
7. charge; therefore, federal prosecutors were unlikely in pursuing criminal copyright infringers and offenders being
8. as she was a staunch advocate for liberalized divorce laws, scandalized many of her most ardent supporters by her suggestion of drunkenness being

9. in being a staunch advocate for liberalized divorce laws, had scandalized many of her most ardent supporters with the suggestion of drunkenness being
10. Due to a law being passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold
11. Although many of her colleagues were of the conviction of genes being relatively simple and static
12. Even with many of her colleagues convinced of genes being relatively simple and static
13. Columbus, the Incan highway, being over 2,500 miles in length, was extended
14. Being that she was secretary of labor, Frances Perkins’ considerable influence with Franklin D. Roosevelt was used preventing

15. Being secretary of labor, Frances Perkins’ considerable influence with Franklin D. Roosevelt was used preventing

16. Barbara McClintock’s subtle work on the genetics of corn has now been acknowledged as being major


All the above belong to various questions from GMATPREP. All of them are incorrect. Please Google the choices for their relevant correct answers and also delve deeper into GMATPREP or OG questions, for more, if you want.. There may be some instances that I might not be aware where being is correct as a modifier. However, they may be rare. I

Aditya
One parting shot for you. You deserve a kudos for your willingness and patience.
Best wishes

Can you please provide specific examples form OG where use of being is shown to be wrong.

Thanks