question about past perfect with BEFORE AND AFTER

[OCEANUS]

He already lost confidence in himself long before he was fired.

already lost
had already lost
had already been losing
already was lost
had lost already

I am very confused about this "before" and "after" in past perfect. Per MGMT if the sentence comes with "before" or "after" we dont need to use past perfect. For above question, which is a "low" level question from Kaplan quiz bank, the correct answer is B had already lost. I thought per MGMAT is should be A. Can anyone help with this question? I am totally lost.

thanks!

[tim]

Even though the "before" would normally make the past perfect unnecessary, the "already" makes it mandatory again. If you don't just *know* which verb form is required here, perhaps memorizing this will help.

[aflaamM589]

sorry to bump this post

Tim can you please provide some examples in which past perfect is used according to how GMAC tests it with after and before.

I hope it would be really helpful for us non native speakers.(Examples make our day)

Thanks

[tim]

LOL what makes *our* day as instructors on the forum is for you to find examples of GMAT questions with this kind of construction. This is actually important, because what you need to understand is that if you have never seen a GMAT question that tests something, there is no reason to think the GMAT will test it, and as such it is a waste of your time to study any concepts that you don't already have actual examples of.