* Since February, the Federal Reserve has raised its

[RonPurewal]

...and, just as importantly, you didn't mention any alternative options.

i.e., if the question had presented an alternative version in other answer choices, you wouldn't have written your post the way you did. rather, you would have written something like 'i have to choose between may and might.'

this is the real reason why i could tell this wasn't in the underlined part. (sometimes the underlined part DOES contain these kinds of 'decisions'... but only as distractions from much easier, much more fundamental things.)

[HemantR606]

Thanks Ron.

I started getting really distracted by these distractions.

I am trying to step down to basics again - seeing basics in a question before seeing subtler things.

I tried to remember as many elimination criteria as possible because I was taking longer than suggested time to do SC questions. This attempt helped a lot but I think I moved into many subtler aspects which actually counter act.

Some tips to help in this area will be of immense value to me.

(Sorry for diverting the thread)


Thanks a lot.

[RonPurewal]

i can't really tell what you are asking me.
(you're requesting 'some tips', but those 'tips' would just be things i've already written in this thread.)

the only other thing i can come up with is this: If you come upon a split / decision point and don't know how to resolve it, IMMEDIATELY move on to another split / decision point.
in other words, staring at things will not help.
...but that's just common sense / basic time management.

[Harshit Rajendra PrasadD216]

I encountered this qstn in gmatprep. . I understand why option d and e are wrong because due to is used only for modifying the nouns. Also, C is wrong because of the tense issue- If the economy continues strong then how can economists prediction ended in the past itself. The effect of the prediction or the prediction should continue in the present. I also understand that option A is right in which because of is used correctly. But I am unable to find a solid reason to reject answer B. Is the absence of will only determining factor for rejecting the option B

[Chelsey Cooley]

I encountered this qstn in gmatprep. . I understand why option d and e are wrong because due to is used only for modifying the nouns. Also, C is wrong because of the tense issue- If the economy continues strong then how can economists prediction ended in the past itself. The effect of the prediction or the prediction should continue in the present. I also understand that option A is right in which because of is used correctly. But I am unable to find a solid reason to reject answer B. Is the absence of will only determining factor for rejecting the option B

You could eliminate B because of the use of past tense ('predicted'). It makes it sound as if the prediction happened solely in the past. That's normally okay, but in this sentence, the 'with... continuing' bit makes it clear that we're talking about a situation that started in the past, but is ongoing until the present. For that kind of situation, you want to use the present perfect ('have predicted' or similar.)