From GMATPrep (just changed the names) missed this one

As the chancellor and (As) a commitee member,

E is my choice.

That's funny, I picked (E) too and GMATPrep slapped me in the face

What's wrong with A?? as my pick was A but then I was reading that everyone was betting on E=(

shouldn't the answer be B or D???

1st part is a modifier to a person... and she is the FORMER X Z and Y

I am not sure about THE part, but I think THE used with specific noun and A used with general...

I will go with B



GMATT73, wake up!!! I am curious about OA

Yeah, OA plz... waiting for entry into error logs... I guessed E

Can't stop thinking about this question... but here is another tip for an explanation as to why E is wrong...

previously mentioned that the part before the comma is a modifier -> we can place the modifier right after the person's name and see what happens...

Janna, as the former Chancellor of Stanford University for three consecutive years and a committee member for five years, attended more than 40 meetings and reviewed more than 70 rezoning applications.

The questions is: why do we need AS here, in the modifier??? Shouldn't it be saying that she ATTENDED AS A CHANCELLOR??? and putting AS in a modifier means that she was a chancellor -> this part isn't needed

Put it this way: Janna, the former chancellor..., attended more than X meetings etc
makes complete sense/has a complete thought

Clearly b/w B and D...
Original A has "As THE former blah" -> good hint that THE is needed and the answer should be B IMO

that's my 2 cents... I am done rambling...

Taking a second dig at this one, i would pick C however I still can't figure out why E is wrong.

Formerly is synonymous to "Previously".

It makes sense -

Previously/Formerly Chancellor of Stanford University for three consecutive years.. , Jana attended...

ok... I don't think I mentioned my case against C, so my rambling here continues :

FORMERLY is an Adverb
Adverb can describe (gramatically speaking) a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a preposition, a phrase (courtesy of MGMAT SC)

Now look at C... What in the world does Adverb FORMERLY describe in that modifier? what is its purpose there??? where is the verb/adjective/etc??? The purpose is to describe CHANCELLOR, but CHANCELLOR happens to be a NOUN -> adjective can describe a noun, thus adjective FORMER must describe CHANCELLOR... not the adverb

same idea with "previously" or any other-same-type adverb

I am still with B, anyone agrees??? now, I really want to wake GMATT73 up

I see your point now and now I think its B too, so no more A for me

No doubt that Formerly is an adverb..

I feel a comma with the formerly would have made sense.. in which case it would modify the verb attended, but since punctuations are sometimes given a miss sometimes, I considered "formerly" to be modifying "attended".. However I do agree that comma/no comma makes a difference here.

On the other front, siding with B or for that matter A and D also, I still can't get the over the redundancy between "Former and "three years ago".

Yes I can see the implicit contradiction in my statement above, considering the use of "Formerly", but I had to make a choice..

Not that I'm not keeping my mind open... For now I'm just keeping my log open, hoping that GMATT will wake up soon!!

there is no redundancy here... the message with FORMER and without FORMER is different:

former Chancellor of Stanford University for three consecutive years and

what is this saying??? yes, she was a former Chancellor... ok fine... But she was not JUST FORMER CHANCELLOR She was former chancellor for 3 consecutive years!!!

and that is different from just a chancellor, who served for the last 3 consecutive years and might be still serving -> this could be the impression if you detele FORMER.... attending a certain number of meetings doesn't automatically mean that you stop being a Chancellor

now how is this redundant??? this just goes to show that GMAT freaks are testing your understanding of meaning here!!! don't fall in the 'quick' trap of redundancy... use redundancy as one of the last choices to eliminate the answers!!!

Yes now I admit that, if the reason for which I disregarded "Former" in the first instance, is indeed what the sentence wants to convey then B can be correct.. (See my first post)

However, I can owe it to my ignorance of the fact that one can be addressed as.. "Mr. XYZ has been a former President for three consecutive years"

It sounded awkward and still does to me, but at the end of it, if it earns me correct answer, then what the heck? Yeah its right!! and moreover I learned something new , although I would like to wait for the OA ..

However, I'm still not convinced with the way you culled out E.


If you can put it as:

Janna, as the former Chancellor of Stanford University for three consecutive years and a committee member for five years, attended more than 40 meetings and reviewed more than 70 rezoning applications.

I can put it as:

Janna attended more than 40 meetings and reviewed more than 70 rezoning applications, as the Chancellor of Stanford University for three consecutive years and a committee member for five years.

which I guess is correct unless someone argues that it is plagued by a parallelism error.

Wheres GMATT btw.. What time is it in Japan?

No, no... ||sm isn't it here... you can't just take "AS" from the modifier and glue it to the "attended" like this -> this is the exact trap that is set for you!!!

What does the modifier do? it describes something... and whatever is in that modifiying phrase can be deleted from a sentence with no change to the meaning in the main clause!!! This is the problem!!! -> you delete modifying phrase and where did your "AS" that you're trying to glue to "ATTENDED" go???

about 9am in Japan, so the wait wont' be long

BINGO!! The OA is (B). Modifier SC. Obviously, there are no OEs for GMATPrep test questions, so U2Lovergirl's explanations are as precise as it gets.

:banana