1998 saw several new ventures promoting online distance learning both at the college and gradual level. But also faculty members in large numbers began questioning whether the computer screen was an adequate replacement for the classroom.

A. Same
B. In 1998 several new ventures were promoting online distance learning for both college-and for graduate-level courses, but it was also a year for a large number of faculty members who began
C. With several new ventures promoting online distance learning for both college- and graduate-level courses, it was also a year when a large number of faculty members began
D. Although1998 saw several new ventures promoting online distance learning for both college- and graduate-level courses, it was also a year when a large number of faculty members began
E. Several new ventures were promoting online distance learning in 1998, at both the college level as well as the graduate, but it was also a year for faculty members to begin in large numbers

D is the correct answer

My two cents -

The intent of the sentence is to show the contrast between the two ideas 1) new ventures in 1998 2) faculty members’ opinion against the ventures. It is best done by introducing a subordinate conjunction ‘Although’ that connects the subordinate clause with the independent clause. So (D) is the best choice

Errors in other choices: -

A. Doesn’t express the contrast. Also the subject of the first clause is 1998, but the subject of the second clause members. It doesn’t follow the parallelism properly
B. Need a subordinate conjunction to express the contrast
C. ‘had begun’ past perfect introduces ambiguity. It is not needed unless we have other event that has started after this one ended.
E. is so awkward I don’t know where to start from.

Can someone/instructors confirm if I am on track here?

Thanks

Is there a typo in your original sentence? It shows two separate sentences, which I can't remember seeing before on the GMAT.

If that's really how it's supposed to read, we don't start sentences with the word But, so there's a reason to get rid of A.

Also, you mention "had begun" as a reason to eliminate C but you typed that answer choice with "began" not "had begun" - just go back and correct the wording to make sure we're commenting on the right details here.

At a high level, you are right that the two parts of the sentence are meant to contrast and you are also right that "It is best done by introducing a subordinate conjunction 'Although'" but I just want to check something - did you decide this was the best way to write the sentence before you looked at the answer choices or after?

If before, just remember that the way we might prefer to fix a sentence is not necessarily the way that the GMAT will fix the sentence - you have to work with what they give you in the choices. So it's usually not a good idea to speculate much on how to fix it in your head before you look at the choices.

I got the same question when I did my GMATPrep.

Here is the correct version:
1998 saw several new ventures promoting online distance learning both at the college and graduate level, but also faculty members in large numbers began questioning whether the computer screen was an adequate replacement for the classroom.

(A) 1998 saw several new ventures promoting online distance learning both at the college and graduate level, but also faculty members in large numbers began
(B) In 1998 several new ventures were promoting online distance learning for both college-and for graduate-level courses, but it was also a year for a large number of faculty members who began
(C) With several new ventures promoting online distance learning both for college and graduate courses in 1998, it was also a year when a large number of faculty members had begun
(D) Although 1998 saw several new ventures promoting online distance learning for both college- and graduate-level courses, it was also a year when a large number of faculty members began
(E) Several new ventures were promoting online distance learning in 1998, at both the college level as well as the graduate, but it was also a year for faculty members to begin in large numbers

I looked at the question and quickly eliminated A, B, C and E because they don't have a good parallism when using "both". However, when I look at D again, "1998 saw" seems wrong to me.
Is 1998 the subject? If not, what's the subject of the "although" clause?
Thanks in advance.

I too have couple of questions here

In (E)
Several new ventures were promoting online distance learning in 1998, at both the college level as well as the graduate, but it was also a year for faculty
members to begin in large numbers

If we look at the structure "both x and y", the sentence has
at both the college level as well as the graduate

the second part of the sentence "the graduage" does not have an ending "level". Can we eliminate this ans based on this ?

Would the structure be correct if we have the ending "level" moved after the second part ? will "level" apply to "the college" and "the graduate"
at both the college as well as the graduate level

Google is my friend...
"[year] saw" is a really common "pair".

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The correct usage for "both X and Y". "both X as well as Y" is never ever correct. =P

Hei,
Thanks for the explanation -- you're generally correct. 1998 can be used as the subject of a sentence -- awkward to think about a "year" having the qualities of a person or thing, but still a subject all the same.
Hope that helps.
-Brian Lange
Manhattan GMAT