In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery, a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure.

-a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure
- the operating physician and the patient must spend a substantial amount of time together, thus ensuring full awareness of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure
- the patient must spend a substantial amount of time with his or her operating physician, thus ensuring that he or she has been made fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure
-the operating physician must spend a substantial amount of time with the patient, thus ensuring that the patient is fully aware of the pros and cons of accepting the undergoing procedure
- the operating physician must ensure that he or she is fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure by spending a substantial amount of time with the patient

MGMAT goes with D. I thought this was ok but then read " accepting the undergoing procedure ". Is that actually correct? I don't think so. Apart from that the sentence appears fine. I went with B despite the ambiguity about whose awareness hey are talking about.

Brief aside : does the GMAT ever give questions in which all options are flawed and you should select the least wrong one. I think in this question there is no right answer.

On your last question, I can usually find at least one verbal question on any test (official included) to which I take exception and want to argue with whoever wrote the question. I feel that way about some questions in the official guide as well (including one that is just downright wrong - whoever wrote it doesn't know how the patent system in the US actually works!).

Er. I think someone accidentally edited D in the wrong way. I'll get that fixed. You're right - that last little bit is wrong. Thanks for the catch!

B is also wrong because the opening modifier specifically says that this person we're talking about will "GAIN informed consent prior to surgery." The physician, then, has to follow the comma, because the patient doesn't gain consent; the patient gives consent. (B has a compound subject, so the opening modifier would have to apply to both physician and patient.)

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

I got D on this, whats the correct answer ?

D is the correct answer. FYI, this question was corrected in our database since this forum thread began. The current version is:

In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery, a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure.

(A) a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure
(B) the operating physician and the patient must spend a substantial amount of time together, thus ensuring full awareness of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure
(C) the patient must spend a substantial amount of time with his or her operating physician, thus ensuring that he or she has been made fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure
(D) the operating physician must spend a substantial amount of time with the patient, thus ensuring that the patient is fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure
(E) the operating physician must ensure that he or she is fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure by spending a substantial amount of time with the patient

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Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT