Hey guys,

I have come across to this problem below. Can anyone clarify this to me?
I think answer choices A, B and C contain mistakes.

1) You cannot beat your "COMPETITION", but rather your "competitor".
2) In answer choice A, pronoun "them" clearly refers to "COMPETITORS" not to competition (competition is singular).


In past decades, private equity investors used to compete for exclusive participation in investments. Now, in response to both the growing scale of investments and increased competition to participate, private equity funds often form "clubs" or syndicates and jointly take positions in large investments. This approach allows them to spread some of the risk and also gain access to other investments and opportunities.

Which of the following statements by a private equity investor best defines the changing attitude described in the argument above?

A "We would rather beat our competition by working with them in order to find out their strengths and weaknesses."
B "In order to keep up with our competition, we should stop investing small and only invest in very large opportunities."
C "In order to make sure that we can participate in certain investments, we should expect to cooperate with our competition on occasion."
D "To avoid taking any risks, it is necessary to stop competing with our former competitors."
E "In response to changing market conditions, we should participate only in investments that allow us to take better positions than our competitors."

Thanks in advance for your time and help! :D

You can beat your competition or your competitors - that's fine. I agree that the word "them" (as well as "their") in answer choice A does not correctly refer to any antecedent within that sentence.

But... remember that that's only a rule for GMAT Sentence Correction. In the real world, the antecedent for a pronoun does not have to be contained in the same sentence. In the real world, we read many sentences together (eg, this entire argument). Only on GMAT SC do we have the artificial situation in which we get only one sentence at a time.

At the same time, I'd be inclined to rewrite the sentence following GMAT SC rules, simply because it would be easy to do so. But don't necessarily expect the GMAT to follow any "special" rules it sets for SC when you aren't on an SC question...