Most of Portugal’s 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a one-day strike to
protest a law that requires them to contribute $330 a year toward the cost of higher
education, previously paying $7 per year.
A. year toward the cost of higher education, previously paying $7 per year
B. year toward the cost of higher education, for which was previously paid $7 per
year
C. year, compared to the previously $7 per year, toward the cost of higher education
D. year toward the cost of higher education, instead of the $7 per year required
previously
E. year as opposed to the $7 per year required previously for the cost of higher
education
Answer:
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Between D and E, I think E.

OA IS D

I'll assume "Scoetop" is meant to be Scoretop. :)

"previously paying $7 per year" should refer to the students, which would make it a noun modifier, which is required to be placed next to the noun it modifies. It isn't. Incorrect.

B) this time the phrase isn't even clear - "for which was previously paid" makes no sense

C) "previously" is an adverb and should refer to a verb, but $7 is a noun - you'd need the adjective "previous" here. And really you'd want to say something like "compared to the previous requirement of $7 per year"

D) I'm not a huge fan of this source. I assume the reason to eliminate this one is non-specification that the $7 per year required previously was specifically required for higher education. But I don't think the real test would make this the only distinction. They might also try to claim something's wrong with "instead of" (rather than "as opposed to" in answer E), but instead of can properly refer to a noun, as it does here... so it's fine.

E) See above.

Bottom line: I wouldn't study this one.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

HI Stacey/Ron ,
Don't you think all the options should have toward"s" instead of toward ,which is incorrect ?? or am i seeing too much ?
I chose E because of this reason . And is "as opposed to" incorrect in GMAT?

”towards” is definitely wrong in this context, so you should certainly not get rid of the ”toward” answers because they don’t use an incorrect word. :) If you’re not 100% sure which is the correct idiom to use, you should find some other means by which to evaluate the sentences. ”as opposed to” is not always wrong; you just need to check it to make sure it demonstrates the correct comparison every time you see it..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor