Numerous studies have shown

[MarioN389]

Numerous studies have shown that the income levels of working adults who were students of average academic ability often surpass the income levels of those adults who were once students of exceptional academic abilities.


(A) the income levels of those adults who were once students of exceptional academic abilities

(B) those of adults who had been exceptionally able students academically

(C) those of adults who were students of exceptional academic ability


(D) adults who were students of exceptional academic ability

(E) the incomes of adults who had been students of exceptional academic ability

This following is the explanation for (E)

(E) This choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense “had been," which is unjustified and also not parallel to the non-underlined simple past tense verb "were."

My Question:

I got this answer correct by using parallelism/comparison rules but one thing that I can't wrap my head around is in the explanation for (E) (and B for that matter) it says "this choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense "had been".

I don't quite understand why "had been" is wrong... it sounds worse than using "were" but I don't quite understand the technicality behind it.

Can someone please explain? Maybe by including examples of other sentences where "had been" can and cannot be used.

Thank you in advance!

[RonPurewal]

if you understand that we're making a comparison between two groups, who did certain things (or were certain things) in exactly the same timeframe, then you can deduce that the tenses have to be the same.

if the GMAT requires a decision based on verb tenses, the difference will be much, much bigger (and easier to judge) than the one here.

[MarioN389]

Thanks Ron! Also, discovering your "Thursdays with Ron" videos has taken me from plateauing at around 660 on 3 MGMAT CATS to scoring a 720/740 on GMATPREP1/2 within 2/3 weeks respectively. Eye-opening advice - thank you!

Best,

Mario

[RonPurewal]

congratulations on your improvement!

[PriyankaR833]

The original sentence correctly makes a comparison between the income levels of working adults who
were average students and the income levels of students who were exceptional students. These two
elements are logically parallel, and thus should be structurally parallel. However, this sentence is
problematic in its use of the term "those adults," since the pronoun "those" is both unnecessary and
not parallel in this context. Also, the phrase “of exceptional academic abilities” is not precisely parallel
to the phrase “of average academic ability” in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. As this
sentence makes a comparison, the two elements should be as parallel as possible.
(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.
(B) This choice correctly uses "those" to refer to income levels, enabling a correctly framed
comparison. However, it incorrectly uses the past perfect tense "had been," which is unjustified by the
sentence and is not parallel to the simple past tense "were" used earlier to describe students of
average academic ability. Finally, “exceptionally able students academically” is both unparallel and
awkward.
(C) CORRECT. The pronoun "those" is correctly used to refer to income levels, enabling a properly
drawn comparison. Additionally, the simple past tense verb "were" is parallel to the verb "were" in the
non-underlined portion of the sentence.
(D) This choice incorrectly compares income level to adults, rather than the proper comparison
between income levels and income levels.
(E) This choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense “had been," which is unjustified and also not
parallel to the non-underlined simple past tense verb "were."And income levels in non-underlined part is compared to 'incomes' in underlined portion

Ron???Is my understanding correct as mentioned in thee above post?

[RonPurewal]

it looks like you just copied and pasted the answer key. what are you trying to ask?

[yo4561]

Is "of...ability" an idiom? This wording seems awkward and redundant.

[esledge]

Is "of...ability" an idiom? This wording seems awkward and redundant.

I'd say the complete idiom has more to do with "average": X is of average Y.
Examples:
He is of average height.
The new shipping containers are of average volume, but lower-than-average weight.