SC Misconception #4 – When compared with is always wrong

This article is a part of a series of articles on SC Misconceptions. In this series, I’m going to address many misconceptions prevalent among GMAT aspirants.

The misconception addressed in this post is:

When compared with is always wrong

The following sentence is from an official SC question (the correct option):

November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

Here’s the link to the detailed solution to the above question.

Quite clearly, “when compared with” is a valid construction. If you search “when compared with” site:wsj.com on google, you’ll get about 2800 results. And if you search “when compared to” site:wsj.com on google, you’ll get about 5200 results. If these constructions were not correct, a credible publication like Wsj.com would not use them so often.

If, by any chance, you consider constructions “as compared to” and “as compared with” incorrect, please stand corrected. These constructions are perfectly acceptable constructions. Of course, like all other constructions, they can be used wrongly. However, be aware that they can be used correctly as well.