Before the evaluations can begin, you must complete a self-assessment of your performance by June 13. Doing this prior to the discussion ____ better results in the last evaluation. All performance evaluations need to be completed by July 1.
A. produced
B. to produce
C. produces
D. will produce

*A member in some Facebook group raised the question above and couldn't understand why the correct answer was stated as 'A'. I believe the answer is obviously 'D' because the overall message is asking the recipient to comply with some requirements before July 1, assuming it to be sometime in the future. Someone else pointed out that the tricky part in the question lies in "in the last evaluation", arguing companies usually have quarterly or semiannual evaluations, and the “last evaluation” must have already occured in the past. Therefore, this justifies the use of the past tense, making the correct answer 'A'. Which answer is correct and why?

Question

Before the evaluations can begin, you must complete a self-assessment of your performance by June 13. Doing this prior to the discussion ____ better results in the last evaluation. All performance evaluations need to be completed by July 1. 
A. produced
B. to produce
C. produces
D. will produce

*A member in some Facebook group raised the question above and couldn't understand why the correct answer was stated as 'A'. I believe the answer is obviously 'D' because the overall message is asking the recipient to comply with some requirements before July 1, assuming it to be sometime in the future. Someone else pointed out that the tricky part in the question lies in "in the last evaluation", arguing companies usually have quarterly or semiannual evaluations, and the “last evaluation” must have already occured in the past. Therefore, this justifies the use of the past tense, making the correct answer 'A'. Which answer is correct and why?

Answer

The answer is A. The last evaluation occurred in the past.

The text "Doing this prior to the discussion (produced) better results in the last evaluation" can be rephrased as "Doing this prior to the discussion in the last evaluation (produced) better results," or less bureaucratically, as "We did this prior to the discussion in the last (performance) evaluation (cycle) and observed that this (produced) better (quality) (performance evaluation) results.

Answer

The answer is A because that sentence is describing what happened in the last evaluation.

Answer

The ambiguity in understanding  'in the last evaluation'  can be resolved if you assume that there are just two stages in which 'evaluation' takes place :  the self-assessment and the final evaluation. This would only be called the 'last evaluation' if there were more than two such events.  This means that the reference to the last evaluation must be the previous such procedure, and is therefore in the past.

If the sentence was slightly different, with 'the final evaluation' instead of 'the last evaluation' then it would refer to the procedure in general, and C or D would be correct.

Answer

oops, didn't see "in the last evaluation"

Answer

D will produce