Carrying gym bag before class (11)
I believe the answer is:
penetrating
'carrying' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'gym bag before class' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'gym' could be 'pe' (short for Physical Education) and 'pe' is found in the answer.
'bag' could be 'net' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'net' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'rating' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for penetrating that I've seen before include "Boring - keen" , "Incisive" , "Acute" , "Going through" .)