Verbal Score Stuck up at 28, Please advice.

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Hi folk / Experts,

As I mentioned here that my verbal score has stuck up at 28 even after preparing for a year (although not continuous due to involvement in the work), I don't know what to do next and how to proceed ahead. I am really seeking to take my verbal score to 40.

I have taken Four MGMAT's test in the recent 6 months and score varies from 570 - 590 and verbal in the range of 26-28 (although it improved from first ever test of MGMAT, which was 17).

Courses followed - MGMAT SC, OG 12 (Verbal more than twice), Powerscore CR, RC - Kaplan Verbal Course booklet.

Time of preparation (within tight schedule due to work) - Only 2 hrs (1 hr in morning and 1 in evening).

Please suggest where am i lacking and how should i go forward ?

Thanks for your support.

Regards,
Jay :| :| :|

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by joshcollins » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:49 am
Hey Jay,

My verbal wasn't originally that great either, but I think it comes down to how you "view" the material (and what types of wrong answers you're picking). I've used the empower gmat course and it's helped a lot (plus it's a monthly subscription, so you don't have to spend a ton of time or money if you don't want to). The verbal guy Max really simplifies what it takes to get the points - it's the most straight-forward way that I've ever seen to handle verbal questions.

-Josh

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by lunarpower » Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:15 am
i received a private message about this thread.

to the original poster -- you wrote:
Please suggest where am i lacking
the problem, here, is that this thread contains absolutely no information or observations that could be used to answer this question. in other words, it's impossible to give any specific response to this question, because i don't know anything about your situation.

basically, you've just listed a bunch of overall scores and general resources. there's no insight whatsoever into the following:
* what have you done with those resources? how have you studied?
* in what areas are you stronger? weaker?
* how have you adapted your studying to your current results?
etc.

i wrote some general advice for the verbal section in the following post; you may want to check it out:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/retaking-gma ... tml#464164
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by coolmrityu » Sat Jun 22, 2013 10:12 am
Thanks Ron for replying as I was waiting it.
the problem, here, is that this thread contains absolutely no information or observations that could be used to answer this question. in other words, it's impossible to give any specific response to this question, because i don't know anything about your situation.
Very True, but here i am going to give you a debrief of your question.
First of all I am a non-native speaker of English.
* what have you done with those resources? how have you studied?
SC - Sincerely followed the MGMAT SC (4th Edition/2012) solving the questions (OG 12) Chapter / Topic wise. Went through some of the Fantastic video of THURSDAY WITH RON.
My accuracy went up from 20-30 % to 60 % and then stagnant.

CR - Earlier, even after going through Powerscore - CR bible I used to jump on the answers choices straight away after reading the Stimulus. Then started building the habit of thinking of the main issue and score improved slightly from 40 % accuracy to 50 %. (Courses followed - OG 10 / 12)

RC - Just go through the passage to get the main point first by eliminating the unwanted details and prioritizing the keywords and then get to the details and inference question. (Accuracy remains Unchanged i.e. 50%)(Courses followed - OG 12)

* in what areas are you stronger? weaker?
I think stronger in SC (Comparatively in all three sections)
and weaker in CR and RC.
* how have you adapted your studying to your current results?
That it what i could not able to figure it out.


Thanks again RON for your billion dollar guidance.

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by lunarpower » Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:24 am
some thoughts here:
coolmrityu wrote: SC - Sincerely followed the MGMAT SC (4th Edition/2012) solving the questions (OG 12) Chapter / Topic wise. Went through some of the Fantastic video of THURSDAY WITH RON.
so... the wisdom of this plan depends on exactly what you mean by "topic-wise".

if "topic-wise" means that you looked at lists of problems by topic, and then went and did the problems in the list, ... well, that's not a great way to do things.
the problem, of course, is that most of the difficulty/challenge in SC lies in recognizing the concepts that are being tested. the concepts themselves are all pretty simple; it's finding them that is the issue.
so, if you are going through a list of problems that are all guaranteed to contain the same topic, that's basically "cheating", in the sense that you're giving yourself an unfair advantage that you simply won't have on test day.

if you are seriously struggling with a certain topic, then it makes sense to do a few problems from a list, just to give yourself a better orientation in that topic.
but, as soon as you are off the ground even a little bit, you should try to recognize the topic(s) WITHOUT reading the problem numbers off a list. because that's what you're going to have to do on test day.

if you want to do things topic-wise, try this:
* go through a bunch of problems WITHOUT a list
* focus on one topic, and ignore all other topics
* look for your one topic
* eliminate what you can
* QUIT (don't bother solving the rest of the problem)
* check to make sure you didn't eliminate the right answer
* move on.
if you do this, then you'll have 100% focus on one topic, and you'll definitely get better at that topic. yes, it's somewhat annoying that you won't be solving entire problems, but focus is really the only way to get better at, well, anything.

CR - Earlier, even after going through Powerscore - CR bible I used to jump on the answers choices straight away after reading the Stimulus. Then started building the habit of thinking of the main issue and score improved slightly from 40 % accuracy to 50 %. (Courses followed - OG 10 / 12)
i don't understand what "courses followed -- OG 10/12" means.
maybe it's a language/wording issue. to me, "courses" means "test-prep courses offered by companies like MGMAT" -- so that books are not "courses".
did you actually take a course associated with the OG? or is this just a way of saying that you went through the book and solved a bunch of problems.

* did you review the problems?

* if you reviewed them, did you try to find other ways to solve them, and/or approach them with techniques that you didn't use when you were solving them the first time around?

... also, it's generally a good idea to read the question part of the CR problem first, and then the passage.
i'm not sure whether you are doing this or not, because i don't know whether "the stimulus" means the question part or the passage itself. but, you should read the question first, because then you'll know how you need to read the passage, and what you have to focus on.
if you just read the passage first, then your reading will probably be somewhat disjointed/unfocused, because you won't know what you're supposed to do with the passage yet.

That it what i could not able to figure it out.
sorry, i don't understand this sentence -- a typo, perhaps?
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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