GMAT Strategy

Hi all,

I did my GMAT exam yesterday and got 520:
Quant: 47 (77th percentile)
Verbal: 17 (12th percentile)
Final: 44th percentile

I felt extremely beaten up, as I've also took a week of my vacation hoping to getting a score of 560-590.
These are the computerized tests I've done prior my test:
1) GMAT prep (1 month before my exam) -- 490
2) Free Manhattan GMAT Prep (2 weeks before exam) -- 590 (w/o AWA)
3) 800 score test #1 (1 week before exam) -- 390 (w/o AWA)
4) Peterson 2009 Test #1 (4 days before exam) -- 590 (w/o AWA)
5) Princeton Free Test (3 days before exam) -- 530 (w/o AWA)
6) GMAT prep Test #2 (2 days before exam) - 510

I am aiming to get 590-610 and I have already registered for my next exam on Sep 28. I have to meet the Oct 1st deadline because that is the cutoff time for my most desirable university (I am only applying to ONE university). Basically it is all or nothing if I am considering for the Jan 2011 term. Would someone please give me a hand on how I can significantly improve my Verbal skills?

Background Info
Oddly, I am a canadian citizen for 15 years (came to Canada when I was 10), and I can speak English very fluently. I know my grammar basics is not good (actually very bad), and also my critical thinking is not the best either. Would someone please kindly give me some on what to do, or express some of your thoughts on my situation?

Any recommendations on the strategy I take for the next... 33 days?

Thanks in advance for all your input!
Don

Hey Don,
I hail from Ontario, which University/B-School do you wish to apply to in Canada?

Its obvious that you need to bring up your Verbal, you essentially dont need to touch Quant this final month.
I'm unsure what your weakness is... RC, SC, CR .... or a timing issue.

I would invest in getting the Sentence Correction Manhattan GMAT guide. Order it via Amazon since I dont think its available in Canada at bookstores. The 6 Manhattan CAT test are invaluable, and make sure you analysis all solutions (right and wrong answers). This is the best book for SC. Also try and write down the idioms meantion in the Officiial Guide Solutions and Manhattan SC and Test Solutions (example - "both X and Y", "neither A or B, nor C" .. etc) and memorize them if possible. I would not recommend Powerscore for Critical Reasoning for you. Rather I'd recommend either Manhattan Critical Reasoning Guide book, or the Kaplan Verbal Review.

With 33 Days

1) Sentence Correction Manhattan
2) Official Guide Verbal Questions (Practice them again)
3) Manhattan Prep tests a few ... and spend about 2 hours examining each exam after
4) Redo GMAT prep #1 (done 1 month before your exam)

(only if you have time go thru Kaplan Verbal Review or Manhattan Critical Reasoning)

Have you segmented and identified the question types in the verbal you perform the best on and which question types you perform the worst on?

I found that the easiest section to improve was the sentence correction. For the reading comprehension and critical reasoning questions, I actually studied by getting my hands on old LSAT tests.

Doing LSAT logical reasoning questions in sets of 20 in 30 min intervals is great practice for the GMAT. The questions are a little harder than what's on the GMAT, but I found that it helped me think more logically. Most of the logical fallacies and assumptions are similar. Once you learn to identify them on the LSAT, the answer jumps out on the GMAT. It translated to a better score on the actual test.