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Want to increase my verbal Score

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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Want to increase my verbal Score

by dhonu121 » Wed Oct 05, 2011 1:20 am
I have taken GMAT twice till now with a month's gap in between.
The first time I scored 660(q:50,v:30) and the second time 690(q:49,v:35).
The quant score dropped by 1 the second time because of stress purely.
I see a lot of people scoring in the higher 30's and lower 40's in verbal.Some of them even score in mid 40's in verbal.
Experts/high Verbal scoring ppl, kindly guide me how to approach verbal so that I am able to score in that 40's range in verbal.
Should I read novels/newspapers, practice lots of questions etc..
Please suggest me how to increase my verbal skills equal to those of native speakers.

Thanks in advance.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:33 am
First of all, congratulations on the increase. A 690 is a good score and going up from 30 to 35 on verbal is huge.

Now I see that you want to go the rest of the way. Here are some things to consider:

1) The verbal does not adapt as closely as does the Quant. On the verbal to get those higher scores you actually need to get more questions correct. So your focus should be on reliable strategies that you employ for each type of question (CR RC and SC).

2) The verbal section adapts as a whole so if you are good at one aspect of verbal you need to be pretty good at the others in order to face somewhat tougher questions. For example if you are good at CR but weak in SC you will not only be counted down for missing those SC questions but you will face less difficult CR as well.

3) Missing simpler questions can hurt you more. Because of the way the test is scored it is important for you to get those questions correct that are at or below your level. For example, it is important to answer correctly the RC questions that you can find in the text and that might be considered easier than other questions.

Here is what you might consider doing.

a) Assess your strengths and weaknesses. What areas do you need to work on in particular? Let us know and we can offer some thoughts.

b) Standardize what you do when you see each type of question. When you see a CR what are your steps? RC what are your steps? SC what are your steps? You have to have a reliable technique that does not break down under pressure for each of these. You do not need to tell us what the steps are (unless you want feedback) but you have to have them.

I have scored 51 on the verbal on the actual GMAT and I can tell you that the key is to have repeatable - automatic - things that you do at the beginning of each question. You brain simply cannot run at 100% power for anything like 75 minutes. Save the laser focus for when you are down to two tough choices and need to re-frame the question.

Hope that helps.

Oh and novels, newspapers, etc. might be more fun than practicing for the GMAT but that is a really long term strategy that I cannot recommend. Stick with the GMAT (or possibly LSAT) materials. Reading comp passages for example are nothing like novels or the newspaper. One thing you can do is look for the flaws in the reasoning of people everyday. As a non-native speaker you might be used to being charitable and trying to make things that are said in English make sense even when they might not. Here is a link to an article to read. You might need to be more confident in your English and your logic and not assume that others are making sense! https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/03/ ... n-the-gmat
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by dhonu121 » Wed Oct 05, 2011 7:20 am
David, that was the most helpful reply ever!..
Here are a few counter-questions, and then I can start working like you have mentioned here.
1.a) Assess your strengths and weaknesses
Since I have already taken GMAT twice, all most all prep tests and study material(OG12 twice or maybe thrice) have been exhausted.I can examine my previous tests(they are all saved in the state I left them last) and see what mistakes I did.
While analyzing my mistakes I can see following things:
a)The section that I did wrong(SC,CR or RC)
b)The type of question that I did wrong(In case of CR and RC.I don't think I can do that in case of SC)
(streng/weak,assumpt etc)
Please let me know that there are any other areas that I can look into to analyze my strength and weaknesses.

2.b) Standardize what you do when you see each type of question
For CR, I look the question stem first and then I read the stimulus.
Then after reading the stimulus, I read the options and choose the best.I am generally able to narrow down the choices to 2.Sometimes, I am able to reject one of them, else I randomly choose one of them.
For RC, I dont really follow any approach.I just read the RC with clear understanding the first time.It takes dispropotionately longer but I have no choice.Then I answer each question one by one looking/re-reading RC if required.I have no choice but to do this because else I'll end up doing RC's wrong.
For SC, I look for meaning originally and any grammatical mistake that the original sentence has.Then I look for same meaning options which do not have that grammatical mistake.

Please correct me where I am wrong or add more points where you need I am missing any.

Also, Please let me know whether I should revise prior materials or practice LSAT materials.(?)
Do these LSAT materials have CR,SC and RC structure as well ?
Will practicing them be helpful ?


I am really desperate to make that mark.And I feel that with the right guidance I can do it.
I really appreciate your effort in helping me.

Thanks In Advance.
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