Help Analyzing Test Scores and Strategy to Improve Verbal

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Buzzing Stacey,

I have been studying for a month now and gave some practice tests, with the results given below. I realize Verbal is my problem area, but seem unable to improve too much. I have been studying using the Manhattan Verbal Guides, but it's lot of material and I am having trouble keeping it all in my head.

These tests are full-length tests but I didn't write the essays and arguments, so believe the scores are inflated. But I am not sure how much, since sitting and working for long hours is not a problem for me. For that matter I wrote the Kaplan and Princeton diagnostic tests within couple of hours of each other.


GMATPrep1 (1st Take) - 720 (4 weeks back) - Q 51 V 35

Kaplan Diagnostic - 680 (3 weeks back) Q 49 V 33

Princeton Diagnostic - 710 (3 weeks back) - Q 50 V 35

GMATPrep1 (2nd Take) - 740 (2 weeks back) - Q 51 V 39

PowerPrep 1 - 720 (2 weeks back) - Q 50 V 37

PowerPrep2 - 730 (2 weeks back) - Q 51 V 37

MGMAT Free Practice Test - 730 (this week) - Q 51 V 37 - Manhattan Quantitative seemed a lot harder than GMATPrep and I got more questions wrong, but my score was still good. Is that normal?

I am planning to write the first 3 of 6 MGMAT tests without writing essays to save time, but then write the rest of MGMAT and the GMATPrep 2 with essays.

How can I improve my Verbal to end up with a 40+ scaled score?

Thanks a lot in advance,

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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jun 21, 2010 1:55 pm
Received a PM asking me to reply. There is definitely a lot of material to remember!

[FYI: I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow (Tue) evening and won't be back until 5 July. While I'm gone, please talk to other experts; otherwise, I will reply after I return. (It may take me a few days after I get back to get through the backlog of PMs).]

I strongly recommend that you do the essays on future practice tests. Stamina may not be a problem for you, but you don't know until you get to the real test, and there's no point in being under-prepared when you can prepare yourself for this part of it pretty easily.

You have been studying for a month and you have taken 7 practice tests. To start, STOP taking so many practice tests! :) That's not actually how you get better (not significantly, anyway). CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results between tests that helps you to improve.

Next, use this article to help you analyze your verbal results on your most recent MGMAT test and make a very detailed list of your strengths and weaknesses. The use the weaknesses to figure out what you need to improve BEFORE you try to take another practice test. Don't take another test until you feel like you have made good progress on all of the major areas (content, timing, or both) that you identified as problematic on your last test.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

Next, your goal is to score at least 40 on verbal, which is about the 89th percentile (or higher). In order to score that well, you need to be able to pick apart every last aspect of these problems, so spend some time learning how you should be analyzing and learning from these problems in the first place. These articles can help:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09 ... ce-problem
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... our-errors

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... c-question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... r-question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/ ... e-question

Finally, it appears that you are going for a 750+ score. You may benefit from reading this article (which explains what it takes to be able to score that well on the exam):
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... -760-score
Manhattan Quantitative seemed a lot harder than GMATPrep and I got more questions wrong, but my score was still good. Is that normal?

Yep, that's normal. People often think our quant, especially, feels harder than the quant on the real test. (In my opinion, this is partially because our test doesn't have experimental questions and partially because our test has a higher proportion of computationally-intensive problems.)
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Stacey Koprince
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