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Verbal really getting tough ..myth or reality ?

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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by mavesum » Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:32 am
joined ths site today only ...jus another MBA dreamer !!

going thru some debriefs and found out some people assuming verbal being deliberately made tougher after the score top fiasco .

posting it here so that the recent test takers could comment if ths really is the case...is it sum new pattern/type they have added in verbal ??
if so ..is thr any new book in the market covering ths ?

Recent test takers pls comment .
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by California4jx » Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:16 am
nope - it was fairly OK. I dont call it a TOUGH one. Took the test on 8/30.
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by mavesum » Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:20 am
ohh...great !!

how much did you score ??
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by samesame » Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:37 am
In response to your post, I've been slightly freaking out and put much thought into the subject. While I acknowledge that verbal may be getting harder, one might try to analyze (here goes my CR skills) the situation by recognizing the variables that might lead to a bad verbal score?
Two important factors
-I wonder how many people who get the bad verbal scores speak English as a second language? Even tho they may get good scores on practice tests, on the real gmat they might lose an edge.
-Also, how many of these horrible verbal scores are from 8am exams? It sounds quite tough to be able to wake up before then and be able to focus throughout the entire exam. It would be easy to get tired/burned out by the time verbal hits.

Im sure as hell hope these two factors work in my favor on D-day (Sept 9)!
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by BlueRain » Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:14 pm
My experience: https://www.beatthegmat.com/experience-r ... 17471.html

I do speak English as my second language, and I didn't particularly think the verbal was much harder comparing to the practice. I still believe it is a question of focus/concentration and fundamentals. During practices, maybe you have familiarized yourself with some quick "tricks", which may or may not work when facing a different type of question, and if you do not understand the underlying fundamentals, you might panic and fall into the traps.

There are a few threads discussing the perceived difficulty, and as I've said before, if it has become harder, then it is harder for everyone. So instead of worrying about it, one should focus more on studying the verbal fundamentals.
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by khurram » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:11 pm
I can def say it has gotton harder, esp the CR and SC

Gave the gmat first time and got a 39 in verbal on june 28. Thought that prep was much harder then the actual. In fact found the verbal part really easy.

Fast forward to aug 30 and verbal appeared twice as hard although I had prepared much more than before. Ended up with a 37. Prevented me from breaking 700.

Fine Print-Yes, eng is my second language.

Khurram
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by Mclaughlin » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:43 pm
English is my first language, and i took my exam mid day and I was shocked by how hard verbal was. I had taken MGMAT exams and was consistentlly getting over 90% percentile in verbal, and on the GMAT prep and now in my Kaplan class that i signed up for after my first dismal appearance for the GMAT and I still get 97% or 99% on verbal and on the Actual GMat I got 69%. THAT IS A VERY SIGNFICANT DROP! more Significant than oops, I got nervous. That is a sign the test is getting much more difficult and the test makers are not providing test material to practice harder verbal. it's unethical and everyone who has shared my experience (and it appears many have on both this forum and others) should email the customer service address at MBA.com

Even if you haven't taken it, you should still inquire because you will be affected by the fact that they're not providing us with proper material to prepare for the exam. That's devious, plain and simple.
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by v1shwanath » Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:42 pm
i am really surprised to see so many ppl saying its gotten tougher. my impression was the exact opposite when i took it on 29 aug. i felt it was much simpler than it was in all the mock tests and in the practise books.
i have always felt that what makes the verbal section really difficult is when they have more than one answer that 'seems' right. for e.g b) might seem right but d ) might be exactly right.

if you are given 4 options that are quite way of the mark then its a piece of cake to pick d). but if b) also seems right, then you end up spending extra time on questions. thats what i have felt makes verbal seem tough. but when i took the etst on 29th i somehow felt that more often than not the right answer just stood out while the others were way off the mark. this saved me alot of time too and i cud finish the section well within the time.
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by uncbeers » Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:11 am
I will add my $.02...

I speak English (or so I am told) as a native. I have ALWAYS scored very well in past standardized tests throughout my entire educational path. I feel like I only learned my own language better after undertaking a foreign language (German). Those English classes required throughout HS are pretty much all a joke (except for one I can think of). In fact, I even tested out of English courses in College just to not have to sit through them!

Day of the test I took the verbal and flew through it (maybe my problem?). I finished with about 20mins to go and thought that I had probably done OK with it. Well, long story short-my Verbal was pathetic. I got a 28 on it, which was 10 points under what my Prep scores were showing. I was quite surprised. I am hesitant to re-take because 1) I may not need it and 2) I'm afraid my quant was unusually high (a good day here) and I don't want to off-set it with a dismal score there on a re-take.

Now for my reasoning on a poor verbal:

1. I studied Verbal less in all of my prep. I was at a 80-100% hit rate in Verbal questions in OG10 and OG11. Therefore, I spent more time with math.

2. I was over-confident for this portion and missed vital pieces of information in the questions. 20mins early is a bit much, right?!

3. The Gmat verbal is unlike any other standardized test and the term Gmat English is true. I saw this term in prep books and then learned that Gmat English is 'unique.' I should have spent more time learning the uniqueness of the Gmat English and learning what the test and the test-makers are really looking for.

I refuse to just say, "Oh, it is getting harder now due to Score Top." I prefer not to make excuses and rather, accept the results and fix them or convince admissions officials in other aspects of my worthiness for admission.

Hope this helps...however, I am guessing it does not much! Just another experience to share!
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by caligmat » Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:34 am
I took the GMAT for the first time on Saturday. I did not think the test was significantly harder than GMAT prep and I scored within a point of my average on the GMAT prep practice tests. Verbal is my strength on the test, however.

I think that the Verbal section can be especially tough because it is at the end of a long, challenging exam. You can't help but be a bit tired when you get to it, so perhaps that is a contributing factor for some that feel the Verbal is getting harder.

Just wanted to share another viewpoint than that the GMAC is intentionally screwing test takers. I don't believe that is the case at all. Just prepare as much as you can; you'll be fine.
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by sp19 » Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:15 pm
Even I felt the same. I have taken the test on29th Aug and scored 20 on verbal which 10 - 12 points less than what I scored in the practice tests. I have usually seen people getting higher on the real test than the practice test but it was reverse for me.

I could answer 80-85% of the questions in verbal from QG11, MGMAT SCM but not in the real exam. I know that we should consider that one gets tired at the end of the exam and hence verbal tends to score lower than Quant but the level of difficulty of SC atleast for me was definitely not what the OG11 offers. It was a very tough exam and I felt, how come people score in the range of 40s for such questions !!!

I knew I am not the greatest when it comes to verbal but I definitely did not expect to get 20 after practicing and answering questions from several books.

Another, point I would like to make is, I found the verbal tough and could not correctly answer. Inspite of that, I kept getting harder questions. I thought if I made mistakes I would get easier questions and that would make my score low. But in my case , most of the questions were hard, or I should say almost all of them and because I made mistakes , my score was low. I don't even remember a single question that was easy enough to click within a minute. I never experienced that in my practice tests.

I am not sure if anybody else has also experienced the same. I am scared to retake the exam. I fear the verbal will again be a fiasco if I get the same type of questions.

thanks.
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by khurram » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:04 pm
sp19 my experience was the same. kept on getting harder.

Khurram
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by emrahercan » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:16 pm
Well I hope it gets harder as we speak. This test is designed to eliminate people not to make you all happy with your verbal score. There are people out there getting high scores..so try to be one of them. Gmat can't care less how much you scored on your practice tests. There is a reason this site is called BEAT THE GMAT!

So try to beat it! - even it gets harder ;-)
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by raunekk » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:48 pm
.. a few friends of mine took GMAT recently...

and they all had a common complain..."Verbal was tougher than that they have ever faced in any of the prep material or mock tests!!"

i had to believe them because a few of them are genuinely intelligent people...

they added..

CRs were extremely tricky and their language very confusing( though they might look simple)..

SCs were tougher then those found in OG last 50 or those found in manhattan...

One more thing they adviced is to stick to OG..none of prep materials even come close to the quality of questions GMAT produces..especially in verbal

(this info is not to scare neone...just an info. that needs to be shared...!!)
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by kiranlegend » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:38 pm
i took test one week ago. i didn't feel that verbal has become tougher at all. for that matter, i felt the converse. i found final gmat's verbal to be easier than gmat prep's verbal.. never did i complete the verbal section that comfortably.. i felt the the time is quite sufficient and i could infact complete the section within time limit.. i was expecting a higher score.. (as i posted in the other thread mebbe my nerves would have bettered me).. but i got an appaling score in verbal..

if i had to ask a query regarding verbal, it would be the scoring alogorithm thing.. i might sound funny or ridiculous.. but this is what i feel. (once again i might be wrong and so i cant claim my claim very strongly)
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