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Stretching score from 34 to 40-41 in verbal

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Stretching score from 34 to 40-41 in verbal

by vaibhav.iit2002 » Wed Oct 07, 2009 10:06 am
Hi Stacey,

I found most of your posts really awesome and follow them regularly.

I need some help from your side. Plz suggest me how to improve verbal score especially SC. My current score lies at around 34 and total score 690-700. I have to stretch these scores to 40-41 and 750 respectively. Please give me some tips.

Problems:
1. SC in particularly long sentences which test multiple rules. I am aware of most of the rules but in such problems I tend to do them wrong in less time or to get them correct sometimes I spend even more than 2 min.

2. CR - I really fail to get 700-800 level problems 60-70% times.
My Strategy for CR:

Step 1: I read the argument and understand it >
Step 2: Read the ques. and give just few seconds to check whether I am able to find a gap[in weakening argument problem], conclusion, assumption etc.
Step 3: go through the options.

Now for tough ones, I miss the correct option if it requires very deep analysis and if I give proper time[approx 3 min. or more] to step 2, my accuracy improves drastically, but the issue is that I can't devote more than 3 min. to problems.

Please suggest me a strategy. I have GMAT scheduled on 26 Oct so plz suggest me something which is possible in the remaining duration.

Thanks a million times for your help :)
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by punitkaur » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:42 am
I am in the same situation as you are in. I need to take my verbal from higher 30's to the 40s and reasons are same as yours. However, my exam is in December.Awaiting an insightful post from the experts.
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by vivekjaiswal » Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:31 pm
Guys,

Same's the case with me...eagerly watching this post for some insight :roll:
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by vaibhav.iit2002 » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:24 pm
Vivek and Punit,

Can u guys plz do a PM to Stacey giving link to this post and ask her to reply. She is the one who asked me to put this query in Strategy forum. I have sent her 2 PMs but they are still hanging in my Outbox and are not delivered.

She is expecting the link of this post as Private Message.
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by gkumar » Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:01 am
I forwarded the link to Stacey. I am in a similar situation as well. Looking forward to the advice!
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by vivekjaiswal » Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:51 pm
no replies...no updates :cry:
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by gkumar » Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:00 pm
Sorry to hear that. Maybe this link might be of help if timing and not ability to master content is the issue: https://www.beatthegmat.com/recommended- ... 46538.html
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:45 am
Hi, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond. I'm getting inundated with PMs this time of year.

First, can you tell me why you need a 750? I'm not aware of any program that requires a 750, and I'm also not aware of any program that will reject you because of a 700 score. In my experience, 700+ is good enough for any school and the decision after that point will be based on the rest of your application. But perhaps you have some new info about a school that I don't know?

1. Long SCs with multiple rules. What exactly is giving you the trouble? Are you struggling with the actual rules of things that tend to get tested in this way (eg, modifiers)? Or are you struggling to identify / pick out the differences in order to know which rules are being tested? Or is something else going on?

If you think you know the material but are making mistakes, what kinds of mistakes are you making and why are you making those mistakes? What's drawing you away from the right answer and towards the wrong answer?

If you can answer the above questions, then we can figure out what to do. If it's an issue of not knowing, for example, modifiers as well, then you need to study modifiers. If it's an issue of not being able to pick out one discrete difference and know what it's testing, then you have to work on recognizing what rule is being tested based upon the way the differences are presented in the answers. And so on.

2. On CR, start by reading the question first, not the argument. That will give you an idea of what to think about as you read the argument (eg, if it's a Draw a Conclusion question, I want to do something different than if it's a Strengthen question).

"proper time" is not "approx 3 min or more" - proper time is 2m, max of 2.5m. If you need 3+ minutes, then you should just make an educated guess and move on (the more time you spend above 3m, the more likely you are to get it wrong anyway!).

If you are currently spending 3+ minutes on some problems, then you are also moving too quickly on some other problems somewhere on the test. Most people choose the problems they think are easier when they try to speed up and save time. If you do that, you're more likely to make a careless mistake and miss a question that you should have gotten right. Worry more about making sure that you don't miss those than trying to get the hardest questions right. It's okay to make 1 or 2 careless mistakes in the section, but more than that and you're bringing your score down.

So think about how you're managing your time. It's not in your best interests to spend 3+ min on a single CR; the desire to do that just indicates that you don't really know how to think through this question anyway, so your odds are not great even if you do spend the time. On top of that, you're also potentially costing yourself a problem that you do know how to do, and that's going to hurt you far more than getting this very hard question wrong.

You have a few days left, so you may want to devote some time to examining wrong answer choices, in particular the most tempting wrong answer choices. In particular, think about:
- why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible)
- why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
- why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong?
- why was it actually right?
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
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Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

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by gkumar » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:50 am
Thanks for an awesome reply Stacey. I certainly will keep your response in mind when the test date comes up!
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