Hi Ray.
You might think that taking a test such as the GMAT would require minimal preparation, especially as the math and verbal concepts used in creating the questions are fairly basic. The truth is, however, that somehow one can significantly increase one's score through preparation, and that for most people minimal preparation does not make sense as they can score so much higher if they put significant energy into preparation.
The upshot of this is that, yes, your preparation did not match what's necessary for you to hit your score goal.
For one thing, the test itself, with its four sections and tight time constraints, is a challenge, and so by not practicing handling the test you left yourself at a significant disadvantage. So going forward you probably should take practice tests regularly as you prepare, maybe one every week or two, depending on what makes sense. By doing this you can get a sense of what the test is like, develop a sense of how to handle it, and assess how your preparation is going.
In case you are not aware of this, the best practice tests available are the ones created by GMAC. You can get two free ones by downloading the GMAT Prep software available on mba.com. Some test prep companies, such as Veritas and Manhattan Prep also make pretty good practice tests. It's good to have a half dozen practice tests available as the GMAT is somewhat of a game and part of what it takes to score higher is just playing the game.
I realize that you said you are looking for verbal advice, but as an aside, you can best increase your quant score by analyzing your performance to figure out what areas you need to work on and then focusing on each area until you are comfortable with it. Speaking of games, one way to play GMAT quant like a game is to open a GMAT practice account at
https://bellcurves.com/ and just start playing the quant categories like a video game.
To increase your verbal score, using Manhattan SC sounds like a good start. I am not sure how much you need to do or what exactly you need to change to get your verbal score to your goal, but one way to get some practice and assess what you need to do is to use the verbal section of the Veritas Question Bank. That will give you some fresh questions. It may be that you would be best off using some other resources as well.
One KEY thing to realize about GMAT verbal is that it's basically a reasoning game, one that tends to be rather hackable. So many of the skills you use to score high on GMAT quant are applicable to scoring high on verbal too. You just need to learn to hack your way to right answers. One thing that means is that you shouldn't get too caught up in any rules or specific strategies you might learn about. Often I see people who could be totally rocking GMAT verbal not scoring very high because they are somehow focusing on rules and learned strategies to the degree that they are distracting themselves from reasoning and hacking Yes the rules and strategies can be useful, but the GMAT is not a grammar test. It's an entrance exam for business school. So naturally the skills it tests most are decision making and reasoning related. I mean do you really think a business school cares particularly that you know picky grammar rules? So while learning certain rules can be useful, that learning is not the be all and end all of preparation for GMAT verbal.
Obviously you can hit your score goal. Will you do that in a month? Maybe. One thing that will be a factor in the effectiveness of your preparation will be the degree to which you get what the verbal section of the GMAT is really about and to which you figure out how to optimally handle the questions.
