GMAT Verbal & Essays

I took about 15days off work and socializing too to prepare for the gmat. A lot of people seemed to believe that its too much time and that i'd eventually beat the gmat.

My verbal at the beginning was a good 36-38 with the test and so i started working on quant. Over time i became pretty efficient in both.

Even touched 720 + on the GMAT prep and Manhattan but on the final day...neither did i blank out, nor did i give into the pressure..

just that questions in verbal were of a level that caught me off gaurd and they were tough beyond the OG / Manhattan level.

May be lack of conceptual knowledge or a bad approach to verbal may have resulted in me getting only 27 in verbal but I am not going to give up and thus if there is a recommended book(s) for me to up my verbal in the next couple of months then please assist me because believe me the questions in teh OG are way easier than the actual test and i am beginning to believe that maybe GMAT Prep isnt the right indicator for the final score.

if there is a structured approach with questions i must aim at, please guide me through it.

Devank,

You haven't shared your final score on D-day. If it has been only a few notches below your expected range, you might want to move on to the other aspects of your application.

However, if you think you can make a substantial difference in the re-attempt, it would be worth a shot.

Have you pinpointed specific weak areas within verbal? For instance, for SC several folks have found the Manhattan SC guide useful. If you haven't used it earlier, you might want to check it out.

Verbal is a tough one for most Indian applicants and it comes down to getting the fundamental concepts sorted out, and lots of practice with questions of varying difficulty levels.

Sameer,

Thank you for your comprehensive reply to my post. My score on D-day was a mere 620. The expected and targetted score was 710+ for sure.

My weakness was from what I understand RC and getting a string of questions wrong once I hit RC. SC I used the Manhattan book and it seemed pretty good but I still feel that the questions on the test were nowhere close to the level of the OG. RC and SC were my strong points for a while. Initial practise tests i was hitting a 36-37 verbal with 44 quant, thus I worked on quant and brought it to the 48-50 range.

Im not sure if I was over-thinking in the paper or not!

Without a doubt I am going to give it another try. I wish to achieve 750 this time considering that I know I can. Probably my approach wasnt structered enough this time around.

I guess I did not practice the level that was needed because I felt the GMATPrep test level questions (720 / 690 - achieved) and the OG were true indicators.

I'd like to understand if there is a way I can gradually get back to reaching the score. Reviewing the questions has also been on my mind. Wish that it doesnt kill the want to do well.

I want to do this over 3-4 months, rather steadily to get a more solid and conceptual approach.
If you think you can help me do let me know.

Thank you and regards,
Devank

In that case, you should definitely re-take it, Devank.

Wouldn't 3-4 months be too late, though? If you are planning for R1 deadlines, you'd have very little time to put together the rest of the application content.

We aren't into GMAT coaching (we get involved after that), but if you can send across an email (info at mbacrystalball dot com) I could get you in touch with a GMAT expert.

Which city are you based in?