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Need help to beat Verbal!

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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Need help to beat Verbal!

by TameGMAT1 » Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:30 pm
Hi All!

I took up my GMAT last week and scored 600 (Q 43/V 29). I have always been extremely weak in Math and fairly good in English (above average, being a non native speaker). This was one of the reasons why I concentrated all my prep on Quants and just brushed up my Verbal skills. When I saw my score, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!!

I'll be giving myself about 4 months to prepare for my second attempt. I want to improve my Verbal score. I'm aiming a 720+ score. I want to know what books I can refer. I'd first like to learn all the basics, right from scratch, and then go on to practice as many questions as possible.

During the prep for my first attempt, I just flipped through the Manhattan SC pages, but never really gave it a serious and planned read. Over confidence killed it for me this time I guess :'(

Please please please help!!

Thanks!
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by ivyctor2010 » Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:46 am
Hi,

Since you are beginning afresh, I would suggest taking an entirely fresh strategy. If you have already practiced some of the sources mentioned below you can get other practice material. If you have any other questions please let me know.

Sentence Correction (SC)
Preparation: Manhattan® SC 2007 edition, is an amazing book, one may call it the SC Bible as it prepares you exhaustively for SC.
Practice: Read the GMAT® Official Guide (OG-12) for SC & understand the
concepts through Answer Key. Re-do all questions, if possible. Please pay
significant attention to idioms as questions on them are tricky but relatively easy.
Modifiers also require significant attention.
Aim: Achieve accuracy greater than 85% in all practice sets.
Important Tip: Don't spend equal time on all types of SC questions. Practice all of
them initially & identify your weak areas. Focus your efforts more on these for
more robust & efficient preparation.

Reading Comprehension (RC)
Preparation: Read editorials from NY Times® or Washington Post® online or
from other newspapers on daily basis. It helps in building your reading speed. It should
be a daily exercise.
Practice: Practice from all possible sources as a lot of raw practice is required to
ace RCs. Practice at least 100 RCs before you start giving mocks.
Aim: Read easier passage in 2-3 minutes & understand the basic gist of it. If the
passage is really tough you can take up to 4 minutes. Do not rest until you
achieve accuracy > 85 % in all practice sets.
Important Tip: We also advice against jumping to questions first & then looking
for answers in the paragraph. Reading essay first makes answering "main point"
& "summary of essay" questions seem like a cakewalk.

Critical Reasoning (CR)
Preparation: Critical reasoning Bible by PowerScore®, helps with all CR basics.
Practice: All GMAT® Official Guide (OG-12) questions alongside reading the Bible.
Aim: Achieve accuracy greater than 85% in all practice sets.
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by TameGMAT1 » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:26 am
Thank you ivyctor2010! The way you've structured your reply is awesome! :)

I practised all the Verbal questions from OG 13 before my first attempt. I guess the key is to first learn all the concepts in detail and then attack the questions.

I found the difficulty level of the RCs in the actual test much higher than any of the RCs in OG 13. All the passages were extremely long ones and I always have a problem with comprehending very long passages.

Although my accuracy level in the OG 13 CR questions was more than 95%, I know I messed up CR in the test.

Also, once all my concepts are in place, I'd like to practice with the "700+ type" questions. Any links or books for such questions?

Thanks!
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by ivyctor2010 » Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:38 am
GMAT throws tricky questions at you the level of which changes as you proceed, so there are no such question as 700+ types. Get your basics right and practice hard, under time limits, thats the mantra. For more tough questions on verbal you may look at Kaplan. Manhattan GMAT mocks have good questions as well.
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by TameGMAT1 » Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:46 am
ivyctor2010 wrote:GMAT throws tricky questions at you the level of which changes as you proceed, so there are no such question as 700+ types. Get your basics right and practice hard, under time limits, thats the mantra. For more tough questions on verbal you may look at Kaplan. Manhattan GMAT mocks have good questions as well.
Thanks! Will do that :)
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