GMAT Strategy

I've done okay on my verbal practice exams (averaging around 42) with 7-10 minutes to spare. The only trouble that I have are tough science passages. Yesterday I bombed my real gmat by running out of time on my verbal (around 9 Q with 7 minutes remaining so I had to guess everything).

I already have Manhattan GMAT but I'm wondering if there's any point in getting guide books for critical reading and reading comprehension? I'm kinda skeptical because there's really no "theory" behind RC and CR except to just read everything carefully, is there?

I would say studying the CR & RC manhattan gmat books helped me alot. I am naturally stronger in verbal than quant, so i have been focusing my studies in quant (99%). However, skimming through the RC & CR books over the course of 2-3 weeks led to a substantial improvement in both.

In RC, for example, jotting down QUICK notes on each paragraph really helped me with comprehension. And learning tips about how to answer "what is inferred" question types helped me a lot. During my practice exams, I feel a lot more confident in my answers.

Same goes for CR- it's not about "reading carefully" (how carefully can you read a lonnnng science passage about meteors in a few min?) but more about learning to find the gold nuggets within the long passages & gaining an understanding of what they really want you to find.