Is tutoring necessary for Verbal?

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kyuhunl: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 12; Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:16 am

by kyuhunl » Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:46 am

I'm planning to have my first GMAT this summer, and I'm gathering info.
I tried some practice exams, and I think I got quant covered, getting 50-51, but I'm having trouble with Verbal since English is not my native language.
I'm an undergrad student and can't really spend too much time on the GMAT during spring semester.
Would it be optimal for me to get private tutoring on verbal?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:46 am

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[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pmFollowed by: 511 members; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:11 pm

Hi kyuhunl,

The degree to which you might find tutoring useful will depend greatly on the study materials that you're currently using and how quickly you can learn (and properly practice) certain concepts and Tactics. Before I can offer you the specific advice that you're looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied so far?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Feb 02, 2019 9:02 am

kyuhunl wrote:I'm planning to have my first GMAT this summer, and I'm gathering info.
I tried some practice exams, and I think I got quant covered, getting 50-51, but I'm having trouble with Verbal since English is not my native language.
I'm an undergrad student and can't really spend too much time on the GMAT during spring semester.
Would it be optimal for me to get private tutoring on verbal?

In my opinion, no. Don't get a tutor... yet. When students say "I don't have much time, so I'll get a tutor rather than studying on my own," that's usually not a recipe for success. Tutoring is most productive when it's supplementing significant time spent studying on your own. Tutors provide really valuable insights, but no matter what, you need to do the bulk of the work on your own.

I would recommend spending whatever time you can studying on your own, and push your verbal score as far as you can. Then, once you have a solid grounding in the material, perhaps get a tutor after this semester is over to polish your weak areas.

Good luck!

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8178; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 amFollowed by: 29 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:42 am

Hi kyuhunl,

Although a tutor certainly can help you improve your GMAT verbal skills, the bulk of your prep still will be done independently. Thus, even if you end up working with a tutor, you want to ensure that you use thorough prep materials to improve your GMAT skills in between your sessions. With that in mind, I recommend that you spend some time reading success stories of past GMAT students as well as reviews of various GMAT prep courses to see what prep materials have worked for other test-takers.

You also may find it helpful to read this article about
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

If you have any further questions regarding your study plan, feel free to reach out.

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

See why Target Test Prep is rated 5 out of 5 stars on BEAT the GMAT. Read our reviews

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swara31: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:51 pm

by swara31 » Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:56 pm

Is there are any online tutoring for Verbal ?

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[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pmFollowed by: 511 members; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:28 am

Hi swara31,

Yes, you should be able to find online tutoring without too much trouble, but it's not clear whether you actually need that type of resource yet. Before I can offer you the specific advice that you're looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8178; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 amFollowed by: 29 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:40 pm

Hi swara31,

Since you are looking for a GMAT verbal tutor, I assume that you are struggling with GMAT verbal? Would you like some advice on how to improve your verbal skills?

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

See why Target Test Prep is rated 5 out of 5 stars on BEAT the GMAT. Read our reviews

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MartyMurray: Legendary Member; Posts: 2135; Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:26 amFollowed by: 140 members; Location: https://martymurraycoaching.com/; Thanked: 955 times; GMAT Score:800

by MartyMurray » Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:30 pm

Hi kyuhunl.

Increasing your GMAT verbal score is going to take a fair amount of work, maybe even a LOT of work, whether you work with a tutor or work completely on your own.

At the same time, a tutor could definitely help you to speed up the process, by guiding your preparation, showing you key concepts and some fundamental strategies, and helping you to find and address weaknesses in how you approach answering verbal questions.

Whatever you decide to do, be aware that, while rules and strategies can be useful in answering GMAT verbal questions, what you really need to do in order to drive your verbal score higher is to develop skill in seeing what you have to see in the questions and answer choices in order to arrive at correct answers. Developing that vision takes analyzing lots of questions and learning to define why choices are incorrect or correct.

So, overall, yes, a tutor could be helpful. At the same time, if you think a tutor can show you enough so that your verbal score quickly increases you will be disappointed. A tutor can help you to train and can show you the kinds of things that you have to see in order to correctly answer verbal questions. At the same time, to drive your verbal score higher, you are going to have to take what you learn from a tutor, or any resource, and train until you learn to skillfully apply it.

Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.

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