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Improving GMAT verbal

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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Improving GMAT verbal

by vskasava » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:36 pm
Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum. I really like the forum as it has some great information and i thank you all for your contributions.

I gave the GMAT twice.. i score 640 (V32 and Q50) and 690 (V37 and Q48). In both cases my GMAT score is not where i wanted it to be because of verbal.

I have the MGMAT SC book and i went through it once or twice. I did the OG problems as well and i was getting close to 87% of my SC's correct.

I very hurriedly went through CR bible a week before the exam, did not get to use most of the principles taught in there but i was doing ok again.. 87% accuracy. Same with RC.

But in the final exam, i always seem to be running out of time and i am never sure if i chose the right answer or not.

Any advice on how i can improve my verbal score will be greatly appreciated.

I am debating taking up Knewton's 50 point score guarantee or taking some private lessons etc.. Any ideas on that front?

thanks,
Vamsee.
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by cbenk121 » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:29 am
vskasava wrote:Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum. I really like the forum as it has some great information and i thank you all for your contributions.

I gave the GMAT twice.. i score 640 (V32 and Q50) and 690 (V37 and Q48). In both cases my GMAT score is not where i wanted it to be because of verbal.

I have the MGMAT SC book and i went through it once or twice. I did the OG problems as well and i was getting close to 87% of my SC's correct.

I very hurriedly went through CR bible a week before the exam, did not get to use most of the principles taught in there but i was doing ok again.. 87% accuracy. Same with RC.

But in the final exam, i always seem to be running out of time and i am never sure if i chose the right answer or not.

Any advice on how i can improve my verbal score will be greatly appreciated.

I am debating taking up Knewton's 50 point score guarantee or taking some private lessons etc.. Any ideas on that front?

thanks,
Vamsee.
Yea, 87% in all three categories won't lead to a great V score, as you saw.

First, I'd go through the CR Bible more slowly. That's a fantastic book, and I think you should be able to get your CR score to at least 95%, if not 100%.

Next, I'd look at why RC is giving you trouble. The nice thing, in my opinion, about RC is that the answer is IN FRONT OF YOU. Except in the case of inferences, but those inferences are always much more simple than CR type questions (one reason why I suggested to improve CR first). If you can get RC to 100%, that's money in the bank, one area you know you can knock out of the park.

Finally, SC. Some people find this easy, for me it was always my weak verbal area, because I had no grammar education. I mean, I DID but it wasn't very good. I would read through the MGMAT SC Guide again, oover to cover. Seems people who post on here about reading through the book a second time seem to get A LOT out of that second reading, so shoot to get that SC score to 95% (or even 100%)!

From my experience, I was getting 100% on CR and RC, and I achieved a V44, which I was very happy with because V44 seemed to be my verbal potential (i.e. the highest score I had ever gotten in GMAT Prep). Obviously, if I was doing so well in RC and CR, SC weighed me down. So, you can't just get 100% in one area, you have to get ALL areas to at least 95% to do better than I did. I remember a post by TwinSplitter where he was getting 99% on all areas, and then got a V51.
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by vskasava » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:37 pm
cbenk121,

Thanks for your advice. I will definitely start targeting CR and RC as first priority. One of the problems i am facing is practice problems, since i went through 11th edition OG i dont have many new problems to practice from. I was thinking that may be i could do some LSAT problems, do you have any other suggestions?

Also, as you already know, there are not many problems in the power score CR bible, any suggestions on how i can use the fundamentals learned in the book towards actual practice problems? For ex, i want to finish "make a point" chapter and then do some problems that help me apply the things learned.

I will look for twinsplitter's post on the forums.

Thanks,
vamsee.
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by vskasava » Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:46 am
cbenk,

If i plan on doing LSAT problems, is it recommended to buy the LSAT CR bible or the GMAT CR bible?

Thanks,
vamsee.
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by poonammarwah » Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:58 am
Hi cbenk121,
I need an advice from you.
Is doing Og 10/11/12 and Gmatprep problem is sufficient for good verbal score.

and for quant also is OG10/11/12 is sufficient for good quant score.

I am targetting 700+

Thanks
Poonam
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