How to get a verbal score of 30-35?

This topic has expert replies
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:15 pm
Thanked: 1 times

How to get a verbal score of 30-35?

by nehs » Wed Sep 22, 2010 9:33 am
I have taken the GMAT prep tests 3 times and all the 3 times my score in the Math section in 42 with 13-15 quest incorrect. However, my score in verbal seems to fluctuate between 25-32.This means I get anything between 13-18 quest incorrect in verbal and most wrong quest are in SC. Thus, my total is between 570-610.

My actual test is on Sat and I want to increase my verbal scores so that it comes to 30-32. This will pull my total score to 600 for sure. I plan to start with the kaplan verbal work book and finish it today and tommorow. Does this plan make sense? Or should I use some other books? Or should I concentrate on Quant instead?

Please let me know. Any suggestions will be valuable to me.
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1172
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:20 pm
Thanked: 74 times
Followed by:4 members

by uwhusky » Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:29 am
Stick with OG. Do the questions, write down any doubts in concept, such as "I am not sure whether to choose A or C because of the difference in tense", and then adequately review them. It is better to completely understand a concept that you have already learned than to learn new concepts at this point of stage.
Yep.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:15 pm
Thanked: 1 times

by nehs » Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:18 pm
uwhusky,Thanks. Makes sense to use the OG - but I have already done the SC in OG 12 as well as OG verbal guide. Should I re-do it? May be I can do the CR of verbal guide as I have not finished it yet.

I welcome any other suggestions from others :-)


***I am still wondering if I should use these 2 days to increase my Quant. score. This score is always 42,Sigh!! May be I am doing the same mistakes repeatedly. Verbal scores keep fluctuating depending on various factors such as my mood :P and the difficulty level of questions.

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 112
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:25 pm
Location: City by the lake
Thanked: 3 times
GMAT Score:630

by odannyboi » Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:31 pm
MGMAT sentence correction guide. It improved my accuracy greatly.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:15 pm
Thanked: 1 times

by nehs » Wed Sep 22, 2010 5:39 pm
odannyboi wrote:MGMAT sentence correction guide. It improved my accuracy greatly.
Thanks and I agree.

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1172
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:20 pm
Thanked: 74 times
Followed by:4 members

by uwhusky » Wed Sep 22, 2010 6:53 pm
At this point, any attempt to learn new concept might end up hurting you.

Review! Review! Review!

I wouldn't touch a new book, and even going over OG questions again will be more beneficial than reading new materials.
Yep.

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 422
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:47 am
Thanked: 22 times
Followed by:1 members
GMAT Score:680

by beatthegmatinsept » Wed Sep 22, 2010 6:58 pm
uwhusky wrote:At this point, any attempt to learn new concept might end up hurting you.

Review! Review! Review!

I wouldn't touch a new book, and even going over OG questions again will be more beneficial than reading new materials.
I completely agree!! I am going through every single question of the GMAT Prep Tests that I have taken and making sure I understand each one of them. Don't start anything new, focus on where you are making mistakes and try to fix them so you don't make the same mistakes on the actual test day!
Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 112
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:25 pm
Location: City by the lake
Thanked: 3 times
GMAT Score:630

by odannyboi » Wed Sep 22, 2010 8:23 pm
uwhusky wrote:At this point, any attempt to learn new concept might end up hurting you.

Review! Review! Review!

I wouldn't touch a new book, and even going over OG questions again will be more beneficial than reading new materials.
I dunno.. when it came to SC, the OG explanations made no sense to me (I didn't know what they meant when they said that an answer was wrong b/c of a verb-subject agreement or that it wasn't "idiomatic")

Even the BTGmat practice questions made no sense in their explanations. I literally would get 9/10 wrong. I looked at the SC guide for about 3 hours then alot more SC questions made sense. I went back to the BTGMAT q's and was hitting 90% in less time than the average user. I dunno, it helped alot even though I didnt spend too much time on it.

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1172
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:20 pm
Thanked: 74 times
Followed by:4 members

by uwhusky » Wed Sep 22, 2010 8:27 pm
Ask questions here, there are a lot of people willing to explain them.
Yep.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:15 pm
Thanked: 1 times

by nehs » Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:09 am
Like you guys suggested, I have started to review SC and CR of OG again. Second time around the problems. I hope it helps me somewhere in the real exam. Also, as I am doing these problems I am able to see a more clearer picture of why some answers are wrong or right especially in CR. There seems to be pattern in the OG problems. I did use some other books like kaplan, MGMAt during my earlier days of prep. These books are good but none of them give us the 'real experience' of the CR or SC questions as can be expected on the test.