need advice on Verbal

[gig92]

Hello All,

I having been following "beat the gmat" for some time now. I took GMAT twice (including one today). The first test was a bomb for me, cannot really speak about it. Yesterday, in my second attempt, I got 77 percentile (47) in Quant and only 35 percentile (25) in Verbal, Total 600. I was shocked to see my verbal score even though I improved Quant score very much. My perofmance in verbal was even worse than the last time even if I had tried to understand every rule (actually I was very confident on all parts of Verbal). The only weakness I see now is that I didn't practice with time limits on Verbal (as I tried to understand the details of concept).

Also, during the exam I felt that there was no time whatsoever to reflect on Verbal questions. I mean it seemed that I was able to understand the questions quite easily (that's not really was the case it seems to me now!!). Anyway, I am going to retake for GMAT last time in the end of March. I have seen all recommendations on books to follow. I have studied the books over and over again (it's been more than a year that I have been trying to prepare well). Last year I got 111 on TOEFL. The Verbal section should not be that difficult!!

I think I have been faltering on timing in Verbal. I am going to restart with GMAT Official guide questions. Could any of you please take a few minutes to give me a feedback on where I might be getting bad in Verbal? During my preparation I tried to practice timing on "one kind" of questions because usually books have seperate sections. Do you think I can try some mixed strategy to master verbal section?

I will highly appreciate any advice.

[Tani]

Simply doing "more of the same" will not change your score. Try keeping an error log to identify mistakes that you are making consistently. Then work on those issues. By correcting a concept, you improve your performance on several problems. Remember, you will never see a question on the test that you have seen in practice. The answer is not to understand the questions, but to grasp the concepts.

You mention that you had not practiced under timed conditions. If you don't have access to a course such as Kaplan that gives you multiple timed CATs, look for a book with a CD that will give you timed practice in an adaptive format. If you focus on strategies for handling verbal questions you can improve your timing significantly. A solid strategy means you will never need to "reflect". You will always know what concrete steps need to be taken and can move quickly and confidently through the questions.

Good luck,

[gig92]

Simply doing "more of the same" will not change your score. Try keeping an error log to identify mistakes that you are making consistently. Then work on those issues. By correcting a concept, you improve your performance on several problems. Remember, you will never see a question on the test that you have seen in practice. The answer is not to understand the questions, but to grasp the concepts.

You mention that you had not practiced under timed conditions. If you don't have access to a course such as Kaplan that gives you multiple timed CATs, look for a book with a CD that will give you timed practice in an adaptive format. If you focus on strategies for handling verbal questions you can improve your timing significantly. A solid strategy means you will never need to "reflect". You will always know what concrete steps need to be taken and can move quickly and confidently through the questions.

Good luck,

Thanks very much for your advice. I will do as much as I can to "reshape" my preparation as I prepare to take exams in three months time.

Best,