Need help in verbal!!! Got a 20

[jake1414]

I just took a practice test and scored a 510. The breakdown was 40 (52 percentile) in math and 20 (20th percentile) in verbal. What am I doing wrong in verbal? My goal is to get a 600. Do I need to increase both scores or just the verbal?

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Hi jake1414,

A big part of your improvement is going to be based on your review. If you haven't done so yet, then you should review your CAT question-by-question and determine WHY you got each question correct or incorrect. In the case of the correct questions, then what tactics did you use that you can repeat later? If you just got lucky, then some additional studying should be done to "shore up" those areas. In the case of incorrect questions, then WHY did you get the question wrong? Review your notes and your approach. If you "narrowed it down", but still got the question wrong anyway, then you need to adjust THAT approach. If grammar or math rules are the problem, then you need to learn (or relearn) the "rules" that are tested.

Thankfully, the GMAT is a standardized, predictable exam, so you can learn the patterns behind it and make sure that you're ready for them when they show up. As an example, "causality" is a concept that shows up on a number of CR questions. Knowing how to spot it, the assumptions behind it and how to strengthen/weaken it (as needed) will lead to some easy points on your CATs and on Test Day.

As to your question, you'll probably find some easy points in BOTH sections, so be sure to continue doing work on both the Quant and Verbal.

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

[jake1414]

Thanks so much!

[Dan@VinciaPrep]

Hello!
So one of the best ways to improve you verbal score is to work on the SC section sense you can memorize and work on grammar rules much faster than you can improve your reading ability. Get the Manhattan GMAT SC book if you haven't yet, and read it a couple times. Then do hundreds of SC questions making sure to write down all of your mistakes. Finally, go back through them to make sure that you've learned from all of the mistakes that you made.

One should also continue to work on Math however, since you don't want your math score to go down. In particular, work on the areas that give you the most trouble since this will improve your score faster than just doing a bunch of random questions.

Cheers!
Dan