Verbal is killing me! PLEASE HELP. Urgent!

[paramgupta]

Hello.

I have been preparing for GMAT for over 2 months now vigorously. My GMAT date is booked for 29th September 2014. I have covered most of the material (mentioned below) but I have a basic problem.

I have taken the Economist GMAT Tutor course. This is one good online course which really helped me overall. I have finished the course now and have started to give mocks.

My mock scores-

Sim1- 680 (Q49/V36)
Sim2- 690 (Q50/V36)
Sim3- 670 (Q48/V35)
Sim4- 690 (Q49/V37)

Veritas Prep Free Mock - 710 (Q50/V37)

GMATPrep Exam 2- 670 (Q48/V31)

You see what is happening there?? The VERBAL is stopping me from reaching 700 EVERYTIME! I don't know what to do. I have spent so much time on it. I have improved a lot from the start but its just not enough. I just can't cross 700 because of my verbal score. My target for the GMAT is 720! And I need 720.

The materials which I have done till now-

1. KAplan Premier 2014
2. Kaplan Test series (All 6 mocks- More than a month back)- Range 600-700
3. OG13 - The full book
4. OG Verbal Review
5. Manhattan Guides for SC, CR and RC.
6. Jamboree Online Test Series (Not adaptive)

And ofcourse the Economist GMAT Tutor.

As my GMAT date is approaching (13 days to go!!) I need some guidance with verbal. How do I crack it? Understand it better? My timing is good. I always manage to finish the paper and do not spend much time on one question. I maintain my average.

If any one of you can give me insights/suggest materials or good strategy. I am really in need. I am ready to do anything to ace the verbal section.

Also I plan to go for the Manhattan Mock series now. Should I? Is it worth it? I still have 2 Economist and one GMATPrep mock to go!

Thank you!

[[email protected]]

Hi paramgupta,

First off, you've clearly made some nice improvements. Now you have to REALLY analyze how you approach the Test and nitpick your work a bit.

If you have not done so yet, you should do a full question-by-question review of each of your Verbal sections (even the questions that you got correct).

When you got a question correct, can you explain WHY you got it correct? What work did you do? What pattern did you notice? How did you eliminate answer choices? Etc. These are steps that you should try to repeat on Test Day.

When you got a question incorrect, what was the REASON? Was it a silly mistake? Did you "guess" wrong? Was the question too hard? Etc. These are the little things that you need to fix before Test Day.

Whatever inconsistencies occur when you take the Verbal section MUST be eliminated. At this scoring level, the GMAT becomes really "sensitive", so a few too many little mistakes will keep you from your goal. Conversely, if you can keep those mistakes from happening, then you can earn back the points that you're looking for.

Since your GMAT is in 13 days it's important to remember that taking lots of practice CATs is NOT the solution to your problem. You have enough time to take 2-3, but the bulk of your time should be spent on practice problems and review.

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

[paramgupta]

Hey Rich. Thank you for such a quick reply.

I totally understand what you mean. I have been trying to do that. I give Atleast 1-2 hours after every mock to analyze it. Sometimes I just don't understand how the exam comes up with the scores. I see my rights and wrongs. Analyze each part well and my strengths and weaknesses.

Coming down to each question. Frankly, a lot of times I make stupid mistakes. Specially quant. It's like you give me unlimited time and I get 37/37 correct. It's the just the time frame gets me going and forces to take guesses. But on the verbal there are a few things-

SC- Every mock I get 4-5 wrong. Some are hard. And some are just mistakes. In these I am left with 2 options and always end up picking the stupid one which later I realize did not make any sense at all.

CR- I really like this question type. I have a hang of it. Sometimes I get 1-2 wrong. And sometimes I get 7-8 wrong too. Just depends. There is no proper consistency. But I end doing a lot of silly mistakes here. I know the answer but just because I try to think 'otherwise' I mark the wrong one.

RC- The one I hate. First I had no idea how to improve on this. Later with the economist strategies and initial reading technique my accuracy increased. But I still get a minimum of 4-5 wrong here too. This is one area which really hurts me every time.

So in total I have given you a break up of my verbal performance. I end up getting 10-16 wrong every time. Hence the scores. I already analyze the questions but end up doing the same mistakes. Any help?

[BestGMATEliza]

Because you are not learning anything new for RC and CR, the best way to improve is to practice. I am guessing that it is most likely the harder level questions that are tripping you up on these sections, so you might want to try practicing with LSAT material. The RC and CR sections of the LSAT are pretty much the same as the GMAT, but more difficult. I would also recommend that you try and pinpoint your weaknesses. The fact that your CR score is inconsistent suggests that there is probably one or two topics (ie general or inference) that is tripping you up and when the test has more of that type you do poorer and when it has less you do well. Take a look at you last few CATs and find out which topics you are getting wrong the most. Then do a quick review of those strategies and practice those question types A lot! Another way to help you with RC is to try to integrate more complicated reading material like economist articles or scientific journals into your every day reading.

For SC, you do have to learn new things and it is very complicated, so I would recommend that you review your MGMAT SC book and make sure you take notes to help you remember all those rules.

Hope this helps!!

[paramgupta]

Any suggestions from where I can get LSAT practice material? I am totally new to this exam. Can refer to some of them from there.

And thank you so much for your suggestion.

[BestGMATEliza]

You can buy official LSAT questions from LSAC (The GMAC of the LSAT) here: https://os.lsac.org/RELEASE/Shop/Publications.aspx
Ignore all the logic games stuff, that won't really help you with the GMAT. Each test will have two logical reasoning (CR) sections and one reading comp section that you can use to help you practice with harder material.