Hello everybody,

I am an international student trying to reach the 700 barrier. As an electronic engineer, I've got good math skills but poor verbal skills. In addition English is not my mother tongue so things get even more complicated.... I took the test two years ago and obtain 670 (Q48,V34). At that time I decided it was not time to apply since my work experience had not been as good as I would have liked it to be. But three weeks ago I decided that time had come and started preparing the whole process to be admitted in one of the top BS. I am not applying now but in one year so I have enough time to prepare all the stuff. The first thing I have to do is to reach the 700 score at GMAT so I have spent quite a lot of time on it during the last two weeks. After these two weeks of hard study I am at a point of my preparation in which I think I can not make progress in some areas. I think I can improve my quantitative score a lot and I am doing so. If things go as I expect I will reach 49 or 50 on quants. However I am a bit stuck at verbal, especially at SC. When practicing (I always control time) with 1000SC I only get 80% of the questions correct and I really want to improve this area since it seems to me very important to save time that I will need spend on RC. CR goes a bit better (85%), but like with maths, I am making much progress. I haven't touched RC yet but I will do very soon, as soon as I find the way to crack SC.

Therefore, my question is.... how can improve my SC skills? People say Manhattan SC guide is a good resource but maybe I am not at the point of using this guide. Maybe MG for SC is not as useful for me as it is for someone just having his first contact with GMAT sentences. I'd like to know whether you guys consider that buying this guide will help me to crack the SC.

Thx a lot for your help.