nathalier wrote:
Hi all,
I did my first CAT today (without any studying, except reading a bit about GMAT) and scored 380. I was struggling with the time and some basics of maths, but especially the verbal questions, as I'm a non-native English speaker. I think that the time management and the math won't be super hard for me to improve, however the verbal is my biggest concern. I know the basics of English and understand/can speak quite alright, but I find the English used in the GMAT exam super hard. I have a hard time understanding questions and the reading comprehension. Does anyone have any tips in order for me to improve the verbal, as well as improving my academic/professional English?
With this said, I'm aiming a 680 score. I don't know whether that is possible or not, but it's my goal (my back-up plan is to score about 550, which is enough for another University). I'm studying full-time (BSc in Business and Economics) and the application deadline for the master programme is in mid-January. My plan is to write the GMAT once in November and then retake the GMAT in January. Is 680 a manageable goal for me? About how much would I need to study in order to reach that goal (a wild guess)? I want to make a study-plan and in order for that, estimate how much time/week I need to put on my GMAT-studies.
Thanks in advance!
Hey Buddy,
1st of all the good news, to master the GMAT in general and the verbal section in particular you do not have to be a native speaker.
While it might be helpful to be a native speaker, there are a multitude of things you can learn and understand to be able to achieve a great GMAT verbal score without being Shakespeare.
With regards to verbal these are a couple of points I tend to recommend to people:
1. Check out the SC specific threads on this forum, some of them (generally those with a lot of kudos) are very helpful
2. Listen to some of the videos on the YT chanel from Veritas,
Magoosh and GmatNinja
3. Maybe check out the link in my signature, it adresses some verbal topics in general.
If any points are unclear please feel free to reach out.
All the best for your prep my friend,
Chris