Advice for Verbal prep

Hi,

I am want to you which are the best Verbal prep material out there to revise the concepts and get a firm understanding.

I did TargetTestPrep for Quant, love clearing of basics and getting the concepts right.

Any similar suggestions for verbal.

My Verbal is currently at V29.

Thank you.

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TTP Verbal takes you through the same process of learning basics, developing understanding of advanced concepts, and practicing to achieve mastery.

You could go to the TTP Verbal chapters and take a look.

Also, for some insights into how to make your verbal score goal happen, see this post. How to Score High on GMAT Verbal
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The thing about Verbal is that it's not as clearly tied to concepts like quant is (though as I've emphasized before--even quant isn't *really* about 'concepts').

SC has some concepts, but more than that it's how you read, interpret, and think about sentences based on structure and meaning. Here are several videos that cover, I think, a huge amount of SC topics (I also very much recommend picking up an MPrep manual. I was recommending MPrep for SC long before I taught at MPrep).

Reading like a Robot for meaning and structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nYDowbo1mI&t=2382s

The Three Pieces of Sentence Structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIsU_JI7Z6w

Modifiers and Sentence Structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3A9YyFw-UQ&t=74s

Everything you could know about Parallel Structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGIxNizBWs

Sentence Correction Comparisons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx7VTLOKUr8

(The one major topic we haven't made a prep hour for yet is 'Pronouns,' but that will be in our manual).

SC Mixed Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMx8RQXQGD8

For RC and CR...

These are trickier.

After all, there aren't any... *rules*. Or formulas to memorize... There's just the text in a passage/paragraph, what you read, and what you're thinking about it. When you miss these, you really, really have to dig to figure out why. These are the questions student *think* are 'more subjective' than others, but the truth is, they are as objective as any other problem on the test. However, there tends to only be *one line of reasoning* that makes the right answer right.

Here's a tactic that forces you to think deeply about why you might have missed or struggled on a question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xem2vqSyenE

The thing about verbal, also, is that you might need to really shift your reading habits. Here are some videos on that:

How to read RC (part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NnZEUK1rCE&t=1642s
How to read RC (part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmSc_-LV7S8

How to passage map for RC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtfpT9DJbCM

RC Question strategies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VToJy-oQMeA&t=1782s

Some drills to get you thinking deeply about RC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfvkth69Us

When it comes to Critical Reasoning, a deep understanding of how arguments work and what 'assumptions' are is hugely important.

CR FAQS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc4Cb_HM3c8

CR overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5i78ZOs_c

Argument Deconstruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSL3mKNVG3M&t=3095s

Three Key Questions for Critical Reasoning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfTcOr6zJjs

Value of Pre-Thinking (Mostly DS, but the last question is CR): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NEqP1On-3k

Critical Reasoning Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmz46ADcFdw&t=2152s
(Note: I made that a few years ago. There are some things I've changed about how I teach this stuff, but the general message, I stand by).

This video was made for our Free GRE Prep channel, but I think it's lessons are broadly applicable to verbal on both tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKg08_0H_oY

So. There's several hours of viewing for you to get you started! My biggest advice as you start digging into verbal: do not expect to learn a few rules and see a score increase. Reflect deeply about how you read, interpret, and think about the ideas imbedded in written language. It's called Verbal 'reasoning' for a reason.
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Thanks, ReedArnoldMPREP. Having this list is really useful. I have been going through your MPREP videos for some time now, you are really good. Your approach to teaching is very helpful, especially the latest one on "inference opportunities". So, thanks once again.

One suggestion: you can make this post as part of your signature( in addition to your awesome DS question ) so that people have this list readily available and would help several of the other GMAT takers.
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Good idea. It is now in the signature!
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Hi onit,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

V29 clearly indicates that verbal is an area of concern. You have rightly identified that you need to develop a solid understanding of the concept and then learn the application of concepts in case of your Verbal prep. To keep it simple, you need to start from scratch.

GMAT verbal is mostly about eliminating four incorrect answer choices rather than choosing the right one. Before you start learning, it's important to understand what is actually tested using the questions. Each module in Verbal (SC, CR and RC) has to be approached in a different way. For example, before you start learning the concepts of SC, you need to understand that SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to:

• Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence
• Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise)
• Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning

You can go through the link below to understand the process in a better way:



You need to prepare for RC and CR as well in a structured and efficient manner. You have to follow a methodical and systematic approach while solving the questions in order to work on your accuracy and increase your score. For example,

• In CR, you have to understand the argument, identify the premise and the conclusion and then pre-think the answer before looking at the solutions.
• In RC, you need to have the right reading strategies to understand the inferences which are not directly stated in the passage.

I’d recommend you to follow this order for the verbal part - SC->CR-RC. The reason for this is very specific. Each question type on the GMAT is testing a specific skill. SC tests your comprehension skills. CR tests comprehension & analytical skills. Finally, RC builds on the previous two skills and also tests your ability to be able to grasp the central point of the passage i.e. Your inferential skills. Thus when you learn in this order, it's much more effective.

GMATWhiz helps you with all these things as we follow a structured way of teaching things, which makes the learning process simpler and efficient. It also helps you to develop an understanding of the test maker’s intention behind asking the question. It uses an AI powered learning platform to provide you with real time improvement modules after every practice quiz. It provides you with additional concept videos and practise quizzes to help you improve. This helps you overcome your weaker areas in a specific topic right away without having to put in additional effort to identify your weaker areas.

You can check out GMATWhiz and go for its Verbal Prep Course.

Here’s a link to our free trial – https://learn.gmatwhiz.com/?page=signup

Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any queries.

You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.


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An error log to isolate where your gaps are (i.e. sub/verb) may be helpful. Consider working on solving approach as well.
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Go for Gmatwhiz for Verbal.
They cover all the topics comprehensively.