I would like to add or share my opinion, my thoughts about this.
To break the barrier of a decent (really) decent score in verbal section, as in quant, is not only a question of rules, practice, drill sets, mock tests and so, the list could be endless.
I remembered an article by Brian Galvin from Veritas prep: is not important how much you know but how you think, is not important how much question you did, is important what you learned and apply the concepts to a new task. is not important the past but how NOW you see odds angles to comes up with a solution; and not a simple solution but THE solution in the time allotted. Efficiently. Strategically. Like a razor edge. it is not simple, on the contrary, is quite difficult. The variables to take in account are so many...
That say, in my experience on the verbal section:
Critical reasoning: the best advice: try to pre-think the answer with a brief brain-storm and identify always the conclusion of the argument, working from outside to inside, from wrong choices to the right one.
Reading comprehension: Pre-think and use the stop strategy. After a single paragraph ask to yourself what is the author main point, the tone, the connection among the parts of the same.
read the entire passage, once: the most difficult passage are strictly related from the beginning until the end, in a consistent manner.
Major Takeaways: - Practice as possible with official material aka OG. is not important that you do 2 or three times the OG, is important to understand well each question before to move on the next.
- Gmat is a test for business schools, is an entrance test; is a test that is not structured for the students who score well at the end of the day, month, semester. The gmat tests on how you move BEFORE you move into the argument's sake. It is a test on how you can achive a certain result with the minimum effort and the maximum gain, leveraging and bringing to your advantage what you have.
- And last but not least: STAY MOTIVATED.