How to improve Verbal in my Second Attempt of Gmat

Question

Hi Members,
I gave the GMAT last week and got a disappointing score of 560(Q48/V20). Prior to that I was averaging 620/630 in the mocks. I want a score of at least 700 in my 2nd attempt and I am going to give it 40 days from now (can't postpone it further due to some B school application deadline constraints). Some information for the members :
1. I prepared for past 3 months from Magoosh Premium Subscription and Practised questions from GMAT FORUM for past 1 month. 
2. I'm failing in Time Management in Verbal and Accuracy in SC. 
3. If giving more than 2.5mins per CR question, then attaining a good accuracy otherwise I end up ruining my Accuracy in CR also.
4. Any other guiding point for Quants to push the score for Q48 to maybe 49/50.

Kindly help me out with a better approach to proceed further and plan my next 40 days to extract the most out of it.
P.S. - I'm a working Professional in IT but I can still manage to spend at least 6 hours a day(which I know I have to) due to my shift timings. 
With Regards 
Divyansh Singh

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Consider using question/time markers for time management. Have suggested Manhattan-Prep's 6th Edition for SC and CR to students. For SC, memorizing commonly tested idioms may help boost that part a bit as well. Working on your solving approach may be useful as well. Had a 6-hour student who went from a v31 to a v40 in about 30 days. Perhaps work with a study buddy who is really strong on Verbal. If they need help with Quant, that could be a good fit.

SC Idiom list

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Divyansh.

Probably you can solve your time management issues along with your accuracy issues by doing untimed practice and prioritizing high accuracy until you're achieving the following accuracies, because the same skills that support high accuracy support speed.

E - 90%+
M - 90%+
H - 705+

For some other ideas on how to get faster in Verbal see this post.

How to Get Faster at GMAT Verbal

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Divyansh,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) Have you used any other study materials besides the course that you mentioned? 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)?
4) What Schools are you planning to apply to and what specific application deadlines are you facing?

If you took your Official GMAT at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]
www.empowergmat.com

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi simplydivs26,

1. If you'd like to work on your SC, you could use   this course  .

2. If you can bring your SC time down to 60-80 seconds (average), you may be able to spend more time on CR. Otherwise, try to bring your CR time down to the verbal average (a little less than 2 minutes).

3. Which practice tests have you taken? I recommend that you get all 6 official practice tests.

EducationAisle · Answer

You know...with a V20, I am pretty sure that SC is not your only problem.

Nevertheless, since you mention SC as your specific area of concern, thought I would mention that our sentence correction book  Sentence Correction Nirvana  is perhaps the  only  book that offers a score improvement  guarantee , and is especially designed for  non-native  speakers.

After reading the book  twice  (yes! it's an  academic  book, and so must be read twice in all seriousness, to  reinforce  the concepts), you will start looking forward to solving SC questions!

The book is available on  Flipkart  and  Amazon.in . You might want to refer to these sites, to also read testimonials of how readers have benefited.

You can als go thru  this post  on how  Soubhik ,  who scored  V51  (overall score 780) , vouches for our book.

If you want to  sample  a chapter before deciding to go ahead with our book, please PM me your mail-id (along with the chapter that you would like to sample) and I will be happy to send that chapter to you by mail. In addition, the entire Grammar section of the book is also available for free preview at  pothi .

	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

How to improve Verbal in my Second Attempt of Gmat

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards