I can't do GMAT Verbal!!

There is one thing I have noticed with Verbal in GMAT. I am primarily a math-guy. Of course, not at least as good as Bunuel or many others over here but I can decently keep my score at a 47 minimum and strive to get to 50, if the day is right. Verbal used to stump me the same way as it does to you. During the first attempt a couple of months ago, I had struggled to get to a 35 in practise scores from as low as a 22. But I couldn't cross that 35 barrier. 35 was the best score I could make in one practise test. Q49 and V35 gave me a 690 once on GMAT-Prep, and that's it. That's the farthest I had gone ever.

After a debacle, I started to ponder upon what was wrong. Focus, is the most important factor for non-native speakers. In fact, it is important for any test taker because no matter how smart or intelligent a person could be, the trap in the question would be hiding right under the nose and no one might even spot it. Learn to focus for longer hours, focus on relevant or irrelevant, boring or interesting, any topic. Speed, is the second important factor. You should do it correctly and you should do it quickly. What ever it is that you are doing. Improve these skills first. Stay alert, never let your brain go numb.

Now comes the actual part. All questions are template based in GMAT. There are specific styles in which questions are prepared and posed. If you know the templates, know how to recognize them in the given questions and know how to get to the correct answer, that is all that is needed to achieve the score of your dreams. For CR, powerscore bible is good. For SC, MGMAT SC is perfect. For RC, this club is awesome.

Approach verbal questions like you approach a math problem. There are given elements and then there are unknowns, that you need to calculate and to get there, you need any extra information or implement some known formula etc etc. Verbal goes pretty much the same way. Trust me, just be on the look-out. I am sure you'll improve, you'd have to spend the required time for that.