Reading to improve verbal score

We assist a lot of non-native speakers around the world. Our Manhattan Review Turbocharge Your GMAT verbal book has a section for GMAT vocabulary. Our math book has a glossary of all math terms. Many of our non-US students have found them very useful. If you visit our Web site at https://www.ManhattanReview.com, you can download GMAT Sentence Correction Guide for free.

Sentence Correction - You don't need to learn a lot of vocabulary there. Just make sure you get the sentence structure elements right and know all the rules and error types. This is the area you can improve fastest without memorizing new words.

However, Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension are the two areas that require inherent skill sets and knowledge. There are limited shortcuts. You need to find the best way you can read fast and comprehend accurately. Locate a LSAT book and do the Critical Reasoning problems from there. They are harder than the GMAT. It will be a good practice. You need to read editorial columns of a top English newspaper on a daily basis to improve your Reading Comprehension.

Private tutoring will be helpful. We have seen our students improved over 1 month's period. Manhattan Review does have tutoring services that can be tailored to your individual needs and that are relatively inexpensive. It can be in-person or online. If you're interested, give us a call at the number in our sig below or just private message us.

If you're not looking for tutoring, our self-study package or our online library is also a good, inexpensive option for extra prep.

Hope this helps!

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I'm gonna recommend something different.

I suggest that you read articles about economics or science from your favorite magazines. Do so as if it were a GMAT passage, so follow whatever technique you use to read actively. My advice here would be that you read looking for the structure of the article, don't waste time trying to understand everything in the passage. You just need to get the general picture. Once you have read the article, extract the main idea and the purpose. Remember that, in principle, you read the passage to answer general questions.

Increasing your vocabulary will definitely help you so don't stop doing so. Write down the words you don't understand and phrases in which they are used to provide context. You might want to create flashcards and review them as frequently as possible.

Hi!

While I don't have as much experience in terms of non-native speakers working on reading comprehension, I would agree with mikeCoolBoy on this one. What we suggest for our students who want more practice than what they can get in the OG guides is to read scientific magazines. In the forum thread here: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/how ... t9175.html , Stacey Koprince, one of our instructors lists several good places to find articles that are similar in tone to the ones you'll find on the GMAT. These include:

https://magazine.uchicago.edu/ - particularly articles in the "Investigations" tab
https://harvardmagazine.com/
https://sciam.com/ (This can get a bit too casual for the GMAT, but it's probably worth including because so many people get freaked out by science passages on the GMAT.)

To this list, I have also heard our instructors add the Economist, though a subscription to that can be pricey.

While I think that for a non-native speaker, building vocabulary is important, I would also urge you not to focus on that too much. A lot of RC passages intentionally put in big words that you don't really need to know in order to answer the questions they ask. It is more important to be able to grasp the meaning, and to know how to dissect each passage so you can refer back to the correct part of the passage quickly when answering questions.

If you haven't already, you might also think about getting a book. I know another test prep company posted some options, and I'd like to add that we also carry a Reading Comprehension book (you can read the description here: https://www.manhattangmat.com/storeitems ... 25&catid=6 )

I hope you find this information helpful!

Best Wishes,
Caitlin Clay
Student Services Associate
Manhattan GMAT