"Strategies for Improving GMAT Verbal Score: Tips for Effective Prepar

Question

Hi everyone,
I’ve decided to take the GMAT exam in March and plan to start my preparation now. Generally, I’m good at studies, especially in math. However, when I attempted the official diagnostic test, I only scored  415  (FE). My section-wise scores were:
 
 Quant:  80  
 Verbal:  66  
 Integrated Reasoning:  65   
I’m feeling a bit disheartened as my goal is to achieve a score of around  700 . I know verbal is my weak area, and I’m a bit confused about how to approach it effectively.
Can anyone guide me or share tips to improve my preparation strategy, especially for the verbal section?
Thank you!

KarishmaB · Answer

It will be a good idea for you to go through an entire curriculum to ensure that you do not miss anything since you are starting from 415. 
Your quant score is certainly decent and the syllabus is maximum for Quant. So you can run through it at a speed comfortable to you but you should ensure that you take a look at everything. Since your Quant is already good, your DI will improve quickly too once you start working on it.

pintukr · Answer

Attempting various difficulty level questions using Forum Quiz would surely benefit. Please don't forget to go through the experts' explanations.

All the Best.

Themightyknight · Answer

705+ in GMAT FE is 100percentile
for this u need at least 6months from ua strng score of 415

better try out  ttp  ,  egmat  for organised plan

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi sunnysanathreddy,

To increase your verbal score, you have to go through GMAT verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to find weaker areas, learn all about how to answer questions of types that you aren't that comfortable with now, and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving your score up point by point.

For example, assume you begin studying Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why you didn't get it right. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you would have had to know in order to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

Regarding RC, when students get those questions wrong, it’s partly because they don't truly understand what they have just read. To understand what you are reading, you may have to slow down even more (for now) in order to eventually speed up. You have to learn to comprehend what you read, keep it all straight, and use what you are reading to arrive at correct answers.

At this point, your best bet is to focus on getting the correct answers to questions, taking **as much time as you need** to see key details and understand the logic of what you are reading. If you don't understand something, go back and read it one sentence at a time, even one word at a time, not moving on until you understand what you have just read. There is no way around this work. Your goal should be to take all the time you need to understand exactly what is being said and arrive at the correct answer. If you can learn to get answers taking your time, you can learn to speed up. Answering questions is like any task: The more times you do it carefully and successfully, the faster you become at doing it carefully and successfully.

Another component to understanding what you are reading is being “present” when reading. Don’t worry about how things are going at work, or what you will eat for dinner, or even how long you’re taking to read through the passage. Just focus on what is in front of you, word by word, line by line. Furthermore, try to make reading fun. For example, even if you are reading about a topic that bores you, pretend that you are the person making the argument. By doing so, you will make the passage more relatable to YOU, and ultimately you should be able to read with greater focus.

One final component of Reading Comprehension that may be tripping you up is that RC questions contain one or more trap answers that seem to answer the question but don't really. So, a key part of training to correctly answer RC questions is learning to notice the differences between trap answers and correct answers. You have to learn to see how trap answers seem to follow from what the passages say, but don't really, while correct answers fit what the passages say exactly. Of course, the better you become at noticing the differences between trap answer choices and correct answers, the faster you will answer RC questions.

Here is also a great article that you can check out:

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal on the Focus Edition

"Strategies for Improving GMAT Verbal Score: Tips for Effective Prepar

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