Strategies to improve V32 to V42 in 1.5 Months?

Question

Hello fellow GMAT folks! I need some advice!

I took my first GMATPrep practice test today and scored a disappointing 620 Q(44) and V(32). I struggled with time on both Quant and Verbal and had to guess at the end - hopefully this will get better with more practice. That said, I know I need to focus on improving my Verbal score because when I took the test in 2012, all six of my practice CATs (MGMAT) all had a verbal score hovering between 30-35. I am having a hard time getting out of this range and I would love some strategies to help me bring this score up to 42. FYI I am a native speaker.

Over the past three months I've read all of the MGMAT guides (SC, RC, and CR) and done all of the OG problems listed in the back of those books. I've also re-done all of the problems I've missed. Unfortunately, the GMATPrep Verbal section seemed WAY harder than what I have been reviewing in the MGMAT and OG books. I know I can focus on re-doing OG problems and timing myself, but does anyone have other suggestions or materials they would recommend for practice? I don't want to keep doing the same problems over and over again because I'm starting to remember the right answers from before, rather than having to think really hard about them.

Also, would it be smart to try and take a practice test every week to get a better feel for the timing? Or is that overkill?

Thanks for the help!

dansa · Answer

First you should find out your week areas. is it Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning or Sentence Correcting. Depending on that i would work on it. There are a lot of good resources to help you improve your reading for reading comprehension. Like the economist or scientific American. I had almost the same score as you had in the practise test and I know focus on reading sophisticated articles. When I did the GMAT Club Verbal Test I reached 96%, although I think it was way easier than the one in official GMAT.

milly · Answer

go on gmat pill, there a re plenty of questions you can try to answer. Also try the Cats test of the GMAT Club

luckyducky7 · Answer

Thanks for the tips! I just reviewed the test and it looks like my areas of weakness are pretty consistent. I missed 8 SC, 4 CR, and 5 RC (mostly because I missed the entire last RC because I was out of time). What's the best way to overcome the timing battle?

plumber250 · Answer

Hi Lmarie,

Taking aside everything else, i thought the most pertinent thing to deal with is timing. If you are guessing 5 questions you'll never get close to V40, so unless you solve that everything else is pointless...

To sort GMAT timing, it is all about tactics. You can not simple read every word of every question in detail and get it sorted, so simple practice won't work. You need to suss out how to play the game that is GMAT.

The game needs to be split in 2:

1) SC. Here you do need to read every word carefully (that is the point!). But the key thing you should work out early (from reading the different options), is 'what are they asking here. Then you can quickly focus on the key differences (e.g. which tense should this verb be in) and ignore the fluff. To do this you need an iron clad knowledge of the 7-10 different question types

2) RC/CR. Here you can't read it all. You need to work out a way of getting key info. this is largely a personal thing, but for me on RC, it was simply reading first sentence of every paragraph and skimming the rest. For CR it was reading the question statement first (i.e. which of the following....) and then the passage quickly.

I can recommend GMAT Pill for someone like you, it's at a great level for you and really helps nail those final few points. It is definitely what got me from 700-770

James

luckyducky7 · Answer

Thanks plumber250 and milly. I am a little curious about GMAT Pill and am thinking about getting the SC if my "guess and move on strategy" doesn't improve my score on my next practice test. I'm nervous to switch gears to focus on re-learning strategies that I've already gone through using MGMAT. Does anyone have experiences similar to mine where they just focused on 1-2 of the Verbal "pills?" I've only seen great reviews about GMAT Pill but does anyone have any qualms about it?

plumber250 · Answer

Hi -

This will be a short email. If you are relying on 'guess and move on' you won't hit V42.

It's a really good score V42, and your competition is going to be very very good. They won't be guessing.

I understand the issue with re-learning, so maybe first look at what you don't get from MGMAT, but if you've exhausted that and can't improve - then you've got to look elsewhere...

James

luckyducky7 · Answer

Thanks James - you're definitely right. I'm interested in GMAT Pill. The website says I need OG13 - I have OG12. Will that suffice?

plumber250 · Answer

Hi - Given the overall expenditure in the process - I'd spend the extra $20.

There is a way of comparing OG12 and OG13 questions - it's on the forum, but it's a waste of time.

Spend the money..

luckyducky7 · Answer

After studying verbal ALL week (mainly just practicing problems and working through what I missed) I took the GMAT Free Verbal test and scored a 39.

dansa - I know you said you thought this one was way easier than the real GMAT. Does anyone else have this feeling?

I'm planning on taking my second practice test tomorrow (MGMAT) and am REALLY hoping my score goes up through my focus of verbal this week

luckyducky7 · Answer

Just wanted to post a quick update to this thread. I just did a re-take of the GMATPrep 1 and got a 710! Q47 V40. I didn't get too many repeats on the verbal (maybe 1-2) but missed mostly SC as I was focused on CR and RC the past 2 weeks. I definitely recommend GMAT pill for SC and RC strategy! Hopefully I can get up to V42 and really solidify a better score 3 weeks from now

luckyducky7 · Answer

Update: I took the real test yesterday and am pretty devastated at my result: 600 Q37 and V35. The quant drop was a big surprise however verbal also dropped from the 38-40 I was getting on my practice tests. SC was much tougher than expected.

In terms of verbal, are there any recs for practice materials (SC and CR) after I've exhausted OG and GMAT Pill? Thanks!

In terms of verbal, are there any recs for practice materials (SC and CR) after I've exhausted OG and GMAT Pill? Thanks!

AjMBA · Answer

A tip from my experience. For SCs, I found it really helpful to follow the MGMAT(i think it was them) strategy of creating splits among the answers. You basically group similar answers together and that allows you to eliminate more than one at a time.

When I followed this method, I usually got down to 2 answers(one of which was almost always the correct one) and then was able to chose accordingly. You won't remember all the SC rules, but for those that you do, and the ones that you spot easily, the splits can help with.

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