The best strategy to improve VERBAL

Hi cfsanchez.

I've seen non-native speakers score in the mid to upper 40's in verbal. How did they do so, even though not in every case was their English great?

They realized that scoring high on GMAT verbal is not only about understanding English but also about being very careful, noticing key details, and using logic effectively.

With that in mind, here's the key to driving up your verbal score.

You have to go through dozens of verbal questions and learn to CLEARLY and THOROUGHLY define why each wrong answer is wrong and each right answer is right. When I say "thoroughly," I mean go well beyond using gimmicky reasons like "irrelevant," "too extreme," or "awkward." You need to come up with well developed, logical reasons for eliminating or choosing choices.

For example, in answering a Weaken question, you would not simply call an answer choice "irrelevant." You would carefully analyze the relationship between the answer choice and the passage and come up with a more complete reason for eliminating it, such as, "This choice weakens the wrong conclusion," or "This choice does not attack the relationship between the premises and the conclusion, but rather seems to attack but does not successfully attack one of the premises."

It may take 20 minutes, or more, per question to analyze them in this way at first, but being skilled in this type of analysis is the only way to score high in verbal. Less sophisticated analysis gets people lower scores, as you have experienced. So, you need to practice analyzing questions in this way, even questions that you have already seen, and take your time, seeking to speed up by developing skill.

Also, practice being careful enough to get almost all verbal questions right. See how many you can get right in a row.

It can take a fair amount of work to move a verbal score higher. So, be ready to analyze a lot of questions, do a lot of practicing, and really develop yourself.