How to improve from V34 to V37?

Question

Hi everyone, 
I really need some advice regarding Verbal. 
 GMATNinja   GMATNinjaTwo   ScottTargetTestPrep   generis   BillyZ  
Yesterday I completed an official mock N5 and got V34. I got 9 mistakes: 1 in SC, 3 in CR, and 5 in RC. I do not know why, but SC seemed easy.
My previous mock was a month ago and I got V29.
On the real exam, which is in 3 weeks, I definitely need at least V37 to get 700, as I usually get around 48-49 in Quant. 
I have already done a lot: 
1) As I am a non-native speaker, I am reading news on a daily basis from Harvard Business Review, the Economist, Bloomberg, and e.t.c. 
2) I have completed the whole TTP Verbal course, with the exception of some topics in CR with an accuracy of 75-80%. 
3) I have done all the questions from both OG and Verbal review several times 
4) I review my error log regularly. 
5) I have read many success stories and gmat-club threads on how to improve Verbal. 
I have been devoting 3-4 hours to gmat each day for 2,5 months.

What difficulties do I have in Verbal?

I think my weaker points are RC and SC. Everything is pretty fine with CR.

Talking about RC, I definitely have problems with speed and comprehension. Sometimes I do not understand some difficult words from 700+ RCs, what really affects my timing as I spend a lot of time understanding words from the context.
For example, in the middle (14-17 questions) of the latest mock (V34) appeared this text: "The ultimate pendulum clock, indeed the ultimate mechanical clock of any kind, was invented by a British engineer, William Shortt" Unfortunately, I am not allowed to add URLs(
I got only 2/4 correct, but it took a huge amount of time, with the result that I had to skip 35-36 questions at the end, which I could have done correctly because they were from not really difficult RC. 
There are some more texts that are too hard for me (in the comments):
1) "Winter's V doctrine"
2) "In current historiography, the picture of a consistent, unequivocal decline in women’s status"

The rest of the texts are ok for me but sometimes take too much time. I generally do not have problems with medium-level texts!
 According to my peers who have already passed the exam, texts are more difficult in the real gmat, which really frightens me. Moreover, I comprehend worse under moral pressure. No to mention, despite the fact that my friends scored constantly around V40 on mocks, each of them got V37-38 on the real exam - one more stressor.

As far as SC is concerned, I am 100% sure that I know the majority of rules well, and, of course, the exceptions, which I always revise. Thanks to the TTP SC course. But I have difficulties with idioms (there are some questions that can not be done if you do not know an idiom) + there are sometimes very ridiculous exceptions to the rules that are impossible to predict. I would like to highlight that  I always pay huge attention to the meaning  of each sentence, but some hard SCs seem to ignore the rules! I do not know what to do with such debatable SCs, as rules do not work here.
Let me provide you with some examples that confuse me a lot:
1) "Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success"
2) "Technically, "quicksand" is the term for sand that is so saturated with water as to acquire a liquid's character."
And the only SC that was incorrect in my latest mock (especially in mock n5 SCs were relatively easy):
"By the same techniques used for genetically enhancing plants, making them disease- or pest-resistant, researchers have been able to increase the amount of protein in potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tobacco."

Taking into account this data, I would be glad to hear what to do best in these 3 weeks to have an increase from my demo V34 to the real V37? Should I start doing LSAT questions to improve RCs?
I really do not what to do, as I have already scanned a lot of reputable sources... 
Thank you all!!

JamesFranco · Answer

How to improve from V34 to V37?

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi imangulov.

Nice work so far. Now, you have just three more points to go.

One move you can make is to keep practicing CR untimed and shoot for even higher accuracy. The more you practice by analyzing CR questions choice by choice, the faster at answering CR questions you'll become. So, take your time and stick with each CR practice question until you first fully understand the passage, then fully understand the question, and finally fully understand the relationship between the each choice and the passage, and shoot for close to 100 percent accuracy and streaks of at least 15 correct in a row.

You could also keep practicing SC in a simlar manner to get faster in SC.

Meanwhile, to speed up in RC, consider how you read the passages and try reading for overall understanding with the idea that you'll go back to the passages for the details so that you don't get bogged down in details as you read the passages.

Finally, the truth is that upping your intensity when you take the test can be good for a handful of points in verbal. So, see what you can do just by being even more careful and intense when you take the test. You may find that, just by being more intense and careful, you hit your score goal.

For some more ideas on how to increase your verbal score, see this post.  How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

JamesFranco · Answer

MartyTargetTestPrep 
Thank you so much.
 I will do my best!

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Hi, imangulov

Based on the three sentences you provided, it looks to me like modifiers and idioms are probably tough for you. That makes sense--especially idioms.

For modifiers, play very close to where the 'description' is, and where the thing it's supposed to logically describe is. For example "later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success." The descriptor 'later,' which is logically meant to describe WHEN ELIZABETH WAS OVERSHADOWED, seems to be describing Elizabeth herself. That doesn't make sense (What is a 'later person?') It's easy to overlook modifier mistakes because we interpret the sentence so that it makes sense, even if the sentence itself--per the rules of structure and grammar--doesn't actually make sense. This is in my opinion one of the hardest SC skills to master!

For RC, you mention you get tangled up by some of the words you don't know, but try to remember those words don't actually matter. I use a paragraph similar to the one below to introduce RC to my students:

The actual topic is of course meaningless gibberish, but you can use the words you DO know to determine the logical ideas being constructed. Words like 'more' 'because' 'generated' 'however' 'unusually high' 'nullify.'

Pay close attention to those words to build a logical map of the passage.

Another thing to really, really remember (for the entire test, not just verbal) is that your goal when a question appears in front of you is NOT "Get this question right." Your goal is to use time wisely. You must understand--you will miss several questions on the test, guaranteed. It's in the very design of the test to do so! So you might determine that a particularly gnarly passage is not worth *full* time investment. You might read for very high level and make a few quick educated guesses and save the time for later (also a fun fact--almost always, 1 of the 4 passages on the section will be experimental, so skipping it won't hurt your score at all).

The other thing to consider is that a 37 is not terribly far from a 34. It's possible that on a good day you can already get a 37 (I know you mentioned your friends' scores went down in verbal on the official test, but trust me--I've seen MANY students get higher scores on the real test!)

JamesFranco · Answer

ReedArnoldMPREP

Thank you for your answer so much.
I will revise modifiers for sure and pay more attention. But what to do with idioms? 
In fact, I have watched several times your absolutely legendary youtube video "an expert takes verbal" and you made a brilliant analysis of each answer choice, but sometimes you eliminated choices because being an English-speaking person you "felt" that it was incorrect. I do not have this "common sense" regarding idioms, even though I read in English a lot. 
Talking about RCs, you are absolutely right. I will focus on strategy and practice more LSAT texts as I have run out of OG. 
Thank you!

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Idioms are very challenging for this reason. Fortunately, we have reason to think the GMAT is using them less frequently (precisely because non-native speakers have such a disadvantage with them). There is a chapter on common idioms in "All The Verbal" you could use to make flashcards!

And glad you enjoyed the 'Twitch the GMAT' video. But you're right--in the heat of the moment, at some point you *do* have to just guess with your intuition (note that there are times in that video when my reasoning is actually NOT THAT GOOD! A huge reason I did that video was to show 'experts make mistakes too').

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

I think my weaker points are RC and SC. 3 RC Tips: https://www.gmatknight.com/post/3-readi ... gmat-tutor

JamesFranco · Answer

ReedArnoldMPREP

Thank you again, I will learn these idioms, but, at the end of the day, I do not need a "crazy elite" score so probably I will not see many idiomatic questions. Am I right?

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Yeah, idioms are pretty low priority! And again--we suspect the GMAT is not testing them now as often as they used to, so they're overrepresented in older questions.

How to improve from V34 to V37?

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