How to get from Q49, V31 to Q49, V40. Help needed

Question

Hi everyone, :panel

I just took my GMAT and got 49 on Quant but just 31 on Verbal

and i want to retake. I dont worry for Quant since my performance is stable (~48-50) as proved by both practice tests and real GMAT but my verbal sucks. During practicing i managed to get 38 once (my best so far) but i dont know how it happened so eventually i dont have any all time approach to tackling Verbal. Please, anyone with the similar problem and especially those who managed to solve it what would you recommend to me? (I am a non-native English speaker). What is the best strategy to go from V to V35-37? :???

P.S. I studied Verbal with 3 MGMT strategy guides. Thank you all very much in advance!!!

shovitdhar · Answer

Nice emoticons there.
You have just mentioned that you used the MGMAT Verbal Guides for tackling the Verbal section but haven't mentioned your strategy ? I have had the experience of scoring a dismal 28 on Verbal on my first attempt(although I had scored a 50 on the Quant section) .
Your story resembles pretty much like mine. I think what we forget sometimes is that we need to tackle the Verbal section very meticulously and be very clear with the concepts and then practice qualitatively and not quantitatively. So the focus should be on learning from each question, rather than on moving to the next one.
How confident were you on each of the three areas -SC,CR,RC and how did you prepare to tackle these areas specifically ?

daryayurlova · Answer

Well my strategy was to read all V MGMAT guides, do all the problem sets there and OG problems (though i still didn't learn how to take notes effectively (RC & CR) as it ate up a lot of time). I expected that all this studying would at least somehow help (well, it did for Q). Besides, I tried to read the Economist and even AAA but not too much. I did not spend more than three weeks on verbal in total because i thought Q was a priority for me. You know what surprises me the most is that the more i study the worse i get. For example, before i started preparing for GMAT my first V score was 35, then i studied a little and managed to get 41 on some lucky day. Then i started to study more, read everything carefully, think thoroughly and this resulted in a sharp drop of score (to 31). So i got 31 on exam as well. So now i tend to believe that i should not prepare for V at all. I am a bit confused in fact. My worst is CR, second worst is RC and SC is least troublesome (though still with mistakes). I want to retake the test but I dont know what to do in this month? Read Fitzerald? Buy CR Bible? I think the key is to achieve stability but how? In between, did you retook the test and raised your V or just planning? How did you prepare? P.S. Sorry just saw your post about raising score to 730! impressive! So maybe i should do the same :shock:

BM · Answer

This is a tricky situation. I believe, though, that the non-study option is probably not the best choice. Just take a short break from the GMAT and clear your mind. Once you feel rejuvinated, return to your studies!

You read the three MGMAT verbal guides, and those are good products. But did you fully absorb the concepts? I read MGMAT SC three times and Powerscore CR twice (in a sense) in order to feel comfortable with verbal. Just keep reading the verbal guides until you are totally comfortable with their content. For RC preparation, however, I found LSAT questions to be a good investment. Check out the LSAT SuperPrep; it has a good bit of RC and LR (CR) practice.

If you're feeling a tad desperate and truly didn't find some of the MGMAT books helpful, maybe look into the Powerscore LR Bible and Powerscore RC Bible. However, since you already have read some decent books on these subjects, this shouldn't be necessary. Still, it might be an option worth considering.

And try to read some GMAT Fiction. Finish at least one book a week until the test date approaches. This method helps, but in a very broad, subtle way.

And make sure that you adopt an active role in the GMATClub forums for question practice. Don't just simply answer the questions. Post your answer and defend it. Explain why your answer is correct and the others aren't. Even if this has already been accomplished by other members, put it in your own words. For OG or SuperPrep practice in general, read every single explanation completely - even the ones that you answer correctly. It's simply not enough to do the questions, look up the answer, and move on. Test takers need to completely know the ins and outs of them.

daryayurlova · Answer

Thanks a lot!! Yeah seems reasonable not to give up on studies so i will continue .. after short break

P.S. Just curious, do you ever take notes on RC or CR? How critical is it to do them?

BM · Answer

I personally never took notes, as it consumed too much time and felt distracting. However, many others find that notes help. Experiment with it and do whatever works for you.

shovitdhar · Answer

If CR is your Achilles' Heel, you must go through Powerscore CR Bible. You'll find it much better organized and you'll be able to understand the concepts better.

For RC,though most of the books and test prep companies suggest you to take notes but I agree with bmillan01 that to write down points is quite distracting and at least I didn't find it to be of much help.
Since I was practicing a lot of passages from RC99, I kept on implementing some of the strategies suggested on the RC forums on gmatclub and saw my accuracy improving to quite a great extent.Here are Two tips from my side

Firstly, keep on taking short breaks while reading a passage. And I found this tip especially helpful as I moved from the low difficulty passages to the medium difficulty and then to high difficulty level passages in the book.

Secondly, as bmillan01 suggested read as much as possible.
I think both the tips above should help.

Firstly, keep on taking short breaks while reading a passage. And I found this tip especially helpful as I moved from the low difficulty passages to the medium difficulty and then to high difficulty level passages in the book. Secondly, as bmillan01 suggested read as much as possible. I think both the tips above should help.

daryayurlova · Answer

Thanks!!! Will certainly read CR bible (already got two Aristotle books and started reading The Great Gatsby). So you suggest digesting passages in pieces. Are those breaks to improve comprehension: read - think - move? Or? :roll:

What do you think about skipping idea when you ignore all details and examples (for long passages)? I used to read every sentence even if i dont understand some terms or scientific details. About notes, i agree its distracting and time consuming - never worked for me. At least i am cool to know that i dont have to take them to be a top scorer.

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How to get from Q49, V31 to Q49, V40. Help needed

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