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Preface
I'd like to preface this brief debrief (edit: not brief at all, rambling to follow) by saying that I'm a native speaker and I'm fully aware that the vast majority (though not all) of you have more issues with the verbal than with the quant; for me it's the opposite. I think that that was important to mention in case you saw "V46" and thought a kindred spirit would have excellent and relevant advice. I'll offer up what I can and hope it helps in some way but honestly I was getting around high 30's before any kind of studying for verbal so please remember that when I say what worked for me.
I also plan on retaking the test as many of my mocks were in the mid to high 700's so the 710 was actually a bit of a letdown and because the quant in particular was so low I feel a retake is necessary.
Materials
Strategy
I did entirely self-prep (discounting last minute tutor for the sake of argument). I also don't consider GMAT Pill a course though it technically is, I used it more on demand after awhile like brush ups on concepts. I think of a course as a more structured schedule but I suppose it's debatable.
The NUMBER ONE THING, I can recommend for those of you who choose the self-prep route is that you create a schedule and stick to it. I wasted months being lackadaisical in my approach and before long I realized that I hadn't actually learned a single thing. That said it was a benefit that I was reading and working problems, even on and off, as it started to train my mind and ear towards the way the GMAT prefers things to be written (which is particularly helpful for SC and CR in my opinion).
After creating a schedule, I built from the ground up. "What's my weakness, geometry, I'll work on that", a couple weeks later moved on "number properties, alright I'll work on that". That got me to Q40 and that's the purgatory I've been in essentially but if you keep strengthening your weaknesses (don't neglect strengths though) eventually the weakest link isn't all that weak.
Be sure to take full length practice CATs fairly frequently. I took several a week for a couple weeks leading up to the test. This is crucial for verbal! I say that because it is so hard to give enough focus and attention to the CR and RC if you're mentally exhausted by the end of the test. You should experiment doing an RC passage at 1:00am and then in the middle of the day. I doubt you'll even do that because we both know what that will look like and it's very similar to what the difference is between no test stamina and plenty of it by the time you're reading scientific passages in hour 3 of the GMAT
Verbal Tips
People appreciate Sentence Correction the most as it's the easiest to improve and I completely get that. I have a tremendous advantage being a native speaker in regards to the CR and RC to the point where all I really needed to do was practice a good bit.
For CR and RC I suggest you bullet point it for yourself. For me I can read through and get a good idea but for CR in particular I definitely benefit from making a note (mental or written) of the essence of what's being said. The wording almost always indicates what the argument boils down to and you can focus on that one component. If the question asks what weakens the conclusion above, well then what's the conclusion? It's basically if you were to ask whoever said the argument "what's the point of your argument?" and then you find what it is that they would choose to reiterate. Often it will be after an example or statistic and then followed by "thus" or "so" and then a suggested course of action or clear conclusion off of this "evidence". RC in particular is where I can't offer much advice. I read a lot, come from a very well-spoken family, and have a natural affinity for literature - so I just read through the passage and then refer back to it as the questions necessitate.
For SC, you don't need to learn a thousand idioms (obviously it's helpful if you can and have the time but the ROI isn't great). You can get by with simply learning a handful of the more common idioms if you focus on sentence meaning and specific purpose of individual words and phrases (what precisely is it that the sentence is trying to describe, or what exactly is being compared).
The main improvement I have been able to have is through critical analysis of the sentence in different sections and then also the sentence as a whole. Here are 2 quick fairly simple questions without the answers just to illustrate the first thing I think of when I see a sentence:
"Unlike the conviction held by many of his contemporaries, including fellow astronomers, that the Earth was flat and still, Galileo stuck to his own theories about how the Earth was a round globe moving about space, and now many years later, we know that Galileo was correct."
Immediately I see "Unlike the conviction".... let's ignore the rest of the sentence until we finish this thought. If you see a comparison being made you can essentially read the sentence as "blah blah blah" until you get to the comparison so you can nail down what exactly the comparison is between. Scanning through we get to "Galileo" which comes after the comma. I read 4 words and I know that A is wrong because you can't compare a specific person to an intangible idea like a "conviction". This type of illogical comparison is very frequent in SC
"The pattern of whisker spots on the face of a male lion, like human fingerprints, are a lifelong means of identification, since they are both unique and unchanging."
The comparison noted previously isn't an issue here, however I see "The pattern.......are". The GMAT loves to try and distract you from linked parts of the sentence. Pattern is singular. Don't let the GMAT divert your attention by the plurality of "spots" and "fingerprints" from the crucial components that are really being tested as it tries to do so often. Should read "The pattern....is".
My Testing experience, There Will Be Blood
I have actually taken the test previously and scored a 650 (39Q 41V) but I cancelled it immediately and it all started with me going to the wrong test center (I rescheduled and forgot I changed the location so all self-inflicted I'm afraid). THIS TIME, was not much better.
I woke up in the middle of the night and early AM sweating because of a heat wave and we did not turn up the air conditioning in anticipation so bit of a rough night before the test that included dreams of me melting into the bed (I do not recommend this approach). Final time in morning I woke up, went to the gym, shot a basketball for awhile, and did some cardio. Then I went home and ate some cold smoked salmon that was wonderful. Left for my 12:45 test and arrived to the correct test center, checked in, did the AWA and IR (man I hate this section, sometimes I get a 2 sometimes a 6 and the questions are very tedious). This is where things start to get really enjoyable. I started my break and raised my hand to leave and the check-in lady (very nice woman by the way) was slower than a glacier when it came to getting around to letting me check out and I had lost 2 minutes before I even got to my locker for a snack. Same thing happened on way back (and for verbal) and I started the quant section 2 minutes late, made me anxious for the entire first half of the quant and then again somewhat for verbal.
I highly recommend if you have time to spare don't simply advance to your break. I used whatever minutes I had to write what I remembered from my self-written cheat sheet down for reference, rest my eyes a bit, and also later on gauge when the woman at the desk would be available to check me out so that I wouldn't lose that time for my break.
I hit a few problems I've done before but simply could not for the life of me remember how to do them (part exhaustion, part excitement from starting late, part poor quant knowledge). Well a circle question finally pops up, and I guess my brain was in overdrive because my upper lip starts to get kind of cold. The cold starts spilling over my lips when I realize, "oh.. oh no... my nose is bleeding". Yup, in the middle of the test my nose just started bleeding. Basically I had to use my hands until Mrs. Arctic Glacier eventually makes it to me with some tissues and then damage control sets in. That lasts a minute or two, and at this point there's blood on my face, the desk, my pad, and on the mouse for the computer (I kept working the problem like a champ until she got to me with the tissues). During my last break I convinced them to let me spend my break cleaning up the mess because I felt so badly about it. I don't have any kind of diseases or anything but for the sake of sanitation I felt awful.
Because of the the wrong test center experience the first time, my tutor just laughed at my face when I told him what happened this time.
For the verbal section there were a few moments that were dicey 50/50 questions but I suppose I got lucky on a few guesses otherwise it wouldn't have been a 46.
Conclusion
So that's my experience, I apologize for the length of my writing I get very carried away sometimes. If you have any questions please ask as I'll be on the forum frequently these next few weeks as I prepare for my retake and if there's anything I can do to help you or explain something I'd love to do so.
Also, I hate to be a beggar but not enough to not do it. If you found this informative/helpful/beneficial I'd really appreciate a kudos here or there so that I might earn enough to use the GMATClub tests a bit before my next retake.
Best of luck in your studies all! I sincerely hope you all score to the best of your abilities whatever that may be.
I'd like to preface this brief debrief (edit: not brief at all, rambling to follow) by saying that I'm a native speaker and I'm fully aware that the vast majority (though not all) of you have more issues with the verbal than with the quant; for me it's the opposite. I think that that was important to mention in case you saw "V46" and thought a kindred spirit would have excellent and relevant advice. I'll offer up what I can and hope it helps in some way but honestly I was getting around high 30's before any kind of studying for verbal so please remember that when I say what worked for me.
I also plan on retaking the test as many of my mocks were in the mid to high 700's so the 710 was actually a bit of a letdown and because the quant in particular was so low I feel a retake is necessary.
Materials
- Official Guide 13
- Not much to say, can't imagine you'll find many people who think the OG isn't worth the money or a necessary component of study. - Official Quant Review 2016
- You may have heard some people mention the importance of working on official problems, I wouldn't say I agree wholeheartedly because the problems I faced on the actual GMAT weren't all too similar to problems I've seen before and I've now done hundreds of official problems. THAT SAID, it is definitely beneficial to work loads of these problems because it (as GMAC likes to say) puts you in the mind of the test-makers. You start to get a sense of what the trick they're hoping you fall for might be. From what I've read I'm also a bit of an outlier with my actual GMAT problems being more difficult (in my opinion) to what I've seen in the OG or Quant review. So take my opinion with a serious skepticism. - GMAT Pill Course (gmatpill.com)
- I feel the math might be adequate for some of you but for those of us needing the basics, GMAT Pill's math is far more useful as a supplement to a course rather than as a course itself. That said I really enjoyed the SC series (and verbal in general) as it does a great job getting you in the right mindset and breaking down the majority (though not all) of what you'll see and how the GMAT expects you to answer. In regards to E-GMAT I personally struggled with the instructors accent for whatever reason but have heard fantastic things about their verbal as well. From my understanding both Pill and E-GMAT offer some form of try-before-you-buy so I recommend you investigate as both are great for verbal. - Manhattan Number Properties & Geometry books
- If you're reading a debrief on gmatclub.com than you've probably already heard of these books and I agree with all the reviews these are a fantastic resource for the price and even just one book comes with 6 practice CATs online. No offense to Bunuel and his math explanations, but Manhattan does a fantastic job breaking the math down verbally so that you can follow the reasoning that way if the math processes are too difficult for you to follow. - Tutoring
- I was stuck at around 39Q for weeks and weeks and it got to the point that I enlisted a tutor to work with. As you can see by my Q42 it wasn't truly eye-opening but I definitely got something out of going over problems with a tutor and I have even scored a Q47 at one point in a mock so was hoping for a 44-46 on test day. - Online Resources
- GMATClub first and foremost. I recommend you just stalk Bunuel like a madman following his posts and click literally anything he has in his forum signature including the GMATClub mathbook. I glanced over it initially but now that I'll be retaking in 4-6 weeks I'll absolutely be diving right into it. Also If you come across any good question like official guide, quant review, manhattan, veritas, etc., I highly recommend you google "site:gmatclub.com ______" and fill the blank with the question. There will almost certainly be a couple threads of discussion on that question with excellent answers and you'll start to love some of the regular posters; shout out to VertiasPrepKarishma, PareshGmat, and of course the moderators like Bunuel, all of you have been a tremendous resource for me (Bunuel's explanations are a little over my head sometimes but he has posted a great explanation for every question on the planet it's incredible).
- Veritas' youtube series on SC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8YVymgVTcg). Free and great.
- GMAT Quantum OG explanations (https://www.gmatquantum.com/og13th/) and Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/) for brushing up on simple math concepts
Strategy
I did entirely self-prep (discounting last minute tutor for the sake of argument). I also don't consider GMAT Pill a course though it technically is, I used it more on demand after awhile like brush ups on concepts. I think of a course as a more structured schedule but I suppose it's debatable.
The NUMBER ONE THING, I can recommend for those of you who choose the self-prep route is that you create a schedule and stick to it. I wasted months being lackadaisical in my approach and before long I realized that I hadn't actually learned a single thing. That said it was a benefit that I was reading and working problems, even on and off, as it started to train my mind and ear towards the way the GMAT prefers things to be written (which is particularly helpful for SC and CR in my opinion).
After creating a schedule, I built from the ground up. "What's my weakness, geometry, I'll work on that", a couple weeks later moved on "number properties, alright I'll work on that". That got me to Q40 and that's the purgatory I've been in essentially but if you keep strengthening your weaknesses (don't neglect strengths though) eventually the weakest link isn't all that weak.
Be sure to take full length practice CATs fairly frequently. I took several a week for a couple weeks leading up to the test. This is crucial for verbal! I say that because it is so hard to give enough focus and attention to the CR and RC if you're mentally exhausted by the end of the test. You should experiment doing an RC passage at 1:00am and then in the middle of the day. I doubt you'll even do that because we both know what that will look like and it's very similar to what the difference is between no test stamina and plenty of it by the time you're reading scientific passages in hour 3 of the GMAT
Verbal Tips
People appreciate Sentence Correction the most as it's the easiest to improve and I completely get that. I have a tremendous advantage being a native speaker in regards to the CR and RC to the point where all I really needed to do was practice a good bit.
For CR and RC I suggest you bullet point it for yourself. For me I can read through and get a good idea but for CR in particular I definitely benefit from making a note (mental or written) of the essence of what's being said. The wording almost always indicates what the argument boils down to and you can focus on that one component. If the question asks what weakens the conclusion above, well then what's the conclusion? It's basically if you were to ask whoever said the argument "what's the point of your argument?" and then you find what it is that they would choose to reiterate. Often it will be after an example or statistic and then followed by "thus" or "so" and then a suggested course of action or clear conclusion off of this "evidence". RC in particular is where I can't offer much advice. I read a lot, come from a very well-spoken family, and have a natural affinity for literature - so I just read through the passage and then refer back to it as the questions necessitate.
For SC, you don't need to learn a thousand idioms (obviously it's helpful if you can and have the time but the ROI isn't great). You can get by with simply learning a handful of the more common idioms if you focus on sentence meaning and specific purpose of individual words and phrases (what precisely is it that the sentence is trying to describe, or what exactly is being compared).
The main improvement I have been able to have is through critical analysis of the sentence in different sections and then also the sentence as a whole. Here are 2 quick fairly simple questions without the answers just to illustrate the first thing I think of when I see a sentence:
"Unlike the conviction held by many of his contemporaries, including fellow astronomers, that the Earth was flat and still, Galileo stuck to his own theories about how the Earth was a round globe moving about space, and now many years later, we know that Galileo was correct."
Immediately I see "Unlike the conviction".... let's ignore the rest of the sentence until we finish this thought. If you see a comparison being made you can essentially read the sentence as "blah blah blah" until you get to the comparison so you can nail down what exactly the comparison is between. Scanning through we get to "Galileo" which comes after the comma. I read 4 words and I know that A is wrong because you can't compare a specific person to an intangible idea like a "conviction". This type of illogical comparison is very frequent in SC
"The pattern of whisker spots on the face of a male lion, like human fingerprints, are a lifelong means of identification, since they are both unique and unchanging."
The comparison noted previously isn't an issue here, however I see "The pattern.......are". The GMAT loves to try and distract you from linked parts of the sentence. Pattern is singular. Don't let the GMAT divert your attention by the plurality of "spots" and "fingerprints" from the crucial components that are really being tested as it tries to do so often. Should read "The pattern....is".
My Testing experience, There Will Be Blood
I have actually taken the test previously and scored a 650 (39Q 41V) but I cancelled it immediately and it all started with me going to the wrong test center (I rescheduled and forgot I changed the location so all self-inflicted I'm afraid). THIS TIME, was not much better.
I woke up in the middle of the night and early AM sweating because of a heat wave and we did not turn up the air conditioning in anticipation so bit of a rough night before the test that included dreams of me melting into the bed (I do not recommend this approach). Final time in morning I woke up, went to the gym, shot a basketball for awhile, and did some cardio. Then I went home and ate some cold smoked salmon that was wonderful. Left for my 12:45 test and arrived to the correct test center, checked in, did the AWA and IR (man I hate this section, sometimes I get a 2 sometimes a 6 and the questions are very tedious). This is where things start to get really enjoyable. I started my break and raised my hand to leave and the check-in lady (very nice woman by the way) was slower than a glacier when it came to getting around to letting me check out and I had lost 2 minutes before I even got to my locker for a snack. Same thing happened on way back (and for verbal) and I started the quant section 2 minutes late, made me anxious for the entire first half of the quant and then again somewhat for verbal.
I highly recommend if you have time to spare don't simply advance to your break. I used whatever minutes I had to write what I remembered from my self-written cheat sheet down for reference, rest my eyes a bit, and also later on gauge when the woman at the desk would be available to check me out so that I wouldn't lose that time for my break.
I hit a few problems I've done before but simply could not for the life of me remember how to do them (part exhaustion, part excitement from starting late, part poor quant knowledge). Well a circle question finally pops up, and I guess my brain was in overdrive because my upper lip starts to get kind of cold. The cold starts spilling over my lips when I realize, "oh.. oh no... my nose is bleeding". Yup, in the middle of the test my nose just started bleeding. Basically I had to use my hands until Mrs. Arctic Glacier eventually makes it to me with some tissues and then damage control sets in. That lasts a minute or two, and at this point there's blood on my face, the desk, my pad, and on the mouse for the computer (I kept working the problem like a champ until she got to me with the tissues). During my last break I convinced them to let me spend my break cleaning up the mess because I felt so badly about it. I don't have any kind of diseases or anything but for the sake of sanitation I felt awful.
Because of the the wrong test center experience the first time, my tutor just laughed at my face when I told him what happened this time.
For the verbal section there were a few moments that were dicey 50/50 questions but I suppose I got lucky on a few guesses otherwise it wouldn't have been a 46.
Conclusion
So that's my experience, I apologize for the length of my writing I get very carried away sometimes. If you have any questions please ask as I'll be on the forum frequently these next few weeks as I prepare for my retake and if there's anything I can do to help you or explain something I'd love to do so.
Also, I hate to be a beggar but not enough to not do it. If you found this informative/helpful/beneficial I'd really appreciate a kudos here or there so that I might earn enough to use the GMATClub tests a bit before my next retake.
Best of luck in your studies all! I sincerely hope you all score to the best of your abilities whatever that may be.
09 Mar 2016, 00:02
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congrats on the high verbal score! I consistently get between -1 and -2 on CR and RC. Any advice on how to improve once someone gets to that level? I took the GMAT a couple of weeks ago and got a Q45 (but a weird split of q50 for DS and q38 for PS).
raarun
Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Last visit: 16 Mar 2018
Posts: 51
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 6
Location: India
Schools: Mannheim"18 Cranfield '18 WBS '19 Erasmus '18
GMAT 1: 660 Q43 V38
GPA: 3.4
09 Mar 2016, 07:05
Kudos
Bookmarks
Mrs.Arctic Glacier LOL!! 
