Verbal URGENT: NEED HELP

Question

I have been working on GMAT from almost 4-5 months now.
my first full length score-490
after 4 months my score is in the range of 600-640

I gave one official GMAT as well on 21st July 2020(600/700)
I am planning to give GMAT again by 15 Aug 2020

my quants range is usually from 48-51

my verbal is a big issue , my highest verbal score till now has been 34 
I usually get 25-29
My mistakes are also equally divided in sc, cr, rc around 10-13 mistakes out of 36 every time and 4-5 per section 
I have taken the CATS from gmat club and I have 1 CAT left now for verbal .
I have given gmat official prep mocks-
620(Q47 V31)
640(Q47 V31)
640(Q48 V30)
530(couldn't complete verbal due to other reasons -Q49 V15)
620 (Q49 V27)

my verbal score in gmat club CATs- 16, 34, 25, 29 , 19, 25, 31, 27

I have maintained an error log as well , the mistakes are not particular to a particular topic

THINGS I HAVE DONE IN VERBAL-

Critical reasoning -
-Powerscore Bible
-currently doing Manhattan CR
-OG + verbal review
-jamboree course theory

Sentence Correction-
-Manhattan SC( thinking of doing again)
-Aristotle sc
-Egmat sc course(excluding scholaranium)
-OG +verbal review
-jamoboree course theory

Reading comprehension -
-gmat ninja videos on YouTube
-some OG questions
-jamboree theory

I need urgent help as I have to apply to colleges by this September (Therefore, I am planning to give the Gmat in August)
my target score is 730+

thelion10 · Answer

Seems like your missing out on key concepts. Start with OG easy questions. Get a good hand and them. Once you’re hitting 90% accuracy in each section. Move to slightly tougher ones. I personally like to do section by section rather than having a day for SC and another for CR and another for RC. 
EGmat has good SC. I see that you’ve taken their help already. Why don’t you contact one of their instructors and get some detailed analysis of your score report.

Posted from my mobile device

GeorgeA11 · Answer

I think some conceptual clarity required.Can you get some one to explain key concepts for you.
Im a GMAT coach.Maybe I can diagnose the problem. 1 month is ample time to work on verbal front. lets have a chat..
... George

To reach me:
My linkedin profile: https://www.facebook.com/groups/semanticsGMAT
My facebook learning group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/semanticsGMAT

Do check out my other blog posts here: https://letsgmat.blogspot.com/

HoneyLemon · Answer

I think you are missing certain things in application of verbal reasoning . May be you can try not to let go on easy ques in the test . If you can provide certain sample ques from your error log which you got wrong would be helpful to analyse the point you are missing .

Mizar18 · Answer

Hi

I believe I was in a similar situation. A year ago I scored 640 (Q49). My approach was to "improve" verbal by solving a lot of exercises to realize questions patterns, but I was not really "improving" my way of thinking, big mistake.

You have to notice that MAYBE you are taking an incorrect approach and you first need to work on your weaknesses to get the score that you want. (in my case once I started to improve my reading skills by reading daily, my score went up substantially).

Best

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi rishabh1331,

Since you are looking for verbal help, here is some general advice you can follow to improve your CR, SC, and RC skills. I’ll start with CR.

When studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various question types. Do you know the importance of an assumption within an argument? Can you easily spot a conclusion? Do you know how to resolve a paradox? Do you know how to properly evaluate cause and effect? Do you know how to properly weaken or strengthen an argument? These are just a few examples; you really need to take a deep dive into the individual Critical Reasoning topics to develop the necessary skills to properly attack any Critical Reasoning questions that you encounter.

As you learn each Critical Reasoning problem type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you incorrectly answered a Weaken the Argument question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Author’s Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be stimulating. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such bland passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.
 
Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, you likely will have to work on all three of those aspects. Furthermore, the likely reason that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved is that you have not been working on all three of those aspects. 
 
Regarding what you know, to be successful in Sentence Correction, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not just a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.
 
This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending less than two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.
 
There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and none of those reasons are that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answers were always the ones that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.
 
As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to put in the necessary time to see the differences between answers and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.
 
To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did to arrive at that answer and what you could do differently to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could do differently to extend your streak.

As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your skills improve, you’ll then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple SC topics.
 
Ultimately, if you are unable to learn and practice in the manner described above, you may consider looking for additional verbal prep resources. If you are unsure of which resources to choose, check out some reviews here on GMAT Club.

You also may find my article with more information regarding  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi rishabh1331,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on your Official GMAT? Did you take the At-home GMAT or did you take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
2) How many hours do you typically study each week?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
4) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Rishabh,

First of all, it’s nice to hear that you could improve your score from a 490 to 600/640. This really takes a significant effort. The only concern is the verbal part. So, the focus now should be on identifying the actual thing that is stopping you from scoring well on Verbal and working on that. Let me share my insights on how to do that.

What might be the problem? 
Verbal questions can be very tricky. Equal division of mistakes in all the modules (SC, CR and RC) suggests that you might not be using the right strategies to solve the questions. For example, to solve SC questions, you are likely approaching them from a grammar stand-point and choosing the answer choice which is grammatically correct. But let me tell you, you are likely to come across a few answer choices which are grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning, but actually are incorrect. The main idea of SC questions is to test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it is important to approach the SC questions from a meaning stand-point and then eliminate the answer choices which are grammatically incorrect and do not convey the intended meaning.

The importance of using a standard resource: 
As you now understood the importance of using the right methodology to solve the questions, let me tell you how to do that effectively. You might have heard of a saying “Too many chefs spoil the dish”. In the same way, it is never suggested to rely on too many resources. The resources you mentioned might be great resources for GMAT like questions but ask yourself whether you were able to learn the right strategies to solve the questions using them. It is always suggested to use one standard resource which teaches you the concepts methodically and the right strategies.

So, I suggest you to choose a right resource for Verbal and start studying from that. As I mentioned earlier, make sure the resource teaches you the right methodology. The resource should help you work on your weaker areas so that you can master any specific topic. The right approach can be learnt by referring to the detailed solutions and comparing your approach with the right one. So, make sure the resource helps you do this by providing detailed step-by-step solutions for every question.

As your test is not very far away, you might not want to waste time in filtering the courses. If you are open to suggestions, I would recommend you to check the Verbal part of GMATWhiz. GMATWhiz has a unique way of teaching the Verbal part. The unit 1 of every module starts with the focus on strategy. The next units deal with individual topics and teach you by following the 3 steps.
  Teaches you the concepts. 
 Teaches you the methodology required to solve GMAT like questions 
 Let’s you take practice quizzes and thereby analyse your weaknesses and work on them.

It also comes with real time improvement modules and provides you with a  personalized study plan . The concept boosters and practice quizzes help you solve GMAT like questions and also provide you with detailed solutions. You can check the free trial of the course and then decide if it is suitable for you. 
I hope you take the decision soon because you do not want to take chance in the last attempt of your GMAT. So, make sure you take the right decision. If you wish to discuss more about the study strategy, you can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  rishabh1331 , I know your post is titled   urgent  help , but as per my experience, no magic pills can be given in a matter of 1-2 weeks.

You are looking at at least 8-10 point jump in your current Verbal score. That generally requires  more  time and effort than just 1-2 weeks.

aashigarg · Answer

Hi Rishabh - I think that though you have completed all the necessary materials, however, your preparation is lacking strategic application. I suggest you start with GMAT CLUB Question Bank:- Filter on the lowest level of difficulty and then map the question explanations to the Manhattan Books. And in case you can postpone your application to the next round then I would suggest you take a guided course from a good GMAT Tutor company Please provide KUDOS if you found it useful

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