Verbal Improvement

Question

Hi!

I am facing difficulty with verbal section of GMAT. I gave GMAT exam in Aug 2018 and my score was Q46 V23. After that I have given lot of practice to the Verbal part and now I am more familiar with various types of question.I have improved with accuracy in each verbal question category. i.e. RC, CR and SC. 
Whenever I solve questions for each type in one go I have good accuracy. For eg In case of 5 RCs of 700 level I can get accuracy of 85%. But whenever I give 1 hour practice exam my score is always somewhere around V23/24. I haven't been able to cross V30. 
Please Please help me with this as I have a gmat in next weeks. This is really demotivating for me. I have raised this question earlier on so many forum but so far nobody has replied to me.
Any opinion or suggestion would be appreciated!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi anc,

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:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied in total? Did you take any "time off" after taking the GMAT back in August?
2) What study materials have you used so far throughout all of your studies?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you scheduled to retake the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

AjiteshArun · Answer

Are you timing yourself when you solve questions "in one go"? If not, that could be one reason your score drops when you take timed tests.

anc · Answer

Please find my response below:
1. After August GMAT I took a break for a month and then again started the preparation. In past 3 months I dedicated all my Saturday and Sunday for GMAT verbal.
2. I have used GMATPrep and Official Guide.
3. MY score has been good in Quant but horrible in Verbal. The scores so far have been around 560 to 610.

Goals:
4. My goal score is 730.
5. I want to appear for GMAT by Feb. I have exam scheduled after two weeks but planning to postpone as my recent score doesn't reflect that I would be able score above 700.
6. I want to apply in 2019 for MBA.
7. INSEAD, UCLA,HEC Paris, Fuqua

anc

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi anc,

Raising your current CAT Scores to the point that you could consistently score 730+ will likely require at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. That having been said, a February Test Date would likely NOT give you enough study time to get to that level, so you might need to consider pushing back your Test Date.

Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level - and it sounds as if your studies have been book heavy, so it's possible that this has happened to you as well. To properly define some of the issues that are keeping you from scoring higher, it would help to know some additional details about how you took your practice CATs:

1) On what dates did you take each of your CATs and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each)?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) Did you take them at home?
4) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?

In addition, what application deadlines are you considering for the Schools that you want to apply to? Do you want to apply in the next couple of months or do you want to apply later on this year (in September)?

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

rajatvermaenator · Answer

Hi, I have a similar query ,
I have been encountering this weird problem in exam hall specially in verbal section. 
I have started preparing for Gmat in July 2018, and already gave 3 attempts. Here's the break up
 
Gmat 1 Dec 15 2018 ,630, v27,q48
Gmat 2 Jan 10 2019, 600,v25, q47
Gmat 3 Jan 30 2019, 620, v24, q50

As you can witness my verbal score is consistently degrading.
The surprising part is while giving the mocks, I have consistently scored in the range v32 to v36 , the mocks include mgmt, veritas, kaplan, experts global, and gmac.
On the mocks I have scoring consistently between 670 to 710. I just couldn't focus on verbal part on the exam day.

Kindly help to encounter the issue.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi rajatvermaenator,

I've sent you a PM with some notes and questions about your prior studies.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ANC,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. First off, I’m glad to see that you are postponing your GMAT. Since you recently scored a V23, it’s clear that you lack the GMAT verbal fundamentals you need for a high score, right? So, you really need to follow a structured and linear study plan that allows you to individually learn each verbal topic, starting with the foundations before moving to more advanced concepts. For example, when studying Critical Reasoning, you need to ensure that you fully understand the essence of the various Critical Reasoning 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 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, 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 Economist, 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 under 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 those reasons are not 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 answer were always the one 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 logical meanings. 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 be determined to see the differences and 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 that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order 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 have done 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 will then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction 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!

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