verbal score ridiculously low--- need help

Question

Hi everybody, yesterday i took the gmat and i was stoned seeing my verbal score

(Q45 V19) I took 6 MGMAt cats,the lowest verbal score was 28 and the max was 32 one week before the actual test, i took both the gmat prep tests! 1st : v28 and the second V31 I dont know how i ended up with such a low score in the real thing :s I know that im horrible in RC ( haven't practiced a single passage) But i was doing good in CR and so so in SC I almost finished the CR bible, the OG SC and CR and numerous questions through GMATCLUB this was my 3rd gmat attempt :s ( English is my 3rd language (toefl 95, took it 2 years ago)) I AM completely lost... Any advice ? Thank you

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear clipea12 , I'm very sorry to hear about your difficulties, my friend, and I am happy to help. :-)

First of all, understand that it is not unusual to see a drop from practice test to the real test. See this blog for more: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/lower-on-t ... ice-tests/ Here's my very simple advice. READ. Not just GMAT stuff. Read real world material, hard challenging material in English. Read for at least an hour a day, over and above any GMAT-specific work. If you are thinking of getting an MBA, you already should be reading what you can to be informed of the business world. Read the Wall Street Journal every day. Read Bloomberg Business week every week, and especially the Economist magazine ----- that's pure gold! Read that from cover to cover each week! For very high level English, look at Harper's magazine, the New Yorker , and the Atlantic Monthly. Some of that is hard for many native speakers. You need to accustom yourself to English at that level. For more suggestions, see: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-list/ You already know what the GMAT Verbal sections asks, so focus on that in all your reading. As you read, always be thinking about main idea, what is the role of each paragraph, why did the author mention this or that detail, etc, the typical RC questions. If arguments appear (the Econ omist presents wonderful arguments!), then think about the CR questions: what would strengthen or weaken the argument? what's the assumption? what else would you need to know to evaluate the argument? Finally, all of these sources have wonderfully crafted sentences. Look at individual sentence ---- identify parallelism, different verb tenses, noun & verb modifiers, etc. etc. You need to be doing this kind of work, for at least an hour a day, for a few months before you are ready to think about sitting for the GMAT again. Here's a set of free GMAT Idiom flashcards: https://gmat.magoosh.com/flashcards/idioms Here's a practice RC passage with practice questions: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-readi ... questions/ There are a number of other Verbal articles on that free blog that you may find helpful. Does all this make sense? Please let me know if you have any further questions. Mike :-)

hamidmax · Answer

I have similar experience and my verbal score was 15 point lower than what I usually got from CATs. But please tell me what your Q scores were in your CATs?

clipea12 · Answer

Thank you Mike for the tips:) Indeed, I feel that stress played a major role in my low verbal score and that not practicing reading comprehension made things even worst ! I will defiantly use the stress reduction techniques!
hamidmax my quant scores were fluctuating in MGMAT cats ( 39 to 44), never had the same score !
and for the official gmat prep i got, 43 for the first and 47 for the second
So if you are doing great in MGMAT quant you will do great in the real thing since manhattan questions are tougher!
Be careful with breaks on the real thing, i missed almost 2min on the quant section ! adding stress to stress

Let me Know if you need anything else !

JTuquero · Answer

Hi clipea12

I'll address RC, since you mentioned that this is a weakness.

When you start practicing this section (which you will need to start doing), take notes (especially for those long passages!).

Our tutors give test takers the following advice on RC: Since more than 95% of all correct answers for Main Idea and Structure questions come from the first two sentences of the paragraphs, your first step is to read the first two sentences of each paragraph and take notes on each.

Make sure you only paraphrase and do not copy everything word-for-word. The point is is to get a brief summary of what you have read.

Pay attention to any of sentences that have opposition conjunctions like however, but and although.

This should be enough for a general mapping of the text and should help you locate many of the detail-related questions.

Before you get the hang of note-taking, don’t worry about timing. Your timing will improve as you practice. Most people complain about the fact that note-taking takes more time, but in the end, it will actually save you time and make you more precise.

Hope this helps! Here's a link to more tips on RC: https://gmat.economist.com/search/blog_ ... prehension.

Jessica

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verbal score ridiculously low--- need help

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