Advice for approaching verbal after getting crushed in actual exam

Question

First thanks to everyone for such an incredible website and community - it's really been amazing in helping prep me and my friends for the GMAT.

I was hoping to get a bit of advice for the verbal section of the GMAT. I wrote the actual GMAT and scored a V35.

Here's how I prepped, over the course of 3 weeks for Verbal:
- Manhattan SC
- Did all the OG Verbal questions (in fairness I did not do an error log)

On my 4 different tests I scored between 33-37 (Manhattan GMAT and GMAT prep)

I found that when I was doing OG verbal I was usually way past time on them. So I would spend 2m/sc 2.5m/cr and 3m/rc. Good accuracy (85-90%) but overall bad time management. So come the actual exam I really pushed the time and scored a 35 which is right in the middle of where I was trending. Got about 70% in each section and was pressed for time.

My goal is to score V40 and I want to write in late October.

Some questions for the community:
- What do you think is a study plan / strategy to get from V35 to V40 in 2 months?
- Do you recommend that I redo the OG questions? 
- What resources do you think I should use? Should I buy the GMAT prep pack 1? Or do a course / hire a tutor?

Many thanks!!!!!

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear pchaoj , I'm happy to respond. :-)

Here's a three-month plan designed for someone who specifically wants to improve GMAT Verbal 3 Month GMAT Study Schedule (Verbal Focused) If you follow everything in that plan, you definitely can bring about this improvement. Even if you can't follow everything in the plan, please take advantage of all the free resources associated with the plan. Let me know if you have any questions. Mike :-)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi pchaoj,

While you've clearly defined your goal for the Verbal section, I'd like to know a bit more about how you've studied overall and your overall timeline/goals:

1) How long have you studied?
2) How did you score on the Official GMAT (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

3) What is your overall goal score?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

Based on what you've described so far, you've used a 'book heavy' study approach to prepare for the Verbal section. Unfortunately, even the best books are limited in what they can teach you; they also can't force you to approach questions in a certain way and their explanations are often one-sided. This is all meant to say that you would likely benefit from investing in some new, non-book practice materials. You could conceivably be ready to retest in a month though.

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

AjiteshArun · Answer

You clearly did not get "crushed" (V35 is a good score)

Apart from any other material you're considering, try to get access to all the official material you can. This would include the questions from the earlier OGs and the question pack. You should also get the exam packs as you've taken the free GMATPreps. 1. Do make a study plan, but remember to focus more on the execution. Further improvement is all but guaranteed given that you seem to have got a V35 after studying for just 3 weeks. 2. Doing OG questions again makes sense if you haven't quite got (or don't quite remember) the reasoning behind the questions you've solved.

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Hi pchaoj,

It looks like you need a study plan that you can stick to. Here is a customized 2-3 month study plan that can help boost your score: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... study-plan

Use this as a guideline. You don’t have to follow it exactly but the structure of the study plan should be the same structure that you take in your approach. This helps to optimize your retention and learning.

As you study, we recommend that you focus on one particular subsection for multiple consecutive days before moving onto the next. You can see this in our study plan where we recommend 5 days on nothing but SC -- before moving onto CR and then RC.

Here is a sample SC video to help you start your journey: https://www.gmatpill.com/sentencecorrect ... ythons.mp4

Best of luck - we are here to help.

JeffTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Pachio,

It takes many GMAT test takers 300+ hours to score a 700+. Since you have only been studying for 3 weeks, with continued motivation and more dedicated study, I believe you can hit your verbal score goal.

Remember, the GMAT is such a challenging exam because there are relatively few questions asked in a given exam, yet those questions come from a huge topic pool. Thus, the best way to get a great GMAT score is to have a thorough understanding of all the topics that may be tested on the exam. To develop such mastery, you want to strive for linear and targeted learning and follow that with focused practice. In other words, you want to master one topic before you move to the next. Have you been able to do this?

When studying verbal, focus on learning one section at a time: reading comprehension, sentence correction, or critical reasoning. For example, when learning about critical reasoning, you want to be able to learn about all aspects of critical reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. Follow up your learning with focused critical reasoning practice, so you can determine your specific weaknesses within that topic. Do the same with sentence correction and reading comprehension.

In regard to next steps, you may consider finding some “fresh” prep materials, rather than re-doing the official guide questions that you have already completed.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out.

Good luck!

Advice for approaching verbal after getting crushed in actual exam

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