560 (43Q/25V)...miserable verbal score

Question

Hi folks 


Scored miserable 560 (43Q,25V) today. I am very disapointed and sad of course. 

Sacrified my holydays and have been studying full-time for the last 15 days, 4 hours in the morning 4 in the afternoon. 

Worked out Pricetown Review, Kaplan PP, OG11 (yellow), OG verbal (purple) and OG quant (green). In GMATPrep I scored between 560 and 720 after repeating 3 times. My aim was to get 650, so I was thinking I was on track. 

In the real exam I was quite relaxed during the quant part. I was keeping the pace till I got some probability questions at the end and lost too much time. I had to guess the last question since I had only 5 seconds left. Nevertheless, in quant part I feel quite confortable and confident. 

The real problem was (and is) the verbal part. This is my weak point since my mother tongue is not english but german/spanish. Though I got 108/120 in TOEFL, I can not manage to get acceptable results in SC and CR. 

 May you please give me some advice what I can do to improve my miserable verbal skills?  

Will take my next GMAT not before January 2008 because tough working schedule. 

Thanks.

Mishari · Answer

Well, obviously your major problem is the Verbal. 

Start working on SC first as it is the easiest and the fastest area at which you can improve. 

Check out Manhattan GMAT SC guide
Spidey notes 
1000 SC


my advice for SC: practice practice practice .. and just keep practicing 
You'll eventually recognize the pattern and the errors tested.

Work on CR by knowing the main types of CR questions and how to strike them.

seofah · Answer

i got V29 on my first attempt and was trying to make my way up for a couple of month now.
You may search for my previous posts on what I am using to improve my verbal.

Robert_Lagdon · Answer

Thanks guys.

I really have to find a good strategy to attack those verbal questions.

But for the moment I will take a break since the last few nights I even started to dream about awful SC and DS problems.

Cheers

gablaze23 · Answer

I'm no expert, but I suggest you answer verbal questions in blocks of five or ten. Then take time to review each number (even the ones you got right.) Review every answer choice, and reason why it is correct/incorrect.

misterJJ2u · Answer

I'm in the same boat. 

My experience with the GMAT tells me that I should be riding the short yellow bus when it comes to Verbal.

My breakdown: 48Q, 28V.

The good thing is that quant isn't bad but I know I can do better (i.e. 51).

Verbal--I took 3 months to relax and re-assess my approach. In the past I would do as many problems as I could to see if I could find a pattern, then focus on those questions only. For me, this is the wrong approach.

Now, I focus on a packet of SC questions and drill down each question so that I understand what is being tested.
Know why each choice should be eliminated: awkward and wordy, incorrect modifier, subject - verb agreement, etc. 

When I first read the given statement I try to identify the type of question right away. Modifier? Find the modifying clause and find the correct noun it modifies. Comparison? Make sure you're comparing nouns to nouns. Is there a list? Check to see that everything is paralell. Idioms? You just gotta know these (flash cards helps).

I have taken a very systematic approach to verbal now. I always ask myself, "what are they testing me on for this question?"

For CR it's incredibly helpful to use this approach. I summarize Premise 1, Premise 2, What the assumption is (in my own words), and the Conclusion. Try to find answers that have the same evidence in the given premises. Many times, you can eliminate choices b/c many are out of scope (i.e. they bring in new information not discussed in the original passage).

For SC, identify the type of problem they are asking. You can usually get it down to 2 or 3 choices right away. Once you do, you need to compare the differences and identify the common tricks GMAT folks like to test on (i.e. verb tense, paralellsim, idioms, pronoun error, etc.). Once you get the hang of it, you'll notice that many questions follow a similar formula.

For RC, i'm still working on this. I found the approach is to read the passage as if you're editing your own AWA. Read the intro paragraph to get a feel for the thesis of the passage. Then once you have an idea what the author is trying to communicate, you can identify if paragraph 2 supports his conclusion, weakens an opposing view, etc.

Hope that helps.

anonymousegmat · Answer

you shouldn't be very upset if you only studied for 15 days. many people on this board study for 2-3 months. some people have been doing this for years it seems. i take the test soon and i will have clocked in at 3 1/2 months study time over a 5 month period by the time i sit for the exam. my first CAT was a 540. Now I am getting 700+ range.

i tend to study ALOT on some days... but i think if you are doing more than 4-5 hours in a day you are just wasting time. you are probably better off doing a month of 4 hour days than 2 weeks of 8 hour days. i bet you could put 100 points on your score if you took a month or two to study and practice.

KoolSIM · Answer

Practice is the key! I know it can be hard to give more time for the GMAT especially when your work schedule is heavy, but you got to attack as many questions as you possibly can.

Scan the boards. Try to get some prep notes from other courses. Discuss your doubts with others on these boards. Read and understand each and every explanation for every given question.

15 days of prep is not enough for Verbal especially if your first language is not English. Give yourself more time........

When I first did the 50 question sets of CR and SC in the Kaplan's Premier Program book, I got 42% and 26% correct respectively. As time progressed and many practiced questions later, I was doing well to get an 85% accuracy rate.

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560 (43Q/25V)...miserable verbal score

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