Chimps,
I know I just made another thread about not wanting to take the GMAT again, but I wanted to see if I even have a chance of improving.
So, my math was just fine, but my verbal was horrendous. I am a native English speaker, but I guess I'm not too good on verbal tests. I went through Manhattan SC, CR, and RC a few times, read the PowerScore CR bible a few times, and practiced like crazy. I was getting around V36-40 on practice tests, but on the actual test I got V31! I retook and got V34!!
Was I not understanding the concepts or just getting really lucky? I took the Knewton Course (with 6 practice exams), all the Manhattan exams and the 2 GMAT Prep exams. What can I do to improve? If I can hit at least V40, I know I'll be fine enough to get 710+.
Have you tried GMAT Pill? It appears to be good program to improve on the verbal section.
As Matrick said GMAT Pill has great reviews.
Opposite position as you. I got a 49 verbal without practice but a VERY bad math score (also without practice, but I'm not sure how high I could raise it).
My best advice is to read and write - A LOT. You just need to get to the point where you can feel when a sentence is wrong, even if you can't pinpoint why. That's how you'll find what you're doing wrong in Verbal.
Thats a stellar V score. Can you give some examples of writing exercises? What reading sources do you recommend?
I find its difficult to find material comparable with the GMAT content to help with SC. Maybe I'll try GMAT Pill as others suggest. I peaked at 35V myself.
Read WSJ obviously, but also read fiction, historical fiction, etc. Read what you like but make sure you mix it up. Compilations of short stories can be great if they are from multiple authors so you get a variety of styles and start getting a feel for how proper sentences are structured and see new words. Obviously there are authors to stay away from because they intentionally break grammatical rules, like Cormac McCarthy for instance.
As far as writing goes, a daily journal or a blog is great but even text messages, tweets, and emails can be good practice. Try to use new words (Word thesaurus is your best friend but don't overuse it) and use the best grammar you can.
It comes down to a few things: learning to read really fast without sacrificing understanding; and learning to feel when a sentence is structured incorrectly (I can't always tell why but I can almost always feel when a sentence is poorly constructed); and paying attention to the little things, like punctuation, when reading anything. Ask yourself why the comma is here or the semi-colon is there.
Rhen, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, GMATClub had a thread on books to read to improve your verbal score. I read through all but 2 books, and have been an avid reader for a few years now and that didn't seem to help me all that much.
And for SC, maybe I am approaching it the wrong way, but what the books teach is to think of the sentence as a formula. When I originally started studying, I answered SC based on what I thought felt right and that ended horribly. Maybe that is where I am wrong.
And by the way, you most definitely can improve your math score. It won't even take long. In your situation, if you even get a 43 (very doable if you just understand all the basic math concepts it tests), you will end up with a 740ish.
Maybe feeling your way through it isn't the best advice for everyone; like I mentioned earlier, I feel when it's not right. I wish I had more concrete advice than that.
And thanks -- about the math, that's encouraging to know I could raise my score. I'm trying to break into consulting from Big 4 audit and I feel like all I really need is a 700-710 to get into my target schools (INSEAD, Northwestern, Duke, etc).
It really sounds to me like you're just not achieving your potential on test day. Get a 40 on the Verbal with a 48+ on Quant and you'll have somewhere around a 710+, or at least that's what you would have had when I took it 1.5 years ago. GMAT Pill and others will help you improve your potential number, but you also need to figure out what's going wrong on test day that is caused you to get 5-9 points lower than your practice tests.
When you take practice tests, are you always doing the full teststraight through in a normal testing environment? I found that while I was able to crush sets of like 10 verbal questions in a row, when I did 40 in a row, I would totally lose focus and do much worse, especially after doing a full Quant section. My strategy was to start doing a block of 40 verbal questions after I spent my 2 or so hours studying quant, which took up the bulk of my study time anyway.
If you can crush Quant, you just really need to do serviceably on Verbal (for an english speaker) to get in the 700's. What about a tutor?
Did you find yourself rushing on test date? It could easily be timing issue, i.e. not knowing what strategy to utilize.
For Sentence Correction, if you're reading all the answer choices line by line you're dead meat. For Critical Reasoning, you should have a system where you read the Q-stem first, then prompt, then answer choices one by one For Reading Comp, you should have a good system in place that you're comfortable with. Some people take notes for each paragraph and read slowly, while others skim.
On test day I felt extremely relaxed and had plenty of time on both sections.
BGP, that seems like good advice, maybe I need to do big chunks at a time. Haven't taken the exam in a while just so I could look at it fresh if I wanted to retake.
Anyone have experience with e-GMAT? I know its geared towards non-natives, but I think he had some sort of verbal increase guarantee or your money back.
Porro consequuntur explicabo autem repellendus. Ut eum optio ea nisi voluptas.
Odit ea magni beatae consequatur repellendus dolore laborum inventore. Aut porro in dolores ipsum quia est labore. Est voluptates accusamus temporibus amet quidem. Aut necessitatibus voluptas possimus dignissimos.
A quos sapiente amet aut laboriosam. Consequuntur ab nesciunt dignissimos distinctio ea velit. Velit vero exercitationem velit magnam dolorem cupiditate.
Sequi aut molestias iure molestiae corporis. Quas numquam occaecati vel maiores repellendus saepe ullam. Laboriosam veniam enim ut provident voluptatem culpa itaque. Sint veritatis libero est est. Sunt ea laboriosam dicta dicta voluptatem quia. Delectus assumenda qui numquam perferendis sequi fuga id.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...