GMAT 640-Quant 49, Verbal - 29 ------Need help to score 720+

[guptaamita87]

Hi

I wrote GMAT last month and scored 640 (M-49, V-29).
I am planning to apply to top 15 B-Schools in US and I believe I need a 700+ score to apply to top-notch B-Schools.
So ,I am planning to take GMAT again after 5-6 months once I get confident about verbal section.
I did pretty well in Quant ,but I found verbal section much more difficult and complicated than it used to be in GMAT Prep test. I guessed a lot of questions and ended up getting them wrong.
As part of preparation ,I did OG12, Kaplan Comprehensive, 1000 series ,gave many online tests including Kaplan ,Princeton ,Manhattan.But yes I could never get a good score in verbal in these tests too.

Please give your suggestions where I went wrong and advise some strategy to improve my verbal score so that I can get a score I aim for around 740.

Thanks
Amita

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm not sure what Kaplan comprehensive is, but the other sources you listed are just practice problems or practice tests. Those are good for practicing after you've already learned what you need to learn - but how did you learn the actual material and techniques you need to know? Grammar, how to read and analyze CR and RC, how to recognize and answer the different types of CR and RC questions, how to spot traps / tempting wrong answers, etc. It doesn't help much to do problems and tests over and over if you haven't already learned the fundamental content and structure of the test.

So, how did you learn these things? Is that what Kaplan comprehensive is? Or did you use other resources? If you did, let me know. If you didn't, your first task is to identify resources (books, classes, whatever) that will actually teach you what you need to know for the verbal part of the exam.

By the way, as I just wrote to another poster, taking many practice tests is not a good use of your time. CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is actually NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve. For the most part, exams should be taken about once every 2 to 4 weeks, depending upon how much studying you're doing and how far you are from the real exam (and maybe once a week for the last 2 weeks before the real exam).

[guptaamita87]

Hi Stacey

Thanks for replying.Kaplan Comprehensive is another book which has a set of practice questions.
As far as the books that I referred to learn concepts in verbal are concerned , I read OG12 mainly.I would really appreciate if you could tell me some books , resources to refer, to strenghten my verbal concepts.

Thanks
Amita

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay - OG12 (or any official source) is a great source to practice what you have learned, but it's really hard to learn from official sources. The explanations are not set up to help you learn things - either facts or techniques - in an easy way.

In terms of what will help you to learn those things, it's primarily going to be materials from test prep companies - those companies are in the business of teaching you how to get better. You'll have to decide which company's materials to use. (Obviously, I'm biased. If you ask me what I would use, I'd use MGMAT's stuff. :)

You can browse parts of books (the table of contents, etc) online, and you can also ask other friends who are studying to see what they have used and liked. If you want to take a look at our books, you can go into the store section of our web site, or you can look on Amazon. FYI, if you search on Amazon, make sure you are looking at 4th edition guides (that's the latest edition). Some independent booksellers are still selling older versions.