Help for improvement in Verbal

[kaushkrish]

Hi Stacey

I have just got back after giving my exam and have majorly bombed it. I got a score of 600 ( QA 49 VA 24).

The rest of exam went of smoothly. AWA and IR were no issues, infact I am hoping to do get a dcent score in each of them(5.5 and 6)

Coming back to the main issue of verbal, i really don't know what can be done to improve it. I have tried everything but nothing seems to work. Funny thing is, this sunday I gave the MGMAT CAt and scored a 680 (QA 48 VA 34) and the next day gave the GMAT Prep scoring a 690 (QA 49 VA 34). So i was quite optimistic about my chances come D day.

My target score is 700+ and for that to be achieved I need atleast a 35 in my english.During my mock CATs the VA was hovering between 31-34. so I really don't know how come there is such a ig dip in my VA score.

But I don't know what went wrong during the exam. Infact I had feeling that my quant had gone bad since I was getting plenty of questions that I couldn't answer. VA felt alright the way it was proceeding. I didn;t any bold faced questions though (maybe thats a sign of not doing 'well')

Could you please tell me how to improve my verbal score. Any online resources/books and a plan that you could recommend plan will be great help.

I fall into the most competitive category (Indian male :X) and hence I need to have a 700+ score. I d have a decent profile with two years of non profit work and hence am gunning for the ivy league schools.

My primary aim to increase my VA score dramatically, hoping for +/- 1 variations in QA.

I am desperate and really need to all the help that I can get.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing test experience.

Did you take those practice tests under 100% official conditions? All sections, two 8-minute breaks, normal timing, no pauses, nothing to eat or drink while working, etc? Taking all 4 sections as seriously as normal?

In particular, if you did anything that shortened the length of the test or made you less tired (like not really trying hard on essay and/or IR), then that could account for a higher verbal score, since verbal is the final section. Then, during the real test, you'd have been a lot more mentally fatigued by the time the verbal section started.

What felt different to you between your practice tests and the real test? This could be anything from the kinds of questions you saw or how hard they felt to feeling more tired or anxious than usual or whatever. Even if you think it wouldn't matter, tell me any differences.

This article contains symptoms of mental fatigue (these are very different from physical fatigue):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

What about your timing? You can finish a section on time (or even early) and still have severe timing problems. Use the below article to analyze your last MGMAT practice test or two with respect to timing (and everything else):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

If we can figure out why this happened, then we can develop a plan for next time around!

[kaushkrish]

Thanks Stacey for your response

1) The first 4 mock tests I gave without taking the IR and the AWA. However, the last 2 tests, I gave by taking the IR and AWA under test conditions, however I took only one 8 minute break (Don't think that is of too much importance). On the GMAT prep I gave the second exam under test conditions, first test I scored a 640.

2) I am not too sure about the mental fatigue part since, I was very eager to attack each and every question. I got a quite a few questions (Approx 4-6) which I had trouble answering among the first 10 ques esp in SC and CR however no boldfaced in the entire paper. 'Decision fatigue' -> I generally spend a careful amount of time in analyzing the construct of sentence and try narrowing down the answers by elimination. Incase, I am taking too much time, I make a quick guess and move on.
In quant, I had some really tough questions(abouut 6-7) after the initial 5 which were very simple to be honest.However, I never spent extra amount of time on questions which were looking out of reach and finished he section having about 30 sec left on the timer.

In my tests, I have a sequence of getting answers wrong (Max being 4 in a sequence), more in VA and generally this is when there is a transition from CR to RC or vice versa-> meaning 1 CR followed by 2-3 RC' questions wrong. I find it difficult to compartmentalize the questions in VA as easy, medium and difficult, since the answer choices are very subjective at times.

3) Timing has been fine, in quant if I dont get the answer within 3 mins I move on. likewise with the verbal -> I spend about 2.5 mins on CR and about 1.5 mins on SC. RC generally I take about 7-8 mins including answering the ques. On the exam I had to hurry with the last 5 ques which I had to finish in 6 mins or so.
One question here : do I need to confirm the answer for the last question, or a simple click on the answer choice is good enough for it to be confirmed and scored(assuming the time runs out)

4) I didn't finish the exam with ample time to spare in both quant and verbal.However in my last 2 MGMAT test i had about 2-3 mins left on my verbal.

5) This is the second time I have taken the GMAT, previous being in Jan 2012. The score at that time was 640 : QA 47 VA 31 AWA 5.5.

For me to get a 600, after scoring 49 in QA means that I should've got nearly 30 of the 41 ques wrong. My mistakes in VA are generally in CR and RC, and i used to make about 14-16 errors. What resources would you suggest for me to use to improve both of these (esp CR -> since same methodoligies can be applied to RC), I intend to give the exam once again in Dec/Jan. My aim is to hit a 35+ in VA, anything below that is a disaster for me. I will be starting with the OG once again..!

Cheers

[StaceyKoprince]

It's good that you took the last 2 tests under official conditions, but if I'm reading the timeline correctly, you took those two tests in two days and both were shortly before your real test, right? In that circumstance, you didn't build stamina - you tired yourself out right before the real test.

I am not too sure about the mental fatigue part since, I was very eager to attack each and every question.

That actually has nothing to do with mental fatigue. For most, adrenaline is pumping and you'd say you have lots of energy - and you probably do, physically. Mental fatigue is a different thing. I guarantee you that you were feeling some mental fatigue - it's impossible not to for a 3.5h test. The question is how much and how did it affect you?

Here's one example of mental fatigue and stamina issues combined:

generally this is when there is a transition from CR to RC or vice versa-> meaning 1 CR followed by 2-3 RC' questions wrong.

I find it difficult to compartmentalize the questions in VA as easy, medium and difficult, since the answer choices are very subjective at times.

If you're trying to figure out whether a particular question is easy, medium, or difficult during the test, then you're distracting yourself. It's extremely difficult to tell in the moment and it doesn't help to know that anyway. So forget about trying to do that at all. :)

Timing has been fine, in quant if I dont get the answer within 3 mins I move on.

Did you actually do the analysis using the article I linked to last time?

From what you said, on some number of questions, you're spending an *extra* minute before you "move on," meaning you had to guess. That time is coming from somewhere - it's coming from other problems on which you may now be making careless mistakes because you're rushing. The hard "stop" should start kicking in around 2.5m, not 3m, on quant, and really, if you EVER go over 2m, it should be because you know exactly what you're doing but the problem is objectively longer / harder than average so you have to do a few more steps to get to the answer.

For those "I'm sure I could get it if I just spent a little more time" or "but I studied this" or whatever problems - you should be cutting those off at 2m or before. From what you described, you're almost certainly making mistakes elsewhere as a result of mismanaging your time.

Do go back and analyze your practice tests using that article I gave you last time. And, of course, you already know that you're having verbal timing issues. Here are two important articles on timing; start doing what they say:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

do I need to confirm the answer for the last question, or a simple click on the answer choice is good enough for it to be confirmed and scored(assuming the time runs out)

No. As long as the answer is selected, the real test will accept it.

I didn't finish the exam with ample time to spare in both quant and verbal.However in my last 2 MGMAT test i had about 2-3 mins left on my verbal.

For me to get a 600, after scoring 49 in QA means that I should've got nearly 30 of the 41 ques wrong.

Quote 1: you don't ever want to finish with ample time to spare. Quote 2: your score doesn't tell you how many you got right vs. wrong - the test is not scored in that way at all.

So these two quotes indicate that you need to learn a bit more about how the test works and how the scoring works, because that has major implications for how best to spend your time and take the test. :) Read the two timing articles and also read the Scoring section of our free e-book The GMAT Uncovered Guide (it's in your student center already - everybody gets a copy).

Finally, I'd be happy to point you towards specific resources for CR and RC. Can you tell me what you already have / what you have used in the past? Obviously, we have books for both of those topics. I also have many, many articles depending upon what specifically is giving you trouble - I can give you the links to the appropriate ones if you use that article from my first post to analyze your practice tests and then come back to tell me your specific strengths and weaknesses.

[kaushkrish]

hi Stacey

Thanks for your responses. I have started the process of analyzing my mistakes.

1) My major weakness in quant is Data Sufficiency -> esp in number properties and more so when one has to consider all cases : irrational numbers, -ve and +ve integers, fractions etc. Problem solving I am more comfortable across topics. Typically I get 12 - 15 questions wrong out of the 37.

As for the timing, generally if at first glance I have an idea about how to proceed on the question I try solving the problem within 3 mins. If on the other hand, I find the question difficult, and after all working around with the problem I still can't figure out how to eliminate options I make an educated guess by 2 mins or so. I do realise that during the exam there are bound to be questions that I won't be able to answer within the given time span.Only when I do not know where to start for evauating the ques do I make a random guess within a minute. So far in all my mocks I have never goofed up majorly wrt to timing on quant and have been scroing between 48 and 50. I am using the timing table mentioned in the article as a benchmark to figure questions and the corresponding time left on the timer.

Couple of questions here, how many questions can I afford to guess / get wrong on the GMAT to get a 49/50 in QA. The article states that it is possible to get a good score inspite of getting 40% of the ques wrong?( But i guess that it is also dependent on which level you get the answers wrong ) Further, I don't want to get only questions at particular 'level' right, I also need to move progressively upwards on the curve.Keeping this in mind, would it be helpful to spend extra time on questions 'that i feel i can do'?

2) I have analysed my verbal scores. My main weaknesses is CR specifically assumption and weakening questions along with inference questions in the RC. I have an abysmal accuracy of nearly 50 % in CR and RC. Reasons that I tend to believe are :
a) I tend to spend more time in analyzing the question, sometimes overthinking, and invariably choose the wrong option.
b) Find it way too simplistic and rush into the answer.
c) Narrow down between two answers and choose the wrong one.

This means that my foundation is still not as strong as it should be. I would ideally like my accuracy to be hovering between 75% and 85% and reduce the errors that I have been committing,

My SC is relatively better at about 75% accuracy. Weaknesses in SC are pronouns and tenses(past perfect to be precise).

The resources I used for SC and CR included OG, Manhattan Question Banks and Manhattan SC guide. The SC guide is comprehensive and hence I will be re-reading it.I have a few passages left in the OG for RC and hence will be using those. I would like to know which other resources I could use for CR. Would it make sense to buy the OG verbal guide? I have heard contrary opinions. Further, if pls tell me if I need to do further analysis of my verbal scores. So far during my analysis I focussed only on the timing and the questions which I got wrong.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

[StaceyKoprince]

Taking your points in order:

1) For DS, just make sure that part of the problem isn't timing. A lot of people spend more time on PS and rush on DS to make up for it. If you're doing that, then of course you're not going to do as well on DS, especially on DS problems that require a lot of work.

For problems where you need to test cases, draw a quick numberline and label -1, 0, 1. Then make two little marks for fractions between 0 and 1 and fractions between 0 and -1. Then draw little arrows from 1 going to the right (to remind yourself you could try bigger numbers) and from -1 going to the left (to remind yourself that you could try even smaller numbers).

Next, you don't want to try everything - that'll take forever right? Try anything you want first; that'll give you a yes or a no. (The "testing cases" problems are almost always yes/no problems.)

If you get a yes, ask yourself, "What do I think I could try that might give me a no?" If you get a no, try to figure out what will give you a yes. In other words, you're actively trying to *disprove* the statement - because if you get one yes and one no, then the statement is not sufficient.

As soon as you do get 1 yes and 1 no, stop. If you try several things but keep getting the same answer (always yes or always no), then go with it in the moment - but afterwards, check to see whether you can use your growing knowledge of the problem (from trying multiple numbers) to understand the actual theory and answer the question "Why is this always yes (or always no)?"

Over time, you'll train yourself to use the real numbers to help you start thinking about the actual underlying theory. This will help you in two ways: if the statement is not sufficient, you'll more quickly be able to figure out what kind of number will give you the "opposite" answer when trying to disprove the statement, as discussed above. Alternatively, if hte statement IS sufficient, you'll more often be able to figure out the theory / proof that tells you "I'll always get yes (or I'll always get no) on this one, so this statement is actually sufficient." (But just remember: sometimes you don't actually "get" the theory - so if you've tried 3 or 4 different things, using your number line, and you keep getting the same answer even though you were actively trying to get the opposite answer, then just go ahead and say it's sufficient. If you're wrong, you can learn why afterwards.)

I try solving the problem within 3 mins. If on the other hand, I find the question difficult, and after all working around with the problem I still can't figure out how to eliminate options I make an educated guess by 2 mins or so.

Not terrible, but still too long on both counts. You need to average 2m across the entire test. If you're spending up to 3m on ones you think you can do and 2m on ones you think are too hard... you're either going to run out of time or you're going to cut yourself off too fast on others and increase the incidence of careless mistakes.

Your actual decision point is around the 1m mark. If you don't know what you're doing by then, and know that you can finish the problem in the next roughly 1 to 1.5m, then figure out how to guess and move on. You can spend up to 2m total making that guess, but on some questions, you do have to finish faster - either because you know how to do the problem or because you guess faster.

It's a bad idea to go beyond 2.5m on quant as a *regular* practice. It's okay to have one or two questions in the entire section that run 2.5 to 3m. But that's it. If you need 2.5+ min, there's already a problem, because every question does have a 2m solution, but you're not finding it.

You mention that quant is consistently 48 to 50. That's good - but you'd rather have it be at the 50 end, not the 48 end, right? That's a difference of 12 percentile points. One of the causes of that fluctuation (though not the only one) is timing - so make it better, solidify that score at 50, and that helps get you closer to 700. :)

For a 50 (90th percentile), you can still probably comfortably get 20% to 25% of the questions wrong (nobody knows for sure exactly - they don't publish that data). Your general pattern here should be: when I know what I'm doing (which means BOTH that I can answer it correctly and I can do so within the normal amount of time, which we'll call up to 2.5m for quant), then I do it without trying to rush to save time, because I don't want to cause a careless mistake. When I can't, I make that call somewhere around the 1m mark (sometimes a little faster if I know it's way out of my league, sometimes a little slower, but still well under 2m, if I think I might be able to... but then realize that, nope, it's not happening). Then I see whether I can make an educated guess, but I also make sure that I have my answer in and I've moved on at or before the 2m mark.

I would ideally like my accuracy to be hovering between 75% and 85% and reduce the errors that I have been committing,

That would mean that you'll be scoring in the 90th+ percentile on verbal. Right now, your score is much lower than that, so you would be talking months here. Also, your overall score is 700 - with your quant score, you do not need to hit 90th percentile on verbal to hit 700 overall. My guess is that, as before, you're not fully comfortable with how the scoring works and so you're setting goals that aren't really the right goals. This is important because that's going to mess up your timing and your approach, both of which will make it harder for you to reach your goal.

Verbal is always going to be your weaker area. Here, you really are going to be going more for the 60% correct overall. If SC is consistently higher, as your strength, then RC and CR don't have to go as high.

a) I tend to spend more time in analyzing the question, sometimes overthinking, and invariably choose the wrong option.

Afterwards, do you go back and analyze both the passage and your thought process to see what led you astray?

b) Find it way too simplistic and rush into the answer.

Does this mean that you overlook the significance of some information or miss things in the argument / passage?

c) Narrow down between two answers and choose the wrong one.

Note: you sometimes choose the right one, too, in this situation. You just don't notice afterwards because those ones are marked "correct" and naturally we all focus on the ones we got wrong. :)

From now on, whenever you narrow to 2 and then have to pick / guess without strong confidence, make a little symbol next to your scrap work for the problem - maybe a star or an asterisk. Afterwards, check all of them (first, just so you can prove to yourself that you actually do get it right sometimes). Next, ask yourself:

1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)

2) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)

Do this analysis *regardless* of whether you answered the question correctly. There's still something to learn even if you did get it right.

You mention using our SC Strategy Guide. What have you been using to learn how to do CR and RC? The only other things you mentioned were sources that have practice problems - but those don't give you the strategies or lessons for HOW to do CR and RC. They just have actual practice problems.

So you need to identify resources for CR and RC. We have a book for each one, of course, and there are other companies out there with their own books and lessons - but you need something that actually teaches you how to do these. :)

I think that's a good start for now - there's a lot for you to do here. If you do have further questions, let us know. Once you feel you've made significant progress on the major issues we've discussed (at least 2-3 weeks), you can take another practice test to see whether you've improved in the targeted areas and, if so, to come up with a new list of things to tackle next!