How can I improve verbal from 26-32 to 40? Help please!

[himanshu.m1986]

July end:
GMAT Prep 610 (Q48, V28) - Without any preparation

InAugust
I thoroughly reviewed MGMAT SC, CR and RC.
Solved SC and CR from OG-12. Got to a very good accuracy...In CR it was around 90% except for minor type questions...

August end:
Gave few verbal tests
5 GMAT 800 score (between 26 and 31)
2 Princeton review (650, Q51, V28) (680, Q51,V31)
Haven't solved any MGMAT tests because before I appear for those exams I want to throughly prepare myself...(Not sure whether it is a right way to prepare for GMAT)

In SC my accuracy is good and I am not having any timing issues.

I am having timing issues in RC and CR because when I solved OG I dint time myself and was spending 2-3 sometimes 4 mins per Q..was just trying to familiarize myself with kind of questions that are asked and logic that I should use to answer them. But now I am having hard time to apply those logic and answer these questions in less than 2 mins.

I need to improve my reading speed along with comprehending it properly because when I review my answers after the test most of the time I screw up because I was trying to speed up and comprehended the question or a particular option incorrectly. It happens in both RC and CR...In RC I answer the general questions correctly..I screw up in specific questions specially "Acc to passage which of the following are correct" type...where I need to refer to many paragraphs of the RC.

I gave mock online tests to check my reading(not sure how accurate they are)
147 wpm 80% comprehension.
240 wpm 60% comprehension.

I still got 2 months to improve my verbal score. Target GMAT score is 720+..my quant score is consistent still I am working on DS type questions to keep my score that way. I spend around 5-6 hours daily on Quant and Verbal both...more on verbal because thats the area I need to improve.

[StaceyKoprince]

Good data, thanks. Let's see. First, do some reading every single day to improve your reading speed without sacrificing so much in comprehension. See this article for help:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... rehension/

Next, we have to make sure you're reading in the right way - reading enough, but not too much. See these two articles for help:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage

Note: the reading style advocated in the above two articles is NOT necessarily something you should use for grad school - unless your teacher hands you something and tells you you have 3 minutes to read it. :) This is just what we need to do for this test.

The above will help you with comprehension for CR as well. Next, for CR, it's important to make sure that you know how to recognize each kind of question and that you know exactly what you're trying to do for each type. See this article for help:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/C ... n-type.cfm

And for specific CR question types:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/10/ ... -questions
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... cr-problem
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/04/ ... en-problem
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... cy-problem
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... on-problem
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... ce-problem

You should know, before you even begin reading the argument, exactly what type of CR question you have, and exactly what you're supposed to do with questions of that type (including the common trap answers).

Next, when you evaluate answers on ANY verbal question, on your 1st pass through answers: place answers into 1 of 2 categories, definitely wrong or maybe. DO NOT decide whether something is right at this stage. On your 2nd pass through: look only at whatever you haven't already eliminated. When you are down to two answers on verbal, look at each answer ONCE more, then pick one and move on. That process will help you to streamline everything.

Questions? Let me know! :)

[himanshu.m1986]

Hi Stacey thanks for your response..

I have gone through all the above mentioned topics...

RC:
For RC I have planned a strategy which has been working (more often then not) for me...I read the first Q.If it is a global Q then I read the whole passage quickly (2-3) mins and then ans that Q and move on to next 1..If it is specific type Q then I read till d point where I can ans d first Q and then I move on to the next Q and follow the same strategy..@ times it does backfire. But it helps me to finish RC in 6-8mins with accuracy of 60-70%

When I encounter Q's such as which of the following are true acc. to the passage..I try to eliminate the options but I make sure not to spend more than 1 1.5 mins because most of time I get them wrong anyways..So better to move on and give more time to other Q's...

I Would like to know your views on this strategy as I don't read the passage at one go. Is it the right thing to do.

CR:
Since my RC timing has improved I tend to spend around 2 - 2.5 mins on CR and it has really helped me a lot...my accuracy has jumped to 75-85%(Got all CR's correct in one of test).

Another Observation:
when RC is in paragraph format..with more number of words per line my accuracy is much higher than when RC comes in line no. format. It could be either a physiological effect since paragraph format RC tends to look smaller or could be because Newspaper, Articles etc are in paragraph format and I am so accustomed to reading such materials hence flow could be much better. Could you please tell me how RC appear on real GMAT (paragraph or line no.) because RC's in GMAT prep are in Paragraph format but in OG-12 both are present.

[StaceyKoprince]

For RC, if the strategy works for you in terms of giving you good enough accuracy in a reasonable amount of time, then that's fine. But are you still trying to get better? Or do you just want to maintain that level? If you want to get better at RC, then the approach you're using is limited.

For CR, are you still *averaging* 2m? You can go to 2.5m on some if you are spending only 1.5m on others... that is, as long as the average is around 2m. Otherwise, part of your task is to learn how to be more efficient with those. (Are there certain CR types that tend to take you longer? Which ones? Do you think you spend more of your time trying to understand the argument or trying to understand and eliminate answer choices? Where do you struggle the most?)

On the real test, RC will not have line numbers - it'll just be paragraphs of text. It will look similar to GMATPrep.

[himanshu.m1986]

Hi Stacey,
Yes I am trying to improve myself on RC..mostly trying to improve my accuracy on "except type" and inference Q's...During the test I solve 2 RC's by reading the whole passage(spending more time) and 2 RC's using my strategy and then evaluate my performance...In the recent mock test..I got 7 except type Q's got only 2 of them correct..Still managed to score 33 in verbal...Well my strategy works for General Q's and Simple detail type Q's but to score 40 in verbal I guess GMAT generally throws more inference and except type Q's..

I answer most the CR Q's in 1.5 - 2 mins..But for tough ones and bold types I spend around 2-2.5 mins.. in my earlier post what I meant was since I save some time on RC's I can afford to spend extra mins on Touch CR Q's.

[StaceyKoprince]

7 except type questions? That's more than half of your RC questions - the real test won't do that to you.

That wasn't our test, was it? Let me know.

Yes, as I said, it's tough to push your score to 40+ using that strategy... which means learning how to balance your time better. On those tough CRs where you approach 2.5m... how's your actual performance? Go back and look at the data over time - is it really helping you to spend that extra time? Are there certain categories where you're tending to spend extra time AND you're tending to score less than about 60% correct? If so, some of those should just be "this is too hard, I need to guess now" questions, so that you don't end up essentially bailing on two complete RC passages!

[himanshu.m1986]

No, That wasn't MGMAT test..I wont disclose the name though..Glad to know real test won't test my weakness extensively...
Now I am able to solve RC's in allocated time..while reading the whole passage @ once, but I am still falling into Traps..I am making note of those traps..Hopefully would be able to reach my target score of 40+


For CR
I follow the strategy to try and answer in 2 mins..otherwise make an educated guess and move on...But sometimes it does go a little bit over 2 mins..Tough my accuracy in those CR's are around 50-60%...Sometimes the Q is really tough...sometimes the Q or the relevant option is hard to comprehend..

My GMAT is on 29th Oct..and now I do reach my target score of 700..So in 2 weeks would be trying to go beyond my target score.

I got 36V in my recent MGMAT test..happy to cross 32-33 levels..but still improvement is reqd to reach 40..

[StaceyKoprince]

Good, make a note of the traps and then take that a step further. Why did I fall into this trap? What was it specifically that led me astray? Why did I think the right answer was wrong? Why did the wrong answer look better than the right answer? Really dig into how the test writers were able to tempt you away from the right answer and towards a wrong answer - and then you won't be as likely to fall into those traps!

It's okay to go a bit over 2m on CR as long as you're answering faster on others. Anything between about 1.5 and 2.5m is fine as long as you're averaging 2m overall. Don't go much beyond 2.5m though, because then you have to go too fast on some other question to make up for it, and that's a really bad trade-off. (because you'd only spend > 2.5m if the question is really hard, so you're more likely to get it wrong anyway - so why sacrifice another question for that?)

36V is great and it sounds like you're on the right track. You're just going to need to keep working at it - I can't tell you "do this and that'll guarantee you a 40 in 2 weeks" - that's just too hard. You may get there, but I also have to be honest and tell you that most people would need more time. For the most part, where we're scoring about 10 days before the real test is about where we should expect to be scoring on the real test.

See this article:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/09/ ... e-mistakes

[himanshu.m1986]

Thanks, Stacey..
Reached 38V (720 overall) in MGMAT 5..So now I have a belief that I can get there..Most of my mistakes were like..I just missed d word "NOT" or some of these words, and it changes ur mind to check for the option in completely different direction......Hardly few Q I felt were very difficult rest were just silly mistakes..I hate that with jss a week to go I am making such stupid mistakes..
I finish my verbal in 73-74 mins..So no timing issues..Just hoping I could reflect my efforts in the real test.

[StaceyKoprince]

Make sure that you also balanced your time well between questions - you can finish the section on time and still have timing problems.

Were there any on which you went way over (more than about 30 seconds over the expected average for that Q type)? If so, what did those questions cost you elsewhere in the section? It's really important to prove the "pain" to yourself with the data; that'll help you cut things off in future when you know you need to do so.

For careless errors, yes, need to work on those. Look for patterns. Ask yourself what you could have done differently to avoid the error. If you missed a word like "not" (which usually indicates a change of direction), start doing something every time you spot a change of direction. Make a mark on your scrap paper, write down the word BUT in capital letters, etc.

Good progress in general, it sounds like - keep up the good work!