how to improve verbal score? reading more or something else?

[vipul_ohri]

abc

[StaceyKoprince]

Improving your reading skills can certainly help - though I have to tell you that this will usually take longer than 15-20 days. Typically, if you want to follow a general reading program to improve those skills, you'll be looking at months, not a few weeks.

In the shorter term, it is often easier to improve SC (and, to some extent, CR). Do your best to be able to understand at least the main idea on RC passages so that you can be pretty certain to get at least one of the 3 or 4 questions right, and then make sure that you do NOT LOSE TIME on RC. Your performance is lower there anyway - might as well get them wrong faster so that your performance on SC and CR isn't pulled down as a result.

Here are some sources that have writing styles similar to passages found on the GMAT:
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/ - particularly articles in the "Investigations" tab
http://harvardmagazine.com/
http://sciam.com/ (This can get a bit too casual for the GMAT, but it's probably worth including if you don't like science passages on the GMAT.)

also could you please guide me with the number of wrong questions(each section) acceptable for a good gmat score.....

This doesn't exist. Most people answer somewhere between 50 and 70% of the questions correctly in each section, regardless of score. Understand before you go in that you absolutely will get a lot of questions wrong - it doesn't matter how good you get. That's just how the test works. Accept that fact and let questions go when you get questions that are too hard for you (that will definitely happen, too, no matter how good you get!).

[vipul_ohri]

abc

[StaceyKoprince]

You should not continue to read novels - that kind of material is not very similar to the kind of stuff that appears on the RC portion of the test. If you'd like, you can do some reading via the sources I recommended - I would do some of that, but I would spend more time on SC and CR, given that you have only about 20 days.

You're in the right general range already, although obviously it would be reassuring to have practice test scores that are higher - the higher, the better, right? :)

On verbal, besides the obvious (knowing all of the grammar for SC, knowing the appropriate techniques for the different CR and RC question types), you should also analyze the right vs. wrong answers.

Ask yourself these questions (even if you got the question right!):
- why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible - and if you got this one right, pick the wrong answer you think would be most tempting)
- why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook (or how might someone overlook) those clues the first time?
- why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why was the answer actually okay - what was my error (or what would be the error) in thinking that it was wrong?
- why was it actually right?

If you understand the answers to this level of detail, that should help you feel more comfortable in that section.

[vipul_ohri]

abc

[StaceyKoprince]

When you take practice tests, take them under official conditions. DO NOT use unlimited time and do not use the pause button.

Basically, the results you get when using unlimited time are close to meaningless. No, the real test will not be at such a high level throughout, because you will not be answering so many questions correctly. You will be given questions that you cannot do in the expected 2-minute timeframe, and you will either move on by making a guess (which is what you should do), or you will hang on too long and then get other questions wrong later because you run out of time (which is what you should not do). Either way, you are not going to have such a hard mix of questions throughout because you will be getting more questions wrong. By using unlimited time, you created an artificial situation that can never happen on the real test.

So, whatever practice tests you use in the future, take them under full official conditions - do the essays (because you need to practice stamina), take only 8-minute breaks between sections, and do the two multiple-choice sections in 75min each.

If I have calculated correctly, you only have about 5 or 10 days before you take the real test, right? I don't recommend taking practice tests more frequently than once a week, and I don't recommend taking practice tests within 5 days of the real test. So you may want to take ONE more test, but that's about it. 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 NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve.