Seeking help, really lost to improve my GMAT score.

[xinghaipeng1984]

I have taken GMAT two times and score 640 (M51, V25) & 650 (M51, V26), AWA: 5.5 and I am a non-native english speaker.
I encountered the similar problems for both tests as below:

1. Time is seriously not enough for real test although I could finish during simulation practices before (without rushing): Only 11 mins left for my last 10 questions. I did use stopwatch for my usual practice and my pace seems quite ok.

2. RC part is my worst of worst, generally I will spend around 2-3 mins reading the passage and I can understand briefly the meaning of the passage but feel like very confused with those questions. Most of my time are actually wasted in RC part during real test.

3. I feel that SC part is quite different from the past practices I have done as well, which normally can take split & resplit strategy easily, and normally I can eliminate a few choices using idioms such as not only..........but also..........., either........or........., but most of the real test SC questions don't come in this style.

4. CR is ok for me except the passage is longer than those of practices.

The key problem for me seems to be the timing problem once much more time is spent in RC, therefore little time will be left for CR and SC, and I have to rush or even skip CR & SC part.

My aim is 700+ so that I could apply top schools, I have studied Manhattan GMAT SC and improved a lot from this book, however I feel I am still not prepared for the real test. once there are no obvious grammar errors or no obvious patterns for splitting & re-splitting.

I have just ordered Manhanttan GMAT RC part and hopefully I could improve based on this book. Previously I mainly depend on OG Official guide 12 and Verbal review, another reason of my failure may because those questions are a bit easier compared with real test.

However I am still quite lost with my future preparation and any advices are appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Johnny

[tomslawsky]

the reading comprehension on the GRE is about the same as the GMAT. Download the GRE Powerprep and do the verbal part for more computer adaptive practice.

[rkim81]

I imagine that because you are not a native speaker of English you've taken the TOEFL test. You can tackle GMAT RC as if you would TOEFL RC, and as the above post suggests GRE. Here's what I do personally for RC.

I never look at the first question. I do this because if I look at the question, then start to read I am only looking for the answer for that question and everything else becomes irrelevant to me. So, like MGMAT suggest, make a skeleton sketch of the passage.

Think of yourself as a hawk when doing RC. You want to look at RC at a high altitude, then swoop down to catch the mouse in a crowded forest. The first thing I do is skim the first and last sentence of each paragraph. This gives me a general idea of the topic discussed and the organization of the passage (of course very general) Then, I read the introduction. I rarely take notes on the introduction unless the main idea is explicitly stated. While I read, always pay close attention to how the author phrases things to get a feel for his/her attitude towards the topic. This becomes extremely beneficial for tone questions.

For the next paragraphs, the first thing I take note on is the main idea/thesis/topic sentence of the paragraph. Then list the points the author uses to prove/disprove the main idea/thesis/topic sentence. One thing you should hone is what to write and what not to write to save time. Since you've done a map of all the paragraphs, and know where all the information is, jotting down obscure statistics doesn't really help you at all. After I've done this on the first question, about 3-4 minutes have passed by. But because I've comprehended everything, summarized each paragraph mentally and by using notes, I know where all the information I need is and therefore every question after the first can take less than a minute to solve. I know where the mouse is because I've been looking at it from a far.

GMAT RC is tougher than TOEFL because of the phrasing in its questions. So you may or may not have to expand your vocabulary base. But one thing is for sure, make sure that you can justify every answer choice you believe is correct. If the question says "business plan" and the issue discussed is NOT a business plan then you are looking at the wrong answer.

Remember, when you are reading, your are not doing a passive activity. Be active when you read by trying to predict the questions. So you're reading the passage and then it strikes you that "HEY! The test will probably ask me a question on this!" Then you're on good ground.

Hope this helps and good luck in your prep.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry I'm only getting to your post now; I've been on vacation since 15 Dec.

Time is seriously not enough for real test although I could finish during simulation practices before (without rushing): Only 11 mins left for my last 10 questions.

I assume you mean for verbal, given that your quant score is fantastic? We really need to figure out where you're losing that time. Have you taken an MGMAT CAT lately? If so, you can use this article to help you figure out where you might be losing time:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests

The basic idea is that you need to go look at the time you spent on every single problem on practice tests - it's not enough just to know that you finished the section on time. If you are spending too long on some problems, and then speeding up on others to make up for it, you're probably going to get in trouble on the real test, because a lot of people tend to slow down a bit on everything on the real test (because now you know it really counts!).

Do you feel as though you struggle with RC on practice tests and in the OG as well? Or is it only on official tests?

For RC, I'd like you to try an exercise.  Go back to problems / passages you've already done from OG (recently) and go over them again with your notes from when you first did these.  Now that you've done the problems, checked your answers, and generally know how things were supposed to work, go back and look at (a) what you initially wrote down on your first read-through and (b) what your understanding of the passage was before you started answering questions.  How well do (a) and (b) match what you knew of the passage and questions after you'd done the questions and gone back to correct your answers and analyze everything?  Probably not very well, right?  OK, where are the disconnects?  Did you misunderstand the main point of the passage?  Or did you understand the main point but fall into a trap when reading the answers to the question?  Did you misunderstand the detail for a specific question?  Or did you concentrate on the wrong detail?  Or did you examine and understand the right detail but fall into a trap when reading the answers?  Etc.  Basically, you need to figure out WHY this area is tough for you so that you can do something about it.  What, specifically, is causing you to get these wrong?  Then you can tackle whatever that is (and if you need advice about how to tackle the issue once you figure out the WHY, just come back here and we'll discuss!).

For SC, if I were to show you ONLY the answer choices, would you be able to tell me which issues that problem is testing? It's important to be able to recognize what issue a particular difference signals. Try this exercise (again, with OG questions): don't read the original sentence. Compare the answer choices. Make a list of which rules you think are being tested based upon the differences in the answers. Read the OG explanation or, if you have our book, look at the chapter in the book that lists what issues are being tested (if you have version 4 of our book, that'll be in chapter 14). If you missed any, go back and take a look again to see what difference should have signaled that particular rule to you.

Note that you may not be able to decide which is the right answer - often, that involves matching to something in the non-underlined portion and you're not even looking at the non-underlined portion. You'll probably be able to eliminate some of the choices, though.

Previously I mainly depend on OG Official guide 12 and Verbal review

Just FYI - those are fantastic sources for practice questions, but they will not teach you how to get better. It's good that you have the SC book and you'll soon have the RC book. You may also want to identify a book that will help you get better on the CR portion of the test.