Verbal Score on the GMAT

[NikhilaC177]

Hi All

I have a question regarding the verbal section scores and I would be glad if someone could shed some light on it.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a GMATPrep Practice test and got a 720 (48 Q, 38 V). I was really confused about my Verbal score. I have taken the MGMAT Practice tests and I did much better on the verbal section (I usually got 40-45), with 9-12 700 level questions being incorrect. In the GMATPrep test, I got 9 out of 41 verbal questions incorrect and they were not questions in the very end. The incorrect questions were scattered all over the section. Although GMATPrep does not reveal the difficulty level of these questions, I could tell that the ones I got wrong were certainly not easy or medium level questions. Do you happen to know why the GMATPrep verbal score is low? I feel that to meet the timing on this section, I would have to guess 2-3 difficult questions and there is always a possibility that I will get another 3-4 incorrect. Are there any tips you can give me to improve my verbal score?


Nikhila

[StaceyKoprince]

The GMAT is not scored based on # of correct (or incorrect) questions—so you can't compare different tests based on that. The scoring is based on the relative difficulty levels of the questions you get correct vs. incorrect. (And you can't, unfortunately, see that data.)

Best task is to go back over the ones that you missed and see where you might be able to learn something that you can then answer correctly next time. Look for problems where you look at the answer (or look up an explanation online somewhere) and think, "Oh, yeah, I understand now how that is the correct answer."

Then do this analysis on the problem:
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 was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) 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)
4) why was it actually right?

If you look at a problem and think, "Huh? Why is C the right answer? I totally don't get this one," then leave that one aside. Assume you're going to get it wrong later, too, and you just don't want to waste too much time getting it wrong.

Overall: you got a 720! That's awesome! Seems like you're ready to take the real thing...