650(85%),Q50,V27, I need help on the Verbal section

[Winee]

The maths section in this month was extremely difficult, and I met lots of difficult problems in the first 20 questions, and after that section, I even felt that I must have made many errors, but the result was just the opposite,it proved that I did quite well on that section. During the Verbal section, I felt quite well, and I thought I could expect a high score on it, and the result was also the opposite as well. This is really weird.
I've done the whole Official Guide on the logic and Sectence Correction section. But it proved that all my work doesn't work for me very well. Can anyone who did well on the Verbal section advise me what books to use to prepare for it?????????????

[ursula]

Hi Winee,
If you found the math extremely difficult, that may have affected your attitude and concentration going into the verbal (even though it actually turned out that you did an awsome job on the quant!)

Did you do the Official Guide Reading Comprehension? reading comprehension accounts for a significant portion of the questions in the verbal section, so if you're having trouble with reading comprehension, it can really drag down your score.

Also, how did you do in the verbal section on PowerPrep? Was your actual GMAT verbal score in line with your prep scores? If the verbal score on your actual GMAT was a lot lower than during prep, your problem may have been emotions/concentration more than prep.

Also, did you do a few full-length practice tests, including writing the essays? Some people don't bother with the essays during practice, and then end up running out of steam during the verbal section on the real exam. It takes a lot of stamina to keep your concentration level at its peak for two AWA essays, the quant, and the verbal.

You asked about prep: I scored 46V using just Official Guide and the general Kaplan GMAT book for strategy, but my verbal was strong to start with (47 on PP1, before starting with OG). So I believe my high score is really more the result of long-term skill development rather than exam prep.

[Winee]

<font face="Verdana"></font id="Verdana">Hello ursula,
Thank you for your advice. I did not take the reading comprehension on the Official Guide, so that may have induced my poor performance on the actual test. But I took some practice on other prep materials, and I did well on them. But during the real test, especially when I meet the first reading comprehension at the 5th question, I was panic and found that I couldn't find the answer from the passage, which took me lots of time.
BTW, how long does it take you to finish one passage with 4 questions?? Do you read the whole passage from beginning to the end, no matter how long it is?

[ursula]

Hi Winee,
If you didn't do reading comprehension in Official Guide, that's where I would focus my energy. Most people who've taken the test recently have reported 4 reading comprehension passages (one person even reported 5!). Often two passages appeared back-to-back, and one passage appeared very late in the test. So if you're not comfortable with reading comprehension, it can really cause you to panic in the verbal section.

I would stick with the Official Guide material, since that's the most similar to the real thing. Other test prep materials just have a slightly different feel than the stuff authored by ETS.

I always read through the entire passage first. On average, I would say it takes me probably about 10 minutes for an reading comprehension passage with 4 questions (but the time varies with the length of the passage).

You may find it useful to try out some of the reading comprehension strategies I had posted in this thread:
http://www.TestMagic.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10371