The 1 GMAT Strategy You Need to Know | The GMAT Pill Study Method

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The 1 GMAT Strategy You Need To Know
TheGMATPill | GMAT Prep Tips (About the GMAT)

Many GMAT students mistakenly believe that focusing their study on math is the best strategy to raising their GMAT score.

Sure, if you have a known weakness in math you’ll need to brush up on your math skills and logic. And yes, the GMAT math is significantly more difficult than the SAT math (more emphais on logic and structuring the problem rather than on pure calculation).

But at the end of the day, doing well on the VERBAL section is more important to your overall score than if you did equally well on the MATH section–this is ESPECIALLY true in the 700+ range. If you are targeting this score range, you MUST polish up your verbal section.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some data focusing on the highest levels of scoring: 700+ range
If you score 99th percentile in Verbal (49V), and your Quant score is…
- 39M = 57th percentile = Total (730, 96th percentile)
- 41M = 63th percentile = Total (730, 96th percentile)
- 43M = 70th percentile = Total (740, 97th percentile)
Notice it does not matter how many extra points this student can get on quant. In the end, her score is around the same score of 730 whether her math score is 39 or 43. Doing well in Verbal pays off!

Now is the opposite true? What if a student scores outrageously well in Quant but average in Verbal?
If you score 99th percentile in Math (51V), and your Verbal score is…
- 30V = 57th percentile = Total (670, 85th percentile)
- 32V = 65th percentile = Total (690, 88th percentile)
- 34V = 70th percentile = Total (710, 92nd percentile)
Notice doing extremely well in quant does not guarantee you a good score. In fact, an average score in the 57th percentile for verbal and a perfect quant score only give you a (670, 85th percentile). Doing well in Quant is good, but not as good as doing well in Verbal!

Let me say that again:

Doing well in Quant is good, but not as good as doing well in Verbal!

This is almost ridiculous! A high quant score and average verbal score yields a LOWER score than a high verbal score and an average quant score!

Indeed, the GMAT is biased towards success on the verbal section!!

Why would the GMAT creators do this??

My best guess is one of supply and demand (ah yes, how relevant to an exam for business school). The influx of non-native English speakers from international countries who are strong in quant but weak in verbal and just the plain fact there are more people that are great at quant (where there is always a correct answer) than the numer of people who are familiar with the idiomatic intricacies of the English language and inductive reasoning.

But whatever the TRUE reason is, it does NOT matter. What does matter is what this bias in the GMAT means to you. If your verbal abilities are not strong, then you MUST improve them.

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OK, I believe you. I need to improve my verbal score. But will studying necessarily improve my score?

Yes and no. Depends on how you study. There are people who spend 6 months studying and do not see any improvements on their score. And then there are those (including me but also many others, I’m sure) who scored in the 70th percentile and then studied for 2 weeks and scored in the 98th percentile on the real thing.

You need to target your studying. There are 3 sections to the verbal:
1) Sentence Correction
2) Critical Reasoning
3) Reading Comprehension

By far, the easiest way to boost your score quickly is to ACE the Sentence Correction part of the exam. It’s easier than you think. While the GMAT test makers have unlimited imagination in making questions for critical reasoning and reading comprehension, they can only test you on sentence correction in so many ways. If you master all possible TYPES of questions on the sentence correction AND VARIATIONS on those concepts, then you can go into the test with CONFIDENCE that you will ace the entire sentence correction part of the exam.

You need to take a different mindset when preparing for critical reasoning and reading comprehension. Yes, there are some tips and tricks you can use to help guide you through these sections, but it is much more difficult for any prep program or service to teach you reasoning.

I strongly believe that ANYBODY can master the sentence correction section, but NOT anybody can master the reading comprehension or critical reasoning.

Are you looking to MASTER the sentence correction in AS LITTLE TIME AS POSSIBLE?

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13 responses to “The 1 GMAT Strategy You Need To Know”

Jeff

This is some groundbreaking stuff..good to know
homes3243

Does that mean engineers like me have to fight an uphill battle?
Dennis

Rodman is a tool
Jaideep Joshi

How do I get your prep material?
TheGMATPill

Jaideep, We’ve gotten tons of email asking about that. We are working like crazy to finalize the product, edit in last details, and gather testimonials. We’ll send an announcement to the email list when it’s ready.
Zeke
Mady

I’m taking the test in a few weeks. Can I just pay you a little extra to get it now so I have time to study it?
TheGMATPill

Mady, we don’t accept extra money, but if you would like to participate in our Early User Program for a discounted price in exchange for your feedback and testimonial, please message me directly: zeke@gmatpill.com
Helen

thanks a lot your articles and videos are a tremendous help..looking forward to more..please be quick!
Aaks

Any plans to publish Reading Comprehension pill anytime soon? RC & DS drags my scores down.
TheGMATPill

Aaks, DS will be released in the next week or two–tentatively at midnight on August 31. Sit tight. We won’t have RC ready any time soon, but certainly take a look at CR and SC pills–they are a very useful resource for our students.
TheGMATPill

I’ve been getting emails about Google Chrome and the videos. Turns out Google pushed a new version of their browser just today to eveyone. You’ll have to reinstall Flash player to see everything. Works fine in IE.
Paul

Hi Zeke,

I am taken GMAT a couple of times. Scored 580 and 600. In quants I scored off well, but did very bad in english. Received a raw score of 21. I have been through almost all books available in the market. Pls advice me what should I do. Thanks very much.
Roselyn

hi i had nice experince from an article it was really good, i think it was on sentence correction