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Improving your GMAT Verbal Score

There are two different lenses through which to view improving your GMAT Verbal Section. The first is tackling and digesting the questions strategically. The second is by stepping back and recognizing why you may find it difficult to rapidly improve your score.

First of all, you must be clear about not only what you have read but also what the questions are asking you.

The Question

Read the questions first. A hurdle of Reading Comprehension is filtering through the passage to find the most pertinent information. These passages can be lengthy, making it difficult to pinpoint the material needed to answer the questions. Occasionally, test writers are transparent and direct you to specific lines of the passage. When this isn’t the case, reading the questions first can serve you well. This is called guided reading. Once you are acquainted with the questions, as you read the passage you can more easily identify the information needed to answer them. In essence, the questions can guide you through the reading to the most relevant parts.

Beyond reading the questions, pause to recognize what the question is asking you. On timed tests, we are inclined to work swiftly; moving too quickly can produce errors not only in our answers, but in our ability to comprehend the questions, which is necessary to answer them correctly. We have all come across questions which are straightforward besides the addition of a word like, EXCEPT. Most certainly, the answer choices contain the answer we would pick had we not seen this caveat. This is the type of careless mistake you cannot afford to make. These questions are designed to see how well you perform under pressure. Are you able to work quickly while simultaneously paying close attention to details, helping you to ultimately arrive at the right answer? These skills are invaluable and necessary for both improving your GMAT Verbal and succeeding as a professional school student.

Reading and Retention

During reading comprehension sections, when you encounter a particularly long passage, pause after each section to quickly summarize the preceding paragraph in a single sentence. This will help you to internalize the main ideas as you progress through the reading, rather than reaching the end only to realize you retained very little of what you’ve just read.

It Takes Time

The second lens through which to view your preparation for the GMAT is by stepping back and recognizing why progress might be slow for improving your GMAT Verbal. With the Quantitative section, which paradoxically is where many students seem to be the most stressed, you can work with a tutor to make rapid progress as concepts previously completely foreign to you are explained clearly and digested. It is more difficult to make significant gains over a short period of time in the Verbal section, because Reading Comprehension skills are generally built slowly over time and involve a certain degree of intuition. These skills are developed gradually by those who are constant readers and writers, in and outside of their educational and professional careers. There are certain individuals who were always more inclined to read books, newspapers, and other publications beyond school assignments and in turn constantly developed their ability to read and digest large amounts of writing and to cohesively recall the main ideas.

However, if this has not been the case for you, don’t lose hope about improving your GMAT Verbal.

There are things you can do to work on your reading comprehension skills, such as reading The Economist or The New York Times, or other publications with high level writing and content. When reading these publications, work to recall the main idea of the text. What are the themes and the major points? Was the article merely informative or was it argumentative and trying to sway the reader to take a position? Incorporating these types of activities into your daily routine will help you increase your reading comprehension skills and the rate at which you digest and decipher information over time. Practice these behaviors for at least 3-6 months before expecting any major improvement in your skills.

Recognizing the time and investment it takes to improving your GMAT Verbal score speaks to the overall idea that deciding to attend Business school, the preparation for taking the GMAT, and the completion of your overall application isn’t something to be taken lightly or done on a whim. Make sure to map out the right MBA application timeline for you. Just as it takes time, hard work, and dedication to earn an MBA, it also takes time, hard work, and dedication to properly prepare for and perform on the GMAT, ultimately helping you to earn a spot at the best Business school possible.

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About the Author

Lisa Alvarado is a Managing Tutor with MyGuru. She holds a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters Degree in History with a focus on the historic studies of race, ethnicity, and gender from Purdue University. As a tutor, Lisa enjoys guiding students through the college application process and begins instilling the skills necessary to apply to and succeed in college long before the application process even begins.

MyGuru is a recognized leader in 1‐1 tutoring and test prep and has a particular focus on delivering customized 1‐1 GMAT tutoring.