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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n First: you\u2019re totally normal, and you\u2019re not doomed to get the worst GMAT Verbal score in history. Most people’s GMAT practice test scores go up and down with time, and most people, despite this, end up with a stronger GMAT Verbal score than they started with. <\/span><\/p>\n Yes (probably). A lot of people decide to spend all of their study time on Quant, for various reasons: Quant is more intimidating. Quant comes less naturally. And sure, Quant is important. But a lot of us spend too much time on Quant and not enough time on Verbal.<\/span><\/p>\n This is usually based on a misunderstanding of the GMAT scoring system. Because of the strange system of subscores and percentiles, Quant <\/span>looks <\/span><\/i>way more important than Verbal. However, that\u2019s mostly an illusion. Here\u2019s the low-down on <\/span>how the GMAT scoring system works, and why Verbal still matters<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n One of my least favorite phrases to hear in class is: \u201cYou either know it or you don\u2019t.\u201d People like to say this about Verbal, usually when they\u2019re trying to get out of studying it! But, take it from someone who\u2019s done a lot of Verbal problems over the years: <\/span>GMAT Verbal is not subjective. <\/b><\/p>\n The GMAC spends <\/span>a huge amount of time and money<\/span><\/a> developing and testing GMAT problems. The organization\u2019s goal is to write questions that <\/span>discriminate<\/span><\/i> well. In the standardized testing world, a question that discriminates is one that\u2019s good at telling the difference between high scorers and low scorers. <\/span><\/p>\n For instance, a great GMAT Verbal question would be one that\u2019s answered correctly by everyone with a 35 GMAT Verbal score or above, and incorrectly by everyone with a 34 GMAT Verbal score or below. Real questions aren\u2019t that good\u2014probably\u2014but the GMAT gets as close as it can. <\/span><\/p>\n In order for that to happen, questions have to be designed so that <\/span>it\u2019s always possible for someone who really knows the rules to get them right.<\/b><\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean the rules are obvious, or easy to learn. The rules of GMAT Verbal, especially when it comes to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning, are sometimes counterintuitive and hard to apply. But there <\/span>are<\/span><\/i> rules, and you <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> learn them, just like there are rules for GMAT Quant. If there weren\u2019t, the whole premise of the GMAT\u2014that it reliably tells the difference among test-takers\u2014would break down.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s an important difference between Verbal and Quant. It\u2019s possible to start out knowing <\/span>almost nothing<\/span><\/i> about Quant, because most of us don\u2019t use math rules in our daily lives. On the other hand, if you\u2019re reading this, you already understand written English. And a lot of GMAT Verbal <\/span>is<\/span><\/i> just about understanding written English. By going about your daily life, your Verbal skills stay at a certain level, without you needing to think about it. Let\u2019s call that level your baseline.<\/span><\/p>\n To stay at your baseline, you don\u2019t need to sit around thinking about the rules of grammar or the logic behind arguments. You just do what seems right. If you take a practice GMAT at this point, your GMAT Verbal score will reflect your baseline level of ability.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, you start learning the rules. <\/span><\/p>\n What happens? At first, you aren\u2019t very <\/span>good<\/span><\/i> at the rules. You mix them up or forget them completely. You use the right rule on the wrong problem, or the wrong rule on the right problem. You know you\u2019re supposed to be using the rules, so you try your best, but you\u2019ve only been studying Verbal for a couple of weeks\u2014that\u2019s nothing, compared to how long you\u2019ve been speaking English.<\/span><\/p>\n At this stage, you need to be patient with yourself. You\u2019re trying to solve problems in a new way, and you\u2019re not an expert yet. But with time and practice, you\u2019ll start to see yourself improve\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026and eventually, you\u2019ll end up back at baseline. <\/span><\/p>\n Why even bother, then? If going through all this studying just takes you back to where you started, why wouldn\u2019t you just spend that time on Quant, instead? <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s why. <\/span>Your baseline probably won\u2019t ever change very much on its own <\/b>(at least if you\u2019re a native English speaker, or a very fluent non-native speaker). It\u2019s tough or impossible to change your \u201cear\u201d\u2014if something sounds wrong to you, it won\u2019t just start sounding right. <\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, <\/span>you can always improve your rules knowledge<\/b>, and you can often do so quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n If you have very limited time to study, and you\u2019re starting with a fairly high GMAT Verbal score, it might be better to just focus on Quant. But, if you give yourself enough time, you can make significant gains in Verbal.<\/span><\/p>\n If your GMAT Verbal score goes down, don\u2019t panic, and don\u2019t stop working on it. Verbal matters, and it is possible to improve! Stay tuned for some Verbal study tips in the next article. ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GMAT gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Chelsey Cooley<\/a> Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. First: you\u2019re totally normal, and you\u2019re not doomed to get the worst GMAT Verbal score in history. Most people’s GMAT practice test scores go up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,52871,930,2,10],"tags":[53295,53296],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-gmat-verbal-score","tag-score-decrease"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15372"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15470,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15372\/revisions\/15470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15372"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDoes it even matter?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Is it even possible to improve my GMAT Verbal score?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Okay, fine, I\u2019m studying. Why isn\u2019t it working?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"Chelsey](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2015\/11\/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Chelsey")
<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/i><\/b>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master\u2019s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170\/170 on the GRE.\u00a0<\/em><\/i>Check out Chelsey\u2019s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"