Hello,

I´m doing the online practice tests and I´m having serious trouble with the verbal part. In maths I´m ok getting between 44-49 wich is more or less what I expect in the real exam, but my scores in verbal are constant arround 33. I need to boost them until 40 or so because I would love to get arround 700 in the exam, at least above 650. I think the mayor cause is that I´m not a native English speaker, that is for sure the most important point, but another cause is that I get quite tired after almost 2 hours of exam.

Do you have a piece of advide in order to help me to improve mi verbal skills? I would appreciate it a lot.

I also have a doubt in Manhattan GMAT prep. Computer Adaptative Exam 4A. Question number 6:

The pigments used in modern oil paints are different than the ones used in older paints because they are more lightfast and vibrant.
are different than the ones used in older paints because they are
differ from those used in older paints in that the modern ones are
are different than those used in older paints because the modern ones are
are different from the ones used in older paints on account of being
differ from the ones used in older paints because they are

The question says B is correct and the explanation talks about the plural pronoun “they” explaining that it is ambiguous: "they" could refer to the older pigments or to the modern pigments.

But it is not the pigments that are modern or older, it is the paintings... isnt it?


Thank you!!!

Ignacio

Re: verbal, I would need to know a lot more information about your strengths and weaknesses to advise you. We spend something like 13 hours in class going over verbal, plus we have hours of supplementary material, so with a general question like "how do I get better in verbal?" I could write for a really long time. :)

Are you taking the tests on your own or are you in a class or doing tutoring? If you have an instructor, you can talk to him or her about your more specific weaknesses and get some feedback. If you are just working on your own, you can try to diagnose your strengths and weaknesses yourself and then come back here and ask a more specific question. Alternatively, you could do an hour or two of private tutoring to get an instructor to help you with this (I typically spend 1-2 hours going over the first test with a new tutoring student and figuring out a study plan based on his / her performance - although it doesn't end there - we continue to tweak that over the course of our study together as the student takes more tests).

If you're studying on your own and just can't figure out how to tackle the verbal, you may need to ultimately take a class or do some tutoring. I hate to suggest that b/c I have an obvious conflict of interest, since I work for a company that does this work. But, if it's just not happening on your own, you may need some outside help.

Re: the test question you posted, the question itself does not mention paintings. So the designation of modern or older has to apply to either the pigments in the modern paints or the pigments in the older paints.

Could you please explain the difference between B and C on this one? I would have picked B but do not see a clear distinction between the two.

Thanks for your help! I love the forum and the great explanations.

The distinction between answer choices B and C is idiomatic. The proper idiom is different from, not different than. Thus, answer choice C can be eliminated.

-dan