Explaining Verbal Score of 7 to ADCOM at interview

[cariblil]

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Verbal Score - 7, Writing S

I was born in Burma, moved here when I was six. English is definitely not my strong suit, but I did pretty decent in my writing section. Longer passages then I practiced, which threw off my groove. Never have been very confident in my verbal reasoning skills, and I basically hid away from English courses as much as possible.

What should I keep? How do I put a positive spin on it? I'm improving my English everyday by...? Is it even a matter of how good my English is?

 

[Dienekes]

Since it will be pretty apparent you are not a native speaker, there probably is no need to bring it up unless the interviewer does first. If I were the interviewer I would not hold it against someone who learned English as a second language nearly as much as I would hold it against the ******* white kid who simply slacked off. As long as you can come across with your speaking and body language as an organized and intelligent person, then you should be fine. However, after a decade of dealing with foreign docs, I can say that your ability to speak clearly and correctly is vital.

 

[Meatwad]

Since English is your second language, I'm sure the VR section was hard. I'm sure the adcoms will realize that when they hear you are from Burma. Plus, I'm sure you are better at conversational English than you think; the Burmese are usually very good with English, to my knowledge (since the Brits were there in the earlier half of the century). Hopefully they will see that you are able to communicate well with others.

 

[flaahless]

Verbal Score - 7, Writing S

I was born in Burma, moved here when I was six. English is definitely not my strong suit, but I did pretty decent in my writing section. Longer passages then I practiced, which threw off my groove. Never have been very confident in my verbal reasoning skills, and I basically hid away from English courses as much as possible.

What should I keep? How do I put a positive spin on it? I'm improving my English everyday by...? Is it even a matter of how good my English is?

Out of 4 schools and a total of 7 interviewers, only 1 interviewer asked me about my 7 in VR. And I said, "I'm not quite sure what happened, maybe I employed the wrong strategy." Then he was like, "Yeah, because you're writing sample is high and your personal statement is very well written as well as your secondary essays, I don't have any concerns about your abilities."

My advice, don't even trip and get caught up trying to come up with a bunch of excuses. Keep it short, simple and let the rest of your application make up for it.

 

[cariblil]

Yes, definitely English was my second language. And I also had plenty of friends encouraging me to apply with a disadvantaged background.

But, I guess its that I moved here when I was so little (at age six).. so can I really claim that is the reason for my difficulties? I guess I need to ask a teacher if after almost 20 years of speaking English, I should still be battling hardships because I learned English as a second language.

 

[Dr.Pdizzle]

It sounds to me like you're looking to make excuses for a 7 on the verbal, which in itself isn't that bad. It's almost as if you're suggesting that if you were a native English speaker, your verbal score would've been significantly higher, which is perhaps true. However, many native English speakers perform poorly on the verbal section, some much worse than you, so who knows? Consider this, the national average on verbal for those who take the exam is an 8, and you scored a 7. This would indicate that your performance is really quite good for someone who isn't a native English speaker.

Thus, I wouldn't start rambling on about your poor verbal score, unless adcoms ask about it, because it might come off as arrogant. A 7 isn't that bad, and considering it's not your first language, it looks pretty good. If you start complaining/making excuses about it and how it would've likely been higher if such and such etc., then that would be bad. 👍

 

[154465]

I moved here when I was 8 and got a 10 on verbal so I personally don't think it's much of an excuse. But, like someone said earlier, just say something along the lines of "I used the wrong strategy" and you should be be ok. Hell, if you make it as far as the interview then you know it didn't have as much of an effect as you believe.

I agree with ya about the longer passages though, they threw me off too.