I'm sorry that you had a disappointing test experience. As you noted, your quant score was about what you should have expected based on your practice scores, but your verbal score was not.
First, did you take the practice tests under 100% official test conditions, including the essay and IR sections and the length and number of breaks? And did you do the IR and essay sections using the same level of effort as you did on the real test?
If not, then it is possible that your practice scores were artificially inflated, unfortunately. A lot of mental energy goes into the GMAT, and the verbal is the final section, so if you are not prepared for the 3.5+ hour mental slog, then your verbal score is likely to suffer.
Alternatively, is it possible that you studied too much in the 3 to 5 days leading up to the real exam? People do that sometimes and burn themselves out. When they get to the real test, they mentally "crash" before the test is over. Symptoms of mental fatigue are described here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... you-crazy/Could that have contributed to your performance problem on verbal?
You don't mention any particular materials for RC. What did you use to learn how to get better at RC? Also, you mention that you liked the SC materials you had, but you don't say anything about how much you liked the CR materials. You do say later that you are clueless as to what's going on with CR. Does that mean that you think you need different CR materials to study next time?
Note: you need materials in particular that will teach you how to get better at CR and RC. Then, you will go back and study from those OG and GMATPrep problems again. You haven't learned everything that you could learn from them yet!
Are you planning to buy the GMAT Enhanced Score Report? If so, share the data from the verbal section with us here. You can also use an MGMAT test to help you analyze your strengths and weaknesses.
First, read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoninghttp://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmatThink about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.
Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcatsBased on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)
p.s. I'm not entirely following your question with the quant example. You seem to be asking whether it's possible to mathematically / with 100% certainty solve verbal the way you solve math. Verbal is different than math; it asks you for the
best answer, not the
right answer. It's not as purely objective as math is.
p.p.s. At the end you say that you want to score above 40 on verbal. V40 is the 90th percentile; it is an extremely high score. If you kept your quant 48 and scored 40 on verbal, you would actually be scoring better on the verbal than on the quant! In other words, don't try to get all of your improvement from the verbal; plan to get some of your overall score improvement from quant as well.
