I'm also an international student and was really worried about my performance in the verbal part. I practiced with the Kaplan flashcards and the Princeton Review book (the strategies are really helpful!) for around 4 weeks, but wasn't very successful at it I ended up with 158 (77%) on the verbal section and hope that it's ok. For my part, I was really happy about the result. My TOEFL scores are fine, too, so I guess it's acceptable.
Good luck, aa57!
ps: First post, yay!