Hey all,
This is the mail i wrote to
e-gmat team after my second GMAT attempt. The detailed debrief is posted in the previous post by me.
here it goes.....
Let me first of all thank
e-gmat team for helping me out with my GMAT preparation.
I am happy to tell you that i gave my GMAT (2nd attempt) on 5th august and scored 750 (Q50 V41). This is a huge improvement for me considering my earlier attempt on 23rd march, which yielded only 630 (Q49 V28). I would like to share my entire GMAT experience with you all.
I had joined
e-gmat somewhere in February'2013 (the verbal online course) and had given my first GMAT on 23rd March. I found the verbal online course very well suited to my needs and was pretty pleased with my preparation. I had prepared all the sections of verbal online before taking the GMAT and was doing decent on my mocks (GMAT prep- 710 and 730, Grockit - 670 to 710). I had set a target of 700+ for the GMAT.
On the day of the exam, i steered easily through AWA and IR section. I was doing pretty good in quant till one geometry question stumped me (i guess it was between 10th -15th question). I think i wasted 6-7 minutes on the question (as i was under the impression that this being a tough question, i must be doing great) and finally had to take a guess. I got a bit disappointed and that surely affected my performance on the remaining quant section.
At the end of the quant section, i was slightly taken back with my anticipated performance. But determined to perform well in the verbal section, i calmed myself down, had a chocolate and some water and recalled the concepts taught by
e-gmat. Confident to up my performance, i started the verbal section. First 10-12 questions seemed doable and i took approx 17-18 minutes on them (2 were RC with 4 question and 1 question respectively, and remaining were evenly split between SC and CR). As i progressed, i became more and more confused with the SC questions. I chose answers but was not confident for most of them (there were always some options which i could not eliminate and some which seem to be better then my selection). I completed the section just in time but till the end was not sure of many questions. I was expecting a score just touching 700. Took few seconds on the "report your score" page and decided to go ahead with the scores. When the scores flashed in front of me, i was shocked - Q48 V28 Total 630. The feeling was terrible and of a sinking kind. I cursed myself that how could i do so bad even after all that preparation. And, to be truthful, i thought that
e-gmat course was just another course with no real benefits. With such a feeling i went back home.
It took me almost 3 months to overcome the GMAT punch-in-the-face. Somewhere in June i got back on the track with a mind to give GMAT another shot. Spent 2-3 weeks reading stuff like manhattan, kaplan, wren and martin etc. but was learning nothing new. I had a feeling that i had learned everything i could (in grammar) and no amount of preparation will help me and that maybe i am not as good at this as i thought i would be.
{ just a background info for explaining this thought - I did my btech in chemical engg from IIT-guwahati and joined reliance industries limited in 2010. So the burden of performing up to friends and parent's expectations was always there. They all believed that it would be piece of cake for me to get 700. So you see, the 630 placed extra burden on me this time}
Then came Rajat's mail saying that you at
e-gmat have slashed the price for verbal live prep by some dollars and the offer will be valid only for 2 days. Though i was skeptical to join the add-on, i anyhow took the decision and enrolled. At that time, all your emails flashing the 'fancy' stories of 'extraordinary' students who improved from 600s to 700s seem a little unrealistic to me. I thought, improvement is OK, but can you really improve like a 100 points ? If you had told me at that time that its possible, I would have mocked you. Well, i took my next GMAT appointment and enrolled in your live prep course in june end and started taking the recordings (as i had little time to wait for saturday classes).
I must confess here, the live prep course taught the concepts in such a way that was unimaginable for me. I could feel the difference in my preparation, could feel the clarity coming in my mind. The 3-step process for SC is a sure shot way to get questions correct. I applied this strategy to all my questions and did it blindly. I must must must thank Shraddha and Payal for the excellent sessions, take a bow both of you. The most important point which i would like to mention is that you guys made the difficult terms made so easy to understand (no one in this world would teach using terms such as verb-ed modifiers, verb-ing modifiers, noun+noun modifiers etc). All the appositives, gerunds, reflexives and infinitives can take a toss in front of your methodology. Though i must not say this, but the manhattan and kaplan books have nothing like what you guys teach. With each session, my confidence grew and so did my accuracy. I took a white board and wrote 750 on it (i had not only upped my target by 50 points but also set a very specific target-instead of last time's open ended 700+). My prep went on, i devoted some time on quant to reach 50 in quant. The icing on the cake were the two amazing workshops which you conducted for the first time. I am GLAD you did that. They gave a real insight about my preparation trajectory and highlighted the areas i had to improve. Rajat's CR sessions were superb and the concept of pre-thinking is absolutely a gold mine. The negation test and variance analysis actually helped me during my exam. I could get an accuracy of 88% on the OG12 SC section and 94% on CR section ( and as advised by you, i tracked my mistakes, analyzed every wrong choice as to why it was wrong, followed the 3-step process blindly, in short did everything
e-gmat guys told me to do).
As the date loomed closer, i did a few things to make the exam taking seamless. I had taken the same test center (ahmedabad, gujarat) but changed the slot to morning one. Booked the same hotel (as i live a bit far away from ahmedabad) and the same trains for travelling. My aim was to be as comfortable as i could be on the exam day.
The final few days prior to the exam, i spent my time giving mocks and practicing from grockit, UGEs and OG12. I scored 730/750/760 on the official gmat prep software. Downloaded their additional question bank (and i must say it is very useful). I was more confident this time regarding verbal. One day prior to the exam i took out the notes which i had prepared the last time and i was SHOCKED that they had nothing which i had learned in the past one month - such is the strength of the live prep course. In my march attempt i had taken a week off from office to focus on my prep but this time i took no leaves (we have saturday working). Infact, i never felt like taking a leave because of the clarity in concepts. It is absolutely essential to develop a solving methodology which works for you 90% of the time and to stick to it.
Went to the same hotel the night before the exam (i think they accidentally gave me the same room also) and ordered the same food as last time. The only difference was that i did not worry about the exam. Watched TV and slept early. The next morning, reached the test center even before it had opened and got comfortable to the surroundings. Told myself that i will do great this time.
The AWA and IR section went well. Faced no difficulty in Quant section and this gave me more confidence. In the breaks, i spent 1-2 minutes forgetting what had happened in the previous section and another couple of minutes to build my mind for the next section. Then came the verbal section. First 4 questions were all CR and that too of the type of complete the sentence logically and inference questions. Then came a passage and 4 questions with it and then one SC in the initial 10 questions. Took 16 minutes for the first 10 questions. Then came an array of SC and CR for the next 15-16 questions. Then back to back 2 RC. Till 32nd question i was going pretty good, until i remembered something from last time. One of my friend had told me that if boldface and paradox type questions come in your exam then you are surely above 700 and i had also read it elsewhere. So in the last 10 questions i was hoping, or rather praying, for atleast one boldface or paradox question. But none came. In the last 2-3 questions, a disappointment started building in me (i felt that i had failed to cross the 700 mark as the specific boldface questions never crossed my path). With utter disappointment i ended my test and was taken to report my score page.
I again took 20 seconds to build my mind before clicking on report my score button. Literally closed my eyes to avoid the shock of seeing another <700 score. But when i took a glance at my screen, my god, could not believe what i was seeing Q50 V41 and Total 750
. I had seen the same screen on my second gmat prep mock and it was like deja vu for me. Got up in astonishment and asked for a print out of my score as soon as i came out (just wanted to see the 750 printed on a piece of paper). I was not able to believe that i had scored the exact number which i had written on my white board.
Some reflections after the test:-
1. Write down your target score and tell yourself you can achieve it.
2. Boldface and paradox questions mean you are above 700 - its a myth (one of friend gave gmat and had 2 questions of this type and got 670)
3. be as comfortable as you can be on the exam date, don't over study or you'll get tensed up
4. Take
e-gmat live prep course and follow these guys (i will not be surprised if every gmat taker enrolls for your course, its worth it)
One thing i would urge the
e-gmat team to do is - remove the 4 points guarantee from your course - its an INSULT to your course.
I agree its a great marketing strategy, but i know very well that no one would want the money back once they go through your course. Even if i had not improved by 4 points, i would have not wanted my money back as the learning is worth more that just GMAT points.
And i would urge all the GMAT takers to take
e-gmat course. I have already advised 4 of my friends and my sister to join your course.
I guess i have ranted a lot but seriously, THANK YOU team
e-gmat for all the help and advise.
People say its no magic to score well on GMAT and you need to work hard.
I say, what you at
e-gmat do is pure MAGIC.
Thank a lot again guys.
Rajat, kindly convey my thanks to Shraddha, Payal and Chiranjeev as well.
Looking forward to interact with you guys more.
Regards
Bhagawat Rawat