From 640 to 730: A doctor's experience

Hello everyone, I started my GMAT journey back in July 2019, a few months after completing my MBBS. I am currently in my second year of residency at reputed institute in India. This was only my second attempt in this span of 2 years. Multiple obstacles later, I finally secured a 730 this 1st of August. Though the journey was rough, it did help me discover a lot about myself.

Phase 1:
I joined Jamboree in July 2019. I had planned to get done with the GMAT by November 2019 as I also had my post-graduation entrance exam in December. Jamboree really helped a lot. Coming from a medical background, I had not been in touch with quant for more than 5 years. The RC passages, especially the social sciences and humanities, were something that I was not accustomed to reading. Jamboree really helped me get over this initial fear. It took some time to improve on these aspects. I was not satisfied with my preparation by November and thus decided to postpone the attempt. But, till mid-2020, I got busy with entrance exams and admissions, hence I could not proceed with my preparation.

Phase 2:
After joining, I started my preparation once again. I opted for Target Test Prep and e-GMAT (Verbal). This time, I planned to take the exam in February or March of 2021. Though, I worked hard on my quant, I was not too focused on the verbal. I did not opt for e-GMAT’s Mentorship program (a big mistake which I later realized). I focused on quantity and not on quality. Things were going well but unfortunately, in January, I got very busy at the hospital. Again, my preparation got affected.

The First Attempt: 640
I decided that I would take the test whatever be the level of preparation. I booked an appointment for March 8 (GMAT Online). I had taken the two GMAT Prep mocks and got 640 and 690 in the first and second respectively. So, I was expecting a score around 670 and at the most, a 700. The verbal section turned out to be disastrous. I scored a 640 with Q48 and V30. But this thing, pinpointed the issues that I faced. This was mainly with reading. I got stuck in a passage related to astronomy (around question 13-14) and ended up wasting 8-10 mins trying to comprehend the passage. Furthermore, I could not complete 5 questions in the quant section and around 6 questions in the verbal section. Clearly, I had to change quite a few things.

The Last Lap: e-GMAT to the rescue
I decided that trying too many materials won’t do much help. So, I subscribed to the e-GMAT Online course. By this time Target Test Prep with its huge collection of quant questions had already instilled a sense of confidence in the quant section. Within a few days the e-GMAT team got me connected with Archit for the mentorship program. I took a Sigma X mock test and scored a 670. Based on that Archit crafted a detailed study plan so that I could be ready in 2-3 months. From going through all the course material to multiple cementing quizzes, he made sure that I filled up my conceptual gaps. For analyzing the mock tests, Archit recorded personalized videos and pinpointed the areas I needed to focus. This was really helpful as he actually accessed my account and showed me the portions where I needed to improve. He always got in touch to see if I got stuck in case, I exceeded the deadlines by too many days. To sum up, the hard work would not have paid off, had Archit not organized it in such a detailed way. The “Ask an expert” feature was also amazing. I used it more for the quant sections. From clarifying doubts to asking about alternate processes, they always got back within 24 hours.

Section wise approach and how e-GMAT and TTP helped:

Quant:
Data Sufficiency: GMAT loves this question type. If the exam starts bombarding you with DS questions (I don’t mean with extremely easy ones), then be rest assured that your exam is going well. But to master DS, basic concepts need to be in place. TTP or e-GMAT, both will strengthen your basics immensely. I got the chance to use both, so I used techniques that suited me from either of the courses. For those not having a background in quant, I would suggest you practice a lot of questions. This will help you recognize the type of questions better. I had completed the entire TTP Quant question bank before my first attempt itself (Q48). Questions in GMAT always follow a pattern. The e-GMAT DS collection really helps with this pattern identification. Their Hard questions are really disgusting with very subtle twists. But they are equally helpful. See, DS is all about WHETHER THE SUM CAN BE SOLVED AND NOT ABOUT SOLVING THE SUM. So, if you can identify the patterns, you really do not need too much time to reach the answer.

Problem Solving:
Nothing much in this. Just traditional mathematics. Organizing the data clearly in the scratchpad is key. So its best that you get yourself a scratchpad and pen from Amazon and use it for any

Sentence Correction:
Meaning, meaning, and meaning. That is the safest and the most effective way out. During my initial days, I used the split method and that really affected my performance. I started using the meaning-based approach after coming across some of the solutions from e-GMAT on the GMAT Club. I was thorough with the approach by the time I started the last phase and so I could apply it effectively during this last round of practice.

Critical Reasoning:
As in SC, I had encountered the prethinking approach in the GMAT Club from an e-GMAT post. This approach is fantastic. But doing a strategic review of the mistakes is more important. The strategic review videos in e-GMAT really helps for those not too accustomed to maintaining error logs properly, especially the code structure and the template that they provide alongside. CR also follows typical frameworks. It is important to recognize such frameworks and apply them effectively in new questions. The CR questions in the e-GMAT question bank are very similar to the GMAT frameworks and thus are very effective in presenting the frameworks in different ways.
Tip: Doing dozens of questions won’t help. The quality of the analysis is the most important factor for acing CR questions.


Reading Comprehension:
I did not use too many of the questions from the question bank in e-GMAT. I had to work on my reading. 2-3 articles from sources such as The Economist, The New Yorker, NatGeo etc. each day alongside LSAT passages were helpful. Though LSAT questions are more on the higher end of the spectrum, they really helped in adapting to complex GMAT passages. I always used a timer for the RC practice and preferred to keep the total time short of the actual time needed. This helped me increase my speed to quite some extent. Official GRE questions are a good source for science related topics. The RC Directory in GMAT Club is just fantastic. It is a one stop shop for all kinds of passages. I never needed to search anywhere else for RC passages!

Tip: Those who lose focus while reading long passages, use your GMAT marker pen as pointer to read. It helps to maintain focus and keep track of things. But do practice this at home to get hold of the technique.

2 weeks before the exam:
During my first attempt, I practiced till the last day and even continued my revision till 1 hour before the exam. This was a grave mistake. This time I stopped practicing new questions 2 weeks prior to the test day. The last 2 weeks comprised only of revision. Archit had already asked me to use 80% of my time for revision. I made sure that I revised the theory portions everyday alongside the error logs. The only new thing that I did during these 2 weeks were RCs. I practiced at least 4 passages per day from the GMAT Club Directory.

The Test Day
On the way to the test center, I just went through 5-7 quant questions (those that I got incorrect) from OG Advanced. The sections went well. For those planning for in-center tests, its best to use cloth or surgical mask as wearing N95 masks can cloud your analyzing skills especially in the second and third sections.

Well, I won’t stretch any further. This post has become more of a short story than a debrief.

In short, a big thank you to Jamboree, Target Test Prep, GMAT Club and of course the entire e-GMAT team (especially Archit) for helping me achieve this score.

Tip: Maintain an Error Log efficiently (Preferably an online one. It will save a lot of time. I used OneNote and MS-Excel extensively for this purpose). Do not use it only for incorrect questions. Even correct questions that took longer to solve, that you guessed or that belong to a typical GMAT pattern should be put into the error log. This ensures that you have everything in place for efficient revision. If possible, keep a day aside every week just for revising the error log.