GMAT Debrief: Why do we fall, Bruce? 670 to 750 [Anant]

"I studied on my own for a month and got 760" - after hearing my sister's GMAT debrief, I thought genes would work equally well for me and I would be able to ace this test without any external help. I thought, if not 1 month maybe 4 months would do and if not 760 a 730+ would do. This is where most students stumble – they hear a few stories and try to mimic these experiences without understanding that we all carve our own path when it comes to the GMAT.

Btw, I would love to take any questions about GMAT on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anantgupta93

Through this debrief I would look to cover tangible and intangible aspects of a GMAT student’s journey.

So how did I begin?


Much like every other student I know, before even beginning to study, I researched everything there was to know about GMAT. I had reasonable fears - Will I be able to do this? What will I say to my parents if I can’t? Will they feel like I am the black sheep of the family? I know I’m not thaaaaaat good in Verbal – am I ever going to conquer it?

Through my intensive research, I concluded that everything apart from the OG is trash and that the only other resource I can use is the OG. I was also recommended to take a GMAT official mock before beginning to study to ascertain my level.

I got a disappointing 590 (Q46 V27). I was disappointed but I had hope.

I started preparing through the OG. During the prep, I realized that the OG was a book of few words. It took for granted many concepts that I needed clarity on. After researching the next best resource, I purchased all MGMAT books.

After practicing from OG and MGMAT books for over 4 months, I was quite confident that I was headed in the right direction. I did everything which a prudent GMAT aspirant would do - diligently doing the questions, spending time on explanations, paying attention to timing, and more. I gave another mock and boom – 720 (Q49 V 38). Confidence level through the roof.

My strategy was clear now – give as many mocks as possible > track improvement > ace the GMAT. Through another round of research, I found out that the most economical GMAT mocks were given by Expert’s Global. So I bought them.

I made a test log also – here is an excerpt (not the full log):

After several mocks (including Expert's Global, Princeton and Veritas mocks*), I thought I was ready and I finally booked a date in November 2020 with an expectation of 720+.

* some mocks which I gave but think are not even worth mentioning / relying include Oxford, Magoosh, and Princeton.

Test Day – a day I may never forget

I wake up. I meditate as usual. I have green tea as usual. I have a protein breakfast as usual. I do some questions as usual. But most of them are wrong. I shrug it off thinking that probably there was an issue with the specific questions.

I go into the exam center. I sit down. Start Verbal. And…… I go blank. I can read everything but I cannot put sense of two sentences. I start panicking but remember that this same thing has happened to me in several mocks and worst comes worst, I’ll get a V36.

Verbal gets over and I have no clue what I’ve done why I’ve done what. Argghhhh

I drink coffee and suddenly realize that NOW my brain has started working. I felt like my brain was a cycle till now and suddenly it’s a Ferrari.

I start Quant and I breeze through it like a pro. By now I am confident that even if I get a V36, I will make it up in Quant with a 49 or maybe 50.

I finish IR and AWA without much thought put into either section. I know I’m doing great. My mind is working!

I press next and see a freaking 670. And I’m like……WHAT? I’ve been studying for so long! I know all concepts! What the hell is this? A V31? Are you kidding me? I’ve never scored this low in the last 2-3 months! What will I tell my parents? My friends? Those who wanted me to score? WTH! Cancel this stupid score.

I come back home, disappointed to the core. I only know one thing – I have to give it again. There are a lot of difficulties – monetary, office, etc. But I have to give it again. With a 670 I cannot go in any of my dream schools.

What went wrong?

The most positive step I took was to review what went wrong – had I not done this and been complacent about my weaknesses. I may have stumbled a few more times on the GMAT wasting time, effort and money. So take a step back and always review what went wrong.

1) I found out that my mind went into "hot cognition" during the exam and that is why I couldn't make sense of any verbal question. I just wasn't able to understand the meaning of any two sentences.

2) I thought I knew SC concepts – but in reality, I was just good at identifying patterns. In fact, I used to put a lot of stress on eliminating options using just pronoun errors.

3) I baffled in tough RC passages. I just could not make sense of anything.

4) I took the whole "making error log" thing very lightly

Ok what next?

Heartbroken and disappointed, I booked another retest for the next available date (mid-December), thinking that my concepts are strong but my luck was bad.

No remaining OG questions. No remaining official mocks. Nothing. I could only do one thing - practice harder this time. I planned to solve OG Advanced and also study for long hours so that my mind is under enough stress to perform well on the test day.

Anyway, I made sure that I have a disciplined routine and that I follow Mohammad Ali's advice on "not quitting when you're tired".

I was practicing on GMAT Club when I found out that I did not know much about "-ing modifiers" in SC. I read a beautiful explanation by Payal Tandon from e-GMAT. I had heard the name of this company a lot of times (read both positive and negative reviews - which is why I never opted for it earlier). After reading the explanation I went to E-GMAT's website and signed up for a free trial to understand more about modifiers. I felt that the way their videos explain things and the way they make you practice every little thing in various phases might just work for a student like me.

It wasn’t like I was hearing this company’s name for the first time. In my several rounds of research on GMAT Club, Quora, etc, I had heard so many good and bad things that I was very skeptical about. I saw many many amazing reviews also which also somehow made me skeptical to the point that I started thinking that this is all a sham.

Finding the missing link

I took a chance. I went against my preconceived notions about the company and booked a video call with one of the E-GMAT representatives (Dhruv). I explained my ordeal to him. I also showed him my ESR which clearly indicated that RC and CR were super weak in verbal. He explained a few things and suggested trying the E-GMAT course and extending my exam date because he felt I wasn't ready.

I was torn between spending on the E-GMAT course and applying the same strategy which I have been applying.

Have you ever had a failure in life after which you lose confidence in yourself and think that it may be better to hand over your decisions to someone else? Well, that was what I was going through. And btw, I’m a pretty confident guy. I’m good at almost everything – academics, music, sports, friendships, relationships – you name it and I might have already aced it (I’m very sorry to sound braggy but I just want to highlight the drastic fall in my confidence).

I thought two things:

a) If I do the same thing again and again, I cannot expect the same result.

b) I need to trust some expert. I need to build confidence through that route

After sleeping over it, I made up my mind to purchase the Quant and Verbal GMAT Online course.

Btw, by now I also realized that most mocks that I gave in the past were more or less detrimental. For example – Expert’s Global – after giving 3-4 mocks, I could literally predict the type of questions that would come next. 1 subjunctive question like this. 1 RC question like that. It became a joke and probably that’s why I was scoring between 740-760.

Mentorship by DJ

Day 1, E-GMAT: Dhananjay (E-GMAT Mentor) started mentoring me in the difficult yet right direction. I was following his plan to the T because I thought if I don’t give it my all, I will just end up not succeeding and blaming others. Every topic he asked me to do, every assignment he asked to take or re-take, I did that. While all things were improving steadily (especially SC), I was still stuck at CR. My timing was 3 mins and my accuracy was also not that high.

Just 2 weeks left for the exam, I sent a mail to Dhananjay. I shared my grief with him. I can say that I was just lucky to have a calm and composed mentor like him (probably because he has seen so many students like me). He proposed a strategy that was hard for me to follow but which gave instant results. He told me “stop taking notes”. Now I’m not saying that this will work for everyone. But given the factual matrix of my case, this was half the reason why I started becoming good at CR. The other thing he suggested, “take your error logs seriously and revise every 3 days”. Again something good to hear or read but difficult to follow. BUT since I wanted to go all in – I did everything. My accuracy went from 60% to 80% and sometimes 90%. I went from “Will I get even 2 questions right?” to “I think I got all right”. And these were Medium & Hard level questions.

Btw – I was strictly asked not to do any Easy level questions. It’s GREAT advice.

7 Days Before the Exam

Everything was going great. My accuracy and timing – both had improved by miles.

Dhananjay also prepared a beautiful 10-day hyper extensive plan which I was following to the T.

5 days to go – I fall sick. And extremely sick. The kind of sick which tells you that – bro, it’s going to take some time. I started planning – if I reschedule….if I get better 1 day before… etc.


I took antibiotics and started to recover after 2 days of complete rest. While I was still light-headed, I attempted a few questions and my accuracy was visibly low.

I consulted Dhananjay and he made a feedback video of my recent practice quizzes. He even got on a call with me 1 day before the exam to keep my spirit high. I got assured by him that everything which I had done till then was according to plan and that this should lead to favorable results.

Final test Day

Finally, the exam day came. I got boosted on some coffee this time (I love coffee but I didn’t have it in my first attempt). Dhananjay had advised me to do some warm-up questions 1 hour before the exam. I did everything. Luckily, this time I got almost all the questions right.

Verbal seemed better this time. Quant was the same (easy in the beginning but a tad bit difficult towards the end).

This time my expectations were too low. I wanted to keep myself underwhelmed. So I thought I just want my score to start with a 7…

BOOM - I got a 750 (Q49 V44). IR 6/8. AWA 6/6.

Best thing ever. I thought if in my first attempt I would have gotten a 720, I would have accepted it. Maybe all things do happen for a reason!

Honest feedback about E-GMAT

After spending considerable time and energy on the E-GMAT course, I can tell you the exact pros and cons of this course so that you can make a decision based on what fits your bill:

Pros:

1. Dhananjay Lowe's mentorship.

Excellent mentor. Helped me out with the most important strategy questions like timing, plateau, etc. He has experience of dealing with all kinds of students and you're probably one of the types - so he will know how to steer you in the right direction. He will also not hesitate to tell you that you have conceptual gaps even when you think you are good with concepts (and mostly he was right).

Before enrolling I was skeptical about one thing - E-GMAT does not give phone numbers or do video calls for students when they have conceptual or strategy doubts. How am I going to work with that? But I was pleasantly surprised to see that their email system works quite well. DJ himself used to reply within 1-2 days whenever I had any issues. I remember the biggest help he gave was regarding my timing improvement on CR (brought down from 3 mins to 1.5 mins).

2. Their 3 Stage learning approach

At first, I thought this is just a marketing gimmick (just to show that they do have some system in place). But when I ardently followed the preparation through all stages, I realized that it's very methodical and reasoned. Basically, they will first assess what stage of learning you are currently on (for each subsection in V & Q) and then they will ask you to start from the appropriate stage. For example, I did not need to start with Stage 1 (learning concepts) in most Q subsections because I was doing well with concepts.

3. Verbal course

It's one of the best. No doubts. Nothing beats their SC course, especially. You can blindly trust this.

4. New Quant course

Their new quant course is much better than their previous one. Earlier their course was not as good as their verbal course but the new course is promising. Especially the "Process Skills", "GMAT Skills" and "Application" files are fantastic.

A special mention to their GEO Quant 2.0 course - considering geometry was my weakest, this course had just the right power-packed theoretical and application-based learning! I think they have improved a bit on technology too - the new course seems much smoother to handle and operate. The quality of the questions within the course has also improved - albeit you'll see tougher than usual questions but that will just prepare you for the worst-case scenario - something which every GMAT taker should take care of.

Cons:

1. Old Quant Course

Their old quant course was a bit too tough to comprehend easily. Also, it had certain topics that were stressed more than required. I am comparing because they gave me an upgrade to the new course between my preparation.

2. Difficulty of Q in mocks

Their SIGMA-X mocks are although fantastic when it comes to measuring your subsectional abilities and finding out your weak area if I were you, I would not take their Quant score in their mocks by heart. In each mock, I scored ~Q45 although I knew I was hovering around Q49.

Btw, I have to mention that there are two legends on GMAT Club which need a huge shoutout - they have made my life so much simpler by their excellent explanations. For Quant - Bunuel and For Verbal - GMATNinja. If I meet you ever, please let me praise for an hour at least.