GMAT journey of my student, YUVAN BANSAL, who started with a score 650(Verbal: 28) and reached a wonderful score of 760(Verbal:43)
"When I first started with the preparation of GMAT, I got myself
the official guide and started solving questions completely based what "sounded" right and what didn't. Being an engineer, quant was not something that worried me. It was the verbal section which scared me. After a month of self-preparation, I decided to give the exam and scored a 650 (Quant : 51, Verbal : 28) . The score low-key disappointed me as my choice of B-Schools had an average score of 720.
After that, Sonal mam taught me Verbal. The classes with Sonal mam came as a great game-changer, because until then, intuition was all I used to solve any verbal question. I didn't know there are specific techniques, rules, and even some shortcuts that could help you solve a question easily and even faster. I started with a lot of course work and basic concept classes, I also found the SC book by Manhattan extremely helpful. I also re-did
the official guide. But since I was so used to using the "sounding right" theory, it was extremely difficult to solve a question keeping aside my old ways. However, with the guidance of Sonal mam and her ever-readiness to help even at odd hours, I tried to change the way I solved questions (at least to some extent). I'd say I had started using the techniques, rules, etc to an extent of 50% of the ideal. I was scoring around 710-750 in mock tests of the official GMATPREP app. I had bought additional tests also from the official GMATPREP app. I always found it best to use the official mock tests only. Anything else most of the times leads to either demotivation or over-confidence. After the course, I gave my 2nd GMAT attempt and scored a 710 (Quant : 50, Verbal : 37) which again left me disappointed. I decided to give it another try.
This time, I did the following in addition to re-doing what I had already done :
• Evaluated my points of weaknesses from my GMAT exam evaluation report (I was always over-confident in CR, turned out it was my weakest section so paid special attention to it)
• Added 2 more books to my work - official verbal review and quantitative guides.
• Focussed on why is this particular option right and others wrong instead of finding the right answer at the earliest and move on to the next. Did
the official guide,
verbal official guide this way, paying a good amount of time on each question.
• And again, tried to rely less on intuition/sounding right.
Next, I gave mock tests in exam like conditions. I made sure to time my mock tests according to the actual decided time. I would divide the test into parts and allocate time to each. I also allocated the time needed to solve specific area questions for eg: time to solve a passage etc. After this, in depth analysis of my test helped me decide what section to do first by comparing the results. I would also pay attention to nuanced activities such as deciding on what to eat during the break on the test day (to ensure I don't get sleepy or too anxious after the break).
After the above, I eventually gave my final GMAT attempt and was able to achieve a score of 760 (Quant : 51, Verbal : 43). As soon as I saw the score, I knew it was my dream score. I had finally achieved a score that made me happy!"
I feel proud to share this!
Moreover, there are so many students still using intuition in verbal section, still focussing on quantity than quality, and still resorting to conventional time consuming ways to solve the questions rather than applying time saving techniques. I share this piece of experience especially for those who are struggling to find out what is wrong in their preparation. Hope it helps!
Sonal Darra
GMAT-GRE Verbal Expert
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonaldarra/