Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Apr 1612:00 PM EDT
-11:59 PM EDT
You’re first to know: Save $200 on GMAT prep starting tomorrow, 4/13. Get 6 official practice tests and study with real questions. Be ready to save!
Apr 2610:00 AM EDT
-11:00 AM EDT
The Target Test Prep course represents a quantum leap forward in GMAT preparation, a radical reinterpretation of the way that students should study. Try before you buy with a 5-day, full-access trial of the course for FREE!
Apr 2711:00 AM EDT
-12:00 PM EDT
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors
Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
19 Nov 2022, 03:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
I was still in pre-final year of my bachelors in engineering when I decided to pursue MBA abroad. So after graduating in May 2021, I bought OG and started with quant preparation since I have always been confident of my quant abilities. I breezed through OG quant and moved on to verbal. I also referred to free resources available online and GMAT Club for my verbal prep. Going through the verbal section, I realised that my GMAT preparation will require more than self-study. I decided to enrol myself in an online prep course, but had to wait a few months since I had to switch cities and get accustomed to my new job as well. So my initial preparation can be summed up as ‘on-off self study’. I eventually enrolled myself in an online course in November 2021 and prepared for good 5 months. My confidence in both verbal and quant abilities went up since I was consistently scoring 700+ scores in the mocks offered by the prep company. I then gave my first GMAT attempt in April 2022, travelling 250 kms one-way to the nearest test centre. It was just not my day. I was very tense as I reached the test centre, and, for some reason, the environment at the test centre messed my brain up even more. I scored 640 (Q49 V29), shattering all my confidence in my abilities and myself.
I decided to take a month off from preparation and just let what happened sink in. I realised that my verbal skills still needed some polishing. So, as I geared up for the second attempt, I decided to dedicate all my time to enhance my verbal ability. I came across AndrewN’s post in which he has compiled all the OG questions for different sub-sections of the verbal section (grateful for the effort). This time, I changed my approach to solving verbal questions. Instead of looking for the one right answer, I tried to eliminate the four wrong answers on the basis of sound reasoning. I did not care whether it took me 2 minutes or 10 minutes to solve the question. This change was probably the best one that helped me get back on the right track. For two months, I solved only the questions compiled in those files. Given the new approach, I could see improvement in my SC and CR ability, but I was still not confident of my RC ability and overall verbal time management. Having attended several verbal webinars organised by egmat, I decided to enrol in the online course.
I again switched cities because my company had mandated 3 days-a-week work culture, ending the work from home comfort. After adjusting to the new ambience, I enrolled in egmat course in Aug 2022. My prep journey took a huge turn that day, a turn for the good. I got a mentor, Dhruv Sir, who would show me the way, analysing each of my mocks using the statistics of each sub section, and a course that would lead me to my destination. There were lots of revelations along the way on my journey with egmat. To my astonishment, my SC and RC ability was much better than I had expected, but my CR ability was nowhere near good. Even though I was able to solve many OG problems correctly, I was not able to score well in Scholaranium CR quizzes, even though I could pre-think some of the assumptions made by the author. Going through the CR module was a very demotivating phase of my preparation. Somehow, Dhruv Sir was confident of my ability, and decided to keep CR on stand-by. SC and RC modules were actually like a fun and rejuvenating ride for my mind. The meaning based approach helped me get more comfortable with solving SC questions. Previously, I used to read the sentence looking for grammatical errors, but after going through the SC module, I changed my approach to looking for meaning errors. I started applying RC reading strategies not only to GMAT RC passages, but also to different news articles and research papers (my job provides me an opportunity to go through dense research articles every day). I also breezed through the quant section, thanks to P.A.C.E. which could identify my conceptual understanding and allow me to skip some modules, saving precious prep time and energy. I got stuck at one module, but after analysing the solutions provided by the experts on the platform, I realised that the mistakes were more because of time management issues than because of conceptual gaps. By this time, I had been offered egmat’s Last Mile Push Program, which provided a greater freedom to customise the prep plan. So, still confident of my verbal abilities, I convinced Dhruv Sir to let me proceed. I scored 690 in my first mocks and 710 in the next two mocks, still lagging in my CR ability. That’s when Harsha Sir, verbal SME at egmat, guided me in a one-to-one session, pin-pointing my CR faltering points. I then scored 740 on my last mock.
I scheduled my exam on 12 November, 2022. As my preparation was going on, I decided to keep a plan B under my sleeve before going for the exam. This backup plan was basically the answer to the question – what if I do not get my desired score. This plan not only helped me calm my nerves, but also assured me that life will go on even if I fail at my last attempt. My mentor knew that I have the ability to achieve my target score, but he also knew that I tend to get extremely anxious under pressure. He wrote me a mail a day before the exam and urged me to believe in myself and stick to the process I have been following since last 3 months. I reached the test centre and was much more relaxed this time around. The complete process this time seemed very organic rather than forced. After three and a half hours of mental as well as physical exhaustion, my heart once again began pounding heavily as I was about to click the submit button. Elated to see 760 (Q50 V42), I almost jumped out my chair. The first person I told about my score was my father, who was delighted to know that all my hard work has paid off.
In the end, I would like to thank everyone who have been a part of my GMAT journey – my constant support - my parents, my mentor Dhruv Sir, all the members of egmat, AndrewN and GMATNinja
Suggestions:
1) Start your preparation untimed and develop the skill first. The timing will improve eventually once you have solved some odd 20-30 questions.
2) Do not only look for the right answer choice in the verbal section. Also look to eliminate four wrong answer choices using sound reasoning.
3) Thoroughly analyse not only all the incorrect answers but also the right answers after attempting a quiz.
4) Do not let your mind get saturated while preparing for the exam – make time to go outside on weekends, watch a movie, play some sport, read a novel, play an instrument.
5) Believe in and stick to the process – do not change tactics under pressure, resolving to short-cuts.
6) Believe in yourself – you are better than you think you are.
Learn to take hits during your preparation – failure teaches you a lot more than success does.
Remember what Rocky said, “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” So, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
All the Best!
Navneet
I decided to take a month off from preparation and just let what happened sink in. I realised that my verbal skills still needed some polishing. So, as I geared up for the second attempt, I decided to dedicate all my time to enhance my verbal ability. I came across AndrewN’s post in which he has compiled all the OG questions for different sub-sections of the verbal section (grateful for the effort). This time, I changed my approach to solving verbal questions. Instead of looking for the one right answer, I tried to eliminate the four wrong answers on the basis of sound reasoning. I did not care whether it took me 2 minutes or 10 minutes to solve the question. This change was probably the best one that helped me get back on the right track. For two months, I solved only the questions compiled in those files. Given the new approach, I could see improvement in my SC and CR ability, but I was still not confident of my RC ability and overall verbal time management. Having attended several verbal webinars organised by egmat, I decided to enrol in the online course.
I again switched cities because my company had mandated 3 days-a-week work culture, ending the work from home comfort. After adjusting to the new ambience, I enrolled in egmat course in Aug 2022. My prep journey took a huge turn that day, a turn for the good. I got a mentor, Dhruv Sir, who would show me the way, analysing each of my mocks using the statistics of each sub section, and a course that would lead me to my destination. There were lots of revelations along the way on my journey with egmat. To my astonishment, my SC and RC ability was much better than I had expected, but my CR ability was nowhere near good. Even though I was able to solve many OG problems correctly, I was not able to score well in Scholaranium CR quizzes, even though I could pre-think some of the assumptions made by the author. Going through the CR module was a very demotivating phase of my preparation. Somehow, Dhruv Sir was confident of my ability, and decided to keep CR on stand-by. SC and RC modules were actually like a fun and rejuvenating ride for my mind. The meaning based approach helped me get more comfortable with solving SC questions. Previously, I used to read the sentence looking for grammatical errors, but after going through the SC module, I changed my approach to looking for meaning errors. I started applying RC reading strategies not only to GMAT RC passages, but also to different news articles and research papers (my job provides me an opportunity to go through dense research articles every day). I also breezed through the quant section, thanks to P.A.C.E. which could identify my conceptual understanding and allow me to skip some modules, saving precious prep time and energy. I got stuck at one module, but after analysing the solutions provided by the experts on the platform, I realised that the mistakes were more because of time management issues than because of conceptual gaps. By this time, I had been offered egmat’s Last Mile Push Program, which provided a greater freedom to customise the prep plan. So, still confident of my verbal abilities, I convinced Dhruv Sir to let me proceed. I scored 690 in my first mocks and 710 in the next two mocks, still lagging in my CR ability. That’s when Harsha Sir, verbal SME at egmat, guided me in a one-to-one session, pin-pointing my CR faltering points. I then scored 740 on my last mock.
I scheduled my exam on 12 November, 2022. As my preparation was going on, I decided to keep a plan B under my sleeve before going for the exam. This backup plan was basically the answer to the question – what if I do not get my desired score. This plan not only helped me calm my nerves, but also assured me that life will go on even if I fail at my last attempt. My mentor knew that I have the ability to achieve my target score, but he also knew that I tend to get extremely anxious under pressure. He wrote me a mail a day before the exam and urged me to believe in myself and stick to the process I have been following since last 3 months. I reached the test centre and was much more relaxed this time around. The complete process this time seemed very organic rather than forced. After three and a half hours of mental as well as physical exhaustion, my heart once again began pounding heavily as I was about to click the submit button. Elated to see 760 (Q50 V42), I almost jumped out my chair. The first person I told about my score was my father, who was delighted to know that all my hard work has paid off.
In the end, I would like to thank everyone who have been a part of my GMAT journey – my constant support - my parents, my mentor Dhruv Sir, all the members of egmat, AndrewN and GMATNinja
Suggestions:
1) Start your preparation untimed and develop the skill first. The timing will improve eventually once you have solved some odd 20-30 questions.
2) Do not only look for the right answer choice in the verbal section. Also look to eliminate four wrong answer choices using sound reasoning.
3) Thoroughly analyse not only all the incorrect answers but also the right answers after attempting a quiz.
4) Do not let your mind get saturated while preparing for the exam – make time to go outside on weekends, watch a movie, play some sport, read a novel, play an instrument.
5) Believe in and stick to the process – do not change tactics under pressure, resolving to short-cuts.
6) Believe in yourself – you are better than you think you are.
Learn to take hits during your preparation – failure teaches you a lot more than success does.
Remember what Rocky said, “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” So, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
All the Best!
Navneet
23 Nov 2022, 15:32
Kudos
Bookmarks
Dear Navneet,
Congratulations on the fantastic 760 score and thank you for taking the time to write your story. Given your journey, I think your title is appropriate. You ought to be willing to take the hits if you want it bad enough. There are many things in your journey that epitomize that spirit.
Diligence: Despite a high starting ability, you completed SC and RC courses seriously. Your course stats indicate that you were extremely diligent. You did beautifully in cementing in SC.
The very fact that you applied RC reading strategies everywhere shows how much you wanted that 760 score. Very few people improve from V29 to 96th percentile and many of those who do show such dedication.
Took Quant very seriously
I also loved how you carried over the same diligence to Quant. While PACE did save you about 51 hours of effort, you made sure that you completed every learning activity that PACE recommended. You improved on areas where you were rusty. For example –you made it a point to excel in end-of-module quizzes when you did not do well in the diagnostic quizzes in Even Odd and Absolute value diagnostic quizzes.
You then achieved excellent stats in Scholaranium, which in turn powered your Q50 score.
Improvement in CR – you struggled but did not give up
Achieving 90th percentile in CR was hard for you but you did not give up. The accuracy plot below shows your tenacity. You worked your way up from 40% accuracy to 75% accuracy in hard questions. I would be curious as to when Harsha worked with you.
Overall, congratulations on your score, and I wish you good luck for your MBA applications.
-Rajat
Congratulations on the fantastic 760 score and thank you for taking the time to write your story. Given your journey, I think your title is appropriate. You ought to be willing to take the hits if you want it bad enough. There are many things in your journey that epitomize that spirit.
Diligence: Despite a high starting ability, you completed SC and RC courses seriously. Your course stats indicate that you were extremely diligent. You did beautifully in cementing in SC.
The very fact that you applied RC reading strategies everywhere shows how much you wanted that 760 score. Very few people improve from V29 to 96th percentile and many of those who do show such dedication.
Took Quant very seriously
I also loved how you carried over the same diligence to Quant. While PACE did save you about 51 hours of effort, you made sure that you completed every learning activity that PACE recommended. You improved on areas where you were rusty. For example –you made it a point to excel in end-of-module quizzes when you did not do well in the diagnostic quizzes in Even Odd and Absolute value diagnostic quizzes.
You then achieved excellent stats in Scholaranium, which in turn powered your Q50 score.
Improvement in CR – you struggled but did not give up
Achieving 90th percentile in CR was hard for you but you did not give up. The accuracy plot below shows your tenacity. You worked your way up from 40% accuracy to 75% accuracy in hard questions. I would be curious as to when Harsha worked with you.
Overall, congratulations on your score, and I wish you good luck for your MBA applications.
-Rajat
25 Nov 2022, 09:19
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Navi2310,
Congratulations on the fantastic score!
What a journey you’ve had!!
The Success you know
Your success is a testament to how important being self-aware is. You introspected after your first attempt of 640 (Q49, V28) and realized that GMAT needed much more that what you had been offering.
The Story you MUST know
If someone looks at your SC Cementing scores, no one would believe that SC was once your weakness. You turned this weakness into your strength with your Patience- the patience to UNLEARN and then LEARN a more methodical approach to SC. You took your SC abilities a notch higher by placing your trust in the ‘Meaning-based approach’.
Take a glance at your SC improvement:
When you were down but not OUT
The first toilsome phase of your journey arrived in the form CR. Despite the effort you put in to breakthrough CR, the struggle chose to stick around you.I could sense your disappointment in your emails.
“This-email-showed-dejection"
Diligence and the right decisions during prep played a key role in helping you improve from V29 (54th Percentile in your 1st attempt) to V42 (96th Percentile in your 2nd attempt). One of those decisions was to keep CR aside for a while and move on to RC. RC was cakewalk for you as you rightly said.
This confidence was the boost that you needed to get back at CR with more zest. You came to CR with your faith intact in the ‘Pre-thinking approach’ and you can see how you worked on your weaker areas in CR to improve to 9th Percentile ability:
“CR-improvement-to-90percentile"
The easy ride turns NASTY
Your Quant story is a different journey altogether. It had been your strength because of your engineering background, and we thought ‘it would be a smooth sail’. WP stood in between you and your confidence. You’ve been a quick learner, and we did exactly what we did with CR, ‘kept it aside, move on and come back’. This time, you needed to convince me though. You took that decision and worked harder to make it right. As is evident from the image below
“WP-journey-to-90percentile"
When I look back at your journey, I can surely say that it had its own set of challenges. However, the way you rose above every challenge makes your achievement even more special.
Navneet, these traits of yours will help you throughout and we wish you the best!
-Dhruv
Congratulations on the fantastic score!
What a journey you’ve had!!
The Success you know
Your success is a testament to how important being self-aware is. You introspected after your first attempt of 640 (Q49, V28) and realized that GMAT needed much more that what you had been offering.
The Story you MUST know
If someone looks at your SC Cementing scores, no one would believe that SC was once your weakness. You turned this weakness into your strength with your Patience- the patience to UNLEARN and then LEARN a more methodical approach to SC. You took your SC abilities a notch higher by placing your trust in the ‘Meaning-based approach’.
Take a glance at your SC improvement:
When you were down but not OUT
The first toilsome phase of your journey arrived in the form CR. Despite the effort you put in to breakthrough CR, the struggle chose to stick around you.I could sense your disappointment in your emails.
“This-email-showed-dejection"
Diligence and the right decisions during prep played a key role in helping you improve from V29 (54th Percentile in your 1st attempt) to V42 (96th Percentile in your 2nd attempt). One of those decisions was to keep CR aside for a while and move on to RC. RC was cakewalk for you as you rightly said.
This confidence was the boost that you needed to get back at CR with more zest. You came to CR with your faith intact in the ‘Pre-thinking approach’ and you can see how you worked on your weaker areas in CR to improve to 9th Percentile ability:
“CR-improvement-to-90percentile"
The easy ride turns NASTY
Your Quant story is a different journey altogether. It had been your strength because of your engineering background, and we thought ‘it would be a smooth sail’. WP stood in between you and your confidence. You’ve been a quick learner, and we did exactly what we did with CR, ‘kept it aside, move on and come back’. This time, you needed to convince me though. You took that decision and worked harder to make it right. As is evident from the image below
“WP-journey-to-90percentile"
When I look back at your journey, I can surely say that it had its own set of challenges. However, the way you rose above every challenge makes your achievement even more special.
Navneet, these traits of yours will help you throughout and we wish you the best!
-Dhruv
