Mid-500 - to 710 - to dream business school

Dear friends,

This is a message of perseverance, resilience, and gratitude. I don’t intend to go into any technical details around how I improved my score. Rather, I want this post to serve as motivation for those who are hopelessly struggling with this Test, as I did. And I want to thank those that played a role in my success. I ultimately went from a mid-500 score to a 690 to 710.

Here's the harsh reality we all need to face pretty quickly: you will fail before you will succeed. There's no doubt. I hovered in the mid 40s with my Quant score before I got a 50. The important thing is, and probably the most important, that it's all about what you learn from your failures. And quite honestly, if you don't fail, then you're just not trying hard enough. Every disappointed verbal score, the poor accuracy percentage in data sufficiency, your inability to decipher the RC prompt in time, is one step closer to success. If you focus with that mindset and stay true to "learning," I promise you this: you will succeed. That's my blueprint. And my friend, CJ Singh, will also stand by this.

I started my “official” journey right around this time last year. I struggled finding adequate time studying for this test, but I needed to apply for an MBA and the pressure was on. I engaged with a private tutor as I knew that self-studying wasn’t going to cut it. I needed more personal attention.
After days of diligence, I went with The GMAT Gladiator (check out his site - i can't post URLs). Why? He looked into my heart and not my pocket book. He understood my struggles and wanted me to succeed. He had worked with students in the low 40s and brought them up to 49s and 50s – he had a reputation.
Working with GG gave me a solid foundation, and 6 months into my preparation with him I went from a 42 to 46, which was huge… I stagnated for a good reason, which I’ll get to later. Quant was only 50% of the equation, I needed to improve Verbal as well. Critical Reasoning was a big issue for me, so GG connected me with Chiranjeev Singh (CJ) (gmatwithcj - that's his site - i can't post URLs). I’m just going to go ahead and say this and I endorse this 100% - if you’re struggling with GMAT Verbal, esp. Critical Reasoning, contact CJ. His initial tutorials were vexing, but train you how to think like the GMAT wants you to think. His lessons will not only help you on this test, but they’ll also carry you through life. For me, working with CJ paired with e-GMAT, was sufficient to make improvements, going from the high 20s to mid 30s.

The biggest lesson I learned from Chiranjeev is that you have to be patient (as cliche as it sounds). Score increases aren’t necessarily gradual. They usually hit after an inflection point. Check this: my scored hovered around a 650 3 weeks before my test... This is what didn't make sense to me, at first.... I assumed that as the months go by my score would gradually increase. In my case, the growth came in the reward of 50-60 points. Things started to click, I unlocked the timing dilemma, and my accuracy didn't suffer. Things will click for you as well. Just be patient and keep at it. Don't lose hope. And truly learn from your mistakes. I kept the most detailed error log and reviewed it everyday. Everyday without fail.

Friends, there's no other blueprint. This test takes hard work, determination, and confidence. If you're struggling, go back to the drawing board and evaluate what you need to do differently. This isn't a test of intelligence and please don't tie your self-worth to this test. It can be mastered. Just keep at it.

All my best wishes are with you.