Hi everyone!
I would like to humbly share with you my GMAT journey and potentially inspire at least some of you.
Since many of the posts here are super detailed (and helpful,) I will keep mine more direct and straightforward. Here are some of the highlights of my journey:
1. I have been studying for the GMAT exam for more than two years, with the goal to achieve at least 730. English is not my native language and this goal seemed to be nearly impossible for me. In addition, throughout all this time I have been working full time.
2. I decided to start studying by purchasing a bunch of books from a variety of companies. On the one hand, it gave me an option to decide what technique works better for me. On the other hand, it was not a very good use of my time and in some ways unproductive. I think that watching some videos on YouTube would be a good start (rather than purchasing all those books.)
After a long time of dealing with books from different companies, I started taking some simulation CATS, scoring around 590-610.
3. After long research, I decided to try working with E-GMAT and started its online course. The course is very detailed and exceptionally good for students who are looking for a significant improvement in their score. I succeeded to significantly improve my grade, by about 80 points - to around 660-680. Yet, I was still far away from my target score.
4. The game-changer at my GMAT journey was joining E-GMAT Mentorship program. Deepak Bansal, my new instructor, helped me with fully analyzing my situation. He pointed at my weaknesses and strengths and assisted me with building the winning plan for my situation. He told me I am going to meet my goal within 4 months - and he was right.
In a nutshell, E-GMAT's Mentorship program assisted me in three ways:
*Group: I was a part of a larger group of motivated students from all over the world. We had a
Whatsapp group and monthly Zoom meetings. Being part of a group gave me a great feeling that I was not alone in this journey.
*One-on-one: At least once a week I was in touch with my instructor. Over our meetings, he provided me with constructive feedback that was relevant for that week and suggestions for improvement.
* Self-study: the program included a lot of self-studying. Instructor Deepak provided me with the right tools to study on my own, so I got the most out of my study time.
5. I took the test in June and scored 710 (Q49V38), which was a big improvement for me but still was not my target score. My E-GMAT instructor, Deepak, supported me also in between the tests and analyzed with me the ESR to see what I can do better.
6. I took the test 3 (!) more time, getting 710, 690, 690, even though I got over my CATs scores of 720-760. I decided to continue and try once again. At the end of July I took the GMAT and finally succeeded to reach my target score with 740 (Q49V41). I am extremely happy and excited!
My main takeaway from working with E-GMAT mentorship: it can be very helpful to break the master goal (a grade of 730+) to many daily or weekly goals, such as "to achieve 70% accuracy in Geometry" or "to fully understand SC comparison rules." Based on that, to build a schedule: what do I plan to do every week or month, how many hours do I invest, and so forth.
I highly recommend reaching out to one of the E-GMAT representatives and learn more about this program. Not only this is super helpful, but also it is very affordable compare to other top-level advisors.
In addition, I'd like to thank GMAT Club team for providing us with such an amazing platform, a community, of GMAT aspirants. It wouldn't be the same without you guys!
Please feel free to reach out in case you have any questions or you'd like a piece of advice