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Apr 2512:30 AM EDT
-01:30 AM EDT
At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
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.
Hey everyone! I recently scored a 665 on the GMAT Focus (Q85, V80, DI82) and got into ISB's PGP program. When I first started prepping for Focus after my Classic attempt, I honestly had no clue what to expect with this new format. The whole Data Insights section was completely new territory, and I wasn't sure if my verbal approach would even work anymore.
I'm a computer science engineer who started my career at consulting. After a couple of years, I realized my real passion was building products, so I switched to product management role. That's where I was when I decided to take another shot at the GMAT.
Why I Retook
So here's the thing – I'd already scored a 680 on the Classic GMAT. For most people, that's a solid score. But I'm a male engineer from an overrepresented background, which basically meant my 680 wasn't going to cut it for the kind of schools I was targeting. The competition in my demographic is brutal.
When the Focus edition came out, I saw an opportunity. The format was different – no more 55% weight on Verbal and Quant, and this whole new Data Insights section that counted for 33% of the score. The playing field felt more level since everyone was figuring out DI together. Plus, as an engineer, I thought I could leverage my analytical background to nail the DI section while fixing my verbal approach.
The Verbal Revelation
This was probably my biggest breakthrough with e-GMAT. In my previous attempt, I treated verbal like this fuzzy, intuitive thing. You read the passage, you use your gut, you pick what "sounds right." That worked to an extent, but I was basically plateauing.
When I started with e-GMAT, they completely flipped my understanding. Verbal isn't just qualitative – it's actually methodical and objective. The falsification scenarios and assumption negation techniques they teach? Game-changers. I started treating CR and RC questions like math problems with specific steps to follow.
Here's what I mean: for CR questions, instead of reading the argument and immediately jumping to answer choices, I learned to:
Sounds simple, but it's weirdly hard to force yourself to do this when your brain wants to go with instinct. I'm not gonna lie – for the first two weeks, this method felt slower than my old approach. I'd be sitting there methodically going through steps while my brain screamed "just pick C, it obviously sounds better!" But here's the catch: you have to force yourself to use the method on EVERY question, even the 500-level ones that seem stupidly easy.
That discipline paid off. Once the method became second nature, I wasn't second-guessing myself anymore. The questions that used to trip me up – the ones where two answer choices both "sound right" – became way more manageable because I had a systematic way to eliminate wrong answers.
Data Insights: Learning to Play the Game
DI ended up being my strongest section (82), which surprised me because I was genuinely worried about it initially. The concepts themselves aren't difficult – if you've done quant and verbal, you've seen all the underlying skills. The real challenge is the format and timing.
20 questions in 45 minutes sounds reasonable until you actually sit down to do it. MSR questions have three parts, and each part can take time. Table analysis questions can be dense. Two-part analysis questions need you to evaluate multiple scenarios. It's a lot.
Here's the strategy that worked for me: I stopped trying to attempt all 20 questions. I aimed for 17-18 questions max, but I made sure I was getting most of those correct. The goal wasn't to blindly power through everything – it was to maintain accuracy on the questions I did attempt.
I'll be honest, there's a ton of anxiety-inducing advice out there about DI. People say if you get the first two questions wrong, your score tanks and you can't recover. On my actual test, I got the first question wrong. I remember feeling that sinking feeling, but then I steadied myself and got the next nine questions right. My final DI score was 82. The algorithm is smarter than people give it credit for.
The other thing about DI – timing discipline is everything. I practiced recognizing when a question was going to be too time-consuming and making peace with skipping it. That sounds obvious, but culturally, those of us who grew up in the Indian education system are trained to never give up on a question. Learning when to let go was actually a skill I had to develop.
Scholaranium: The Daily Practice Habit
One pattern I noticed from my Classic attempt was that I'd binge study on weekends. I'd tell myself "I'll do six hours each on Saturday and Sunday" and then barely touch GMAT stuff Monday through Friday. Terrible strategy. It's like going to the gym once a week and expecting to get fit.
With Focus prep, I committed to daily practice through Scholaranium on e-GMAT. Even if I could only squeeze in 30-45 minutes on busy workdays, I made sure to do cementing quizzes and custom quizzes focused on my weak areas. The consistency made a huge difference – concepts stayed fresh, and I could track improvement week over week.
The custom quiz feature was particularly useful for targeting specific weaknesses. Once I identified that probability was tripping me up in quant (despite being strong overall), I created multiple custom quizzes focused just on probability and permutations. Same thing with CR strengthen/weaken questions in verbal.
What I appreciated about the platform was the skill-level analytics. After each quiz, you can see exactly where you're losing points – is it timing? Is it a specific question type? Are you falling for particular trap answers? That granular feedback helped me adjust my approach continuously.
The Last Mile Program: Having Someone in Your Corner
GMAT prep is lonely. You're sitting at your desk, grinding through questions, wondering if you're improving or just spinning your wheels. Having a mentor through the Last Mile Program made a massive difference for my mental game.
My mentor, Abha, would look at my e-GMAT dashboard every week and help me identify patterns I was missing. She'd catch things like "hey, you're getting RC questions correct when they're about business scenarios but struggling with scientific data". That external perspective was invaluable because when you're in the weeds, you can't always see your own patterns.
But honestly, the biggest value was just having someone to talk to about the journey. Someone who'd been through this before and could tell me "yes, it's normal to feel like you're not improving for two weeks straight" or "here's why your last mock score dropped – look at the timing data." GMAT prep can be demoralizing, especially when you're working full-time and squeezing prep into evenings and weekends. Those check-in calls kept me from spiraling.
Test Day
I want to address something that creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety: the myth that getting the first question or first two questions wrong destroys your score.
On test day, I got the first question wrong. I knew it the moment I submitted. For a second, I panicked. All that prep, and I blew the first question? But I forced myself to refocus. The next nine questions, I got right.
When I saw my score report later, that was clear – one wrong answer at the start, then a solid streak. Final score? 665 with an 82 in DI. The algorithm doesn't work the way people think it does. If you recover and show consistent accuracy afterward, you're fine.
The bigger issue is what happens psychologically when you think you've tanked your score in question one. If you carry that anxiety through the section, you WILL mess up more questions. So the real skill is learning to let go and move forward.
ISB Application
Getting the GMAT score was only half the battle. ISB's application process is rigorous – three rounds. I'd gotten my 665 well before the Round 1 deadline, so I applied immediately.
The application has 3-4 essays, plus LORs, plus achievements and extracurriculars. Everyone obsesses about GMAT scores, but honestly, the essays are what differentiate candidates at schools like ISB. This isn't a creative writing contest – it's about crafting a coherent narrative.
The key question you need to answer: What's the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and how does an MBA from ISB specifically fill that gap? It's a two-way street – you need to show what you're bringing to ISB AND what ISB can offer you.
I lost count of how many times I rewrote those essays. Every time I'd read them, I'd find something that could be tighter, clearer, more specific. I had colleagues and friends review drafts. The goal was to weave my professional journey (consulting → product management) with my personal motivations in a way that made my MBA goals feel inevitable.
After submitting in Round 1, I got the interview call about a month later. They give you one week's notice, which is just enough time to do mock interviews with friends and prepare for behavioral questions.
The Interview: No Fluff, Just Substance
ISB interviews have a reputation for being holistic – they want to understand you as a whole person. My experience was different. It was very focused and to the point.
We jumped straight into my work experience. Why did I move from consulting to product management? Tell me about a time I failed. What are my post-MBA goals, and why do they make sense given my background?
The behavioral questions were sharp. "Why MBA? Why ISB? Why now?" These sound like standard questions, but if you're not crystal clear on your answers, it shows immediately. Your story needs to hang together – your background, your goals, your choice of school, everything needs to align logically.
I'd prepared extensively for this. I knew exactly why product management felt like the right move after consulting. I knew what skills I was missing that an MBA would develop. I knew why ISB's one-year intensive program fit my timeline and goals better than two-year programs.
The interview lasted about 30 minutes, and honestly, it felt more like a professional conversation than a grilling. A month and a half later, I got the admit!!
I'm a computer science engineer who started my career at consulting. After a couple of years, I realized my real passion was building products, so I switched to product management role. That's where I was when I decided to take another shot at the GMAT.
Why I Retook
So here's the thing – I'd already scored a 680 on the Classic GMAT. For most people, that's a solid score. But I'm a male engineer from an overrepresented background, which basically meant my 680 wasn't going to cut it for the kind of schools I was targeting. The competition in my demographic is brutal.
When the Focus edition came out, I saw an opportunity. The format was different – no more 55% weight on Verbal and Quant, and this whole new Data Insights section that counted for 33% of the score. The playing field felt more level since everyone was figuring out DI together. Plus, as an engineer, I thought I could leverage my analytical background to nail the DI section while fixing my verbal approach.
The Verbal Revelation
This was probably my biggest breakthrough with e-GMAT. In my previous attempt, I treated verbal like this fuzzy, intuitive thing. You read the passage, you use your gut, you pick what "sounds right." That worked to an extent, but I was basically plateauing.
When I started with e-GMAT, they completely flipped my understanding. Verbal isn't just qualitative – it's actually methodical and objective. The falsification scenarios and assumption negation techniques they teach? Game-changers. I started treating CR and RC questions like math problems with specific steps to follow.
Here's what I mean: for CR questions, instead of reading the argument and immediately jumping to answer choices, I learned to:
- Identify the conclusion clearly
- Find the assumption connecting premises to conclusion
- Systematically negate each answer choice
- Pick the one that actually weakens/strengthens based on the negation
Sounds simple, but it's weirdly hard to force yourself to do this when your brain wants to go with instinct. I'm not gonna lie – for the first two weeks, this method felt slower than my old approach. I'd be sitting there methodically going through steps while my brain screamed "just pick C, it obviously sounds better!" But here's the catch: you have to force yourself to use the method on EVERY question, even the 500-level ones that seem stupidly easy.
That discipline paid off. Once the method became second nature, I wasn't second-guessing myself anymore. The questions that used to trip me up – the ones where two answer choices both "sound right" – became way more manageable because I had a systematic way to eliminate wrong answers.
Data Insights: Learning to Play the Game
DI ended up being my strongest section (82), which surprised me because I was genuinely worried about it initially. The concepts themselves aren't difficult – if you've done quant and verbal, you've seen all the underlying skills. The real challenge is the format and timing.
20 questions in 45 minutes sounds reasonable until you actually sit down to do it. MSR questions have three parts, and each part can take time. Table analysis questions can be dense. Two-part analysis questions need you to evaluate multiple scenarios. It's a lot.
Here's the strategy that worked for me: I stopped trying to attempt all 20 questions. I aimed for 17-18 questions max, but I made sure I was getting most of those correct. The goal wasn't to blindly power through everything – it was to maintain accuracy on the questions I did attempt.
I'll be honest, there's a ton of anxiety-inducing advice out there about DI. People say if you get the first two questions wrong, your score tanks and you can't recover. On my actual test, I got the first question wrong. I remember feeling that sinking feeling, but then I steadied myself and got the next nine questions right. My final DI score was 82. The algorithm is smarter than people give it credit for.
The other thing about DI – timing discipline is everything. I practiced recognizing when a question was going to be too time-consuming and making peace with skipping it. That sounds obvious, but culturally, those of us who grew up in the Indian education system are trained to never give up on a question. Learning when to let go was actually a skill I had to develop.
Scholaranium: The Daily Practice Habit
One pattern I noticed from my Classic attempt was that I'd binge study on weekends. I'd tell myself "I'll do six hours each on Saturday and Sunday" and then barely touch GMAT stuff Monday through Friday. Terrible strategy. It's like going to the gym once a week and expecting to get fit.
With Focus prep, I committed to daily practice through Scholaranium on e-GMAT. Even if I could only squeeze in 30-45 minutes on busy workdays, I made sure to do cementing quizzes and custom quizzes focused on my weak areas. The consistency made a huge difference – concepts stayed fresh, and I could track improvement week over week.
The custom quiz feature was particularly useful for targeting specific weaknesses. Once I identified that probability was tripping me up in quant (despite being strong overall), I created multiple custom quizzes focused just on probability and permutations. Same thing with CR strengthen/weaken questions in verbal.
What I appreciated about the platform was the skill-level analytics. After each quiz, you can see exactly where you're losing points – is it timing? Is it a specific question type? Are you falling for particular trap answers? That granular feedback helped me adjust my approach continuously.
The Last Mile Program: Having Someone in Your Corner
GMAT prep is lonely. You're sitting at your desk, grinding through questions, wondering if you're improving or just spinning your wheels. Having a mentor through the Last Mile Program made a massive difference for my mental game.
My mentor, Abha, would look at my e-GMAT dashboard every week and help me identify patterns I was missing. She'd catch things like "hey, you're getting RC questions correct when they're about business scenarios but struggling with scientific data". That external perspective was invaluable because when you're in the weeds, you can't always see your own patterns.
But honestly, the biggest value was just having someone to talk to about the journey. Someone who'd been through this before and could tell me "yes, it's normal to feel like you're not improving for two weeks straight" or "here's why your last mock score dropped – look at the timing data." GMAT prep can be demoralizing, especially when you're working full-time and squeezing prep into evenings and weekends. Those check-in calls kept me from spiraling.
Test Day
I want to address something that creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety: the myth that getting the first question or first two questions wrong destroys your score.
On test day, I got the first question wrong. I knew it the moment I submitted. For a second, I panicked. All that prep, and I blew the first question? But I forced myself to refocus. The next nine questions, I got right.
When I saw my score report later, that was clear – one wrong answer at the start, then a solid streak. Final score? 665 with an 82 in DI. The algorithm doesn't work the way people think it does. If you recover and show consistent accuracy afterward, you're fine.
The bigger issue is what happens psychologically when you think you've tanked your score in question one. If you carry that anxiety through the section, you WILL mess up more questions. So the real skill is learning to let go and move forward.
ISB Application
Getting the GMAT score was only half the battle. ISB's application process is rigorous – three rounds. I'd gotten my 665 well before the Round 1 deadline, so I applied immediately.
The application has 3-4 essays, plus LORs, plus achievements and extracurriculars. Everyone obsesses about GMAT scores, but honestly, the essays are what differentiate candidates at schools like ISB. This isn't a creative writing contest – it's about crafting a coherent narrative.
The key question you need to answer: What's the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and how does an MBA from ISB specifically fill that gap? It's a two-way street – you need to show what you're bringing to ISB AND what ISB can offer you.
I lost count of how many times I rewrote those essays. Every time I'd read them, I'd find something that could be tighter, clearer, more specific. I had colleagues and friends review drafts. The goal was to weave my professional journey (consulting → product management) with my personal motivations in a way that made my MBA goals feel inevitable.
After submitting in Round 1, I got the interview call about a month later. They give you one week's notice, which is just enough time to do mock interviews with friends and prepare for behavioral questions.
The Interview: No Fluff, Just Substance
ISB interviews have a reputation for being holistic – they want to understand you as a whole person. My experience was different. It was very focused and to the point.
We jumped straight into my work experience. Why did I move from consulting to product management? Tell me about a time I failed. What are my post-MBA goals, and why do they make sense given my background?
The behavioral questions were sharp. "Why MBA? Why ISB? Why now?" These sound like standard questions, but if you're not crystal clear on your answers, it shows immediately. Your story needs to hang together – your background, your goals, your choice of school, everything needs to align logically.
I'd prepared extensively for this. I knew exactly why product management felt like the right move after consulting. I knew what skills I was missing that an MBA would develop. I knew why ISB's one-year intensive program fit my timeline and goals better than two-year programs.
The interview lasted about 30 minutes, and honestly, it felt more like a professional conversation than a grilling. A month and a half later, I got the admit!!
15 Feb 2026, 21:22
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VD1994
that is a really great insight, I am also prepping for isb and this info really helped
!
15 Feb 2026, 21:24
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All the best!
mauja007
