I am from India, and when I started my GMAT journey, I was advised to take help from a personal tutor. I used the service of a very expensive and experienced tutor but could not increase my verbal score. After studying with him for almost 3 months when I scored only a 720 in the GMAT, I realized that it is not the right approach for me.

That is when I decided to trial few online courses, and settled upon E-Gmat. I will go as far to say that e-gmat course's knowledge base and customer support gave me 10 times better quality of service at literally a 10th of the cost of a personal tutor.

When I started my course with e-gmat, I already had a 720, but I was clear that I need to get at least a 750 to be competitive in top B-Schools. I reached out to the e-gmat team and they considering my past scores, ESR reports, and on-going performance in their system, and gave me a personalized study plan to follow. Please note I just took the basic course and did not pay anything extra for study plan guidance provided by them.

I decided to re-do my verbal course with e-gmat, and thoroughly enjoyed the clarity of concepts, user interface, and apt examples which really make sure that verbal studies are fun and not a headache.
For quant, I didn't do the entire course due to paucity of time at my end, but I went through the practice questions - which I would say are unmatchable in terms of quality & quantity.

Lastly, their mock tests are top notch. I took a mock test right 1 day before my exam and scored a 750, which is exactly what I scored the next day in real GMAT.

For anyone who is hesitant to use an 'online' learning platform, I would say that subscribing to e-gmat was the best decision in my GMAT journey from 720 to 750. If you are capable of getting a good score and have the time, you do not need an expensive tutor.

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I joined e-GMAT after looking at the reviews online and talking to people about it. I gave their diagnostic mock and scored 650 (Q47, V32).

After this, I followed their Verbal and QA course rigorously for a month or so based on my sectional requirements according to me. After my second mock, I was offered the e-GMAT Last Mile Program, which is a 1 to 1 mentoring program. This is where I came in touch with Archit, who studied my performances till date and came up with a 4 week plan to tackle my weakness (specifically SC). In the time to come, I created different error logs, revised them and solved questions in the form of quizzes regularly from the massive pool of questions from the Scholaranium 2.0 of e-GMAT. These questions are very similar to what we face in the actual exam and the best thing is the explanation that follows.

Throughout the course, there were different techniques that I learnt about; pre-thinking, reading strategies, process skills etc. to name a few. Then come the Sigma-X mocks. These mocks are a good representation of the actual test in the sense of their choice and difficulty of questions. These were helpful to gather insights after each milestone of preparation completed.

Talking about the mentorship program, Archit was there to help me with personalized plans and videos throughout the main month of my preparation. SC was one of the weak points in my preparation and he pointed that out, followed by a plan of action to tackle it. He identified QA to be my strength and suggested steps to bolster my score there to the maximum.

Lastly, I'll recommend e-GMAT to anyone who has a plan to ace the GMAT, as it has the necessary resources irrespective of the level of the candidate appearing for the exam. It can help you fill conceptual gaps, have enough practice and gain test readiness all in one package.

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Background
I didn't know what the GMAT was comprised of before Dec'20. I had appeared for CAT before but I had very low confidence on my Verbal ability. Working full-time, I was really concerned about the selection of a right platform that could help me achieve a good GMAT score and that would allow me to do so at a self-determined pace. A few of my friends, who have already excelled at GMAT recommended e-GMAT, and I started my journey in Dec'20 with the e-GMAT online intensive course.

Approach
e-GMAT course has been structured to identify the areas of improvement right from the beginning, so that a huge amount of time could be saved using the detailed analysis of each of the subtopics. Each of the subtopics of both Quant and Verbal is structured around a three-step learning process: (1) concept, (2) process, (3) GMAT skills. This method allows one to be certain of the readiness to move to the following step, and to calibrate the time dedicated to each subtopic in a very personalized way.

Platform
The Scholaranium is an excellent platform which is unique of any product out there. It provides as many metrics as one can imagine to identify the process flaws and knowledge gaps at a very detailed level to know exactly what to do to improve. It keeps track of the results for the different levels of questions. With Scholaranium, one can design custom quizzes and can even choose at the subtopic level! Especially, one can design a quiz comprising only of Medium and Hard-level questions on any topics within each sections of Verbal or Quants. The explanation of how questions should be solved correctly and in a timely manner is very detailed and allows one to identify what went wrong or to confirm a correct.

Sigma X Mocks
I found the Sigma X Mocks to be closest to the actual exam. The adaptive software makes the experience very similar to that of the GMAT. From my own personal experience, I can say these mock exams even have more difficult questions than the GMAT, which allows one to be confident that when preparing for this hard questions, one is for sure covering the difficulty that will be find in the exam. In my best Sigma X Mock I scored a 730 (Q49 V40) which translated into a 730 (Q49 V40) in the real exam.

My study mentor: Archit
Perhaps the most important thing that makes e-gmat different from the other platforms is the support that one receives from the mentors. My GMAT mentor, Archit, helped me formulate the study plan and helped me at each and every step, whether it was identifying the weak areas during the concept building exercises or it was analyzing the various GMAT mocks to identify the corrective actions.

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When I had applied to the ISB YLP, I wasn't expecting even a Round 1 shortlist. It was only in Round 2 that a GMAT score was required. When the shortlist email came, my first thought was panic. I had exactly 2 months and 3 weeks before the August 31st deadline. I started researching about the best way to study for GMAT in 2 months - with a goal of crossing the 700 mark somehow.

First Impressions :
I tried the e-GMAT free trial for a week. What sold me instantly was the pre-assessment quizzes for each individual topic. For example, if I wanted to study Absolute Values, I could give a short pre-assessment quiz of GMAT type questions to check my ability. This saved a lot of time later on as well, where I could just skip/skim through topics whose questions I could solve.

SigmaX Mocks :
I gave my first free mock, where I got a 510 (Q30 V31). That immediately pointed out to me what my weaknesses and strengths were. I had to work on Algebra and Sentence Correction questions. I was doing okay in Geometry, CR, and RC. After I finished analysing this mock, I bought their course, because the clear direction it gave me (in terms of my weaknesses) was invalable.

Learning/Teaching Approach :
The learning approach e-GMAT follows feels very scientific. They first measure your current ability, based on which they recommend modules for you to study, finally follwed by a post-assessment quiz which shows you your improvements. Their focus is on increasing the ability to solve GMAT type questions first, not on general accuracy - which is a great metric because ability automatically improves accuracy in the Medium-Hard questions.

Verbal :
Their verbal is a bit lengthy if you follow every single video. While it did help me visualise the sentences better and break down what the question was asking, I personally could skip many of the basic lectures and complete only the guided question solving files.
For someone with low confidence in verbal, it will help you visualise the problems GMAT throws at you in a more structured manner, and approach it in a step by step way. I would recommend the course with great confidence. Also, note that questions in verbal seemedto me harder than actual GMAT questions/

Quant :
The subject I had to spend a month perfecting. It took a long time but again, the structured approach to teaching it helped me immensely. The best thing is that they take questions that are so similar to what the GMAT expects you to solve, due to which you're not wasting time doing unnecessarily easy/difficult questions in the beginning.

Summary :
After 2 months of prep (3-4 hours a day), I finally got a 690 (V39 Q45). I will be giving a second attempt soon, and will continue with e-GMAT. Go for it if you (a) want to maximise a short prep time by focusing on only some topics in depth, or (b) you have 6 months at hand and can utilise their course completely. In eiter case, you will see improvement - I am sure about that.

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The whole GMAT prep has been a roller coaster ride, and E-GMAT has played an integral role in the journey. I had used the product in the past around Oct'20 but did not leverage their support during that time. The product in itself is a complete package especially scholarinium, which gives you detailed knowledge of your weak areas, timing issues, and performance comparison with other students. It really helped me to self-pace my study. I will not get into how good is their product, because that has been covered my most of other folks in the reviews out there.

I reached out to E-GMAT support in Jun'21 after I score 710 on GMAT, but the score was revoked after my complaint about the issues faced during the online GMAT exam. I was in a hurry so I took another attempt without following the complete instruction sent by the E-GMAT team. I scored 680 this time, and it was in person exam at the center. That was really heartbreaking since I had scored 710 already and knew that I could do better.

This time I got on a call with DJ (GMATNinja of exam strategies). It was a half an hour call, and we went through my 680 ESR. He pointed out timing issues and other weak areas. I will admit that whatever he said was simple advice, but I never really focused on those issues diligently. He prepared a plan based on my weakness, and I religiously followed it. The step-by-step plan made by DJ helped me focus on areas such as RC, geometry and etc. really boosted my confidence. I reattempted the exam and scored 710. Again, a few technical issues which caused a delay of 1.5 hr in the middle of the verbal section and some other technical craps.

One piece of advice for most of the folks is that please utilize the platform as well as their mentorship/support to the greatest extent possible. I felt that the support is really good and prompt and helpful in keeping you on track.

PS: I am planning to reattempt the exam around Dec before second-round deadlines, and I will definitely reach out to the e-gmat team before starting the prep.

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I started using E-GMAT's verbal course about a month before my exam. I wasn't sure that I would learn a lot in a month, but because I was panicking about my SC prospects I started the course nonetheless. So here's my experience:

1. Even though I had already trained myself on SC topics, and had done quite a few official questions, EGMAT's SC course still had a lot for me to learn.

2.Each topic is broken down into smaller consumable parts and explained with great amount of detail. In fact I thought that they were very thorough in anticipating doubts that a reader might have.

3. Overall the questions of a certain difficulty level, especially in the question bank SCHOLARANIUM, are more difficult than the official ones of a corresponding difficulty level. And this I think is a GREAT thing. As you are forced to read and comprehend longer sentences and pay attention to complicated details. By the time you are done with Scholaranium, you will most likely cruise through official questions (at least most of them).

4. Ofcourse as you solve official questions you will also encounter errors that you haven't come across in E-GMAT. But you will, for most parts, be able to wrap your head around them by making connections to concepts that you would have learnt through E-GMAT.

5. Don't expect to get all official questions right by doing a E-GMAT course (that's true for any course). There will always always be questions that will stump you. And therefore I think one should be realistic. Rather focus on consistently getting the easier and medium level questions correct. If you do them well, you will most likely crack enough hard level questions to reach V40 and above.

7. Scholaranium has great analytics too. So you can actually find out pretty precisely the topics that you might need to work on.

6. I didn't have time to complete their RC and CR modules so I cannot comment on them.

8. Overall, if you aren't very very very confident about SC, and are struggling to find a good source on which you can put your faith in, then I recommend you try E-GMAT. I know that it is difficult to make a decision on what to trust, given that there are so many products in the market. I went through the same dilemma. But ultimately I think I made the right choice for SC.

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While I had signed up on Egmat in April, I used it properly after taking my first attempt in which I got a 690, under the guidance of Aditee Biyani, from the Egmat team. Aditee reached out to me and helped me curate a personalized plan. We identified CR as weakness area - and within CR, using the egmat diagnostic tool for error logs, I could clearly identify that I struggled the most with "Answer choice evaluation" and "Pre-thinking". Aditee also reviewed my performance on scholaranium, and directed me to select modules that would be of help. Within 3 weeks, my mock scores improved to 750, and I got a 730 in my exam. My target CR %ile was 80, and I landed at 88%ile, up from a baseline of 40%ile.

Aditee & the egmat team was super patient and gave really personalized inputs, which were what was needed the most, not blind practice.

Thanks a lot Egmat Team!

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Hey there!
I have had a rollercoaster ride while studying for my GMAT. Initially, I did not want to spend on any course. I thought I was "smart enough" to self-study (and I still believe that). In fact, (full disclosure) I even reported e-GMAT's ad on YouTube in order to hide it from my account.
Started with a 690 (Q50 V32), which was a pretty decent starting point. One month of OG and bam, still 690. I consulted my seniors who had aced the GMAT, and from them, I got the notion of error logging and practising hard questions from GMATClub. This really helped me shape my understanding of questions and even improved my verbal score from V32 to V37. I once got a 730 on my GMATPrep and thought that if I simply continue with the error logging, I will break that 750 barrier. However, I stagnated again. Instead, my score dropped to 710 (dropping one point each in Quant and Verbal), meaning that the 730 was a score on a good day. This is after over 3 months of GMAT study. In my head, I was thinking, "This is taking way too much time, and I do not even know what I am doing wrong". I had already gone through GMAT Ninja's videos and solutions (which are GOLD, btw) and diligently worked on logging my errors and practising tougher official questions everyday. But V40 STILL seemed out of reach.
I sent an email to e-GMAT (yes, I had the gut to mail them even after I blocked their ads on YouTube :P) and I got a response within 5 hours, on a Sunday. Not gonna lie, their promptness moved me a bit. I had 2 calls first in order to discuss which e-GMAT program would be suitable for me. Bought the course for a month and started right on, hoping to keep a fresh and open mind.
I realised my SC, which I believed was great, had some particular conceptual gaps because of which I was missing Medium questions on SC. RC was actually great, thanks to a reading of The Economist articles for 2 weeks. CR was conceptually alright, but the timing was super bad (3 mins on average!). I had never timed my practice - I used to do a question, reflected on why I got it wrong, did a thorough review (20 mins/question) of that question, and only then moved on to the next.
e-GMAT courses really helped me structure the process of learning. I was not wasting time on WHAT I should study. Rather, I was spending time refining my process. The SC modules are awesome for someone who prefers video lessons over textbooks. I also got guidance from their mentorship program (A big shout out to Atreya and Arathy for all the help). Atreya guided me on what to do next, and took to my concerns. Yes, there were times when I would not get a response, but he went out of his way to get back to me.
Scholaranium, their practice platform, is where I worked on my CR timing. In fact, I even improved my timing on SC. It is something that I realised while practising on Scholaranium that I could say to myself, "Oh, ok, I should approach the problems this way". The biggest realisation: Read slow. Like a 5th grader. Literally. (Thanks to Gin's RC tips and a free e-GMAT video on RC strategy). I applied the same to CR and SC, and I was amazed at the improvement in my timing.
Of course, these improvements will be specific to your case. What to takeaway from this review is that invest in a course. Sure, you are brilliant and can self-study. But these courses are designed to minimise the time that goes into the prep. By the end of 5 months, I was burned out (even after the e-GMAT courses). I had to re-take the actual GMAT (first score was 700) because of something at the test center that distracted me during my Verbal section. I had to re-take even after I had gotten 760 and 770 in my mocks. Something unprecedented like this can really affect you. I am surprised to get a V40 even after all the wear and tear and a stupid sickness on D-Day.
Another thing is, if you decide to take e-GMAT and are invited to their mentorship program, please be nice to your mentors. They handle a lot of students (which might lead to less attention to some students, frankly). But they work like hell to help you out. You do not want to get a good GMAT score at anyone's expense. Being nice to them actually motivates them to work harder.
All in all, e-GMAT has a great course. Had I not been a miser in my first 3-4 months and bought the course already, I would have been in a mental state to hit 760 or more on the actual test (and I mean it). 2 months of e-GMAT can really get you there, provided you have a good starting point. All the best to anyone who takes up the course! (Sorry for the long post!)

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Content was great for both Verbal and Quant. I was more interested in Quant because I didn't recall any of the concepts, and really needed a good coverage, and eGMAT definitely delivered, brining my Quant from baseline of 39 to 49.
The Verbal course was also really though rough in teaching concepts, and it made me realise that there were quite a few things that I was unaware of - especially in the Sentence Correction bit.
Also, they have a near-endless question bank which provides the required practice (Scholaranium).
I did at times feel lost because eGMAT strategy guidance is given purely through email, and that form of communication feels very impersonal and is problematic for me because I tend to get a lot more information if I'm talking with someone. However, it was not too much of a hassle, I was able to relate to and apply at least 50% of the given strategy advice, which helped me on my journey.

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Hi everyone,

I am writing this post to walk you through my GMAT journey in the hopes that you might find it useful. At the very onset, what I have written is not meant to be prescriptive. It is a record of my experience with the GMAT exam and how I prepared for it - if, through this post, you can find even one idea that helps you in your journey, I would have done my job of giving back to the gmatclub community. I have broken this story down into three parts: 1) choosing a study plan, 2) preparing for the GMAT, 3) leading up to the test and the test experience.

Before that my daily schedule (high level):

Wake-up: 6:30 am
Sign-in at work: 8:00 am
Sign-off: 6:00 pm.
Work Out and Dinner: 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm.
GMAT Prep - 9:00 pm - 11:30 pm

Choosing a Study Plan
I decided to take the GMAT in May this year, hoping to apply to business schools by the first round of deadlines in September. I knew a few folks who had already taken the GMAT, so I reached out to them to learn about their prep journey (read quite a few posts from the gmatclub - all very helpful) - a few suggested Manhatten Prep, some suggested Math Revolution, and some others suggested e-GMAT. Everyone who suggested the e-GMAT course raved about its verbal infrastructure and how that was especially important for non-native English speakers.

I chose the e-GMAT because of its strong verbal infrastructure. I knew I had a comparative advantage in verbal over the others, because of my background in public policy. I develop and analyze policies for a living, so CR and RC are, in a way, a part of my job. I had also done my research and knew that breaking the 41/42 mark on the Verbal section in the GMAT exam increases your score substantially as long as you are hitting a Q48/49. Since my undergrad is in economics and I also do a fair bit of data science (for fun), my quant skills are decent. So I wanted a course that could complement my existing strengths and help me break the V41/42 threshold. I set a V45 target for myself.

Before starting the course in June, I took an official mock test to see where I stood. I started with a 650 - Q44 and V35. I realized I was relying too much on my instincts on SC. And while your instincts can serve you well (depending on how strong your foundations are in verbal), they won't take you too far when you start getting those hard (>700) type questions. My accuracy on >700 SC questions was abysmal, and I knew that was holding me back. e-GMAT treats SC like science and breaks down each sentence into various components - one then analyzes each component independently to see if they fit together well. Does the meaning of the sentence make sense? And if it does, does the grammar fit well into it? Once you can comfortably answer those two questions, picking the right answer becomes easier.

Preparing for the GMAT
I input my mock test scores on the e-GMAT diagnostic report and they gave me a plan for the next three months. I tweaked that plan to suit my own goals. So through the course of the three months, I spent 70 percent of the time on Verbal, understanding the "science-like approach to sentence correction" and 30 percent of the time on Quant.

For SC I started from the very basics - what is a sentence and built on my prep from there. For every module, e-GMAT starts you off with a pre-assessment quiz. This tells you where you stand before taking the module. Then after you complete the module, they do a post-assessment quiz to show you how far you have come. The "pre-assessment, prepare, and post-assessment" structure was very important for me since I got to see my progress daily.

I would study the module, take the post-assessment quiz and then attempt 10-15 OG questions daily. Once you complete each module on the e-GMAT in its entirety, you can take "cementing quizzes". These quizzes are there to test how far you have come and how well you understand the concepts you have studied.

For RC and CR, I read 4-5 articles a day from the economist on topics I was not used to such as geology, and other sciences. I did not dedicate as much time to learning the basics of RC and CR but spent a lot of time doing mock questions daily. In addition to the 10-15 SC questions, I would do around 3 RC and 10 CR questions daily. You will notice as you read more your RC and CR automatically improve. That said, if you are not a reader then e-GMAT does have some very helpful tips on tackling RC and CR too and they follow the same "pre-assessment, prepare, post-assessment" structure here.

For quant, I focussed predominantly on the word problems section since they make up for the most number of questions on the GMAT. The section is broken down into topics, and each topic starts from the basics. Once you are done with the concept file, you take post-assessment quizzes and see how well you understand the section. I would often couple my preparation with about 20 questions from the OG daily.

Leading Up To The Test and The Test Experience

Through the course of my prep I took four mock tests:
June (before starting my prep) - 650: V35, Q44 (official test 1)
July (mid-July, a month into my prep) - 740: V42, Q49 (official test 2)
July (last week) - 690: V38, Q47 (official test 3)
August (1 week before my test) - 720: V41, Q48 (official test 4).
I never attempted the AWA or the IR sections of the official mock tests. I would suggest you do. Doing so will give you a good sense of the entire exam and how long it takes. Also, IR and AWA can be tricky for some people, and you don't want any surprises on test day. My third mock score threw me off a little bit, but my performance was a function of how I was feeling that day. I had not slept well and was tired. It is important to know what you need in terms of prep for test day to be your optimal self. In my case, it is a good night's sleep and a light breakfast. Another important factor (for online test takers from home) is to prep on a whiteboard with markers. Make sure you are comfortable using a whiteboard before test day. Using it for the first time on test day can be detrimental to your performance. I started working on a whiteboard 2-3 weeks before my actual test. Small things, such as the smell of the marker, being used to erasing after solving 2 or 3 questions, getting used to the feel of the board, etc. may seem minor but can prove to be useful on the test day.

My actual test day was alright. I logged in 15 mins before the test was scheduled to start. The proctor checked my room through the camera and performed the formalities and I was on my way. My last tip to you would be to start your exam with your strengths. The GMAT allows you to structure your exam the way you like. Always start with the section you are good at. That sets the pace for the rest of your test. Imagine not performing well and moving onto the next section - you are already demoralized. So you might not be your best self in a section you would otherwise ace had you been happy and confident. Now imagine starting strong - you are happy and confident with your performance so far, you move to your relatively weaker section but because you have done well so far, you perform better than you would have as a disappointed test taker. That is the approach I take - does not mean it is correct.

Remember, the GMAT is just an exam and you can take it multiple times (ideally you would not have to but not doing well is not the end of the world). Also, it is just one of the many factors in a bschool application (assuming you are applying to bschool). If you don't do as well as you would have liked, IT IS OKAY. Be honest in your preparation. Be kind to yourself. And you will do well :)

Final score - 760: V47, Q48, IR5, AWA6

If you'd like to talk more about the exam, my prep, or just get to know me better, feel free to connect with me on Linkedin - www.linkedin.com/in/pratiquekain

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