I studied for about 4-5 months on my own using other study materials and got a 640, but after the 9 week course and using the Manhattan material I ended up with a 710 (70 point increase!). I especially liked the structured class setup where each week there would be assigned reading and practice problems followed up by a 3-hour class where we would go over strategies and problem types that corresponded with the homework. The test is so much about strategy and my instructor, Jamie Nelson, was awesome in helping to identify the problem types and apply the different strategies to correctly answer the questions. She also provided super helpful input after each of the practice tests to help me figure out what I was getting wrong and where I should be directing my time and resources. At the end of the program, she provided an even better breakdown of where to spend the next couple weeks before my test. For anyone looking for a solid structured study plan and an insightful instructor, I would highly recommend Manhattan GMAT and Jamie Nelson.

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Quick summary:

GMAT Attempt 1 - 5th November 2020 - Q49, V36 - 700
GMAT Attempt 2 - 30th June 2021 - Q48, V40 - 710
GMAT Attempt 3 - To be given in July 2021 - I'll update my score in this review at the end of this month.

Preparation:

I am an engineer by education and work in the Venture capital industry for the past 4 years. Owing to my engineering background, I had assumed at the beginning that I'll need more preparation in Verbal than in Quant. It turned out to be partially true.

For my first attempt in November 2020, I started preparation seriously in August first week. Before that I had already spent some money on Experts Global course, given 1-2 mock tests with passive preparation, and had acquainted myself with the exam structure etc.

I started my CR prep with Powerscore CR - which was an amazing resource to start with. It was too long a read, because it explains everything in absolute detail, but it was worth it because it cleared my concepts about CR questions and how to approach them. With some practice, I could already see some improvement in CR. I was still not practicing pre-thinking though. Although I had a fair idea of what the right answers could be like.
SC - I started with Manhattan SC book. It was good for grammar basics, but beyond a point, it didn't help much. I think SC is my strongest section today and I give full credit for that to GMAT Club community. I practiced a lot of SC Questions and analyzed every choice for every error in both the questions that I did right and wrong. Over time I created a framework for myself and practiced that framework on every question. While reading the sentence itself, I was able to identify the subject, verb, and different clauses in the sentence. Then while scanning for differences in the options, I could choose between the right and wrong options. Until this time, I wasn't absolutely clear about the meaning-based approach.

RC - I will admit, I thought it will be the easiest bit and in the beginning, I didn't pay much attention to it. But by the end, RC is what became the bottleneck. I wasn't writing any notes in my RCs, I was reading the passage and comprehending up to 70% of it before I moved to answer choices. This approach, as I later found out, would not take me to V40+.

Quant - I was foolishly overconfident about this in the beginning. I thought that with little practice, I could get to Q50 and I wouldn't settle for anything lesser. But I was so underconfident about my quant preparation in the end that I got nervous in the exam. I still don't know how I managed to get even Q49.

I gave one mock every weekend for 8-9 weeks and I finished all GMAT official mocks, a few free mocks by veritas, manhattan etc. because I didn't want to leave anything before the final exam. I was scoring 710-730 in my mocks. And I was aspiring for 750+. At 700, I rejected the score then and there and decided to give the exam again.

But I took a long break for some personal and work reasons and started the preparation in March end eventually by taking the e-gmat subscription.

Second Attempt -

I started from March end/April beginning. e-gmat team recommended that I give their Sigma-X mock first, so I did and scored 670 on that, I was out of practice after 4-5 months. I wanted to improve my RC in the beginning so I spent 2-3 weeks only on RC. Finished all RC modules that e-gmat had. I was severely lacking in my RC skills which improved only once I started taking notes and practiced e-gmat's method of solving RCs. It was revolutionary for me, and I'm not being paid to say this lol.

I also knew about e-gmat's pre-thinking approach for CR and I wanted to see if it helped. After doing only a few question types with their standard pre-thinking approach, I could feel the difference. The understanding of the question and the answer that you're looking for becomes multifold once you pre-think the answer. It reduces the chances of errors, and improves speed eventually. I also started taking few notes in CR.

After that, I started focusing on my quant too. I did a couple of their modules but frankly, it was taking too much time. I was impatient and always tried to jump the gun by skipping modules here and there. It ensured that I never got the concept right and always faltered in difficult questions in almost every concept. I realized this too late. After consecutively scoring 710-740 in my mocks, I realized that I am in the same situation as the last time, and I sought help from e-gmat. Dhananjay (DJ) from e-gmat got in touch with me, helped me make sense of my scores, and prepared a broad-level plan for me to reach my target of 750. I can say that I tried to follow his plan but I couldn't take the complete value out of that mentorship. I should have reached out to him more when I wasn't getting the desired results. I started giving custom quizzes every day and took a false sense of satisfaction in decent results in them. But the reality is, GMAT is tougher because of the actual exam pressure.

I was confident that my preparation is such that I cannot score below 730. But I did. And for better or worse, I cannot settle at 710, so I will be giving my retest this month. DJ is still helping me with another customized plan and tells me that I have to follow it this time and I can reach my target score. :)

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

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Working in management consulting, I have received many different recommendations from my colleagues on how to best prepare for my GMAT exam. However, there was one of these recommended paths that most resonated to me: the e-gmat course. After taking the enhanced GMAT online and scoring 780 (Q: 50 V: 48 IR: 8 AWA: 6) I feel that I have to pass these recommendations to all my fellow gmatclubbers.

What I liked the most?
Hyper personalization
I was invited by Archit Bhargava to be part of LMP (Last Mile Program), a program where he would support me as a mentor. I cannot thank Archit enough for his support during my GMAT prep. He analyzed every single part of the Six Sigma X Mocks I took, beginning with my initial diagnosis one, and designed personalized improvement plans for each of the sections of the exam. He helped me understand where I had conceptual gaps, where I had to focus on process skills, and what areas I had already “conquered”. Archit also supported me until my exam day, helping me overcome any fall, to arrive at the GMAT with full confidence. Also, my GMAT study plan was designed so that it worked around my tight schedule of working 11+ hs a day.
Archit designed daily milestones for me to complete, taking into account the time that I had available for studying in the different days of the week.

Approach
e-GMAT has a very structured approach to achieve test readiness. 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 2.0 is a very powerful platform. It provides as many KPIs and 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 2.0, one can design custom quizzes and can even choose the subtopic! For example, one can design a quiz only on hard-level questions on modifiers within the SC section. The explanation of how questions should be resolved is very detailed and allows one to identify what went wrong or to confirm a correct.

Sigma X Mocks
The Sigma X Mocks very well represent the real exam. The adaptative 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 750 (Q50 V42) which translated into a 780 (Q50 V48) in the real exam.

My study mentor: Archit
My journey would not have been the same without Archit. He was there to take my phone call at whatever hour each time I felt I would not make it in time, to adapt my study plan around my crazy work schedule, to help me define concrete next steps. Archit was the game changer in my GMAT journey.

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I used Michael from GMATNinja and really enjoyed working with him. From being supportive when I needed him to and providing tough love when I needed to hear them, Michael was fantastic. Especially so because I was going through some tough personal challenges and Michael was supportive and understanding.

I was approaching the GMAT with some false preconceived notions as a test of intelligence and going by instinct/brute force. Michael explained the psychology of the test, helped me build a structured plan to study and kept me on track. This structure was especially key as I was very inconsistent in my study habits and because I was racing against time to get a decent score before the R1 application was due.

Highly recommend Michael and GMATNinja for anyone who is starting out their GMAT prep or is frustrated at not being to crack a higher score.

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I would highly, highly, highly recommend the GMAT Ninja. It is really a no-brainer, they will help you get the best version of yourself! As mentioned it is thanks to them that I got into HBS. I know for a fact that several friends to whom I recommended Charles and Mike had a similar experience and made it into their dream schools. I primarily worked with Mike in order to get the best GMAT score possible. Mike was very structured, extremely professional, and incredibly patient with me. English is my third language and thanks to him I got a 42 (96%) in the verbal section. He was instrumental in the quantitative part as well. The various techniques he taught me made me very effective at using the limited time available. Overall it was a real pleasure to work with him, we have remained in contact ever since, as on top of being the best coach he is also a phenomenal human being. Working with Charles and Mike will be amongst the very best decision you make in your life! Don't hesitate, just go for it!

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Before meeting Harry Duthie from GMAT Ninja, I had studied independently for over 6 months and was unable to cross my desired 700 barrier on my first exam attempt even though my 4 practice exam attempts were all in the early 700s. I had a real mental block as I felt I had done all I could and couldn’t figure out where I was going wrong. As someone who feels more naturally at ease with words than numbers, I was disheartened that I couldn’t once cross the V40 barrier in any of my practice tests. My confidence in my quantitative abilities was low and I struggled with silly errors.
Harry was instrumental in helping me get past my mental block. In particular, he helped me to reconstruct my thought process and make my exam technique much more efficient. Specifically:

Quant:
- He advocated a question answering process that helped me to almost entirely eradicate silly mistakes;
- He trained me to be much more intrusive and disciplined when it comes to my time management, providing me with confidence to bail on questions EARLY when I couldn’t figure out a path to answer a particular question;
- His bespoke worksheets on particular topics helped me to attack my weaknesses and learn from my mistakes
- Drilling me to work 15 hours a week+ helped me to internalise my question answering processes and eliminate weaknesses
- In the past, I would not always pick the most efficient path to answering questions. His guidance on certain question types (conversions, geometry and statistics in particular) helped me to save time on easier questions and set me up for success on harder questions
- A focus on methodology and discipline over “trickery”
- Fantastic advice on alleviating exam pressures/stresses and also eradicating any cobwebs/preconceptions about quantitative ability.

Verbal:
- Drilled into me to read for meaning not detail (but without missing important details!);
- Advocated using harder LSAT materials – these were a life saver for critical reasoning and reading comprehension. Going through passages/questions I got wrong/found difficult with Harry and having him continuously challenge my thought process was instrumental in improving my verbal scores
- Previously I was finishing verbal sections with 10/15 mins to go – Harry helped me to read in a more targeted fashion to fully utilise my time. Small tips like deep breaths before critical reasoning questions allowed me to concentrate on passages more
- Instilled critical reasoning question technique discipline – this was crucial. Test prep companies/books seem to advocate 1000s of different techniques for every time of critical reasoning question. Harry’s advice was simple – identify the conclusion precisely! It’s the key to any type of question and completely decluttered my mind!

As a result, I pushed my practice test scores from 700/710 to 740-760. I finally achieved my desired my 700+ score in the actual exam, achieving 710 (Q46, V41) vs 680 (Q43, V40) which massively helped me get into my dream business school, INSEAD.

What can’t be summarised about GMATNinja with just data however is how much they truly care about their students. Whether it was a query about MBA applications, stress, exam technique, interviews (before and after my GMAT sessions with Harry), Harry and Charles would go out of their way to get back to me as quickly as possible. To this day, 7 months on from my GMAT exam, they continue to stay in touch and offer their help which speaks volumes for their character.

I can’t recommend GMATNinja and Harry enough.

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After thinking for long and researching, I took up E-Gmat because I knew I had to work on my verbal as I was consistently scoring high in quant but fluctuated in verbal.
E-gmat has been a game changer for me. Its meaning based approach for SC and pre thinking approach for CR just puts verbal in your favour. Moreover, the master comprehension module just helps getting the base right.
The course is great for anyone starting their prep and wants to get into verbal. It is a very thorough course and along with the OG guides, it's the only prep material I used.
Scholaranium is the best tool available to any GMAT aspirant to judge your performance and find areas of improvement. It has amazing data analytics pointing to your need and area of improvement. If there is one course you should definitely take it is E-gmat.

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I took a diagnostic test from the official GMAT back in August 2020 and scored a 570. I knew I needed a course that will help me with all the aspects of the GMAT. I came across e-gmat and liked the trial version so went ahead and purchased the full course.

The course is great for anyone starting at a similar level. It is a very thorough course and along with the OG guides, it's the only prep material I used.

I think the verbal course is slightly better than the quant only because sometimes my approach to tackle quant was very different from e-gmat's. So I skipped some of the explanations and stuck to what I knew. Perhaps that would explain my Q49 score? Maybe I could have got a 50 or 51 by following the e-gmat approach?

The verbal course, however, is the main reason for me scoring a V44 (from a V27 in my diagnostic). I highly recommend following the approach detailed in the e-gmat videos.

I took my first attempt in May 2021 and scored a 690 (Q46 V39). I reached out to e-gmat for help. The 2 things I didn't do before my first attempt which were game changing was: 1) use the e-gmat scholaranium platform properly. I found the questions to be slightly harder than the official ones so i skipped it. In hindsight this was a bad decision. I think by practicing harder questions, you can really hone your approach to solving different types of questions. Also if you are targeting a high score, it makes sense to tackle the hard questions.

The second thing I didn't do was keep an error log. I was encouraged by my e-gmat tutor to keep one. I initially found it time consuming and didn't see the benefit. However after repeatedly scoring 66% accuracy in CR, I decided to start an error log. I instantly saw my score improve. Obviously, you need to carry out a strategic review of your errors (not just keep one), e-gmat have lots of helpful videos for the error-log which are particularly helpful for the verbal section. I highly recommend.

The 3 weeks between my 2 attempts, I exclusively used e-gmat's resources (scholaranium, error logs, strategic reviews) and this was what helped me increase my score to a 750.

Another thing worth mentioning is e-gmats mentorship program. After my first attempt I was assigned a mentor who guided me with my prep. Aditee (e-gmat mentor) was very patient and helpful with my prep. Sometimes it helps when someone else can view your weaknesses objectively and direct you in the right way.

I highly recommend e-gmat to anyone looking for a good overall prep course.

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Hi All,
My name is Pooja and I recently took the GMAT and after a year and half of constant hard work, repeated failures and a super stressful work environment I was able to score a 710 with V38 and Q49. I initially began my journey by self-studying and taking help from two other courses on separate occasions but I realized that none of them actually gave me the improvement I needed. After a few days of sever self-criticism and depression, I came across e-gmat. I tried its 7 day trial and I found that the free videos and lessons were already helping me figure out what incorrect approach or concept gaps I had (when I resolved a few incorrect questions I had attempted earlier).
The first concept that absolutely blew my mind away is their staunch focus on meaning based approach in SC. Prior to that I always focused on splits and grammar which is fine for certain questions, but absolutely wrong for a majority of hard level questions. Once I adopted the strategy I observed that my application ability increased immensely compared to before and I was more comfortable approaching the questions. The best part about this is that the meaning based approach principles can also be applied while solving CR and RC questions. In verbal, I also loved their approach to pre-thinking using the falsification strategy (a true knight in shining armour I would say).
In quant the lessons are so easy to understand and cover quite a few strategies which show their brilliance while solving hard level quant questions. I have always been weak in quant and have had a squeamish approach towards it. But e-gmat converted this feeling to confidence through their methods like maintaining error logs and conducting strategic reviews on every incorrect question. Originally maintaining an error log seems like a tedious process but soon you do get used to it and open your eyes to a whole new approach to your GMAT studies.
In addition, I was approached by e-gmat for their mentorship program and jumped to undertake it as I really needed a second pair of eyes to understand the possible areas where I am faltering as I surely could not figure it out myself after 3 GMAT attempts. Here I was introduced to Archit Bhargava my mentor and in six months he completely changed my ways of dealing with the exam. I was given precise study schedules which covered what should be studied, revised or a quizzed based on my grasping ability. One of the major issues I faced was timing, despite being aware of the fact that when faced with a question were you are confused or unable to solve, just take an educated guess and move on. I, however never did that and it led me to sometimes spend 3 to 4mins on questions which resulted in a race to complete the quiz at the end. In order to tackle said issue, Archit suggested a timing matrix which tells you at what amount of time you should have completed what number of questions. Like for example: In quant when you are in question 10, the timer should be reading around 49mins.
This matrix really helped me. It took me a while to adapt it but with Archit’s constant support and my dedication to not give up on my weakness, I was able to adopt it. In my actual exam I managed to finish even the hard level questions which originally took me 3-4mins in 2mins as per ESR.
I would genuinely recommend e-gmat as the course to undertake by all the GMAT novices as it is the perfect platform that can help you launch in the direction of your perfect score. They are not only focused on GMAT preparation but also provide support in areas like mental frustration. In addition anyone opting for the mentorship program should definitely choose Archit as their mentor because his structure and guidance is very straightforward and very helpful for students who are more anxiety driven. Two thumbs up for sure!

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E-gmat is definitely the best course for GMAT Prep. After going through lot of courses including Manhattan, I found no increase in my score and ability while giving mocks, Finally I enrolled for the E-gmat online course and started watching all the concept videos diligently .

It helped me in understanding the basics of Verbal and Quant. The course is very informative and the videos help you explain every topic.

Scholaranium is the best tool available to any GMAT aspirant to judge your performance and find areas of improvement.

The questions are very relevant and the concepts tested are very similar to what appeared in my GMAT Exam.

The difficulty level of the material is very good and it helps you tackle higher difficulty level questions with ease..

Please do use both the verbal as well as quant section of E-gmat, the approach used in the videos is very innovative and would be highly beneficial.

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