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I subscribed for the Experts global soon after I decided to give GMAT a try. The preparation for my first attempt at GMAT was predominantly limited to the concepts and practice tests of EG. While my performance was satisfactory in the mock tests, the difficulty level of the verbal questions in the actual test, I felt, was much tougher. As a result, my GMAT score was also well short of what I had in mind.
So, I took a couple of months to prepare myself exclusively for the verbal section with the help of another provider. That helped and I was able to get a 70 point jump.
In summary, while the concept videos for quant section is concise and easy to follow for someone who is short on time, the same does not hold true for verbal. The verbal section needs some more work to be able to depend on this product as the only source of preparation.
TTP is unparalleled in getting you prepared for the GMAT. I started studying with Manhattan Prep books and found it helpful for general test knowledge, format, and strategies. But, the style of just reading content and no practice wasn't working for me and I was scoring in the low/mid 600s on practice tests (used Veritas for this initially) and wasn't improving. After the holidays, I needed a new way to study that would keep me engaged and on track.
I took the leap and tried TTP and while it's intensive and lengthy, it's worth it. I was getting 49s in Quant on the OG tests after TTP and got a 48 on the actual GMAT online. I also did the beta Verbal course on TTP and think it has great potential - I liked the SC parts but felt the critical reasoning content to be overkill, especially after reading through MP. RC has always come pretty naturally to me so I didn't mind that they didn't have this up and running yet.
I'd recommend following the plan they outline. I printed the review sheets, took notes on them, etc and made flash cards before the bigger tests. I don't think you need to do ALL the quizzes tbh - for some of the later chapters, I followed the accelerated plan and then came back to the quizzes I didn't do if I felt like I needed more targeted practice later.
First time cold test (veritas test): 550 (33Q, 33 V)
after Manhattan (veritas test): 620 - 650 (~43 Q, ~35 V)
After TTP (OG Tests): got scores between 680 and 750, high of 49Q and 44V
Actual GMAT: 740 (48Q, 44V)
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Hi Fellow Test-takers,
Hope your preparations are going good. I just wanted to update you on how my GMAT journey has been. So, the milestone 700 has been in my target list from 2016, right when I got my first job. To give a background, I am a finance guy with 4 years of Work experience based out of Bangalore aged about 24.
Attempt1 :
Well, I did not research a lot about the exam and how I should prepare for it. Meanwhile, my work kept me busy and in the process the professional exams intrigued me and enrolled for a couple -CIPM and CFA. After finishing those, my focus got shifted to GMAT after gaining 2 years of work experience. So one of my friends who also struggled as I suggested that Princeton Review Private tutoring is good. So, me and him enrolled for the course. Well, it did not work for me as they have a very simple mindset and assumed everyone knows basics about the exam and the syllabus.
After giving a couple of mocks I realized something's wrong in my preparation. So went to GMAT club read a couple of reviews and purchased E-GMAT verbal course in 2019. I went through the complete course couple of times and took the Exam in Aug 2019 only to find out that my preparation was not good enough to beat the 700 score though my performance in Scholaranium was good. So I ordered the ESR and asked for Rajat's opinion. He said I should give it a try again.
Sources: PR Material, E-GMAT Verbal Course, GMAT Club Tests, MGMAT for Quant.
Score: 600 (Q48 V25)
Attempt2: (2020 - 2021)
This time I decided that I will not spend a lot of money on Prep and hence completely relied on GMAT Club, Free webinars from various Test Prep Companies and GMAT Club points to buy Veritas Tests and GMAT Tests.
So before starting my prep, I looked at my ESR and reflected on how I prepared myself in the past for the exam. I realized that I considered GMAT to be of the same type as those professional exams that I took and I prepared in the same way. So, I realized that I need to approach it differently by going about practicing questions gave an official mock and my Quant score is still at 48 but my verbal score was 30. I started preparing in August 2020 focusing completely on Verbal SC and RC. I made sure that I do a couple of passages from GMAT club daily irrespective and trust me, it just increases your comprehension speed for SC and CR as well. After a month into my preparation I got CORONA and luckily recovered from it.
Post which, I started my preparation in February 2021 again, using MGMAT Quant and Verbal books, RON Videos, OGs for practice. I gave a mock sometime at the end of February and realized I could only get my score to 650. My major issues are with CR.
E-GMAT's Entry into My Prep again:
I attended E-GMATs Quant Workshop during the beginning of March, post which I got a link for a free strategy call with one of their experts -Vaibhav, who showed me a profile of one their students in Scholaranium. I realized that there is a sequence to follow for improvements in each of the verbal and Quant sections. I saw a gradual progress in each of the sections using what they call Cementing Quizzes. He suggested me to take a Sigma X mock and shared the link for the test. In-fact he even followed me up to check whether I have taken the test. So, I gave it on a Sunday and got 660 with a very low CR score. I went through my performance using the analytics of Sigma X mocks. I think they gave me a pretty accurate representation of my performance in each of the sub sections. And then I had a call with Vaibhav again and we analyzed my score in Sigma X mock and he offered me a one month course.
After a lot of speculation I decided to take up the course and pushed my exam by a month to April 22 2021. So, the first thing Vaibhav asked me to do was to drop an email to E-GMAT's support team for the plan and to decide how I should prepare. I tell you they are very prompt and they analyzed my performance again in Sigma -X mock and my ESR and they assigned me a mentor DJ (name sounds fancy I know) who forwarded me something called E-GMAT's bible for preparing GMAT. It was pretty elaborate: mentioned when I should take Quizzes to cement my methods, what are the target scores I should aim for in each of the Quizzes and what I should do in case I did not get the target scores. I decided to follow it blindly and also built a study plan using the E_GMAT's platform.
Verbal Prep:
I am not promoting or anything, I think everybody who's been through E-GMAT's verbal course would tell that the course's Master comprehension and SC module are really good. After going through the course I can see my scores improved in SC and RC tremendously but I still had trouble with CR. Here I reached out again and he gave me a plan as to how I should revise and take quizzes for CR. Believe me it worked.
QUANT Prep:
To be very frank I liked their Quant course better than their verbal. It implemented something called XPert architecture in which every sub concept in Quant starts with a Diagnostic quiz including Medium and Hard questions and suggests you which sections you can skip and which you cannot based on your performance. I realized that I had gaps in Word Problems and Geometry and frankly I liked how Shwetha ma'am used real world explanations in Geometry. One small thing I didn't like about Quant questions in E-GMAT is that they are pretty dense and the actual GMAT questions are not that dense and focus more on logic and E-GMAT's solutions are more process oriented. There are gaps in the course, which you can cover from GMAT Club Quant book.
Overall:
I did not get sufficient time to go through official questions this time but I was sure that E-GMAT scholranium questions covered all the topics. What I liked about Sigma-X mocks is that for every test you take, an additional 200 questions get added to your Scholaranium. By today, I have about 1000 questions in Quant and 1000 questions in Verbal and I finished four of Sigma X mocks in which I score, 660, 680, 750 and 700. The forum moderators are also prompt in answering the queries and it did cover all my doubts.
Score: 690 (Q49 , V36)
Sources: E-GMAT's GMAT Online Course, GMAT Club Quant Workbook and the material in the below link:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gmat-quantitative-megathread-244512.html#p1886497 - QUANT Guide by GMAT Club
Mocks: Sigma X mocks (660, 680, 750, 700), Veritas Prep (700, 710, 720) Mocks, Official Mock tests 5 & 6 (710, 720), GMAT Club tests (Q48~50).
After a dismal attempt 1, I took the eGMAT course.
I started with the verbal course. I did every video in the course.
Out of the three sections, the content on SC worked the most for me. The meaning based approach helped me improve considerably on SC.
For CR, Practicing from eGMAT Scholaranium helped me improve considerably on CR.
Once I completed the course, eGMAT chalked out the number of quizzies that I need to give before I move to the next stage in the preparation - this really helped me as it ensured that I only move on once I am thorough with a section.
For Quant, eGMAT has revamped its quant section. I had given the previous quant course, this once is more robust. I was able to drastically improve in number properties after the new course.
After finishing both the sections, I worked with DJ on how I can prepare towards the final leg of writing the exam. He helped me with a step-by-step guide.
In addition, he would also help with the quizzies, the accuracy I should attain etc. This I thought was imperative to score well on the mocks. Once I started giving the mocks, DJ after each mock would send a video with an analysis of the mock along with the next steps to improve.
Additionally, as and when I plateaued in a section, I received the inputs from the experts on how I can mitigate and improve. That again worked really well for me.
I plan to continue to leverage Scholaranium and build quizzies to improve for my next attempt.
I believe the e-GMAT verbal course is very well suited to someone who is unclear on the strategy for verbal preparation. While doing your research online, you may come across a lot of resources to study from. You tend to get confused, but this course is well structured in terms of concepts and practice questions for each of the sections under the verbal umbrella. This course provides a systematic approach to solving the question; this approach helps one spot the correct answer than coming to the answer by eliminating the incorrect ones. The approaches not only improve the accuracy but also helps in time management as GMAT often puts similar options to confuse the candidate which will consume a lot of time in answer by elimination approach.
In addition, what stood out for me was the constant support from the e-GMAT team. Their online support via email is great. The team is quite responsive and ready to help you as you proceed with the preparation. They will solve simplest of doubts and answer your questions thoroughly.
In all, I would say if you are indeed looking forward to improving your verbal and are a little clueless or lost on how to, the e-GMAT verbal online course can help you do wonders.
Joined: Jan 02, 2021
Posts: 0
Kudos: 0
Verified GMAT Classic score:
700 Q47 V38 (Online)
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Today I received my GMAT score: 700/800, a 140 point increase achieved in little more than three months!! I couldn’t be more happy, but at the same time more grateful to the e-GMAT team.
Their support throughout my learning journey was immense. The strategy team is always (ALWAYS = 7/7) there to support you and provide corrective measures to your learning plan. The software itself, provides the ultimate in class teaching and mentor simulation. They prepare you for this ability test by indeed teaching those required abilities by means of diagnostic quizzes, concept files teaching the core concept skills, followed by practice quizzes to apply those concepts and eventually solve GMAT level 700+ questions. This method, they apply for all Verbal and Quant. Their Quant just got updated to Quant 2.0. I got to know e-GMAT as the best way to optimise your Verbal skills; today I equally value their Verbal and Quant course. Both allowed me to excel!
In the last two weeks, I got additional coaching from DJ (Dhananjay Lowe). After my first GMAT attempt in March, he reached out to me to join the Last Mile Program. He provided me with a hyper-specific plan to boost my score and get that 700 score. E-GMAT allowed me to significantly increase my score, the mentorship by DJ gave this extra boost to excel truly.
What I really liked about e-gmat, is their data-oriented approach. Thanks to the data they collect and share with their students, there should be no surprises during your GMAT exam. Their know-how allows them and yourself to estimate your ability and therefore reflect an estimate of your score. The mock prep tests by e-GMAT (Sigma-X Mocks) also provided an accurate estimate of my score.
In short: I would have NEVER achieved this 140 point increase without the e-GMAT software, their strategy team, and DJ. First, I bought official prep content by GMAC, but soon I realised I needed more. E-GMAT was exactly what I needed. Although no one would officially recommend studying for GRE using GMAT tools, I also took GRE between my two GMAT attempts and got a score of 322 on this exam.
I utilized e-GMAT for my first attempt and scored a 650 with 3-4 months of preparations.
I found the course beneficial on two major fronts -
1. Filtered study material - e-GMAT's prep material is refined to what you'll actually need for the test. Unlike the books, this course is straightforward and teaches only what is required and in an efficient manner.
2. Engaging - with all the analytics, prep videos, and routine targets, I found this product very engaging and keeps you on a defined timeline.
The SC course is hands down one of the best course out there. It teaches you the right error types and optimum process to boil it down to the right answer.
In CR, the pre-thinking approach is efficient and certainly helps when one is encountered a hard level CR question.
Scholaranium is a great question bank with exceptional capabilities. It's inbuilt analytics shows you exactly at which point you are faltering and which topics needs the most attention.
Sigma-X Mocks are one of the best mock tests out there in the market. The analytics is great and the definite time limit pushes one to replicate actual test conditions.
Finally the support is "Extraordinary" - answers to your queries are prompt and experts go above and beyond to help you succeed. I had calls with Payal, Rajat, and Shaarang for my re-takes and everyone was very supportive and gave me the required feedback based on my previous tests and eGMAT data.
After my first attempt, I gave couple more attempts but couldn't improve my score past 660. Though my quant was constant at 49, my verbal was fluctuating. I finally took help from a private GMAT tutor to help me increase my verbal score and was able to score a 700.
I stumbled upon e-GMAT after taking my first attempt of the real GMAT exam and scoring poorly. I knew I had to dive deeper into concepts in CR and SC specifically and also improve my concepts in Quant to reduce "silly mistakes". After comparing a lot of courses, I finally decided to give e-GMAT a shot because of how well their material was presented and the effort they had put into their course videos and mock exams (which I got to experience first hand during the 7 day trial period). The emphasis on collecting meaningful data from the quiz and exam performances and the elaborate reviews which followed were what instilled confidence in me that I had chosen the correct course to help prepare me for the GMAT.
A few aspects of the course which I specifically liked and used were:
1. The verbal course: I think its the most exhaustive verbal course I have come across. The deep dive into the concepts of SC especially helped me tackle the harder questions which I previously had to guess my way through.
2. CR - I understood that the different types of CR questions warranted a different way of thinking. The key learning of coming up with assumptions after reading the passage before looking at answer choices was a great tip which eventually saved me a lot of time during those questions.
3. RC - I was relatively comfortable with RC because I enjoy reading hence I never had too much trouble here. However, the amount of passages in the course helped to sharpen my skills in reading passages of various topics/subjects quickly and to grasp the main point of the passages.
4. The entire quant course was really helpful. If you're rusty with certain topics, definitely go through the quant course.
5. The part of the course which helpedme the most was the Scholaranium. It's basically a huge database of questions which help to "solidify" the concepts of both Quant and Verbal and the question bank is almost endless. This is what stood out to me and helped me the most.
6.The sigmaX Mocks: The difficulty of these mocks is just right. A good feature of these mocks is the absence of a pause button, forcing you to prepare yourself to sit for a 3 hour exam with the same mindset as you would during the real thing. As mentioned above, the review at the end of the exam shows you exactly where you struggled, which type of questions took you the most time to solve and also which concepts you need to brush up on. I found this data very helpful because it saved a lot of time during the review and I was able to spend more time on working on those concepts.
Lastly, the support e-GMAT provided was the best! Hats off to experienced coaches like Dhananjay and the others who replied to my endless emails about questions and concepts and even helped review my exams telling me which areas to focus on.
Overall, I am very happy that I chose e-GMAT. I cannot talk about every online course out there but I would recommend this course to every single person who wants to succeed at the GMAT and start their MBA journey on a positive note.
I started my GMAT prep in Jan’21 and after reading through a couple of articles figured that 3 months should be the ideal time. I started with the official guides and Manhattan strategy books. Although these helped me understand the concepts, I realized that my improvement was limited and I did not have the right approach to confidently eliminate wrong options. At this point, I started looking at the various prep courses available online.
After attending a free 1:1 session, I decided to join e-GMAT course in Feb/M. They provided me with a personalized study plan taking into consideration my current strengths and weaknesses. This made sure that I was not wasting time on topics that I was decently good at and instead devoted that time to areas where I could make significant improvement.
SC – My accuracy was comparatively higher so I was not required to do this course entirely. However their meaning based approach (although it sounds like the most logical thing) really helps eliminate options that might be grammatically correct
CR & RC – I did both these courses and the eGMAT approach helped me reduce the time I spent on these questions and also improve accuracy
Mock Tests – I gave 4 official mock tests which helped me evaluate my performance at different stages of my preparation. They are probably the best estimates of the actual score. However, the official mocks do not provide a detailed analysis of your performance on each section and the time taken per question. In this regard, I really liked the SigmaX mock from eGMAT because they provide multiple statistics to gauge your performance.
Since I have been working fulltime since the past 4 years, I did not know many people around me who had attempted the GMAT recently and could advise me on my preparation. eGMAT not only provided the online course and mock tests, but also provided continual guidance on my performance. Their strategy consultant DJ worked with me during the last 2 weeks before my exam and provided a day to day plan for the final leg of preparation. He also provided detailed analysis of my mocks, error logs and tips to improve my accuracy.
Test Day – I scheduled my exam at 7am in a nearby center. I was comfortable testing at this time and had given all my mocks at the same time. I started with the verbal section and found it to be a bit harder than the mocks. During the break, I was expecting the test center setup to be similar to the GRE exam which I had given a couple of years earlier. However due to the pandemic and our county restrictions, we were asked to go outside the building to have water or snacks during the breaks. Because of this, I misjudged the break time and arrived late after my first break. I ended up losing 3.5 minutes in the quant section and this led to panic which definitely affected my performance. During the 2nd break, I made sure that I arrive early however by now I was aware that my performance so far was not upto my expectation.
Final Score – I received a score of 700 (Q48 V38). Although not a bad score, it was definitely below my target score of 740+. I was consistently scoring Q50 on my mocks so I think Q48 was definitely a true reflection of my ability.
Next Steps – I am planning to reappear for the exam in 4 weeks. I am hoping to not mess up quant as I did last time. Also, I think there is scope for improvement in my verbal ability and so I am focusing most of my efforts there. Hopefully I will have better news the next time I post an exam review. Fingers crossed
While I was able to crack the 650+ range with ease after my first attempt and a few months of practice, I soon came to the realisation that I need that extra push to break that 700 barrier. Here is where E-GMAT helped me the most. The tips and tricks along with the details notes provided by the company significantly enhanced my answering capacity and pattern recognising ability. The videos and the mini tests after each topic are a must if you are looking to cross your high target score. I was especially pleased with the Sigma X mocks as well because of 2 reasons: 1) It is extremely close to the actual test (considering the test is given in the real conditions) so one can gauge their score on the test day via these mocks. 2) The detailed analysis which provides the way the questions adapted to my answering provided me with extremely useful insights and helped figure out a strategy and time myself. The customer support of Egmat was great as well.
Hi, my verbal is really weak (31 score), do you think this course will be helpful for me? I felt the actual GMAT verbal was tougher than the materials that I had used.
And also can you please mention what "separate course" did you take to improve your verbal?