Attempt 1 – GMAT 670 (V33, Q49)- Jan 2019
I gave my first GMAT attempt after scoring 700 on official GMAT Prep, hoping I can convert that to 750 on the actual test. But what I’d failed to consider is that unlike normal tests (where I perform better in pressure) GMAT is something different. There were a lot of things that led to my downfall during my first attempt, but I believe following few to be the major ones:
1. Not having clarity of the GMAT scores I want – I thought anything above the magic 700 barrier will be amazing. And for some candidates this might be the case, but for the kind of MBA schools I was targeting, I didn’t realize that Indian MBA male with 700 is below average.
2. Not focusing enough on official GMAT prep – After completing my official GMAT prep, I immediately went online to find more questions. I didn’t understand the concept of quality over quantity at that time.
3. Not completing E-GMAT Scholaranium- After several referrals from my friends, I bought the E-GMAT verbal course. And in a word, it was an “amazing” course. But my only regret is that I didn’t use it to my advantage completely. I only considered the course as an online grammar tutorial for SC questions, I completely skipped the CR and RC part and again jumped straight to the questions.
Scholaranium has a great set of 400-500 questions for Verbal. But to my surprise, I could hardly score 50% correct in the medium and hard category. But I disregarded my failure as the questions being too hard (and so I needn’t bother myself with the results). So, in the end I completed only about 150-200 questions.
4. Not doing enough practice tests – I completed only 2 full length official prep tests and that’s it. In my opinion, this was my biggest downfall as the biggest problem I faced during my actual GMAT was pacing and time management.
5. Not using GMATClub Quant tests – I was a bit overconfident on my Quant skills (coming from an IIT) that I almost skipped quant prep. And the thing that I regret most is not using the GMATClub quant test (that came free with an E-gmat subscription). These tests are by far the best resources one could use to score Q51. These tests are harder, lengthier, trickier but just by a bit. If one can score Q50/Q51 in these tests, actual GMAT quant will be a piece of cake.

Attempt 2 – GMAT 730(V38, Q50)- Oct 2019
After my horrible failure at first attempt, I made amends and started preparing for success. I changed my studying strategy and started focusing on each sub-section individually and targeting specific mistakes.
1. Sentence Correction – I think SC is easiest and hardest at the same time. Easiest to score -if you know what you are doing, and Hardest to score – if you get confused. For SC, I mainly worked on Official GMAT prep questions, GMATClub SC top 100 700-800level questions, Aristotle GMAT SC and E-GMAT verbal Scholaranium questions. This time, I restricted myself in terms of no. of questions but instead focused on recording my errors in an error log and making sure I avoid mistake repetition.
2. Critical Reasoning – I studied CR mainly from Power bible and Manhattan CR. And I focused on each and every question type individually, mainly focusing on assumptions and Boldface (which were my weakest sections)
3. Reading Comprehension – Fortunately, I decided to follow E-GMAT method of tacking RC questions and developed the habit of taking notes and summary after each para. I realized that though it may seem excessive at first, it helps increase your consistency and accuracy .
4. Quant – I was completely devastated with my failure in Quant and decided to be extra cautious this time around. And I spent most of my time giving GMATClub Quant Tests, while focusing on reviewing each and every correct/incorrect answer choice with an expert's explanation to find out the most optimal way of solving the problem.

Test Day Experience – I was quite comfortable this time around as it was my 2nd attempt and I knew all of the procedures. I started with my quant section and completed it within time, and I was reasonably happy with myself. I went to take the optional break but to my surprise the washroom was occupied. Consequently, I spent a couple of minutes waiting outside. But when I reached my workstation I was in awe. Somehow, I managed to spend 4 minutes additional time and that was already deducted from my Verbal section time. I tried to organize my thoughts, but my brain refused to function. I sat again for 5 min in front of my first SC question trying to make sense of the foreign language in front of me. Somehow, I managed to calm myself down and complete the next 20 questions in 45 mins. But it was already too late for me, Now I needed to solve 16 questions in ~15 min. Panic started to settle again, and I knew I had to guess few of the answers. I completed Verbal, IR, AWA and instinctively knew that my score is again going to be a sub 700 failure. But to my surprise, the screen read 730 and I was happy beyond words.


Attempt-3 GMAT Online 770 (Q51, V44) – June 2020

Some of you may think that story should have ended. I thought so too. But I still hadn’t corrected one of my first mistakes – Knowing the scores I want in GMAT.
After 730, I applied to 3 top 10 US B-schools but to my surprise got interview invite from only 1 of them. And the major reason for that is I believe my GMAT score. That’s when I decided that I should make use of my time at lock-down and give one last attempt at GMAT.
Following are the few resources/steps that helped me finally beat GMAT:
1. E-GMAT Team support - With the score of 750-60 in my mind, I immediately sent my ESR to the E-GMAT team and requested their help to understand my weaknesses further. I was surprised to see that they provided me a detailed breakdown of my shortcomings and gave me a 5-step approach (along with video directions) to reach my targeted goals.
According to them I had to improve my ability in CR, SC and improve my pace during the full exam.
2. Improving Ability in CR with Pre-thinking – Although I was aware of Pre-thinking. I knew what it meant, I knew how to do it but somehow, I just though doing the questions without pre-thinking is faster. But with the help of E-GMAT resources, I was able to develop a habit of using Pre-thinking. This helped me improve my ability from 60 to 90% in CR.

3. Using E-GMAT Scholaranium- I was shocked after comparing my ESR sectional ability with Scholaranium ability %. To my surprise, they were identical. I then realized that Scholaranium questions and algorithm are so close to actual GMAT exam that improving my ability in Scholaranium will definitely translate to a better score in GMAT. With this in mind, I followed step by step plan laid out by E-GMAT team and could achieve my target score in ~ 30 days.

4. Practicing Full-length official mocks – I now finally understand why everyone praised Official GMAT prep mocks so much. They are the one truly reliable indicator of the score. And so, I purchased Official Mocks (3-6). And I tried a couple of strategies while giving the mock exams – such as going fast for first half, slow for first half, skipping last RC and so on. I finally found a strategy tailor made for me and finally decided to book the official GMAT.

GMAT Online Experience – Although I was a bit nervous of doing the exam from my home and that too without the much-needed optional break between Quant and verbal. But I decided to go for it anyway. And to my surprise, it was a pleasant experience. Fortunately, no technical glitch, no bad experience with customer service, nothing bad happened on the test day. Finally, after 3 days of waiting I got my official score. And with a sigh of relief, I realized that after 1.5 years and 3 attempts this story’s finally over.

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I initially practiced from OG, while skimming through Manahattan Prep books. Then I took one official mock and a free Sigma X-mock from e-GMAT. The scores were a pleasant surprise and I decided that I should polish a few weak areas and should give the GMAT online within a month.

The Sigma-X mock's detailed report was in line with my own assessment and helped me identify that SC was a weak area for me and I needed to further polish my Quant ability to give my best shot. Post a strategy consultation, the e-GMAT team offered me with a special one-month subscription (basis my actual GMAT date, the team happily and promptly extended this for 2 more days). I began with SC, which was my Achilles' and where e-GMAT course helped me the most. After completing that I wasn't sure how to utilize the program as I was already at a reasonably advanced level and did not plan to study other topics from scratch. I then arranged a call with an e-GMAT mentor, Dhananjay (DJ) and he provided me with a customized plan. Further, he even scheduled regular follow-ups, which were quite helpful to track my progress and adapting the plan as needed. The discussions with Dhananjay gave me a good framework for how to structure my preparation and helped me understand how to make most of the e-GMAT course.

As for the actual course content: In verbal, I found the SC course and Scholaranium quite useful. I didn't refer at all to CR and RC concepts; for practicing these I did try Scholaranium but I felt certain CR questions were not in line with official questions and hence shifted to the Verbal OG. As for Quant, e-GMAT's questions are significantly tougher than that of OG. But if done with the right mindset, they can help you expand your approach and understanding of concepts, but one has to ensure that they don't get demoralized given that the accuracy can be lower while time taken per question would be higher.

Overall, I think the course is very detailed and would be very useful for someone who starts from scratch and invests more time. For me, the concepts felt lengthy and at times primitive. But this is where the support from the e-GMAT mentor was integral as it helped me customize the course to my needs and extract the most out of it.

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I bought e-GMAT online on 2020 January 15. I've just had done a GMAT test at December 17, an I got a score of 600. I had to run against time, as I had another GMAT test scheduled for February 8. Through the e-GMAT I was able to study in a intensive way to review all verbal sections. I found the sentence correction section incredible, as it is very interactive and it explains in a manner that is very easy to understand and learn the concepts. By studying about 3 week with e-GMAT I was able to improve my score in 50 points, from 32 to 36 in the verbal section. However I did not had time to review the quant section. If you have more time to spend studying through e-GMAT I recommend you do so, because all content available is awesome. I believe that if I had more time I could improve even more my score.

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When I started out with my preparations for GMAT, I simply started by doing loose questions on the official GMAT website. I was not satisfied with my accuracy and so I signed up for Experts Global Complete GMAT Prep Online. Scoring 540 in my first diagnostic test, I realized I had a lot of work to do. The Student officer helped me map out a study plan that focused on my weak areas. The online course had plenty of material divided section wise to help you practice better. After the official guide, it’s one of the most reliable source of study material. It comes with 15 tests that are very close to the actual test. You need not look for other material as long as you strictly adhere to the study plan and material recommended by them.
Another unique resource was Experts Global shots – these are 2 minute brief videos summarizing important tips and techniques for each topic under verbal and quant section. This is particularly helpful for last minute brush up towards the end. My experience with Experts Global has been great and I highly recommend them.

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I started using the E-Gmat online course and realized that with the video content, I need some guidance to proceed on this journey. To my benefit, Egmat reached out to us for the mentorship program looking at the account history and that I have always reached out to the support team for help.
It was one of the best decisions to enroll with E-gmat for the mentorship program as while preparing, you constantly need to know whether the efforts you are putting are going in the right direction or not and the next step from there on. The mentorship program has been highly beneficial for me because of various reasons. Firstly, every week there is a day wise milestone plan made with your mentor basis your current performance and your goal. Having daily milestones is very effective as consistency is the biggest key while preparing for the Gmat exam.
Next, constant feedback is given on every quiz and every test taken. The biggest benefit for me was Dhananjay helping me out analyze my mock tests and point out error on timing, accuracy and sub sections, post analysis of performance of the previous week, the next week plan was chalked out.
Interactions with the cohort and peer learning has been another benefit. With the conducive environment created by Dhananjay, we were all able to share our experiences and help each other out. We also used to have weekly training sessions on different topics to solve common problems such as managing time, mental health, consistency etc.
Finally, Dhananjay was available to guide me all the time. I could reach out to him anytime of the day and he would just ask me to set up a zoom call and connect! For me, the biggest problem while studying GMAT is stress management. My performance throughout the study was excellent but there was always a problem on the test day due to anxiety issues while giving the test. Dhananjay helped me overcome this by making me give tests in harsh conditions (Lesser time for more difficult questions) so that I practice overcoming the panic situations as well.
On the test day, I could see a huge difference in the way I was handling questions and managing time. The idea to focus on meaning based approach in SC and the pre-thinking on CR really helped me solve the questions. I could see a huge difference in my level of preparation and confidence from the previous exam taken. Only because of getting one complete RC passage incorrect in the end, I could not score well on my Verbal section. Nonetheless, Dhananjay helped me start again by focusing only on the weak areas and improving my score further. I am all set now to appear for another exam very soon.

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Jamie was so helpful, and her kindness helped provide the encouragement needed. She had clever sayings to help remember takeaways. She was available after the course ended to provide feedback and advice, and is extremely knowledgeable in teaching the GMAT. There were many times when I felt I had hit a wall and Jamie always helped push me through to make progress. I chose her class based on her very positive GMAT Club reviews and I do not regret the decision at all. This course was well worth the money to help me gain confidence and test taking skill sets.

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My experience with Magoosh was just ok. While some of the videos do a fine job of explaining concepts, the practice questions themselves are unrealistic and don't quite resemble the types of questions and thinking tested on the GMAT. For verbal, I recommend sticking to official sources and LSAT questions. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the verbal content, but it didn't really push my level of understanding. For quant, many of the questions are significantly more computation heavy than what one encounters on the actual exam, and don't train the right mental muscles. I used Magoosh for my first attempt on the exam, and switched to TTP for my second. I had much better results and understanding with TTP.

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I signed up for GMAT advanced class with Whit Garner and I absolutely recommend it to anyone who is struggling to go beyond 640ish (that's the minimum one needs to be able to take the class). Small class size allows instructor to pay attention to every student and give valuable feedback on how each student can improve. Whitney covered strategies on how to tackle tough questions under pressure, how to utilize your resources, and even how to make educated guess when one gets no clue how to approach a problem. Although I did not take the official gmat exam, I was able to improve to consistent 700 in my mocks. All in all, I recommend Manhattan to anyone who needs a paid class to pass the gmat.

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In November 2019, I took the GMAT and obtained a score of 700 (49Q,39V). Even though I had received a good score, I felt as though I could score higher. However, I realized I would benefit from an online course that would structure my learning and highlight my weak areas. I saw that e-GMAT was the most reviewed course on GMAT Club, so I did the 7-day free trial to test the course. I really liked the videos that taught the concepts since I am a visual learner. The 5 free mock exams were definitely a plus since I wouldn't have to buy practice CATs from another test prep company. As I was taking the course, I appreciated that every question on Scholarium (e-GMAT's question bank) had essentially a comments section where students asked their questions and each question had a response from an e-GMAT verified instructor. So whenever I would review my incorrect answers, I would look at the comments section and would always find my question answered. At the beginning of my course, the e-GMAT team provided me with a course strategy that would also tell me if I had truly mastered a concept or if I needed to review it. The course taught me to look at meaning in sentence correction (something I never considered) and provided me a framework for assumption, evaluate, weaken, and strengthen questions in critical reasoning. Following e-GMAT's instruction and the online course, I completed the online course by around May 2020. From there I spent about a month doing the e-GMAT mock exams and OG GMAT exams. I took the online GMAT exam at the beginning of June (before a Physical whiteboard was allowed) and scored a 720 (50Q,38V). I was slightly disappointed that I had only scored a 720 but I was glad it was better than the 700. When I informed the e-GMAT team about my 720 score, Ashutosh (from e-GMAT Customer Strategy) gave me a call. After reviewing my scores on my e-GMAT mock exams, he realized that I was capable of scoring higher than a 720. He made it clear that I should definitely retake it and that instead of studying for another few months, he came up with a tailored 10-day plan that would target my weak areas. This tailored plan was to build my stamina throughout the exam and improve my accuracy on hard level problems. After going through those 10 days of several different types of quizzes, I retook the online GMAT exam (I also had a physical whiteboard this time). Seven days later I received my score report and saw that I scored a 740 (49Q,41V). I was really happy because the hard work since November 2019 paid off. I definitely appreciate the help from e-GMAT and do recommend the course to whoever. I believe it is best to get the full course covering both Quant and Verbal so that you can also get access to the mock exams.

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I used TTP to re-study after an initial attempt that fell short of my goals (720). While studying for my first attempt, I did too many practice problems while failing to account for gaps in understanding. By using TTP, I more effectively mastered the content and became faster organically. I would recommend using TTP from the beginning to avoid two attempts. I studied for about a month and a half between my first and second attempts, and used the accelerated study plan, as I already had a decent foundation of knowledge. If you are using the plan from the beginning of your studies, take your time and use the regular plan. There is quite a lot of content.

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