GMAT Club
May 31, 2016
82vkgmat

Joined: Sep 02, 2014

Posts: 74

Kudos: 522

Self-reported Score:
770 Q50 V44

e-gmat review

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Improvement N/A

Course e-GMAT Online Focused

Location Online

You can find my detailed debrief at the following location.
http://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-debrief-770-q50-v44-ir8-awa5-215678.html#p1690881

This review if for e-gmat Verbal Online course only.
I found the course to be very helpful. As mentioned in my debrief I was stuck between 30-37 in Verbal score most of the times. After doing the course once and revising it once, I consistently managed to score above 40. I think the folks at e-gmat have managed to drill down the required essence of English grammar necessary for GMAT and developed a good approach for every problem type. I did not join any other course so I cannot compare it with any other course, but in itself, I feel the e-gmat course, if followed diligently, is worth very dollar or rupee spent on it.

Pros:
1) The course gives a very good approach for every problem type. If you are in the course, learn the 'strategy' of the problem first and then the specifics. For e.g. in SC, it is understanding the meaning, in RC, it is developing an interest in the passage and so on. The course will not delve much on basics of grammar like gerunds and what not, and I think atleast for the GMAT prep that is not such a bad thing.
2) The course is cheap. It is easy to spend 1000s for dollars in GMAT prep and for some it might be required. But e-gmat is 1/10th the cost and you can get deals occasionally. The GMAT club tests which come with it are a bonus and so is the IR section. The GMAT club quant tests are really good.
3) The interactive medium of videos is very good. It does not make the course boring. Also the various exercises and problems after every course are good.
4) The free seminars on multiple topics are beneficial. At my location, the seminars started Sat or Sun 7am and it became a habit for me to get up for them and study. Some of them may go long and feel repetitive but nevertheless ultimately keep you in touch with the material. The verbal workshop helped me compare myself with other students (since I was not in the Verbal Live course).
5) Scholaranium - good tool to get a quick evaluation of oneself. Although I did not use this as much as I could have (since I ran out of time), it is helpful if you are stressed about a particular topic.

Cons:
There are few things that can be improved.
1) Forums - Sadly, I think the forums on e-gmat need work. The forum is not interactive (members cannot reply to each other) and I never got good help from the experts. The answers were slow (2-3 days which is understandable given the volume) and not real answers but questions to test understanding. This is good but by that time I had already moved on to next topic. GMAT club is most useful in this regard. If the question is a general one, just google the whole sentence and gmatclub comes usually in top 5 links with detailed discussions.
2) IR section - This section is really bonus with Verbal course but I think e-gmat (and pretty much most GMAT coaching centers) need to work on improving IR. The current IR course is good but it does not have the same rigor and focus on strategy like Verbal in my opinion. It seems most admissions consultants now give great importance to IR scores and it will help both e-gmat and students to have a full-fledged course on IR.

So thats it from my side. Hope this review is helpful and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Good luck!

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June 10, 2017
82vkgmat

Joined: Sep 02, 2014

Posts: 74

Kudos: 522

Self-reported Score:
770 Q50 V44

Applicantlab is great! Got me into my dream school.

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Let me start by saying Applicantlab is a great product which helps those who dont want to spend 1000s on MBA school admissions. I feel like it removes the "hype and flashiness" from all those expensive consultant programs and gives you whats needed for a great application at a very affordable cost.

Now for the details -
I heard about the lab on a e-gmat webinar. I was still not serious about my applications since there was lots going on at work and in family life. Eventually, I reached a stage where I decided a full-time MBA is not an option and my choices narrowed down to a few schools on West coast.

I joined the Applicantlab just to get some help and more to get some discipline to my otherwise disorderly application process. First thing you will be super-impressed by is how responsive Maria is - I had some issue signing up and I literally heard back from her in minutes! Not only did I get access, she was also inquisitive about my background and what schools I was applying for etc.

Second thing you will realize, the lab structure is actually very neat and innovative. It might seem simple - you are just jotting down your life history (personal and professional) and having a software arrange it for essays, recommendations and what not. But its much more than that. You dont just list your strengths and weaknesses, you decide where to use what, how not to repeat yourself, where which experience makes sense. In a way it is a continuous polishing of your application but one story at a time.

Third thing, if you are new to this application process like I was - you will realize it is very very important to have a set of impartial, professional eyes evaluate every word of your application. MBA application, for good or bad, needs a lot of introspection and sometimes the things you decide to present to the application reviewer about yourself, even though important to you, may not show you as "leadership material" which is what they need to see. Maria brings a wealth of experience in this regard. The way she asked to restructure some of my same stories made them much polished. The difference between my first and final drafts, even though they had same content, was phenomenal and I am sure improved my odds of selection by a lot.

I already mentioned Maria is very responsive, but she also goes above and beyond. When I mentioned I am applying to Berkeley Haas but to the evening, weekend program (the requirements, essays are different), she posted specific, new videos for this program within a couple of days. If you tell her you are working towards a deadline, she will make sure she gets back to you in a very reasonable time, some times even in the middle of the night.

To summarize, I definitely recommend Applicantlab. I never joined any super expensive firm for admission consultation. I used the initial lab and added 1 hour of time for personalized essay review (trust me, the 1 hour allowed me to have like 5 drafts of each essays and Maria worked well over the 60 minutes with me). I had decided to apply to only one school (so it was became my dream school :)) and Applicantlab helped me get into it. Hope it can do the same for others!

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