I started my preparation in 2023. I studied using the Official Guide (OG) and free videos on YouTube. After gaining a good grasp of the verbal and quant sections, I took the GMAT Classic in October 2023 and scored 650. I was not satisfied with my score but felt exhausted from the preparation, so I took a break for 3–4 months.

After that, I resumed my preparation, this time focusing on the GMAT Focus. Data Insights (DI) was a new section, and I prepared for it using free resources from YouTube. I followed the same approach for quant and verbal and began taking official mocks. My average score in mocks was around 615, which was still lower than my target of at least 655.

At this point, I decided to seek a personal tutor and started searching for one. I came across the GMAT Whiz Tutor plan and spoke with Piyush from GMAT Whiz. He was the most genuine person I encountered during my GMAT preparation. He provided valuable insights into my weaknesses and estimated how much time I would need to improve.

I decided to enroll in the GMAT Whiz course and took five sessions each for quant and verbal. DI was covered along with quant and verbal.

During my quant sessions, Piyush analyzed my approach to solving different types of questions and provided specific insights into my weak areas. He pointed out topics like LCM/GCD and inequalities, which I had never considered my weak points. After reviewing these topics through the GMAT Whiz course, I saw significant improvement.

The same happened with my verbal sessions with Sunita Ma’am. She assessed my approach to reading passages and answering questions, identifying areas where I could improve. One key insight that helped me was learning to connect sentences from different paragraphs in a passage. Her advice, along with the GMAT Whiz video lectures and quizzes, significantly improved my verbal skills.

After preparing for quant and verbal, I finalized my strategy for DI with Piyush and Sunita Ma’am during my last quant and verbal sessions. I practiced a few MSRs and non-math problems in verbal sessions with Sunita Ma’am and worked on math-related DI questions in quant sessions with Piyush.

I followed GMAT Whiz’s strategy of focusing fully on the initial questions and giving them extra time if needed. If I ran out of time, I guessed only the last few questions. Earlier, I used to check the time after every five questions, which was distracting.

Following this approach and applying what I learned from my sessions and the GMAT Whiz course, I saw my mock scores improve. My average score increased from 615 to around 665. My quant score improved from 83 to 85, verbal from 82 to 84, and DI from 77 to 80.

I booked my GMAT Focus exam for January 8, 2025, and scored 665 (Q84, V83, DI82). It felt great to improve from a 650 on the GMAT Classic to a 665 on the GMAT Focus, which is equivalent to a 720 on the GMAT Classic.

Thanks to the GMAT Whiz team, Piyush Sir, and Sunita Ma’am for helping me improve in all areas of the GMAT.

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