I started working with MBA and Beyond in October. I had a decent 700+ GMAT score but was completely unaware of the application process. I am a military veteran from an unconventional background thus, I wanted a deliberate and systematic approach to my B school application process.
I contacted the MBA and Beyond team and had a detailed discussion with Elana. Post our conversation; I attended a webinar wherein I could better understand the process and methodology followed by MBA& Beyond. Further, I was also briefed by Paridhi on how MBA& Beyond has helped people from unconventional backgrounds with their MBA applications. Finally, I was mapped with Dr. Vinita Singh, and right from day one, I could feel the kind of experience and knowledge Dr. Vinita had. It was very kind of her to accept my profile, especially when I had already missed the round 1 deadline and was even late for round 2.
Dr. Vinita has been more than a consultant to me: she has helped me to understand what exactly transition means for a veteran. She made me understand why having crystal clear short term and long term goals are significant for someone like me, owing to my work experience and profile as a veteran. At the same time, she made me realise my main strength- Leadership experience and how we can leverage it to make a strong application. Further, she removed any noise from the process and kept me focused and attentive toward the smallest details.
Finally, she quickly realized my biggest shortcoming: interview skills, and patiently worked with me toward overcoming the same. She pushed me to the extremes and ensured that I gave at least three to four mocks before appearing for the final interview with any school. It is her sheer dedication and ownership she has toward her students which makes her a true mentor. Over the last year, I have realised that more than the guidance and help, it is the partnership between the consultant and the student which helps to bring the best in the application. The true value which I was able to get out of MBA& Beyond is surely beyond MBA. To summarise in Dr. Vinita's way, the three things which makes her stand out from any other consultant are:-
1) She is incredibly genuine and empathetic, with an uncanny ability to observe your unique strengths and weaknesses.
2) She knows how to present these unique traits in a manner that is attractive to the top programs
3) She understands the core of the MBA application process extremely well and can provide outstanding advice on how to navigate through it using the unique strengths each candidate has.
I was able to find a true mentor and a genuine person whom I trust and I would always be thankful for making it happen for me. I was able to get shortlisted to 50 % of the schools I applied to and convert 50% of those shortlists to a final admission with a scholarship.
Schools Applied- ISB, IIM A, USC Marshall, Notre Dame Mendoza, IESE, WBS, INSEAD, LBS, Oxford

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I started with my GMAT Journey in May of 2022. I started my preparation by purchasing the eGMAT subscription and for my entire prep I had only and only one source: eGMAT. I completed my GMAT journey in August and few data points of my GMAT prep journey are as follows:
1. Score Improvement
(a) First mock (590) used to create PSP to 700 (Q49, V36)
2. Verbal Prep
a) Completed MC, SC, CR, and RC to bridge certain gaps.( SC summarised notes prepared)
b). Solved 852 verbal questions during cementing and test readiness phases
c) Followed the cementing process and only moved to the next stage on meeting the requisite threshold (Medium level questions- 70% and Hard level questions- 55%)

3. Quant Prep
a) Utilized PACE engine to make Quant preparation efficient, learning only what I was required to learn.( Module wise summarised notes prepared)
b). Solved 900 questions in Quant in Cementing and Test Readiness phases

I started off my verbal prep with Sentence Correction and was not able to meet the threshold level in the cementing quizzes and therefore had to do the entire SC module again. After SC, I completed the CR and RC module and was able to complete the cementing stage with requisite thresholds. Finally I went on to Quant and in the eGMAT Quant every sub topic has a diagnostic test at the very beginning to guide students with different level of abilities- if I was strong in Geometry, the AI driven software would guide me in a way that I only had to study limited content. This helped me save time in my preparation and focus only on my weak areas and keep working towards improvement. After completing every QUANT sub module, I would undergo the process of cementing to ensure that I hit my target abilities in each subsection. Taking these quizzes would enable me to deal with GMAT like questions and strengthen my process abilities. Every eGMAT question provides the students with forum posts related to the doubts and issues faced by the other students. This would allow me to resolve my doubts and also strengthen my conceptual understanding. I could also post fresh doubts that would get resolved within 24 hours by the egmat team. The mentors for Verbal- including Harsha, Kanupriya, Stacey and Shraddha would provide excellent support on the forum. On the quant side also we had Bikramjit, Aditi and Shweta who would provide detailed solutions to each problem. These interactions with the subject matter experts were very helpful for me to increase my understanding of dynamics of GMAT test like problems.


Coming to the test readiness stage- I was assigned a mentor to guide me through my preparation – Abha Mohan The test readiness phase is one of the most important stages of preparation and having Abha’s guidance at every step of the way helped me structure my improvement plan and work on my weak areas after doing a detailed analysis of my Scholaranium account my mentor told me to revisit few modules in SC and Number properties and Word problems. Post my test readiness quizzes I was told to take mocks with a gap of 3 to 4 days between two successive mocks and Abha would help me put together an improvement plan after every mock so that I could work before my next mock. I scored a 660 on my first mock and was completely unhappy with my performance but Abha guided me and helped me with a improvement plan and also did a thorough video analysis of my mock. I scored a 700 and 710 in my next two mocks. However, I scored a 670 on my first official test. I became extremely sad because of the drop in my score but Abha guided me and helped me work on a small improvement plan and in the last 2 days of my preparation guided me with the final day test plan. Her support really helped me regain my confidence and I was able to ensure that I remain calm enough to make it to the exam day. To regain my confidence, Abha suggested that I take a few custom quizzes and I was able to regain some level of calm and composure upon seeing my scores in these custom quizzes. Finally, I scored a 700 in my second attempt with a Q49 and V36 split. I would highly recommend the e GMAT subscription to all those who are looking for a structured approach for their GMAT preparation

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