eGMAT Verbal Live Prep, 700 to 750 in 6 Months

eGMAT Verbal Live Prep was the only reason why I was able to show a 50 point increase over the course of my 2 attempts, going from V35 to V40 in 6 months.

I gave my first GMAT in November 2016. I scored 700 (Q51 V35) - very low in verbal and I could see that I needed help with verbal. A friend told me about e-GMAT and how the Verbal section had been instrumental in his rise in Verbal score. I immediately enrolled in eGMAT Verbal Live Prep (VLP) and was provided with a very detailed and systematic study plan that I needed to follow. This plan kept me in check all throughout and made sure that the proper foundations were laid before advanced concepts were introduced. The tutors were very helpful be it moderating strategy sessions, providing lectures via pre recorded videos or answering to the questions posted on online forums and their own question forums. The articles covering various concepts in SC, CR and RC were very well written and have been appreciated by many online forum goers.

I started with SC and I was amazed to see how seemingly straightforward concepts such as subject verb agreement, modifier and parallelism could be used to make difficult questions. Herein lies eGMAT’s greatest strength: to break down seemingly impossible to understand SC prompts into smaller segments and then analyze in detail each component of the sentence. The videos started with simple concepts and then finally went onto more advanced concepts such as modifiers and parallelism. eGMAT showed that there is a method and logic behind every step even in SC and that if you are systematic with your approach , you can tackle toughest of SC questions with absolute ease. The insistence on understanding the meaning of SC prompts removed my fear of completely underlined sentences and led me to high timed accuracy in OG,GPREP qbank and exam pack 1. I realized the importance of following a set method to tackle a particular question type only after my 1st attempt, until when I used to employ brute force methods. eGMAT showed me that there was elegance in the ways to tackle the different questions types and subtypes. The videos were very clear, I was able to play them on any media be it windows or iOS without any issues, pre and post assessment quizzes were of particular help in understanding what needs to be focused on. One of the most useful things in their videos was the ability to see the “summary” slide that will summarize the contents of the preceding video.

Once I got a grasp of SC, I moved onto CR, following their detailed schedule and again saw that there was set method to every CR question type. The focus on understanding the conclusion, how premises relate to the conclusion, “PRETHINKING”, “NEGATION TECHNIQUE” etc techniques were hugely helpful. The videos started with the topic at hand, followed by some very thoughtfully crafted question to cement what was covered in the videos. Prethinking enabled me to understand the scope of the question, the relationships between elements in the CR prompt and understand why the incorrect answer choices were incorrect. In GMAT, every incorrect question is wrong for a particular/solid reason. If you are eliminating a choice without that reason, you will end up choosing incorrect options. eGMAT CR provided the tools to understand why is an option incorrect, be it out of scope, similarly worded but incorrect option, partially correct options, opposite choice etc. Unless you understand how GMAT can give you incorrect options based on above reasons, you will not be confident in choosing an answer (my situation in the 1st attempt). Again, I only realized the importance of applying a set method just before my 2nd attempt. eGMAT’s focus on breaking down any argument into its respective elements, understanding the linkages and prethinking provided you 70% of the total work required for answering a question correctly. Rest 30% would come from POE of options provided. I was able to increase my accuracy in OG CR questions from 55% to 90%+ with eGMAT’s CR module.

The 3rd step was finishing the RC module which again taught a couple of useful tactics to be an active reader and to be involved with the passage. eGMAT RC also provided the tools to understand why is an option incorrect, be it out of scope, similarly worded but incorrect option, partially correct options, opposite choice etc. Once you became fully engrossed with the passage (by following eGMAT’s advice), finding the correct answer via POE became very straightforward.

Finally, VLP also included Verbal Scholaranium and this is an absolute must to complement verbal practice from OG and GMATPREP. Scholaranium comes with an “ability” evaluation technique that tells where exactly do you stand (percentile wise) for a particular section (SC or CR or RC) or verbal (all sections combined). This was a very useful tool for me as I was able to do targeted practice for areas I was faltering on. I used to use scholaranium to hone my skills via sectional quizzes and even sub sectional targeted practice. The collection of 600+ questions is an amazingly crafted collection consisting of questions from 3 difficulty levels. The explanations are very detailed and are provided for all the questions and you can even post your doubts and one of the eGMAT experts will respond to your doubts soon enough.

To summarize, eGMAT VLP is a must buy for all non-native English speakers. Thank you e-GMAT team for helping me in tough times and keep up the great work you guys are doing !