Journey to 730. A ride filled with self doubt and exhaustion.

Background:

I am a non-native speaker from India with an Engineering background. I was always confident about my Quant ability but was sceptical about Verbal ability. After taking an Initial Mock, my hunch was confirmed in which I scored a 640 ( Q48 and V26). Even though I scored less in verbal in my Initial mock, the thing which boosted my confidence that I can score well in Verbal was that Verbal in GMAT is more logical play than a theoretical play. Having given GRE before, the one thing I didn't like in GRE prep was the requirement to remember a lot of information which can lead to exhaustion very easily.

Course Shortlist:

Knowing I had to mostly concentrate on my Verbal ability, I was searching for the best Verbal course for non-native speakers ( I was looking from utter basics to advanced level). I came across the E-GMAT course while I was researching for courses. I took the trial to see the user experience of the course to decide if it is fit for my likings and I immediately liked and enrolled on the course.

Preparation:

I started with my Verbal prep carefully going through all the videos, tests and practise questions in the course. After done with Verbal course completion I skimmed through the Quant course to brush up on my Quant knowledge. After I was done with all the concepts, I started with scholarium for practising the concepts. Initially, the score was low in all three sections in Verbal, but with scholarium analytics, I slowly improved on my weak areas.

Mentorship:

E-GMAT mentorship played a crucial point in my journey by giving structure to my preparation. Archit has been super helpful in devising an improvement in each of the three sections in Verbal. I would strongly advise getting mentorship as it will be helpful to have a mentor to guide you in the right direction based on their experience.

Result: Scored 730 on The Day with V38 and Q50. Scored 95% in CR, 90% in SC and 28% in RC. My average RC percentile has been around V40 but scored only V22 on exam day. Clearly, there is scope for improvement in RC, so will be giving the exam again.

Things that helped immensely:

Pre thinking approach for CR was a game-changer. I improved my accuracy from the mid-'60s to above 90's with the approach. I scored above 90% in all the mocks and also in the final exam with the help of the approach.

Sentence Correction takes time and there is nothing to worry about your ability. Your ability will increase with practice and you will notice an increase in accuracy and speed with more practice. Attention to detail in sentences is very important to spot errors. I cannot stress this point more as we usually tend to skim through the sentence. The meaning-based approach also helps in improving speed and accuracy.

Jotting down points and summarising each paragraph helps to remember more information from paragraphs. A comprehensive reading course by E-GMAT helped me realize the need for easily understanding each statement.