GMAT 750 (Q51, V40, IR7, AWA 6) – through a structured approach

Yes, you read it right. In this review, I’m going to provide a brief on how to achieve 700+ through a structured approach and how e-gmat helped in achieving the same. Being a decent student throughout my life, I imagined I’d sail through the Gmat test without much hindrance. So, I attempted the exam with only 2 weeks of prep, solving only OG questions. Alas, my initial Gmat attempt showed me the reality, wherein I was only able to score a 690, much lower than what I had expected. I spoke to a few of my friends and colleagues who had scored exceptionally well in Gmat and came to know about the e-gmat course. I tried the free trial and was impressed by the structured approach that the course followed. You will find below the strategy I had followed during my prep:

1. Get your basics right – Many of us (including me) believe that the basics required for the GMAT are not important and straightaway dive into solving questions. While you might get a decent chunk of questions right during your prep phase, you might not get it right in the actual exam. And the reason here is that you are not selecting the correct answer choice for the right reason. This is where e-gmat’s step-by-step video courses help you in building the foundation. The videos provide you with the basics and make sure (through its cementing process)) that you learn those skills before moving to difficult questions.
2. Understand your weakness – Inherently GMAT is an exam that covers a wide variety of topics and while it is a good idea to cover every topic thoroughly it might not be the most optimum way to go about it. Since each individual has a different background, everybody will have a different set of strengths and weaknesses. Hence, analyzing the weakness would help you in optimizing your study plan. This is where e-gmat’s Scholaranium 2.0 helps the most. This platform’s analytical view not only helps you in understanding your weaknesses but also helps track your improvements in these subsections.
3. Train your mind – Gmat is all about training your mental muscles. With ~1.5 mins/question, Gmat doesn’t give you the bandwidth to do a detailed analysis during the actual exam. Hence, it is important to do your homework before the exam. And the way to do it is to internalize different techniques to solve different types of questions. E-gmat provides you with all the techniques that you will need, to solve high difficulty questions in a limited time. Initially, I had a dreadful time figuring out why my accuracy did not stabilize in the verbal section. The answer was, that I never focused much on techniques. Through e-gmat’s course, I came across techniques like the meaning-based approach in SC, pre-thinking in CR & reading strategies in RC. Once, I had internalized these strategies, I was able to improve my accuracy and stabilize it as well. E-gmat also helps you in internalizing the techniques through its cementing process and detailed explanation of each question.
4. Make yourself test ready – Most of us consider test readiness by simply giving numerous mocks. While it might work for a few, it doesn’t work for everybody. Getting yourself test-ready also requires a step-by-step approach. E-gmat’s Scholaranium 2.0 and the SigmaX mock test aid you in this process. While Scholaranium 2.0 helps you in getting yourself test ready at a sectional level, SigmaX mocks help you in building stamina and make you test ready from an end-to-end exam perspective. Further, SigmaX mocks also give you detailed insights into where you are going wrong at a subsectional level, so that you can go back and strengthen those areas. There are a good 5-6 actual GMAT-like mocks, which you can use to track your progress towards your dream score. Additionally, these tests also help you in building the strategy for the d-day. In other words, you don’t need to answer every question correctly, so these mocks help you in strategizing which type of questions to guess, when to guess, etc.

Last but not the least, Gmat prep can be frustrating (and mentally draining) for some of us and that is where you need a little bit of push. Gmat offered me a dedicated mentorship in this regard. My GMAT mentor Rida Shafeek was extremely helpful in pushing me in the last phase of the journey (through personalized videos and hyper-specific plans) and gave me the direction I needed.

My learning from this journey – “GMAT is more a test of your ability to strategise than a test of your superior Mathematics or English knowledge.”