80 point improvement with Dhananjay's guidance and my faith on E-GMAT

"I studied on my own for a month and got 760" - after hearing my sister's GMAT debrief, I thought genes would work equally well for me and I would be able to ace this test without any external help. I thought, if not 1 month maybe 4 months would do and if not 760 a 730+ would do.

After preparing on my own through OG (+ Q & V Review) and MGMAT books for over 4 months, I was pretty confident that I was steering in the right direction. I did everything which a prudent GMAT aspirant would do - diligently practicing the OG, spending time on explanations, paying attention to timing, and giving several mocks (scored between 730-760 in all 6 official mocks, Expert's Global mocks, Princeton and Vertias mocks). After my first attempt in November 2020, I was shocked to see a 670 (Q49 V31). I knew that my verbal was weak but never did I expect (nor get in any mock) a V31.

Heartbroken and disappointed, I booked another retest for the next available date, thinking that my concepts are strong but my luck was bad. I made a plan to practice harder this time, solve OG Advanced and also study for long hours so that my mind is under enough stress to perform well on the test day.

Off-topic: I found out that my mind went into "hot cognition" during the exam and that is why I couldn't make sense of any verbal question. I just wasn't able to understand the meaning of any two sentences.

Anyway, I made sure that I have a disciplined routine and that I follow Mohammad Ali's advice on "not quitting when you're tired".

I was on practicing on GMAT Club when I found out that I did not know much about "-ing modifiers" in SC. I read a beautiful explanation by Payal Tandon from e-GMAT. I had heard the name of this company a lot of times (read both positive and negative reviews - which is why I never opted for it earlier). After reading the explanation I went to E-GMAT's website and signed up for a free trial to understand more about modifiers. I felt that the way their videos explain things and the way they make you practice every little thing in various phases might just work for a student like me.

I booked a video call with one of the E-GMAT representatives (Dhruv) the next day and I explained to him my ordeal. I also showed him my ESR which clearly indicated that RC and CR were super weak in verbal. He explained a few things and suggested trying the E-GMAT course and extending my exam date because he felt I wasn't ready.

I was torn between spending on the E-GMAT course and applying the same strategy which I have been applying. I thought to myself - if I do the same thing again and again, I cannot expect the same result. After sleeping over it, I made up my mind to purchase the Quant and Verbal GMAT Online course.

After spending considerable time and energy on this course, I can tell you the exact pros and cons of this course so that you can make a decision based on what fits your bill:

Pros:

1. Dhananjay Lowe's mentorship.

Excellent mentor. Helped me out with the most important strategy questions like timing, plateau, etc. He has experience of dealing with all kinds of students and you're probably one of the types - so he will know how to steer you in the right direction. He will also not hesitate to tell you that you have conceptual gaps even when you think you are good with concepts (and mostly he was right).

Before enrolling I was skeptical about one thing - E-GMAT does not give phone numbers or do video calls for students when they have conceptual or strategy doubts. How am I going to work with that? But I was pleasantly surprised to see that their email system works quite well. DJ himself used to reply within 1-2 days whenever I had any issues. I remember the biggest help he gave was regarding my timing improvement on CR (brought down from 3 mins to 1.5 mins).

2. Their 3 Stage learning approach

At first, I thought this is just a marketing gimmick (just to show that they do have some system in place). But when I ardently followed the preparation through all stages, I realized that it's very methodical and reasoned. Basically, they will first assess what stage of learning you are currently on (for each subsection in V & Q) and then they will ask you to start from the appropriate stage. For example, I did not need to start with Stage 1 (learning concepts) in most Q subsections because I was doing well with concepts.

3. Verbal course

It's one of the best. No doubts. I've tried almost every other course but their verbal course is the best thing ever.

4. New Quant course

Their new quant course is much better than their previous one. Earlier their course was not as good as their verbal course but the new course is promising. Especially the "Process Skills", "GMAT Skills" and "Application" files are fantastic.

Cons:

1. Old Quant Course

Their old quant course was a bit too tough to comprehend easily. Also, it had certain topics that were stressed more than required. I am comparing because they gave me an upgrade to the new course between my preparation.

2. Difficulty of Q in mocks

Their SIGMA-X mocks are although fantastic when it comes to measuring your subsectional abilities and finding out your weak area if I were you, I would not take their Quant score in their mocks by heart. In each mock, I scored ~Q45 although I knew I was hovering around Q49.

Finally, the exam day came (I even fell sick 3 days before the exam and thought that this is the end of the world). I got boosted on some coffee this time (I love coffee but I didn’t have it in my first attempt). I made sure I did some warm-up questions 1 hour before the exam.

Verbal seemed better this time. Quant was the same (easy in the beginning but a tad bit difficult towards the end). I wasn’t expecting more than 740 but I think my effort and stars were aligned on that day - I got a 750 (Q49 V44).