e-GMAT Review - 660 to 730

I'll start with my realization of the GMAT. Through my GMAT journey, I realized that being good at Quant in Verbal in general does not necessarily translate into a great GMAT score. What one requires is the correct guidance, tips and tricks to tackle each question type, and the grit and determination to keep going even if things don't go your way.

• Where was I when I started?
My Quant ability was above average, and I consistently scored 49/51 in any mocks I had given up to that point. My Verbal ability was at 32/51, and I often got confused between few answer choices across all three sections (SC, RC, and CR), and ended up choosing the ‘second-best’ (and hence, incorrect) answer choice. I had solved GMAT Official questions at this point, and although I did see some improvement, it was not consistent, and my score hovered around 670.

• How I got to know about e-GMAT?
I was recommended e-GMAT by someone who went through the program themself. Its Verbal course, specifically, came highly recommended. Since I wanted to give the complete mocks as part of my preparation and cover possible concept gaps in Quant, I decided to go for the complete course (Quant+Verbal).

• How I went about it?
I started with Verbal since it was a major hindrance to my score. I finished watching the concept videos on SC and RC completely. I watched 1/4th of the videos in CR. I also covered some topics in Quant which I felt I was weaker on. Then, I decided to give some quizzes and scored fairly on them. I thought I was decently prepared, and so decided to give the GMAT. I scored a 660 (Quant: 48; Verbal: 33) and was naturally disappointed at the score since I was aiming for a 700+.

• What I did after my 1st GMAT attempt?
I reached out to e-GMAT support asking them to chalk out a study plan to go from a 660 to a 700+ score. They were extremely spontaneous with their replies. I was in correspondence with a couple of their team members, but it was ultimately Dhananjay Lowe (DJ) who worked with me. He prepared a complete plan with the study process which included finishing the concept videos, giving their subsequent quizzes, and giving ability quizzes in Scholaranium to understand my strengths and weaknesses. e-GMAT’s ‘Strategic Review’ for each of their Verbal sections included a detailed process to understand the errors I was making, pinpoint the source of those errors, and make myself consciously aware of those possible errors in future questions. This helped me immensely once I realized where I was going wrong. For example, through the strategic review for CR questions, I realized I was going wrong because I wasn’t able to identify the conclusion correctly, and even if I did, I wasn’t able to choose the answer choice that was related or relevant to that conclusion. e-GMAT’s analysis on each section and question type provided extensive insight into my strengths and weaknesses. Through this, I was able to identify that I was weaker on assumption and inference questions, and hence, took subsequent steps to address those.

Although my Quant was consistent at 49/51, to reach a great score, I needed to score at least a 50/51. In Quant, I gave ability quizzes on Scholaranium to fill in the gaps in my weaker concepts.

I attempted questions from both e-GMAT’s Scholaranium and GMAT Official. A lot of times I felt e-GMAT’s questions were excessively difficult, and I scored nearly at the threshold set for each level of difficulty (easy, medium, and hard level questions). However, when I gave the same difficulty level questions on GMAT Official, I scored far better than e-GMAT’s quizzes. Every time I gave an e-GMAT quiz and scored lower than required, I was left frustrated. However, when I scored decently well in the GMAT Official questions, my confidence grew.

In the last week before my 2nd GMAT attempt, I gave Official tests every day at the same time my GMAT test was at, and reviewed questions the same day. This made me extremely comfortable and confident heading into my GMAT exam. I scored a 720 (Quant: 50; Verbal 38) in my 2nd attempt.

• What I did after my 2nd GMAT attempt?
I reached out to DJ for a final study plan that would see me score higher than 720. DJ prepared a plan according to their LMT program which included giving an e-GMAT Sigma X-mock, revision of questions I got incorrect, custom specific quizzes on areas I was weak at, test readiness quizzes in Verbal and Quant, intermediate quizzes, and repeating the cycle. At this point, I knew the type of questions I was getting wrong, where I was going wrong, what I needed to concentrate on, where to spend more time on, and what I could do to make sure I had an airtight analysis for my answer choice. I gave my 3rd and final GMAT and scored a 730 (Quant 50; Verbal 39).

• What helped?
When I began my GMAT journey, I felt my abilities were above average to score decently well. However, I realized that GMAT was not a test of how well you think you know stuff, but how thorough your concepts are.

When I purchased the e-GMAT’s online content and went through it without any guidance, I had two minds about opting for their service. However, it was the right decision ultimately. e-GMAT helped me throughout my study process and DJ was immensely supportive right from the start, all the way to the end. Learning the concepts through extensive and exhaustive videos, the sheer number of quizzes (both Quant and Verbal, but primarily Verbal in my case), reviewing the incorrect questions and the Strategic Review process, all helped me get from a 660 to a 730. Although Scholaranium questions felt tougher and sometimes long and drawn out, they ultimately helped my improve on GMAT Official questions.

I’m sure if I can get from a 660 to a 730, anyone can. Just make sure you have the right support, which in my case was provided by e-GMAT and DJ.