Best use of Technology and Data to Increase GMAT Ability!

Around 4-5 months back when I was considering to take the test, I approached quite a few people for their opinion on the test, and thus, I started researching about the different sections in GMAT, and what would the "Syllabus" and way of preparation for this test be. I talked to a few friends who had recently scored an amazing 730 or 760 with just a few months of preparation. So I had an Opinion that GMAT is a really easy test and as per their suggestions if I do the OG and some GMAT Club Questions I will be all set for a 700+ score in 2 months.

I would laugh hard at that thought even now. Not that it is unachievable, but that was definitely not the case with me. But there are no regrets except one, that I did not sign up for e-GMAT earlier than I did. I wasted around 2 months just solving questions and learning from singular topics in an unstructured way.

I’m enlisting a few interesting things from the e-GMAT pedagogy, which helped me increase my score from 540 in first mock to 710 in the actual exam:

1) Sigma X mocks helped me begin my learning journey by telling me the exact areas I should focus upon.

It provides you with tons of data and analytics, I guess even more than the official GMAT ESR which helps you analyse your ability and behaviour.

2) Direct guidance on mail and pre-recorded videos help you with a custom path. With every student starting from a different ability level, this becomes really important. For me this was the only reason I wasted the first 2 months, as I took guidance from people who had a higher ability or those who had prepared for CAT or similar exams.

3) Analytics in Verbal and Quant Scholaranium.
This is a pure blessing, as with every quiz you take, you can customize the type of questions (especially difficulty level - imp to judge current ability) and view your weak and strong areas in a really bifurcated manner.

And the guidance on mail which you receive from experts makes it truly BETTER THAN A PRIVATE TUTOR. Because these experts use such intensive data to analyse behaviour and use their experience to provide the exact way ahead. This was especially useful for a confused person like me.

4) Mixed way of visual learning.
Their interactive interface is the best I have ever seen. I tried quite a few free trials of others and the e-GMAT platform was the most engaging amongst all.

I needed this as I am a visual learner and engaging in non-GMAT style quizzes while learning made a major difference for me.

5) Individual attention.
While signing up, I was quite apprehensive of how will I be able to solve my personal doubts on an online platform. This was my first experience with online learning and I am way too careful in paying for online courses. But the support I got from e-GMAT was really helpful.

We have to mail our doubts to the experts which are then replied to within a day. They even have forums inside the e-GMAT portal (for each Module and Question !) which helps us research our question before posting it on mail.

In the beginning, I felt that mailing was too stretchy and tiring but I realised the beauty of structuring our thoughts on mail. In fact, this is even something that I am implementing in my office and my working style. Writing a structured mail allowed me to see my thoughts and half the doubts were cleared there and then. It was like writing a day journal.

6) The LEARNING PROCESS is seamless.
I studied a lot about HOW TO LEARN during my GMAT prep, and by the end of the prep I realised that e-GMAT had actually covered all the known methods and ways of learning through their course and their expert's suggestions.

Visual Learning, Timely repetition, motivating us for note-taking, Quizzes and summaries etc. So I was quite impressed by the behavioural science used while creating this platform and the course. Kudos to the creators.

And most interesting thing is that all this seems to backed up by data. Which makes these structural decisions of the platform even more reliable and trustworthy.

7) Speaking of data. Every question had a good amount of data behind it. Meaning I could judge my time average of answering the question as compared to others. And how the mean and median students performed on accuracy.

Each question had an elaborate explanation and a lucrative forum supporting it.

8) Structured approach towards Verbal. I was shocked to see how eGMAT tutors understood the psychology of a student and created the Verbal course.

They gave such a structure to approaching the Verbal section, which I am still in awe of how they creatively got it all together. So much data must have gone into the research to bring out a course that will suit all kinds of learners.

Lastly, looking back, I see this score jump from 540 to 710 and though I would even give the credit to the schedule changes I made, the learning habits I incorporated and the support I received from my family, I could not have gotten this result if it wasn't for the data-driven support from e-GMAT.

Ohh and a shoutout to DJ and Rida, the experts who were constantly and tirelessly answering my mails without judging or avoiding any silly questions. Thank you. Also thanks Rida for going a mile ahead and getting on a video call to solve my CR and SC related doubts.

There were many more points which I was impressed by. I am not sure if this is how other non-GMAT ONLINE Teaching portals are, but definitely, e-GMAT has created a benchmark for me that I will be using to judge the competency of the platform I am singing up for.

If I have to sum-up my e-GMAT experience with some keywords:
#data driven #personalised support #best and most accurate gmat styled questions #smart learning #structured approach