How to get away with GMAT (fast)

Hello Everyone!

Some of my learnings through my GMAT journey with eGMAT are listed below:
- [ ] For most working professionals, You’ll have to be on your toes to get the work done. Your energy levels are very important and you must preserve them during your study hours, mock attempts and beyond.
- [ ] Absorb the ‘Structured Approach’ and make it second nature. The sooner you’ll do so, the sooner you’ll achieve a better takt time, the time it takes for a correct attempt. Once you have your concepts in place, refining these process application steps is the only way you’ll reach the 36th question with some time in hand. The better you comprehend, the better you’ll sail through each sub section, be that be of Verbal or Quant.
- [ ] The art of letting go: If only we were taught how to attempt exams, many would have thrived playing on their strengths and taking minimum harms elsewhere. Though GMAT score depends on your performance on each sub-section, after surpassing a cumulative difficulty level, let data of your past attempts and your intuition(general comfort level) with a question guide you on making strategical skips. After all, it’s about finishing your section attempt with Hard questions. Don’t get attached too much to a question or you’ll never even get to read the last few questions.
- [ ] Error log importance : Quality over Quantity. Maximum learning is extracted while reviewing your mistakes. In the crucial minutes after mocks or simple tests, which leave you exhausted, do review questions in which you took too long to finalise a choice, in which you weren’t able to eliminate the choices per your reasoning skills, in which you weren’t able to comprehend the meaning, etc. Remember, if you dig deep enough, it’s always lack of a diligent and intentional shift in comprehension that results in an unsure attempt. Read the above sentence again.
- [ ] Seeing them as Life skills : critical thinking, active prediction, finding main points, sentence level comprehension, short circuiting details. I respect this exam for the skills it has helped me engender. Your level of awareness of your surroundings will be unparalleled and you just might reach to the levels of Sherlock, Dr. Gregory House and the other high functioning sociopaths who thrive on drawing inferences by observing their surroundings.
- [ ] Make it purpose of your life, but only for a continuous stretch of 4/5 months, otherwise it’ll hang over your head like Betal. Don’t make it a ghost hanging over your head leaving you tired in your everyday life. Preserve your energy, be fierce with protecting your time, be calm and observant during your learning hours, cement the learnings and reflect on them during your ordinary hours. In a short amount of time, you might even absorb these test skills to make them life skills.
- [ ] Comprehension extracts the meaning which is core to solving each and every verbal question. As you read the sentence written as is and try to make sense out of those juggle of words, you’ll know what’s wrong and what’s correct. Use some rules+common sense to sail through. GMAT is a test of reasoning ability and not of English language. Do remember this fact.
- [ ] Hats off to Payal and Rajat for putting together such a detailed course. Each question offers multiple learnings and is designed to maximise the variety of takeaways for the user. Shraddha, Kanupriya, Stacy, Arathy and most importantly Harsha have laid out such thorough and informative explanations that one is bound to excel if they follow the words closely.
- [ ] Lastly, it was through the kind and considerate mentorship of Abha that I was able to put this exam to an interim rest. From scoring a 610 on my first mock test to 740s and 750s towards the end, I was able to significantly improve my performance through her guidance. After scoring a 640 at my first official attempt and facing extreme network instability during the second, I was a bit afraid to go over this barrier score of 640. The test readiness stage orchestrated by Abha helped me maintain my mock temperament during this official attempt to a great extent and I was able to achieve a 710. I might go for another attempt to justify the ability I have built and the time I have put into this exam. However, I wish I could have ended it sooner. Don’t let this journey turn into a vicious cycle.

All the best fellow aspirant!

Regards
Mohit