How I scored a 740 in GMAT even after working 10 hrs a day ?

I started my GMAT preparation in May 2022. After reviewing a few of the online courses and after consulting with my seniors who have aced GMAT before, I enrolled for the 4-month course at E-GMAT on 5 May 2022. I gave my 1st Sigma-X Mock Test and scored a 700 (Q-47, V-38).
I was quite elated with the score and thought that a little practice in verbal will help me improve my score to 720+.
I prepared a Personalised Study plan in the E-GMAT portal with the aim to complete the course within 1.5 months. I was supposed to study for 2 hrs on weekdays and 4/5 hrs on weekends
However, working in an essential service sector has its own problems. With extended work hours and extra duties, I could not dedicate more than 1 hr to preparation in the initial days and I could complete much less than I planned in the 1st one month.
I realised that only studying at night after returning from office will not help me. Hence, I decided to study for 1 hour in the morning before going to office and study for 1 hr after returning. I realised that this was a much more effective technique.
The Verbal module at E-GMAT is very structured and concept-wise exhaustive. I followed the recommended study plan for the entire verbal module. It was quite effective and I would suggest everyone to follow the recommended path and not jump around among the topics.
The path I followed was Master Comprehension, Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning, and then Reading comprehension. What’s important is to complete and solidify the concepts of each Topic before moving to the next one. Hence after completing the concept files, application files, and practice files, complete the cementing quizzes (1 Medium and 2 Hard) before moving to the next topic.
The techniques taught for Verbal at E- GMAT such as Pause points for comprehension, Pre-thinking for Critical Reasoning, and Meaning-based approach for Sentence correction really help to ace the verbal questions irrespective of the difficulty levels.
Since I scored high in quants in my 1st mock and being from an engineering background, I thought quants will be quite easy for me. However, soon I realised that being out of touch with Maths for around 6 yrs has impacted the agility and confidence with which I used to solve math problems. I realised that there were some concepts that require some policing. The PACE system in Quants helped me in this regard. From my performance in the initial evaluation quizzes for each topic, it identified the modules that I can skip and those I have to go through. This saved a lot of time. The difficulty level of harder quant problems at E- GMAT was a bit more than the actual test. Hence it helps us prepare better for the actual tests.
I took the other Sigma-X Mock Tests and scored 670-720. However, in the official mocks I scored 740 & 750.
It took my 1st official GMAT test and scored 700 (Q 46, V 40).
I was a bit disappointed with the result, considering the high scores I got in the Official Mocks.
I approached E-GMAT for guidance and they inducted me in their Last Mile Program (LMP) program. Mrs. Abha Mohan, one of their experts, made a thorough analysis of my ESR report and prepared a customised plan for me with milestones and timelines, and guided me through my journey. She guided me to identify the areas I have scope for improvement and advised me the topics that I should revise and even provided additional study materials. She prepared customised exam plans and even gave me mental support during times I got panicky and worked up during the preparation time. The entire E-GMAT team was also kind enough to provide me free access to the entire portal for around 2 weeks during my last leg of preparation.
I gave my second GMAT test on 20 November 2022 and scored a 740 (Q51, V38).
I owe my success to the entire team of E-GMAT. Without their support, this wouldn’t have been possible.