When I had applied to the ISB YLP, I wasn't expecting even a Round 1 shortlist. It was only in Round 2 that a GMAT score was required. When the shortlist email came, my first thought was panic. I had exactly 2 months and 3 weeks before the August 31st deadline. I started researching about the best way to study for GMAT in 2 months - with a goal of crossing the 700 mark somehow.

First Impressions :
I tried the e-GMAT free trial for a week. What sold me instantly was the pre-assessment quizzes for each individual topic. For example, if I wanted to study Absolute Values, I could give a short pre-assessment quiz of GMAT type questions to check my ability. This saved a lot of time later on as well, where I could just skip/skim through topics whose questions I could solve.

SigmaX Mocks :
I gave my first free mock, where I got a 510 (Q30 V31). That immediately pointed out to me what my weaknesses and strengths were. I had to work on Algebra and Sentence Correction questions. I was doing okay in Geometry, CR, and RC. After I finished analysing this mock, I bought their course, because the clear direction it gave me (in terms of my weaknesses) was invalable.

Learning/Teaching Approach :
The learning approach e-GMAT follows feels very scientific. They first measure your current ability, based on which they recommend modules for you to study, finally follwed by a post-assessment quiz which shows you your improvements. Their focus is on increasing the ability to solve GMAT type questions first, not on general accuracy - which is a great metric because ability automatically improves accuracy in the Medium-Hard questions.

Verbal :
Their verbal is a bit lengthy if you follow every single video. While it did help me visualise the sentences better and break down what the question was asking, I personally could skip many of the basic lectures and complete only the guided question solving files.
For someone with low confidence in verbal, it will help you visualise the problems GMAT throws at you in a more structured manner, and approach it in a step by step way. I would recommend the course with great confidence. Also, note that questions in verbal seemedto me harder than actual GMAT questions/

Quant :
The subject I had to spend a month perfecting. It took a long time but again, the structured approach to teaching it helped me immensely. The best thing is that they take questions that are so similar to what the GMAT expects you to solve, due to which you're not wasting time doing unnecessarily easy/difficult questions in the beginning.

Summary :
After 2 months of prep (3-4 hours a day), I finally got a 690 (V39 Q45). I will be giving a second attempt soon, and will continue with e-GMAT. Go for it if you (a) want to maximise a short prep time by focusing on only some topics in depth, or (b) you have 6 months at hand and can utilise their course completely. In eiter case, you will see improvement - I am sure about that.

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Hi everyone,

I am writing this post to walk you through my GMAT journey in the hopes that you might find it useful. At the very onset, what I have written is not meant to be prescriptive. It is a record of my experience with the GMAT exam and how I prepared for it - if, through this post, you can find even one idea that helps you in your journey, I would have done my job of giving back to the gmatclub community. I have broken this story down into three parts: 1) choosing a study plan, 2) preparing for the GMAT, 3) leading up to the test and the test experience.

Before that my daily schedule (high level):

Wake-up: 6:30 am
Sign-in at work: 8:00 am
Sign-off: 6:00 pm.
Work Out and Dinner: 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm.
GMAT Prep - 9:00 pm - 11:30 pm

Choosing a Study Plan
I decided to take the GMAT in May this year, hoping to apply to business schools by the first round of deadlines in September. I knew a few folks who had already taken the GMAT, so I reached out to them to learn about their prep journey (read quite a few posts from the gmatclub - all very helpful) - a few suggested Manhatten Prep, some suggested Math Revolution, and some others suggested e-GMAT. Everyone who suggested the e-GMAT course raved about its verbal infrastructure and how that was especially important for non-native English speakers.

I chose the e-GMAT because of its strong verbal infrastructure. I knew I had a comparative advantage in verbal over the others, because of my background in public policy. I develop and analyze policies for a living, so CR and RC are, in a way, a part of my job. I had also done my research and knew that breaking the 41/42 mark on the Verbal section in the GMAT exam increases your score substantially as long as you are hitting a Q48/49. Since my undergrad is in economics and I also do a fair bit of data science (for fun), my quant skills are decent. So I wanted a course that could complement my existing strengths and help me break the V41/42 threshold. I set a V45 target for myself.

Before starting the course in June, I took an official mock test to see where I stood. I started with a 650 - Q44 and V35. I realized I was relying too much on my instincts on SC. And while your instincts can serve you well (depending on how strong your foundations are in verbal), they won't take you too far when you start getting those hard (>700) type questions. My accuracy on >700 SC questions was abysmal, and I knew that was holding me back. e-GMAT treats SC like science and breaks down each sentence into various components - one then analyzes each component independently to see if they fit together well. Does the meaning of the sentence make sense? And if it does, does the grammar fit well into it? Once you can comfortably answer those two questions, picking the right answer becomes easier.

Preparing for the GMAT
I input my mock test scores on the e-GMAT diagnostic report and they gave me a plan for the next three months. I tweaked that plan to suit my own goals. So through the course of the three months, I spent 70 percent of the time on Verbal, understanding the "science-like approach to sentence correction" and 30 percent of the time on Quant.

For SC I started from the very basics - what is a sentence and built on my prep from there. For every module, e-GMAT starts you off with a pre-assessment quiz. This tells you where you stand before taking the module. Then after you complete the module, they do a post-assessment quiz to show you how far you have come. The "pre-assessment, prepare, and post-assessment" structure was very important for me since I got to see my progress daily.

I would study the module, take the post-assessment quiz and then attempt 10-15 OG questions daily. Once you complete each module on the e-GMAT in its entirety, you can take "cementing quizzes". These quizzes are there to test how far you have come and how well you understand the concepts you have studied.

For RC and CR, I read 4-5 articles a day from the economist on topics I was not used to such as geology, and other sciences. I did not dedicate as much time to learning the basics of RC and CR but spent a lot of time doing mock questions daily. In addition to the 10-15 SC questions, I would do around 3 RC and 10 CR questions daily. You will notice as you read more your RC and CR automatically improve. That said, if you are not a reader then e-GMAT does have some very helpful tips on tackling RC and CR too and they follow the same "pre-assessment, prepare, post-assessment" structure here.

For quant, I focussed predominantly on the word problems section since they make up for the most number of questions on the GMAT. The section is broken down into topics, and each topic starts from the basics. Once you are done with the concept file, you take post-assessment quizzes and see how well you understand the section. I would often couple my preparation with about 20 questions from the OG daily.

Leading Up To The Test and The Test Experience

Through the course of my prep I took four mock tests:
June (before starting my prep) - 650: V35, Q44 (official test 1)
July (mid-July, a month into my prep) - 740: V42, Q49 (official test 2)
July (last week) - 690: V38, Q47 (official test 3)
August (1 week before my test) - 720: V41, Q48 (official test 4).
I never attempted the AWA or the IR sections of the official mock tests. I would suggest you do. Doing so will give you a good sense of the entire exam and how long it takes. Also, IR and AWA can be tricky for some people, and you don't want any surprises on test day. My third mock score threw me off a little bit, but my performance was a function of how I was feeling that day. I had not slept well and was tired. It is important to know what you need in terms of prep for test day to be your optimal self. In my case, it is a good night's sleep and a light breakfast. Another important factor (for online test takers from home) is to prep on a whiteboard with markers. Make sure you are comfortable using a whiteboard before test day. Using it for the first time on test day can be detrimental to your performance. I started working on a whiteboard 2-3 weeks before my actual test. Small things, such as the smell of the marker, being used to erasing after solving 2 or 3 questions, getting used to the feel of the board, etc. may seem minor but can prove to be useful on the test day.

My actual test day was alright. I logged in 15 mins before the test was scheduled to start. The proctor checked my room through the camera and performed the formalities and I was on my way. My last tip to you would be to start your exam with your strengths. The GMAT allows you to structure your exam the way you like. Always start with the section you are good at. That sets the pace for the rest of your test. Imagine not performing well and moving onto the next section - you are already demoralized. So you might not be your best self in a section you would otherwise ace had you been happy and confident. Now imagine starting strong - you are happy and confident with your performance so far, you move to your relatively weaker section but because you have done well so far, you perform better than you would have as a disappointed test taker. That is the approach I take - does not mean it is correct.

Remember, the GMAT is just an exam and you can take it multiple times (ideally you would not have to but not doing well is not the end of the world). Also, it is just one of the many factors in a bschool application (assuming you are applying to bschool). If you don't do as well as you would have liked, IT IS OKAY. Be honest in your preparation. Be kind to yourself. And you will do well :)

Final score - 760: V47, Q48, IR5, AWA6

If you'd like to talk more about the exam, my prep, or just get to know me better, feel free to connect with me on Linkedin - www.linkedin.com/in/pratiquekain

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I followed the e-GMAT intensive study plan. I started with Quant and later continued with SC. After four months, I have really seen enough. What I am gonna say now will definitely upset some people, but I have talked to multiple people with the same opinion about the e-GMAT course.

For quant, the course certainly goes through all the relevant topics on the GMAT. However, there are multiple flaws:
(1) The practice questions are often unrealistic, nothing like the official questions
(2) The explanations to the solutions are often very confusing, and the comments section provides no real background to the reasoning behind a certain approach to a quant question. I feel like it is more about solving a particular question, rather than actually understanding the underlying concept.

For verbal, the course is even worse imo:
(1) The question quality is bad, really bad. Prove for this? One week before my official exam in which I got a 740 (Q48 V44), I took a SC diagnostic test from e-GMAT and had 3 out of 10 questions correct. I received a V44, and I am sure my verbal didn't improve that much within a week. In official questions I normally got at least 9 out of 10 correct, but the unofficial questions from e-GMAT really do not resemble the official questions.

(2) The "pre-thinking" approach for CR almost killed my CR ability. I really had to "unlearn" the approach later! After I used different materials (I will introduce that later), CR was probably my strongest section on the GMAT.

I could say many more things about the e-GMAT course that I didn't like, but I think I really wasted 3 months for this course. After 4 months I took another diagnostic exam and got a 530. Not very impressive after 4 months of almost full-time study. e-GMAT really has some strong marketing and it also got me. They throw around with fancy words like, SigmaX mocks, Scholarinium, AI, data-driven, and all this blabla..really, a test prep company that truly generates impressive results doesn't need such words for their marketing. Additionally, the success stories are impressive, but e-GMAT has hundreds if not thousands of clients. Obviously, with such a large sample there will be some great success stories. But for the majority of students I do NOT recommend the course at all. To improve your score, use TTP. For more details, refer to my debrief on GMAT Club: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-debrief-from-a-470-q31-v24-to-a-740-q48-v44-369195.html

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I came across e-GMAT when I saw a success story video of a student, who had improved his score by over 80 points. Since then I have watched close to 50 such success stories and seeing those stories I knew that e-GMAT will help me succeed as well. My journey with e-GMAT was about 4 months long and it ended with me scoring a 770(Q50, V45) on GMAT online.

What I loved most about the course?
Structured Approach for each module:
Unlike other courses, e-GMAT gives you a structured method that needs to be followed for solving each SC, CR and RC question. For both SC and CR there is a 3-step approach that needs to be followed. Initially it takes students extra time to solve questions using these approaches but with regular practice, the approaches become second nature to the student, aiding the student on exam day in a situation of high anxiety and pressure.

Depth and Breadth of SC Course:
I always struggled with SC but with e-GMAT's SC course almost anyone can score in the 90th percentile. Obviously the Meaning based approach is a game changer, but I would like to bring attention to the 200+ SC concepts that are covered in the e-GMAT course. Once the meaning is understood it is absolutely crucial to know the pertinent grammar rule clearly and the e-GMAT course covers every such rule. Many courses only focus on the common error types and hence students of such courses fail to understand usage of different sentence structures.

e-GMAT support:
One thing every student from e-GMAT will highlight is the personalization at every step of the preparation. I was given a personalized study plan basis my performance on the diagnostic Sigma-X mock. Whenever I had doubts during my preparation my mentor Archit Bhargava was there to help. I would just send in an email and I would get a response within a few hours. Without this constant support, I am sure to have spiraled off my preparation.

Scholaranium 2.0:
The most impressive thing about Scholaranium 2.0 is the explanation for each question. The explanations are in written in line with the structured approach thought at e-GMAT. The explanations are absolutely crucial because only when a student knows why exactly he/she got the question wrong can he/she learn and make sure not to repeat the mistake. The explanations also make it very easy for students to create accurate error logs.

Sigma-X Mock Accuracy:
High quality mocks are very essential to any student's preparation. In the past I relied on the official mocks from mba.com but even those mocks seemed to be of lesser difficulty in comparison with the actual exam. The Sigma-X mocks simulate the real exam experience and gauge a student's ability accurately. Also, the data driven results from Sigma-X mocks help students to focus on the areas required and fine tune their approach.

Personalized Analysis and Support:
I was invited by Archit to join the Last Mile Program(LMP), a program in which Archit would constantly monitor my progress and suggest further steps. I am sure that without Archit's support I would not have achieved my score and I cannot thank him enough. Timing was a huge issue for me and Archit made me see how I could better manage my time. He analyzed my performances on the Sigma-X mocks in the form of videos and suggested hyper-specific practices to improve timing. His personalized videos helped me improve my timing issues easily.

Overall, I would highly recommend e-GMAT for anyone appearing for the GMAT. The all inclusive course, the data and the mentorship provided make e-GMAT the best available GMAT preparation company out there.

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I was struggling with GMAT verbal section when I started preparing for the GMAT. I began with V30 in mock tests. To improve my score, I studied hard and practiced random assorted verbal questions. I took two actual attempts and even after studying this hard, my best was V32.

Quite naturally I was distraught. I wasn't able to understand what was going wrong, I wasn't able to differentiate efficiently between two or three tough choices. Two of my friends separately then recommended E GMAT to me. I decided to give their Verbal course a try.

First things first, they changed my approach towards the test itself. It helped me immensely in formulating my study plan and testing strategy. Proceeding ahead, I started with absolute basics in verbal. Once I got the fundamentals clear, I learned the meaning-based strategy and that helped me eliminate the wrong answer choices based on more subtle meaning differences. Those lessons and the practice quizzes proved really valuable.

Once I got the hang of all the concepts, I practiced questions in Scholaranium of all difficulty levels. Overall I found it very challenging, but the more you bleed in preparation, the less you bleed in battle. I improved my timing in Scholaranium by roughly 10 seconds per question, which had a huge impact on my ability to finish all the questions in time in the actual test.

Overall I would highly recommend the Verbal course of E GMAT very highly, especially for non-native English speakers. All the best with your preparations.

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I started the E-Gmat course after attending a few EGMAT webinars on Youtube. I had enrolled into the GMAT Online version of EGMAT.

The thing that stood for me the most were the CR and SC videos on the website. They are very carefully curated and use the best examples. The tests within the module also are good and have very detailed explanations. The query resolution is very fast (in my case ~7-8 hours).

But the crown jewel is actually the verbal and the quant scholaranium. These are very good practice resources and are a little difficult than the actual GMAT. These problems very well capture the essence of the concept and have very good and detailed explanations (Some have 12-17 min detailed and comprehensive explanations).

The Sigma-X mocks are good practice and have some useful insights too.

All in all, i felt that EGMAT was worth every penny and earns my highest recommendation.

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After about 2 months of self-preparation using the OG as the bible, I took the GMAT. I had thought that I would be able to force my brain to learn the algorithm of how to pick the right answer simply by solving hundreds of questions, training the neural network, as it is called in this age of AI. I was disappointed as I scored a 680.

I had not given up hope but could not improve much because I was stuck to the "Solve More Questions to Get It" strategy. One day while scrolling the web I came across e-GMATs website and instantly booked a meeting with a strategist who pointed out quite methodically that one of the main problems in my strategy is that I don't have any solid foundation. He explained how e-GMAT could solve that problem (especially in verbal). That was an eye-opener and I jumped on-board.

I would want to list down the the most important points in my GMAT journey to a 730 score with e-GMAT.

1. One of the most important factors was Atreya. He was my mentor in the Last Mile Program who helped devise hyper specific objective based preparation methods so that I do not aimlessly go through each and everything. Atreya analyzed my performances consistently and kept pushing me to improve by focusing relentlessly on the areas which require improvement. This worked wonders as I was able to sharpen my SC and RC skills in almost no time. Thanks Atreya.

2. The course material by e-GMAT is fabulous. It is by far the best way to learn any concept. My verbal skills improved from V33 to V41 purely because of this learning methodology whereby you read about a topic, understand the underlying process, solve some questions to completely grasp it. In no time it becomes your second nature. The process skills imparted by the e-GMAT course is simply unparalleled. I cannot emphasize enough how important the process skills are for SC and prethinking for CR and e-GMAT is the best platform to hone these skills.

3. The Scholaranium 2.0 is their testing platform where you can cement your abilities by creating different types of quizzes. The analytics it gave me about my performance were deeply insightful and the wealth of questions it had was more than enough to have a good handle on any section.

Combined with Atreya's tailored guidance and seamless experience using the scholaranium and course material, I would say e-GMAT does what others would take years to do. Highly targeted and scientific approach to learning for a specific goal. Go for e-GMAT for accelerated improvement of your GMAT Skills.

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I started my GMAT journey last year in October with a diagnostic mock on Mba.com. I managed to score a 600(Q49,V23). To be very honest i was clueless about the Verbal Section and was playing on instincts, i.e., what sounds better.

Coming from an Indian Board, I knew that Verbal will be challenging for me because I did not have much interest in reading books or writing. For the first attempt, I was of the opinion i can shoot up my score in a month with quality resources and hardcore prep. Joined GMATCLUB, the mecca of GMAT and looked through the materials. After studying like a 10th grader, i.e., completing the syllabus and doing questions, I could see how i was playing on instincts only. A month of prep and i registered for the GMAT (Huge mistake) only to find i did guess work in Verbal and ended up with a 640 (Q50,V28).
Due to Work, I took a three month gap and started preparing again. I had gone through some of the free videos of E-Gmat and during my first attempt so had made up my mind to enrol for the course. I started the course in April some time and Sentence Correction was never this easy.
I genuinely was not aware of Nouns, Pronouns, Parallelism etc. The Master Comprehension Course was a game changer. I went through their SC course meticulously and had started to see improvement in a month. My plan was to complete a module and try to filter the questions in GmatClub of that module and finish only Official Guide Questions. I was seeing the improvement. Meaning-Based Approach with crystal clear concepts, hands down, are impeccable approaches. My worst section became the Best. If you want to start from scratch in SC, E-GMAT is a no brainer. Just go for it. These institutes have done immense research and have got it into perfection. The amount charged is nowhere near to the knowledge gained.

In two months time, I registered again for the online Gmat and had a pathetic experience with some technical glitch. Registered again for an offline attempt and got a 710(Q50,V35) with a 91 Percentile in SC. Scholaranium on E-GMAT is a great place to cement your skills. The ability quizzes increases one's stamina. The analysis is on spot with insightful video explanations. Sometimes the background noise used to just reverberate in my ears while doing normal work. It became a habit to approach all the questions in a certain way.

Thankful to the E-GMAT team!

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Here are my attempts
Attempt 1 (Feb 2021): 670 (V32, Q49)
Attempt 2 (Mar 2021): 680 (V32, Q50)
Attempt 3 (Aug 2021): 700 (V38, Q48)

Good improvement in Verbal, on the hand, got cocky and overconfident in Quant and screwed it up.

However, I thank E-GMAT for that V38 and in this post I’ll share why:

E-GMAT SC

1. Clever Approach to solving SC
I have taken another test prep's company's SC course (won't name them) before taking E-GMAT SC. The primary difference between the two courses is the approach. E-GMAT’s is based on understanding the meaning of a sentence while the other course focussed on “time-saving grammar hacks” to arrive at the answer, in which the meaning of the sentence took lower priority..Now if you are looking for a 650, the “time-saving grammar hack” approach works faster but when you are talking 700+ official GMAt questions, the GMAT is very clever, it will give multiple answer choices that are all grammatically correct, and it's the meaning that differentiates the correct answer from the wrong one. Therefore, I prefer the meaning-based approach because it helps solve tough questions much more quickly and easily.

2. Course contents really good, well taught
I’ve always sucked at tests that needed me to do well at English grammar because of the extremely confusing rules and tons of jargon English grammar has e.g "Participle Modifiers" or “Gerunds” or “Adverbial modifiers”. I mean, when I hear the term “Participle Modifiers", I experience severe mental pain, it causes me to get depressed and makes me want to eat an ice-cream to improve my mood. But hats off to E-GMAT because for the first time in my life I’ve come to like grammar and admire its beauty. E-GMAT teaches SC by avoiding these horrible sounding jargons and follows a very logical approach to explain each concept. And since it is logical, it's easy to remember, absorb and finally apply on the questions.

E-GMAT Critical Reasoning:
Some facts:
Attempt 1: CR % (based on my ESR) => 28%
Attempt 2: CR % (based on my ESR) => 28%
Attempt 3: CR % (based on my ESR) => 97% (I knew it, i wasn’t dumb!)

After my 2nd Attempt, I sent a desperation email to folks in E-Gmat’s support team telling them I follow their so-called “Pre-thinking approach” but it really isn’t taking me anywhere. They soon replied to understand how I did pre-thinking and then the problem was identified. I was spending about 50 seconds reading the argument, 10-15 seconds pre-thinking and then over 45 seconds on the answer choices. This was WRONG. They asked me to go for a 30-55-35 split, in which I was spending about 55-60 seconds pre-thinking. I immediately tried it and it worked well. I also got creative, tried to visualize the problem in a 3D manner (think of Iron Man, the 3D models floating in air, him using his hands to move models etc). The results are here, a 97% tile on CR. Thanks DJ & Archit for the guidance.


E-GMAT RC:
I had received really shitty RC advice from my previous GMAT test prep company. They had asked me to read the 1st line of each para, skip everything in between and then directly read the last line of each para and repeat this for every para. And then I was supposed to magically understand the main idea by combining these statements together and also only refer to the first and last line of each para to get a complete gist of each para. What a mess and what a waste of time, I can’t believe I did this for several months only to get confused and come to hate RC. So what worked for me in RC was E-GMAT’s webinar in which a guy called Rajat gave simple advice: read each and every sentence, not skip a single word. And also, E-GMAT’s timing strategy helped a lot as well, in which they told how many minutes to spend reading the passage, how many mins to spend per question etc. E-GMAT’s para summary idea is also good and I modified it a bit (See below)

HELPFUL TIP:
Make all these summaries in your mind and make them fast. Don’t spend 10-15 seconds thinking of a summary, another 5-10 seconds writing it down. Spend about 2-5 seconds thinking of a summary, if you feel a summary is hard to make in 2-5 seconds JUST MOVE ON!
Also, remember you don’t need to get all 4 out of 4 or 3 out of 3 right. So, sometimes when you don’t understand something in a particular para, try re-reading it if you think its important. If you still can’t understand, JUST MOVE ON because maybe if you are lucky you won’t have a single question on that tough part.


Another good part of EGMAT is the schloranium section in which I could easily take quizzes of varying difficulty and combine questions from different sections. The explanations section in Scholaranium is very helpful and the e-gmat team members reply within like a day.

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I started off with the e-gmat course September, did it three months. but then before I could take the exam, went on a holiday for three months, and then restarted my GMAT prep in April.

Overall I definitely recommend the e-gmat course. 5/5. Why?

- Value for Money
- Tested strategies
- Helping the mainstream population which is non-native English speakers
- lot of free sessions, which is really great. My favourite ones have been by Harsha for RC, Ameya for Math and generally watching Rajat get so excited about comments during the sessions. Shreya's were pretty great also!
- one more thing is that they seem to be developing their products
- amazing replies over email and guidance - big shout out to mr Dhananjaya.

Even if you are a math wizz, its totally worth to take their math session and their quant workshop. you definitely learn alot.

The 2 reasons to take e-gmat are:

1. Verbal sections
2. Amazing feedback and fast responses via email.

Things i learnt:
RC Reading Strategies
SC Based Approached
CR Pre thinking

Math in general - formulas which we tend to ignore, and how to process things.

They also have a ton of videos of success stories which are then also transcribed, so it becomes so much easier to to follow and relate to other gmat-takers.

They also help with personalized videos and hyper plans specifically - this is where Mr Dhananjaya was a huge rockstar, pointing out issues and things i wasn't looking at. If you use their platform well, you'll sure get data to see what things aren't working for you. DJ also had a short call with me to go over my ESR and plan my study. In fact honestly, e-gmat goes beyond than what you sign up for.

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