Forum Home > GMAT > Quantitative > Problem Solving (PS)
All Reviews > Archit > Archit Reviews |
Joined: Mar 17, 2020
Posts: 3
Kudos: 27
Verified GMAT Classic score:
760 Q49 V45 (Online)
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
eGMAT’s mentorship programme is, hands down, one of the best products out there. The programme provides you with personalised support from one of eGMAT’s mentors, who will guide you every step of the way to ensure that you keep up with your prep and that you have all it takes to crack the exam.
Let me tell just how this works in real life and how each of the components of the programme translated to my personal case:
• Initial call. I had a call with my Archit Bhargava, my eGMAT mentor, who asked me enough questions to understand how my journey had been until then, what my goals were, and were my strengths and areas for improvement were. It was amazing to see how, by asking the right questions, he could quickly arrive at the key issues that we needed to work on. This call was the base for creating the roadmap we would follow over the following months
• Weekly milestones. Based on our initial call, Archit provided me with an overall roadmap that translated into very concrete, day-specific milestones. What’s great about this milestone-driven plan is that it gives you a very strong sense of direction and accomplishment: you wake up and you know exactly what you need to do, and as you complete the milestones, you get a true sense that you are confidently moving forward. This moves you away from “oh so what should I focus on today? Algebra or Critical Reasoning?” or “I feel I have been studying for long enough now, maybe take a mock?”
• Weekly touch base. Every week, my mentor would reach out to ask the status of my milestones, and we would iterate to adjust the plan for the next week, calibrating for new developments, availability and goals. My particular situation was that work was quite unpredictable at times, so the fact that we iterated and readjusted the plan on a weekly basis was great for me – just what I needed to keep moving at an optimum pace
• Strategy Hurdle sessions. Once every 2-3 weeks, we would do a one-hour session with other members of the programme and our mentor. In those sessions, we would go over issues that go beyond the actual content, but that definitely add up to your overall performance: key pitfalls students find along their GMAT prep journey and how to overcome them, time management during the exam, how to balance between a demanding personal and work life and the need to study consistently, and so on. These sessions were great in that we were presented with real life examples of other people (who I could definitely relate to more than once), and we got the chance to share with others who were going through the same situation as us
• Individual calls. We conducted individual calls with my mentor as we saw fit. In these calls, we discussed the overall status of the prep, any roadblocks I was finding, and potential solutions to overcome them. Whatever the topic of the discussion, the fundamental principle was this: “how do we adjust the plan so that your prep is advancing, effective, and sustainable?”. Basically, we looked for ways to keep moving forward and avoid being stagnated, ensuring that what we did actually allowed me to learn what I needed to learn, and that the pace was sustainable given other areas of my life (for example, work)
Overall, a great opportunity to learn in a truly personalised way. If you are willing to commit to your prep and invest the time it takes to get your target score, this is really good value for money.
Personally, I am sincerely grateful to eGMAT and the mentoring programme – they were a key part of my being able to move from 620 to 760!
My GMAT story started in October 2019 with my initial score 520 (Manhattan tests). Following the advice of my friend, I started my prep using MGMAT books. Though I thoroughly went through almost all the books in the collection, diligently doing all exercises, by the end of March 2020 I could not score above 540. Along the way, I also solved a ton of OG questions, almost exhausting the question bank in OG, OG Verbal and OG Quant.
Definitely, something was drastically wrong in my prep and I needed professional help. After analyzing most popular courses and reading a number of debriefs, I decided to stay with E-Gmat.
My journey with E-Gmat started with construction of a study plan for the entire course based on my initial score. What I liked about E-gmat plan is that every GMAT area needs to be covered in sequence. I clearly missed this point in my previous prep, and in a single day I could study Sentence Correction and Algebra, the approach that was obviously wrong. My pleasant surprises with E-gmat did not end at this point and I was admitted to E-Gmat mentorship program, which is basically study assistance by professional live GMAT instructor. Along with study plan developed by the E-gmat system, my mentor, Archit, every week was developing for me a detailed plan for the coming week, in which he stated what exact areas I needed to study and how many hours. Such a structured approach is very motivational and pushes you to study consistently with no pauses. What is more valuable is that Archit analyzed my progress and pointed when I needed to return back and to learn a concept again. Doing so, he made sure that I did not leave spaces in my conceptual understanding.
As for the E-gmat course itself, it is very self-sufficient so that you don’t need any other books or materials. For every topic, it has brilliant videos, which teach all the concepts needed for GMAT. But the best thing was that after learning a concept, you watch a video showing how this concept is used in the context of GMAT like questions and how to solve these questions with a step-by-step guide. Finally, you are offered a quiz to cement your knowledge and skills. Only upon successful solving the quiz, you are allowed to move further. Thus, bit by bit, the course builds your GMAT abilities. Going along the way, I understood that I had had a lot of flaws in my conceptual knowledge and totally wrong approach in application of those concepts.
My study plan was designed for 3 months, from April to June, and on June 17 I took my first attempt. Even though my official mocks showed the result of 700-710 (my target score), I could score only 630. I believe the test center experience played a major role in spoiling my score, since I was required to wear face mask and gloves, which brought a lot of discomfort and distractions. As for the questions, there were pretty similar to official mock tests and E-gmat tests, with the exception of RC passages, which turned out to be more complicated and were all from Humanities, my weakest area.
Right after the test, Archit analyzed my ESR report and immediately designed new study plan for the next 20 days, till the next attempt. This time the plan set forth the task of solving quizzes containing only hard questions and diligent work with the error log. No new learning was needed.
On July 9, in my second attempt I scored 680. Even though, I did not hit my target, I still possess very good chances for enrolling my dream business school, which now depend on other criteria. All in all, I could achieve 140 points improvement within 3 months from end of March (540 – Manhattan mock) to beginning of July (680 – real test).
I would like to express my gratitude to all who stand behind E-gmat project and sincerely thank my mentor, Archit, who was very attentive to my progress and provided with priceless advices along the way. I want to thank Rajat and Payal for creating it all and designing brilliant classes and materials. May your project flourish so that you continue to change life of many many students, who previously struggled with GMAT!
Best regards,
Alexander
Hey @valentinfs
I cannot thank you enough for your kind words and for being such a wonderful student.
I am glad to know that I could play a small role in your success.
I still remember how hectic your work was. Yet, you completed all the daily milestones assigned to you. You trusted and followed the right structure, and that reflected in your final score.
I wish you all the best for your applications.
Regards,
Archit
Hey, is mentorship program different from the online videos they offer? I just purchased the verbal course and wanted to understand more about this mentorship program
Hi Akshita,
Yes, it is. The online videos are a part of the set of materials eGMAT has to help you prepare for the exam.
The mentorship programme, on the other hand, is an offering to help you structure your prep and guide you throughout the whole process. If you sign un for the mentorship programme, you will of course be using the videos you refer to.
I hope this clarification is useful.
All the best!
Valentin