GMAT Club

Dhananjay(DJ) Reviews

Company: e-GMAT


4.9 /5 Average Rating
Based on 42 reviews
January 27, 2022
Thomas6655

Joined: Nov 09, 2021

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
700 Q47 V39 (Online)

680 to 700 in 1 month

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement 20 Points

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

After taking GMAT for the first time in December2022, I was a bit disappointed at not meeting my target score. The first short at GMAT was given after 4 months of preparation. Since my applications deadline was nearing, I had to give the next exam within a month's time. My key concern was that I didn't know where my strengths and weaknesses lie. I was in need of an expert guidance.

I started browsing in internet and found out about E-gmat. I sent and email to them and Manas (an e-gmat mentor) got in touch with me immediately. As instructed by him, I took a mock exam available in the e-gmat course. The diagnosis he gave post my attempt was an eye opener. The main attraction was the analytics. It gave me clear idea on topics I was lagging behind. Then and there I decided to take the E-gmat course

The biggest advantage of E-gmat is that it is really comprehensive. They don't leave you with half hearted answer. There was logic behind every explanation. Even with topics like idioms (Which I had thought clearly favoured the native speakers), there was proper explanation. Each module is followed by quizzes which help you in cementing the topics that you learn

Quant too was pretty comprehensive. One of the main problems I had faced was lack of time for preparation. The PACE application in E-gmat helped me in tackling this issue. With PACE, I was able to skip those modules which i was confident about . This helped in saving a lot of time

The final booster was the Last mile push programme. I was mentored by DJ, who helped me with the guidance on what to do after each step. Thanks to his expert diagnosis, I was able to realize which areas I was lagging behind, which helped in improving my score.

I would suggest E-gmat to anyone who is interested in taking GMAT. With it's comprehensive modules and in depth analytical data, one would be able to do well in the exams hands down

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January 31, 2022
egmat

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for taking the time to write this review amidst your application deadlines. I truly appreciate this gesture 😊 However, your applications will become so much more effective with a 700 score that goes along with them now.

I liked the fact that you mentioned explanations because most students firstly are not diligent to see every explanation and most explanations don’t do justice to questions.

e-GMAT Analytics: https://success.e-gmat.com/Question-Analytics

I am glad you could leverage P.A.C.E. to save time! It has saved more than 2000 hours of student time within a month.

P.A.C.E. time savings: https://success.e-gmat.com/PACE-ALG-Time-Savings

I am glad I could give the “final push” to score a 700 on the GMAT.

All the best!

Regards,
Dhananjay(DJ)

December 21, 2021
BlackWidow28

Joined: Aug 29, 2021

Posts: 1

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
700 Q47 V38 (Online)

Mentorship by DJ

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement N/A

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

After a thorough research and speaking to a lot of friends I decided to go with the E-GMAT course for my GMAT prep. And I was not disappointed.
The two things that stood out for me were the comprehensiveness of the course and the amazing mentorship of DJ (who I can’t thank enough). Though initially was lazy to go through every module and skipped through some, DJ made me realise that there is no substitute for diligence. I would highly recommend spending a little more building the foundation, it goes along way.

The Sentence Correct course is the bible. It comprehensively covers all the concepts. Pre-thinking is not only absolute mantra to crack CR but it also helps in RC. Going through E-GMAT CR Module engrains the pre thinking in a manner that it becomes a second nature.

Sincere thanks to DJ and the E-GMAT team!

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December 29, 2021
egmat

Hi BlackWidow28,

Thank you for posting your review and appreciating our engagement.

I still think you need to verify your 730, but for all purposes when we first spoke about you improving your score from 700 – I know you felt the need to improve your score to a 94th+ percentile given how competitive applications to the top schools were during this year’s application season.

Thus, we set out on a path to improve your Verbal score whilst you continue to work on your applications. I really appreciate the fact that you took my advice because most high scoring students like doing things their own way and by doing so, I think you understood why you falter on certain CR questions and how to build your ability on SC too. This was visible in your scores in the test readiness phase.

Improvement in Test Readiness: https://success.e-gmat.com/Test-Readiness-Scores-BW

I wish you success for your B-School applications and future.

Regards,
Dhananjay(DJ)

November 23, 2021
kaustubh1000

Joined: Jul 06, 2020

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
720 Q49 V38

Breaking the Verbal 30 score plateau

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Improvement 30 Points

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

With scores of 680(V-32) and 690(V-34) in GMAT mostly by self study methods, I was in need for guidance to break the 700 barrier. I came in touch with DJ from E-GMAT team and his first step was analysing my ESR(Enhanced Score Report) of my second attempt. The analysis was clear that I was hovering around 65-70 percent ability in all 3 sections of Verbal and work will have to be done in all the three sections. He shared with me a detailed plan for improvement.

I started with the reading exercises shared by DJ to improve my reading/comprehending skills. Further, Master Comprehension course provided by E-GMAT also helped me in gaining the right strategies to handle Reading Comprehension questions.For Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction the webinars conducted by Rajat,Payal from E-GMAT team are really good and gives you the right approach to kick start your preparation in these sections.

DJ emphasised on Pre Thinking approach for Critical Reasoning and using it definitely helped me in boosting my score. Coming up with your own assumptions before jumping into the answer options definitely helps. For Sentence Correction, the meaning based approach(Intended meaning of the sentence) is the only right way to solve medium and hard questions in the given time frame. With trap answer choices all around this strategy definitely works.

The strategy of cementing your learning through scholaranium is gold standard and it raises your ability considerably in that section. One can take multiple quizzes from scholaranium with more than 600+ verbal questions which are on par with the real GMAT questions. There is a detailed analysis available for each question attempted with most of the tougher questions having a video analysis. Scholaranium tool also has an error log which provides useful information like topic wise ability in each sub-section. Key to getting a good GMAT score is to use scholoranium to its potential.

I was able to get the 30 point improvement(V-34 to V-38) in under a month through the E-GMAT score.I would highly rate the E-GMAT online course for the verbal preparation as it is structured and quite easy to navigate. Further you can easily get in touch with E-GMAT mentors like DJ who are always ready to help.

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October 08, 2021
manangupta8200

Joined: Dec 21, 2020

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
700 Q49 V35 (Online)

Outstanding Mentorship by DJ!

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement N/A

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

I enrolled for the eGMAT course after a lot of research on GMAT club. The course lived up to my expectations. I mainly struggled with verbal and eGMAT was the perfect course for me. Their modules are crafted according to the testing capabilities of the GMAT. The meaning-based approach and pre-thinking were game-changers for SC and CR, respectively. Scholaranium 2.0 is probably the best question bank out there. I gave my first e-SIGMA mock and got a 710. Checking my progress and my score, Dhananjay offered me a place in his mentorship program. The moment I got into the 1v1 mentorship program with DJ, I knew it would be a game-changer for me. A 15-minute call with him was an eye-opener for me. He analysed my mock in a way I could have never imagined. His eye for detail and the xPERT AI system of eGMAT helped me examine my weaknesses. He created a hyper-specific plan to help me improve my score. His custom quizzes allowed me to solve more challenging questions in less time compared to the official exam. I was particularly weak in RC, and he designed a specific plan to address my weakness. CR and SC error log helped me strengthen my concepts. His methodology helped me achieve outstanding scores in my official mock exams. Although my actual score does not indicate the effort we had put in, I believe Dhananjay prepared me well enough to get in the top 2 percentile.

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September 28, 2021
mindhunter75

Joined: Jul 16, 2020

Posts: 30

Kudos: 18

Verified GMAT Classic score:
700 Q49 V35

Journey to the 700 club !

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement 30 Points

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

Hello everyone,

I am Aditya Kumar, Mechanical engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur. I am working in an Oil and Gas Major for the last 4 years and planning to do my MBA in 2022

Although I am writing this review about my journey of GMAT preparation, I haven't reached my destination yet. I am still working to achieve my full potential and hope to get a 730-740 in future.

I started preparing for GMAT in March- April 2021 and was very confident that 2 months of preparation is more than enough to get a 720+ score. Dont know why I was so confident back then, mostly because my friends from college and some colleagues had got 700+ and I thought I am better than them :P. But I didnt know that I had big surprises waiting for me.

For my 1st attempt, I used only the offical resources for practice and Manhattan SC as additional resource for refreshing all grammar concepts. The preparation lacked discipline and structure mainly due to lack of guidance and also the covid situation which was at its peak in 2nd wave at the same time.

Although I had practiced most of the questions of official, I was not feeling confident about my ability. To check my ability and to verify my test preparadeness I bought official mocks and gave all of them. I scored 660 700 710 and 740 respectively, which seemed to suggest that I had the ability and strategy to score a 700+. Therefore after my last mock (740) I booked my test date and was super excited to give the official GMAT exam and complete this part of my MBA application.

Guess what ! I performed poorly and scored a 670 (Q49 V33) Even while giving the exam I could feel that i was not following any process, randomly marking a lot of ques and was not in the righ state of mind.
So after the completion when the screen popped up 670, it was not a surprise, to be honest I was expecting even lesser. I may have got a few guesses right I think.

So the strategy for my next attempt was very clear. First I need to identify my weak areas and then follow a structured approach. Based on the reviews on GMAT Club and some of the debrief videos on YT, I thought e-GMAT could be the right fir for me. So I reached out to e-GMAT and got a meeting with Karan who explained using the analytics of e-GMAT my weak areas, timing of ques, etc based on the mock i gave on eGMAT. To be honest, I was a bit fascinated by the insights that he drew so quickly and efficiently. I had never realised that we need to look at these many parameters to devise an effective exam strategy. I made up my mind to take up the e-GMAT course for 2months and e-GMAT was kind enough to provide a mentor to me to monitor my progress and guide me during the preparation.

So I started working with DJ, my mentor during mid July. The things we identified to work on were :-
1. CR :- I was taking a lot of time in CR and also was not following any process to solve the ques. I did all the concept files followed by the Cementing quizzes where I had to clear a certain threshold of accuracy for going to next step. DJ was very peculiar in asking me to make detailed error log as per e-GMAT strategic review.
2. RC :- Although I had decent accuracy in RC, I still followed the comprehension methods suggested by e-GMAT which helped me improve my comprehension ability. The error log which I made was reviewed by Harsha and he provided a detailed analysis on ways I could do better error logging and also on improving my ability on inference based ques. I feel the insights shared by Harsha were very helpful and really made my RC prep efficient
3. SC :- Although I was confident enough in SC and didnt do the concept files, I still did error logging as per e-GMAT strategic review and was able to narrow down my mistakes.
A big mention to Shraddha for making a video reviewing my SC error log and giving insights that I would never have taken into account.

After around 40-45 days of verbal prep and also doing quant questions (weak topics identified during the discussion with DJ), I felt the need to give a MOCK test to test my ability. So I reached out to DJ and he replied with a strict NO. Although I did not agree with his decision :P, I still followed it since he has been working with a lot of students and definetely knows much more than me about test preparation strategies.

DJ shared a test readiness plan with me, which I feel was the most critical part of the prep. According to the plan, I had to give multiple tests in each subsection - SC, CR and RC get the minimum accuracy, then only move to the sectional test (all 36 questions in 65 minutes). This was a real gamechanger as after going through all the concepts and practice I knew I have the ability to solve, but didnt know the best way of timing myself in each sub section and creating an best working strategy for the verbal section. The custom quizzes in Scholaranium was my ultimate source of practice during this phase.

After going through the test readiness phase, I moved to the sigma X-mock. I found the quants to be a bit tougher than official, but verbal was exactlly to the point. I gave 1 mock in every 3-4 days and analyzed all the questions irrespective of right or wrong in the same error log module that I used during prep. By the end of my prep I scored a 750 in sigma X-mock which fuelled me to book a date for my 2nd attempt.

Although my second attempt did not go as planned and I faltered in areas which had actually become my strength by the end of the prep, I still managed to score a 700 (Q49, V35).

I am analyzing my ESR with DJ now and hopefully will be able to edit this review in future.

Till then cheers and keep preparing !

Thanks
Aditya

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September 27, 2021
Anonymous

Posts: 4

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
710 Q49 V36 (Online)

Third Attempt 710

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement 40 Points

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

First Attempt 670 (Q-50,V-30)
I started of my Prep for GMAT around November 2020. In the initial days of my Prep I used only the GMAT official content and GMATClub for my studies. After giving 2 mocks(640-650) in a span of 1 month, I realized my scores in weren't improving at all I was stuck around V27 and 28 and had some major flaws in my concepts in sentence correction. After talking with few of my peers, I booked a session with Egmat to get a review on my preparation and they made me realize that I do a lot of scope to improve on my verbal skills. They even gave me a peek through the egmat platform. After going through similar calls with different services and some reviews from my peers I decided to go ahead and buy the egmat subscription. In the next month of my Prep using the egmat platform I learnt about the right approach to solve any SC or CR and how to eventually save on time by making this approach a habit. I Gave my first online attempt in the month of Feb and score a 670 (Q-50 and V-30).

After few weeks of introspection, I realized that during my prep I didn't concentrate much on learning from my mistakes. I used to prepare the error logs but never took them seriously or read them properly and in repeated the error. Considering that I Still have time left for my applications and my score can be improved I took on to give my second attempt.

Second Attempt 660(Q-49, V-31)
Before starting any of my prep I first gave the 1 Sigmax mock and scored a 690. This made me realize that Yes I can score good on the GMAT. I just need have some patience and work effectively. Considering my learnings and the type of data analytics provided by scholarenium on egmat. This time I went straight to Egmat for assistance with my Gmat Prep. Seeing my SigmaX mock score and the potential to improve Egmat assisted me a mentor Dhananjay(DJ).Before beginning any of my prep, I connected with DJ and discussed with him what I feel are my weakness , where did I fail in my first attempt. DJ Carefully listened to me and then assured me that we can work together in bits and pieces to overcome my weaknesses. We started of with RC prep. Realizing that Humanities is a major category I faced issues in, DJ advised me to read through articles on Humanities of WSJ , The Washington Post or NYT and draw a summary of those writings in my words. Initially it was too boring to read such lengthy articles and drawing summaries from them. But as I made this my daily habit I could see my RC scores improving and the time taken to solve a RC also decreased . After tackling RC we moved on to CR and SC. DJ helped me design custom quizzes to concentrate specially on my weakness and made me Strategically review each and every quiz even if I got all my questions right. The strategic review process developed by Egmat helped me understand the smallest of the errors I was making like not visualizing the answer choices properly or not creating sentence structures for a SC and helped me avoid repeating those errors. With the help of the scholarenium platform I was able to visualize what Question Type are my weaknesses . After consecutively scoring a 730 and 740 in my sigmax mocks and official mocks, DJ advised me to go ahead and book a Date for my GMAT since I was peaking my performance. I went on and booked a GMAT at Test center for 11th August . I gave my 2nd attempt and scored a 660 (V-31, Q-49). I had gone completely blank during my Verbal section and couldn’t think properly on applying the proper approaches to the question. Seeing the score drop from my first attempt I was completely dejected. I took a break for a day and convinced myself that it was just not my day and I deserve much better scores. I ordered my ESR and had a session DJ to understand what went wrong and how to prepare . He helped analyze my mistakes and gave a short plan on my reattempt.

Third attempt 710 (Q-49, V-36)

This time I decided to my attempt within 2-3 weeks, since I was already doing well and just had few mistakes to work on. I took on solving questions from GMAT Club and writing few mocks and scored an 730 and 720 . After gathering the confidence I went on to book the GMAT for 7th Sept and scored a 710 (Q-49, V-36).


A huge shoutout to DJ and the entire Team at Egmat. DJ, has been like a mentor who motivated me when I was getting anxious before booking on my GMAT dates. After failing on my second attempt I was completely dejected and was in no mood even to order an ESR, But DJ pinned me 2-3 times day via mails that I should at least order ESR and have a look at my mistakes, that’s when I gathered courage to go ahead and take a 3rd attempt. Egmat has been really helpful through-out my Journey and course is really very well designed especially for Verbal. The Scholarenium platform and the Strategic review process have been really helpful in spotting errors perfectly and working on them. GMAT is an exam of Learning from your mistakes so getting your error logs and the Strategic review process right is the key success.

My learnings- Be Patient, Learn from your Mistakes, Do not Rush and Believe in yourself.

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September 24, 2021
Prashant94

Joined: Feb 25, 2020

Posts: 39

Kudos: 19

Verified GMAT Classic score:
710 Q49 V36 (Online)

Very close to private tutoring

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement 30 Points

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

The whole GMAT prep has been a roller coaster ride, and E-GMAT has played an integral role in the journey. I had used the product in the past around Oct'20 but did not leverage their support during that time. The product in itself is a complete package especially scholarinium, which gives you detailed knowledge of your weak areas, timing issues, and performance comparison with other students. It really helped me to self-pace my study. I will not get into how good is their product, because that has been covered my most of other folks in the reviews out there.

I reached out to E-GMAT support in Jun'21 after I score 710 on GMAT, but the score was revoked after my complaint about the issues faced during the online GMAT exam. I was in a hurry so I took another attempt without following the complete instruction sent by the E-GMAT team. I scored 680 this time, and it was in person exam at the center. That was really heartbreaking since I had scored 710 already and knew that I could do better.

This time I got on a call with DJ (GMATNinja of exam strategies). It was a half an hour call, and we went through my 680 ESR. He pointed out timing issues and other weak areas. I will admit that whatever he said was simple advice, but I never really focused on those issues diligently. He prepared a plan based on my weakness, and I religiously followed it. The step-by-step plan made by DJ helped me focus on areas such as RC, geometry and etc. really boosted my confidence. I reattempted the exam and scored 710. Again, a few technical issues which caused a delay of 1.5 hr in the middle of the verbal section and some other technical craps.

One piece of advice for most of the folks is that please utilize the platform as well as their mentorship/support to the greatest extent possible. I felt that the support is really good and prompt and helpful in keeping you on track.

PS: I am planning to reattempt the exam around Dec before second-round deadlines, and I will definitely reach out to the e-gmat team before starting the prep.

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August 31, 2021
710isthenew750

Joined: Jun 06, 2021

Posts: 1

Kudos: 7

Verified GMAT Classic score:
710 Q48 V39

E-GMAT & GMAT CLUB - LOOK NO FURTHER

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement 70 Points

Course e-GMAT Mentorship

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

DISCLAIMER AND VERBIAGE ALERT
1. A score of 710 may not mandate a debrief especially when there is hardly anything new I can add with respect to preparation tips, test taking strategies, motivational words etc. Notwithstanding, I am writing this debrief for two reasons primarily. First, to put on record my gratitude and indebtedness to all those who have knowingly or unknowingly helped me in my short GMAT journey. Second, I ve noticed that there are very few debriefs from people on the wrong side of 30/early 40s presumably because very few are crazy enough to go for an MBA that requires GMAT at this stage of their life and career. But I know that, for reasons of their own, such daredevils, though few and far in between, do exist. Therefore, being someone from such a demographic looking to transition from the armed forces into the civil world, my debrief is primarily aimed at those who might be contemplating GMAT while handling high pressure jobs and weighing the pros and cons of doing an MBA and/or making a career switch in the prime of their lives (20s may seem like the prime of one’s life but believe you me it’s not ;)).

OF NO RELEVANCE TO MAN OR BEAST – STILL ...
2. My first brush with GMAT was about a year ago when intrigued by the time and effort one of my senior was putting into his GMAT preparation, I took the GMAT prep mock just to see what the big deal was. I bombed quant without even getting to attempt 5-6 ques and got 640 with a V39, which I subsequently realized is not bad for someone who had not even heard about SC, CR and RC till before the test. After that, though I enjoyed the experience, promptly forgot all about GMAT till early this year when I started seriously considering hanging up my uniform. Someone who had already treaded the path advised me to get a good GMAT score irrespective of whether I use it or since getting one at short notice if required would be impossible. He also told me that based on past track record, a score in the late 600s would be sufficient for my experience and profile. I took the first advice but chose to ignore the second since I have always been a ‘go big or go home’ sort of guy and I naively assumed that I could easily get at least 730 if I worked on my quant and SC. Only time would prove how wrong I was.

3. Started by attending a few free weekend webinars by various prep companies and the ones by e-gmat really stood out. Liked their free trial and on a whim subscribed for the full course - one of the best decisions of my GMAT journey. It took me some time to build up a tempo and a fixed routine and my earnest preparations started in early Apr. After that I didn’t take a single cheat day till the exam except for a week’s vacation to recharge my batteries 10 days before the exam.

E-GMAT – ALL YOU COULD ASK FOR AND THEN SOME

4. Egmat was everything I could ask for in a course. It is highly customizable based on one’s performance at each level. The various performance parameters and data points ensure that you neither overestimate nor have any self doubts about your abilities. I used to think I was god's gift to grammar and comprehension but e-gmat showed me that I knew squat about SC. But it also told me that RC and CR were more up my alley may be because reading between the lines, critical analysis and paraphrasing came very naturally to me due to what I do professionally. I also realized that I had to first unlearn maths and tackle it from a totally new perspective for Quant. I followed a roughly 70(Quant)/30 (V)% time management split with about 80% of the 30% verbal time for SC. It's therefore ironic that CR and to some extent RC, which I considered my trump cards, let me down in the actual exam. More on that later.

5. I also happened to be lucky that Quant 2.0 was launched round about the time my preparations were peaking and it really helped me shift gears. The detailed explanations and entire format of pedagogy was something I had never seen before and were simply mind blowing. Scholaranium 2.0 was another revelation. Just when you think you are through and almost ready for GMAT, it delivers a sucker punch and literally knocks you out. Only option is to dust yourself, keep your bruised ego aside and keep learning. The deep dive analysis of each aspect is simply amazing and to be frank mind boggling at first. That’s when I happened to be approached by e-gmat for their last mile program by Dhananjay, DJ. He helped me make sense of the various data points and was the ideal pace setter, never letting me relax but also never letting me get totally out of breath. His customized plans for taking tests on the scholaranium, analysing the data and time management techniques helped me a lot. Thanks DJ for everything and so sorry that I couldn’t live upto your (and my) expectations. Special shout out to the resident verbal and quant experts Shradha, Shwetha and Atreya who are amazing amazing teachers from whom I learnt a lot courtesy their webinars. Only wish each webinar covered different questions.

6. My advice to all present and future e-gmat students would be to trust the process and not try and short circuit or game the system. Payal, Rajat and the other architects of e-gmat curriculum are visionaries and there’s a method to their madness. Average difficulty level of Questions on e-gmat and more so on scholaranium are definitely a notch higher than actual GMAT and sometimes it can be bit demoralizing to not see the expected % accuracy. Also don’t miss the wood for the trees and get too obsessed with the scores on scholaranium or other tests. Remember these are all means to an end that is the final GMAT score. Last but most important advice - keep reaching out to the e-gmat support team. They are a wonderful team. I actually got offered the mentorship opportunity with DJ when I wrote to the team to review my initial scholaranium performance.

GMAT CLUB – THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
7. Where do I even get started about the wonderful GMAT club community? It has truly been a godsend. To the moderators - apologies for being a wallflower and only taking without giving anything back in return. Bunuel, GMAT Ninja, other moderators and regular contributors are doing yeoman service to the GMAT aspirants without expecting much in return. if I were to pick just one thing other than e-gmat that helped me the most in my entire GMAT journey it would the GMAT NINJA lecture series on SC. They were pure gold and I am still in awe of his humility, crystal clear explanations and even his wonderful sense of humor. Other than his surname, which I could never grasp, each and everything he spoke is still imprinted in my mind.

UNSOLICITED ADVICE
8. My advice to GMAT aspirants with professional/personal commitments similar to mine:-

(a) Make a plan and stick to it. Irrespective of how tired one is try and spend 1-2 hrs daily and 4-5 hrs on weekends.

(b) Try not to exceed 3-4 months prep time coz the above pace may not be sustainable due to other commitments which can only be stalled for so long. Further, laws of diminishing returns might start kicking in.

(c) Get your family on board. Like mine, your spouse also may be working with his/her own professional and personal commitments. So, like most things in a married life, it would be impossible to embark on this journey without your partner's support. No more kid’s tennis/soccer classes during weekend, Saturday night family board games, grocery shopping or whatever it is that keeps the family ecosystem in balance. Make kids, if big enough, a part of the process. My 10 yr old son used to watch GMAT Ninja videos with me and the younger 7 yr old was my water boy, errand runner and biggest cheer leader.

(d) Announce your plan to people who matter at work . keep your boss informed. Even more important take your team and subordinates in confidence. They will have to deal with the extra delegation.

(e) Be innovative and jugadu. I can’t access internet or smart phone at work. So used to do OG ques or take printouts of 3-4 good questions and analyse them threadbare whenever I got time in office. I started using metro instead of driving to utilise the travel time effectively. But that experiment ended before it could take off due to COVID.

(f) Be ready to press the pause button on your interests/hobbies. Forget your golf, regular runs, gym visits, book readings, Netflix, and similar me time stress busters for at least the last two months of prep.

(g) By hook or by crook manage atleast 2 weeks off from work just before the exam. If one does not have the luxury of WFH or accessing internet at work this is indispensable.

(h) Ride the wave, there will be stages within the preparation cycle when your performance will rise and dip. Identify when you are peaking and take the test then. More prep time need not always translate to better score.

(i) Internalize and verbalize your envisaged score. Be ambitious but realistic. Best way to keep yourself reminded of the same is to tell it to your kid(s). But if your kids are anything like mine do have an explanation ready if you can’t reach your target ‘coz they sure will want one. The usual shoot for the starts to land on the moon BS won’t work and may come back to bite you. I started with a 730 target, revised it upwards to 750 based on mocks and data inputs from e-gmat/DJ. The fact that the final score was nowhere near it meant either that I was deluded or that I just had a bad day.

(j) Pick one source other than GMAT club to prepare and stick to it but not blindly. There is no one size fits all solution so customise the suggested methods based on your strengths and weaknesses. For instance, common wisdom dictates SC questions in less than 1.30 mins to leave more time for RC . For me I rarely, if ever, took more than 4 minutes for a RC set and never ever felt the need to make notes for RC and CR. The time saved I used for SC.

(k) Don’t be obsessed with +700 questions. I fell into the trap and wasted some time in my prep in the middle. Stick to only your test prep and OG questions specially for verbal. Only exception is LSAT questions for CR, which I now wish I had done more of.

(l) Last 20 days if possible dedicate solely for OG and mocks. Solve OG ques on GMAT club so that one gets and idea of timing, difficulty level and of course the threadbare analysis of each ques.

TEST EXPERIENCE – IF EVERYTHING SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE , IT PROBABLY IS

9. I had initially registered for online GMAT in end Jul which ran into all sorts of trouble due to technical issues and also ended up messing up my laptop settings ( has to be a separate debrief in itself). So I booked the retest at test centre on 18 Aug ( 0800 AM) which was the earliest available date. Went for a week’s road trip with family after that and once back didn’t want to tackle anything new. So just revised my error logs and redid some OG questions. With one week left and nothing much left to do, bought the GMAT prep tests 3-6. Did one test every day and with scores of 750, 770, 770, 730, 760 ( 2 to 6), coupled with the 720 and 750 from e-gmat sigma mocks, I thought I was peaking at the right time.

10. Test day ( Pearson, Noida) couldn’t have gone any better. Just 5 mins drive from my home, excellent facility, professional staff just about everything went without a hitch. Since my brain takes some time to start ticking and since mental fatigue has never been an issue AWA, IR, Quant, Verbal sequence works best for me. AWA felt good even though I never attempted AWA even in mocks and it was only the second AWA pssage I had ever written. IR was much tougher than any of the mocks, which was good in a way since it helped me focus better in quant for which I didn’t take the break. Felt really good through out the Quant, managed to keep pace (using the Manhattan yellow pad technique) and though I encountered some lengthy and tricky ques in coord geometry and algebra during the latter stages, didn’t have to skip or guess a single question. I thought I had managed to see most of the traps in DS. All in all this was the most comfortable and confident I ever felt. Up beat, took a small break and started verbal. It also went along the same lines as Quant. RC passages were a breeze as usual and though one can never be 100% sure about SC, I felt confident about most of my choices since I could eliminate four choices on solid grounds and then select the remaining one (hat tip to GMAT Ninja) . I was not confident about only one CR quant based double negation quest where I was stuck with two choices.

11. All in all, I was super confident and thought the test had gone as good as, if not better than my GMAT prep mocks. So I was totally shocked when the screen flashed 710 (Q48, V39)) . For a moment I did consider rejecting the score but then better sense prevailed since it really doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of things and based on my profile and experience, this should be enough even if I decide to apply somewhere. But my delusions of grandeur about my GMAT abilities have been shattered to smithereens

ESR HELP - LAYING THE GMAT GHOSTS TO REST

12. Once back, I mentally revisited most of the questions I could recall to visualise what could have gone wrong but I really couldn’t pinpoint anything other than the one CR ques. So hoping to solve mystery got the ESR though I ve absolutely no intention of taking the test ever again. The ESR ( attached for reference) shows about 5 ques wrong in Quant (mostly DS with 1,1,1,2 wrong in each quarter I guess) so must be some silly mistakes and/or GMAT DS traps which I failed to notice and I can reconcile with that. But, I also seem to have got about 6 ques wrong in Verbal (1,2,1,2 split) . I have absolutely no clue which the 5/6 ques other than the aforementioned CR are. If they were SC I could still have understood but %ile shows most are CR and one/two RC. Also based on what little I ve seen in other ESRs I thought my splits would translate into a slightly higher score than 710. Though DJ has been kind enough to analyse and make some sense of it I would be grateful if any of the other specialists here can throw some light on my score vis-à-vis ESR only so that I can get some closure.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS NOT SO WELL

13. To summarise, the short GMAT journey was exhilarating though the actual destination left a lot to be desired. I did get involved much more deeply than I initially thought I would and even if plain statistics reveal that I wasted my time without much improvement, ( V 39 baseline and V39 final), I would like to believe that I learnt a lot from the experience and any other day the score could have been different. Anyways in the end GMAT did get the better of me and though DJ has been asking me to retake the test I think its time for me to burn my bridges. Thanks for the ride everyone and may each and every member of this wonderful GMAT club community encounter fair winds and following seas in all his/her personal and professional future endeavors.

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August 09, 2021
Nmba2021

Joined: Jun 14, 2019

Posts: 155

Kudos: 24

Self-reported Score:
710 Q49 V39

Good & Sustained Mentorship

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by post count [?]

Improvement N/A

Course e-GMAT Online 360

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

I joined E-gmat with the pursuit of improving my verbal score. I reached out to DJ when I was unable to cross the 710 marks. He was not only extremely patient, responding to all my emails but also put together a structure that helped me improve.

Though, my overall GMAT score did not improve. I ended up getting a V-39 on my attempt that definitely highlights my improved comprehension.

I also really wish I had reached out sooner to DJ - he made my life structure by putting together a plan and walking me through each step. Furthermore, he even helped me squeeze in prep just before my exam (not a usual practice) for me but I just needed a confidence boost.

The course structure is very straightforward and breaks down through concepts in easy-to-understand videos and slides. The section modules are studied in a fun way and offer ideas and methods to solve the GMAT questions.

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August 05, 2021
ra42

Joined: Aug 05, 2021

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
720 Q50 V38

Great for Sentence Correction and Quant!

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Improvement N/A

Course e-GMAT Online 360

Instructor Dhananjay(DJ)

Location Online

Great for non-native speakers and people who are not that well versed with the basics of Grammar and lose marks in Sentence Correction.

I enrolled in the e-GMAT Course in the month of February 2021 and the course is pretty intuitive and flows without any disturbance or lag.

I personally liked the Sentence Correction modules. They were very detailed and helped me throughout the course of my preparation and the meaning-based approach e-GMAT uses in solving the SC problems is fantastic. Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension modules can be improved and be more detailed.

I was at a Q49 when I started my preparation so I didn't focus much on the Quant modules but they were pretty good too.

Best part about the e-GMAT course is it's SCHOLARANIUM. The number and quality of questions is just amazing and unbeatable. I would definitely recommend e-GMAT for their scholaranium.

Sigma-X mocks are very accurate and hence provide a real picture of how much you'll score in the actual GMAT exam.

I approached the Strategy team when I was facing a problem with consistently falling scores in the Scholaranium quizzes. The team sent me an invitation for the LMP program and it is indeed the best feature of the course.

My mentor, Dhananjay (DJ) really helped me throughout the process. He provided me with hyper-specific plans, error log review and taught me the importance of strategic review and error log.

He is indeed one of the best mentors at e-GMAT.

In summary, I would highly recommend e-GMAT to all the GMAT aspirants. The course worked well for me and I hope it works well for others.

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