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I enrolled with e-Gmat for their GMAT Online Program a month before my test date. Even though I was scoring 750+ consistently on the Sigma-X and GmatPrep mocks a week before my appointment date, I could only manage a 700 on my first attempt.
I believed that this score wasn't a representation of my true abilities and so I decided to retake the test. Under e-Gmat's retake mentorship program, I got in touch with Dhananjay sir who was prompt in pointing out the fallacies in my exam-taking strategy. Analyzing my performance in e-Gmat's Sigma-X mocks, he pinpointed multiple intricacies that I never could've imagined would impact my score and following his 15-day study plan, I effectively overcame those shortcomings, ultimately scored 70 points higher. As students, our basic tendency is to step up the efforts we put in as the exam date gets closer and I succumbed to this tendency, over-spending myself in the last week. Had DJ sir not guided me against this and countless such blunders, my second attempt would have been the replay of my first one. Following Dj's hyper-specific study plan got me to my target score and a step closer to my dream B-School. I would highly recommend e-Gmat's mentorship program to anyone planning to take the GMAT. The course content is relevant and precise, the question bank (Scholaranium) is laden with analytical tools yielding meaningful insights and the mentors know just the trick to get you to your target score.
During the time I was preparing for the GMAT exam I always wished to have a personal mentor, who could identify my weak areas and provide me with personalized guidance. That wish became a reality when I signed up for e-GMAT's mentorship program under Dhananjay, e-GMAT's Strategy expert.
Right from Day 1 when he analyzed my ESR (from my last attempt) he focused on addressing my weaknesses and pointing them out without any inhibitions. He prepared a day-by-day action plan to work on and improve on my weak areas. Throughout the journey he made sure that I stick to the plan and imbibe all the learnings from the e-GMAT course deeply into my subconscious mind.
This helped me a lot in my final days of the prep when I was refining my test-taking strategies to better my time management skills. Frankly, this was the one area where I had always struggled, and Dhananjay through his plan made sure that I specifically improve upon it.
All of this culminated with a GMAT score of 720, and I would really thank the e-GMAT team for the same.
As an additional help during the process of finalizing my GMAT date, the Support team was also kind to give me a free-extension for a couple of weeks as I was unable to find a suitable date for the exam.
There is my first time reviewing any product/ service, so you can imagine how useful E-gmat has been in my GMAT journey. They're already known for the quality of their study material, but what I'd like to point out is the kind of support extended by the team. My score had plateaued at 690, and hence I decided to approach the team to help me with the way forward.
Dhananjay(DJ) got back and did a through analysis of my ESR, clearly highlighting my weak areas and right mix of questions to practice. Extremely thankful to him for his timely intervention and constant feedback, both of which helped me make that transition from V35 to V41.
After one failed attempt at the GMAT on Feb 26th 2020 in which I scored a 660(Q48 & V32), I decided it was time for me to take some external support. Going with the most popular rated course on the Gmat Club, I got myself enrolled with e-GMAT. Being an engineer and good at math, Quant came naturally to me. Verbal was my weakest area and I needed serious help in it. On knowing that the Verbal Online package didn’t include any mocks, I opted to go for the GMAT Online package, which included Quant and Verbal course, 5 SigmaX mocks and a hoard of other questions for practise on its Scholaranium platform. Looking back it was the best decision I had taken in my prep.
After accessing the course for 2 weeks, I got a phone call from Dhananjay (DJ), who would be my future mentor, asking whether I would be interested in a Mentorship program. I was told that this program would make me a part of a cohort of 15 applicants like me who were also in their preparation phase, that I’d be given daily milestones to meet and that at the end of the week the mentor would have a strategic huddle with the cohort so as to discuss the short comings of the week gone by. I could not find any reason to say no and I immediately hopped on board. What followed was an extremely well planned and guided course of action. As promised we were given our milestones and had weekly huddles in which DJ would boost our Morales, discussing the success stories of various students who had achieved their target scores using the same platform. The mentorship program made me feel accountable for my performance and made me realize the mistakes I had made during my first attempt. The e-GMAT mocks are a good representative of the actual GMAT and the Scholaranium questions also comprise of a good mix. In short, once I had the access to the e-GMAT platform, I never felt the need for more. I would highly recommend anyone, who is especially facing any issue with the Verbal section, to get enrolled in the mentorship program and be truthful to it.
To be honest for any program to work, we ourselves play a very critical role. Unless we are extremely critical of and truthful with ourselves, no study material can help us reach the target score. Likewise, e-GMAT also mentions so in a very clear way. For e.g. the mentorship program would not have worked if I wasn’t honest to DJ about meeting my milestones or if I didn’t tell him the actual issues I was facing, I wouldn’t get the advice I expected. It is a two way street. Here, I’d like to appreciate the role DJ has played with all my sincerity. He was always there when I scored badly on my mocks to lift my morale, to help me with any specific issue and at the same time he showed me the mirror when I was going wrong and when it was time to pull up my socks. I ended up getting a 750 on my third attempt. Not only my verbal score improved from a V32 to a V41, but my Quant score also improved from a Q48 to a Q50. Although, I did not use the e-GMAT Quant course but I sure did practise the sums on its Scholaranium platform, which helped me a lot.
On a parting note I’d like to mention two takeaways one from each of the founders of e-GMAT.
Once while attending a webinar Rajat mentioned there are two types of students who access the same material, one achieves his target score while the other one fails to achieve it. He asks us the reason why? Both the students had access to the same material, so ideally both of them should have succeeded. So what was that differentiating factor?
On similar lines, at the beginning of the e-GMAT course, Payal, in one of her videos about the various stages of learning, talks about the importance of being self-critical. She puts forth a very interesting strategy that helped me particularly during my prep. It was asking the question WHY? If you get a SC question right, figure out why did you get it right? Similarly, if you get a SC question wrong, figure out the reason? What made you select the wrong choice and eliminate the right one? I think this level of self-criticality is expected out of every one of us taking a dig at GMAT.
Lastly, I’d like to say always look at the big picture. Do not lose sight of it. GMAT is not the end of the world.
I already had attempted GMAT in 2019 and had scored a 650 (Q49,V29). I was working Schlumberger Asia Srvices Ltd. as a field engineer and decided to go for MBA in 2019. I was disappointed with my score, but understood that GMAT preparation would require some time and dedication. So I quit Schlumberger and started preparing for GMAT in January'20. I was running short of time because I wanted to apply to schools in R1 in 2020. So this gave me 6 months to prepare. Initially I didn't take it seriously and thought that it's just another Post Grad exam. I had subscribed to E-GMAT comprehensive course. At the end of March'20, it was clear to me that GMAT is not just another post Grad Exam, and that it required time to score good.
After I finished my course content on E-GMAT portal, I was hoping to have improve my score from 650-700 at least (A very poor assumption). On my first Sigma-X mocks (E-GMAT Mocks), I scored a 610 and was devastated. But the next day, I received an email from Dhananjay Lowe (DJ) asking if I wanted to enroll to E-GMAT Mentorship Program. I was offered it for free as iE-GMAT was running a pilot for the program. I accepted and enrolled to the mentorship program. That's where things changed.
After my discussion with DJ, he gave me milestones to cover every week in terms of my preparation and based on my performance in the milestones, the milestones were prepared. It was customised for everyone in the mentorship cohort.
I achieved every milestone because I actually saw improvement in my scores and understanding of the GMAT. As days passed by, my scores improved. But the improvement in scores was minimal to begin with and I grew impatient with GMAT Preparation. But the weekly discussions with DJ really calmed me down. And by the mid of May'20, I had crossed the 700 mark. I was targeting a 750-760 (I still am), and so I continued my preparation with full belief in the mentorship program. I started scoring a 750-760 in official mocks and Sigma-X Mocks. So I booked a date for GMAT on 11th of July'20. I was really confident but had ignored the little details which caused my score to dip. I became a little complacent towards the exam. There were 2 major mistakes I made. I forgot my passport at home and I never realised the order of the sections until the exam day. But those were minor hiccups and cannot be used as an excuse to justify my score of 710 (Q51,V34). There were several things which I realised after the exam as I had gone through a lot of materials online apart from E-GMAT courses and tests. No one can help you to score good except for you. Other programs and courses can help you to cross a certain threshold but at the end of the day, GMAT is a very logical and structured exam and it requires proper understanding of things. There are no definite rules to most of the verbal questions and the section is rightly named Verbal Reasoning. I realised that there is a limit to which anybody could have helped me in my preparation and that the rest was up to me. But E-GMAT Mentorship Program really helped me to cross that threshold. During the program, I improved massively on CR and SC. I am going to go for another attempt in a month or so to improve my score from a 710 to a 750-760.
Suggestion: Don't rush in your preparation. GMAT needs time.
I was introduced to DJ 3-4 months before I gave my GMAT. He has constantly supported, motivated, and guided me through this journey.
DJ helped me pinpoint my weaker areas, formulate strategies to overcome the same and face my fears head-on(quant lol)
Thanks to the plans set by DJ, I gave ample mocks and quizzes to feel confident on my test day. There were strict timelines set by him and he motivated us to follow through.
Even though in my first attempt I have scored a 690, I am confident with DJs help I would be able to improve on this further.
With DJ and my cohorts support, I felt not so alone on this journey. Kudos to egmat for this initiative and to DJ for being a great mentor!
I started using the E-Gmat online course and realized that with the video content, I need some guidance to proceed on this journey. To my benefit, Egmat reached out to us for the mentorship program looking at the account history and that I have always reached out to the support team for help.
It was one of the best decisions to enroll with E-gmat for the mentorship program as while preparing, you constantly need to know whether the efforts you are putting are going in the right direction or not and the next step from there on. The mentorship program has been highly beneficial for me because of various reasons. Firstly, every week there is a day wise milestone plan made with your mentor basis your current performance and your goal. Having daily milestones is very effective as consistency is the biggest key while preparing for the Gmat exam.
Next, constant feedback is given on every quiz and every test taken. The biggest benefit for me was Dhananjay helping me out analyze my mock tests and point out error on timing, accuracy and sub sections, post analysis of performance of the previous week, the next week plan was chalked out.
Interactions with the cohort and peer learning has been another benefit. With the conducive environment created by Dhananjay, we were all able to share our experiences and help each other out. We also used to have weekly training sessions on different topics to solve common problems such as managing time, mental health, consistency etc.
Finally, Dhananjay was available to guide me all the time. I could reach out to him anytime of the day and he would just ask me to set up a zoom call and connect! For me, the biggest problem while studying GMAT is stress management. My performance throughout the study was excellent but there was always a problem on the test day due to anxiety issues while giving the test. Dhananjay helped me overcome this by making me give tests in harsh conditions (Lesser time for more difficult questions) so that I practice overcoming the panic situations as well.
On the test day, I could see a huge difference in the way I was handling questions and managing time. The idea to focus on meaning based approach in SC and the pre-thinking on CR really helped me solve the questions. I could see a huge difference in my level of preparation and confidence from the previous exam taken. Only because of getting one complete RC passage incorrect in the end, I could not score well on my Verbal section. Nonetheless, Dhananjay helped me start again by focusing only on the weak areas and improving my score further. I am all set now to appear for another exam very soon.
I started my GMAT journey one year ago - July 2019. I just graduated college. I started off using Manhattan Prep's books. I thought studying 2 hours a day from the book and doing the books’ problems were enough but boy was I wrong. I took my first GMAT around November and at that time was shocked at how poorly I did. I knew I needed a new method. I started to take official prep tests and continued on my self studies. I took the GMAT again in March and was also disappointed. I knew that this time I needed help. I have always independently studied for exams during college and so asking for help took me off guard but it was one of the smartest decisions I made to improve my gmat score.
I started to browse gmat club and looked into more resources. As I was looking through gmat club forums I noticed that egmat provided very clear and useful answers to many of these questions. I also signed up for one of e-gmat’s free weekend webinars. I was impressed with the instructors tips and wanted more! I signed up for their emails and luckily was approached by a tutor via email. We scheduled a time to chat and I instantly knew this was the program for me.
I was asked to take a mock test on their platform and on the 1-1 chat I was given a mock diagnosis. It made me realize that succeeding on the GMAT is more than just understanding the tested concepts. Doing well on the GMAT requires strong "procedural" knowledge. It requires time management, mental stamina, and efficient approaches. I learned that conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge come hand in hand. If you strengthen your conceptual knowledge you are able to make quicker decisions on the GMAT and also strengthen your test taking abilities to complete questions accurately and on time. My biggest weakness on the GMAT was not finishing on time and leaving for example only 5 minutes for 7 questions at the end.
The E-GMAT mentorship program was more than what I could ask for. The mentorship program is organized in a peer group fashion lead by one e-gmat instructor. My instructor was DJ. Once a week DJ and I would chat virtually and discuss what is going well, not going well, and a game plan for that week. Evaluating best next steps, DJ would then send me my milestones for each day of that week. A milestone for example was completing 5-6 sections of the e-gmat course and reaching 80% on the concept questions. These milestones were a game changer. Having a benchmark to measure myself against a) motivated me to complete the necessary daily preparation and b) set me up to challenge myself to higher standards. I also appreciate DJ's patience and encouragement. DJ was always happy to answer my questions and even encouraged me to reach out to him more frequently! He was very responsive and considerate as he would even work later to accommodate our differing time zones. DJ was also very honest with me and I knew he had my best interests in mind. Further, each Sunday the cohort would meet virtually to discuss GMAT strategies. We also had a running whats’app group in which we all would share best practices, questions and solutions. I built relationships with a few of my peers, helping one another with our weak spots.
Overall, the e-gmat mentorship allowed me to effectively tackle the gmat. E-gmat provided me with the peer support to motivate me to stay in the game and the resources to build a strong time management approach and stamina to leverage my conceptually knowledge to do well on the gmat.
The Mentorship program allowed me to be consistent in my preparation. The GMAT tests on a wide variety of subjects and one can get scattered in their preparation. In fact, I had a GMAT version of FOMO while studying: I would be working on geometry and then think that I need to be working on SC only to open CR guide… it has been helpful to have a trustworthy mentor 1-with good grasp of the content, 2-who can analyze my scores and 3- then suggest a study plan accordingly.
Furthermore, the weekly plans DEFINITELY improved my consistency giving me a checklist to challenge every week, even when it didn’t seem I could pull it off. I did not have to dedicate little time that I had on strategizing my preparation; I would just have to look at my daily tasks and start working. This allowed me to make the most of the e-GMAT resources within the timespan I had to prepare.
The mentorship program also entailed Strategy Huddles (zoom meetings) with themes spanning from motivation, success stories, mental health, work organization, study tips... and we had a Whatsapp group to stay in touch with the cohort, share questions, discuss solutions and encourage & congratulate each other. The community feeling definitely helped.
Finally, my mentor arranged a call the day before the exam for the last min prep, motivation and test-taking strategies.
For all the reasons above, and if you want to make sure you cover all the aspects of GMAT prep, I highly recommend the e-GMAT course & mentorship program.
I was not very structured in the early days of my preparation. The mentorship program ensured that I am sticking to a schedule and the preparation is done in a more organized way. The schedule and milestones were tailormade to my preparation style and customized basis my work requirements. This ensured that I’m completing all milestones every week.
DJ has been a lot of help throughout the period not only guiding on the milestones but also taking a lot of personal interest in ensuring that I am on the right track. He helped me realize some important gaps by analyzing the mocks together and preparing customized quizzes to close specific gaps. He kept me motivated throughout the period and it’s always good to know that there is someone else vested in your preparation as well.
The cohort helped in keeping a level of competition in the preparation and a forum where doubts, information and ideas can be exchanged. This also ensured a level of engagement in the cohort. The weekly sessions helped in getting access to some preparation tactics and addressing GMAT exam related queries.
Overall the mentorship program has been a lot of help in guiding me to my score and would like to thank DJ and the team for the opportunity. I would recommend the program to everyone looking for a structured way of preparation.