Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. GMAT 760 scorer Mariam needed extensive study in both the GMAT sections, quant and verbal when she took the e-GMAT subscription on a friend’s recommendation. The discipline and diligence she exhibited during her GMAT preparation journey reflect her near-perfect verbal and quant scores, V45 and Q49, respectively. Mariam had studied maths in the Georgian language. She needed to re-learn the mathematical terminologies in English while building her abilities to solve GMAT-level quant problems efficiently.
Mariam diligently went through the entire SC course as it was the hardest sub-section for her. She mastered pre-thinking and various new verbal methods to improve her score from V31 to V45. Mariam utilized the e-GMAT course structure and learning strategies in an optimum and efficient manner. This helped her ace the GMAT with an incredible 99th percentile. Watch her inspiring success story as she shares her simple yet effective secrets to success.
Payal: Congratulations on your great GMAT 760(Q49, V45). How does it feel?
Mariam: I must thank you for it. It feels good to know that the hard work I put into studying has gotten me good results.
Other GMAT prep course options vs e-GMAT
Payal: How did you hear about e-GMAT?
Mariam: I heard about it from a friend’s friend who got into one of the top universities after preparing for the e-GMAT. After researching it, I took the free trial and felt it’d work for me. I found the lessons useful and learning methods similar to how I like to study.
Payal: What other kinds of sources were you were you thinking of before finalizing with e-GMAT?
Mariam: I considered self-study using books, GMAT club, Manhattan prep, and private tutoring but e-GMAT was most suited to how I studied and learned new skills. Plus, it was cost-efficient as well. It was not overly expensive.
Non-Native’s struggle with quant
Payal: I can see that you prepared both for verbal and quant. How did you utilize the platform for quant prep?
Mariam: In quant, I needed refreshment of mathematics knowledge, as I had not studied it since school. Also, I studied mathematics in the Georgian language; I didn’t know all the terminologies in English, for example, equilateral, etc. The formulas were all the same, but the terminologies were different, so I needed translation.
I needed a refreshment of the mathematics I learned in school, plus learning terminology and learning how to solve GMAT-level questions.
I started with Number Properties. It’s the trickiest part of GMAT quant because these questions are not so easy to answer even if you know all the concepts.
Read this article to get tips for scoring a Q50+ in the GMAT quant section and what does a perfect quant score represent.
e-GMAT was very helpful in helping me master Number Properties questions. I could refresh my knowledge of algebra geometry and advanced topics such as probability and sets. And I learned how to solve GMAT-type questions very quickly.
Test Efficiency was the one thing I learned with e-GMAT that helped me the most, because you don’t actually need to solve everything, and you cannot solve every question entirely on the test. It’ll require a lot of time. You can understand whether the information is sufficient from some data and analysis instead of wasting time by solving the entire question.
Test Efficiency was the one thing I learned with e-GMAT that helped me the most because you don’t actually need to solve everything, and you cannot solve every question entirely on the test. It’ll require a lot of time.
Payal: I am glad you could grasp Test Efficiency from the course because that is the very intent of the course. You shouldn’t really have to go into calculations if they are not required.
Mariam: By the end, I’d look at the question, and in about a minute and a half, I’d have the answers. So, I was really happy with my quant improvement. I used Scholaranium for cementing quizzes.
Payal: I can see you had excellent accuracy for Hard-level questions in all the topics. You followed the correct process. Did you also do a strategic review?
Mariam: I did not maintain the Error log and realized my mistake later. But I did a strategic review. The cementing quizzes were great. Especially for Number Properties which I did in January and then did the rest of my GMAT preparation in May. It helped me recall what I’d learned earlier because you can apply the knowledge you’ve acquired while attempting these quizzes. It helped me gain confidence in the topics.
The cementing quizzes were great. Especially for Number Properties which I did in January and then did the rest of my GMAT preparation in May. It helped me recall what I’d learned earlier because you can apply the knowledge you’ve acquired while attempting these quizzes.
Payal: You did the course thoroughly and didn’t leave anything for the PACE engine. Many people would utilize it to save prep time, but despite scoring well, you went through everything. Your diligence shows up in your practice quiz results; you’ve scored 100% on the first attempt. These results show that you did the course in such a suitable manner that you could breeze through the cementing stage.
Is there anything else about quant that you would want to add?
Mariam: I think there are some easy ways to solve mathematical problems that I didn’t study at school, such as calculating the percentage of a number without doing the calculations. I went through them a day before the exam.
Payal: If there were one thing you would like to recommend to students regarding their quat preparation, what would that be?
Mariam: I think it’s best to start with concepts. Refreshing the concepts that you learned at school come in handy while solving questions.
Because when you see the questions, you automatically realize the direction you should go in and the path to solving them. Don’t skip concepts, and don’t jump directly to solving questions.
I think it’s best to start with concepts. Refreshing the concepts that you learned at school come in handy while solving questions. Because when you see the questions, you automatically realize the direction you should go in and the path to solving them. Don’t skip concepts, and don’t jump directly to solving questions.
Verbal prep with e-GMAT
Payal: Let’s talk about verbal prep now. Where is it that you needed help in verbal? You scored a V45; where did you start?
Mariam: I did one of the mocks for verbal on GMAT Club and scored a V31. And at that stage, I had just refreshed my grammar, but the grammar is too vast. For GMAT, you only need to know certain specific things that generally grammar books don’t usually focus on.
Payal: What made the difference in your verbal prep?
Mariam: That was actually Sentence Correction. After scoring V31, I started studying SC with e-GMAT using the course content and all the tests. That’s what helped me raise my scores. I went through some topics twice, for example, modifiers in SC.
Payal: I see you went through the Sentence Correction course in great detail. Whenever I see higher scores in verbal practice quizzes, I know the student has learned the concepts very well before proceeding to the quizzes. Is anything specific in Sentence Correction helped you apart from the concepts?
Mariam: I think this course just focuses on several key areas in the manner it is tested frequently on GMAT; It doesn’t focus on everything. It doesn’t make you learn 200 words and their different forms. For example, learning how to do parallelism questions correctly was very useful.
Payal: It gave you confidence that you could handle these questions, which is evident in your result and scores in the cementing quizzes. How was RC for you?
Mariam: In RC, I did some concepts and application files and realized I was good at it.
Pre-thinking to ace Critical Reasoning
Payal: I see that you went through the inference module at length in CR. Tell me about your preparation for Critical Reasoning.
Mariam: Inference was the most challenging topic for me. Even on the last day, while revising the inference, I didn’t remember some things. But after that assumption was not that hard. And after you learn how assumption questions work and pre-think, it becomes much easier. Pre-think was the key that helped me with CR.
Payal: How did pre-think change your approach toward CR questions?
Mariam: Before pre-thinking, I’d read the questions and mark the answer basis what felt right. Sometimes, in some questions, more than one answer seemed correct, and I’d not know which direction the answer should go. I did not have any logical way to ascertain the answer.
Before pre-thinking, I’d read the questions and mark the answer basis what felt right. Sometimes, in some questions, more than one answer seemed correct, and I’d not know which direction the answer should go. I did not have any logical way to ascertain the answer.
Payal: You mentioned an important thing here; when you didn’t pre-think earlier, you wouldn’t know which direction the answer choice should go in.
Students often feel that they must arrive at the exact pre-thinking in your analysis that is utilized in the correct answer choice. But you summarize it very well. Pre-thinking helps you find the direction the correct answer should go when there could be multiple directions to consider.
Tips from V45 scorer
What would you recommend to GMAT aspirants for their verbal preparations?
Mariam: That would be to learn pre-thinking and practice it with several questions. Only after you have mastered pre-thinking must you focus on tests.
Sentence Correction is not the easy part; it’s probably the hardest. Spend enough time practicing the topic until you are comfortable with all types of SC questions.
And it’s essential to focus on the types of questions. What each question requires, once you master the art of understanding the question, then you can easily find the answer.
Also, one must do the boldface separately because it’s very specific.
Read this article to learn strategies on how to score above V40 in GMAT verbal and also get tips from other V40+ scorers.
Mariam’s test readiness
Payal: What told you that you’re comfortable with SC now?
Mariam: After I completed my concepts and quizzes on e-GMAT, I went to write the Official Guide questions in both verbal and quant; I did about 200 questions each for both sections. When I was doing those questions, I realized I was pretty good at it. It automatically also logged the questions I answered wrong, so I could revisit them multiple times until I was finally comfortable with the concepts and application.
Payal: But you did the Official Questions after you went through stage one and stage two of cementing before you didn’t. And I see you didn’t take any of the Sigma X marks on the platform, right?
Mariam: That’s right, I didn’t take mocks at all until the last week. And in the last week, I took the two free official mocks. I did not want to get tired before the exam.
Payal: Perfect, Mariam. I will say one thing, you have handled GMAT prep very logically.
You had that razor-sharp focus on stage one learning, then on cementing, and only then you took full-length mocks. That’s good. If you go through stages one and two very well, you shouldn’t really have to take more than a couple of mocks. That’s exactly what you experienced. The official practice you did increased your confidence level, which helped you in your exam.
So, congratulations once again. The end score is excellent, but I always look forward to the journey that led you to the destination, and your journey is commendable.
Mariam: Thank you. I followed your instructions, and it worked for me.
Payal: Very well, Mariam. Good luck with your life. I know application season is ahead. I wish you all the very best and keep in touch.
