hi apoorva uh welcome to this uh debriefing session
congratulations on your 7 10. how do you feel
uh i feel great the after crossing the 700 barrier i'm sure and that's pretty commendable as well
with the amount of work you've put in so i think let's talk a little bit about your journey you
know from from where you started to now because you've given the gmat before as well uh take me
through you know what was your last attempt like and and what it's been like since then
so in my last attempt um i scored a 670 with the v32 and a q49 and the first attempt was uh more of
a mechanical based approach where i just focused on shortcuts uh some strategies and uh just the
grammar rules and stuff and i didn't focus much on the comprehension part uh which egmr proposes
and in my second attempt that was the major shift that i did i started focusing on comprehending a
sentence completing a paragraph and then a passage and i think that's the best module i've come
across which is a master comprehension module uh that opened my eyes like uh how to actually read
a sentence and then how to comprehend it in the first go uh initially i used to reread a lot uh
and and also i was not very confident of choosing the final answer so when i started focusing
on comprehension which was my second attempts approach which is the comprehension-based approach
i started getting good results in terms of accuracy and also in terms of timing
and i could manage a 7 10 in the second attempt so let's talk about i mean let's talk about the
difference that it does make that's comprehension approach because you're a good you're an avid
reader you read very very fast um so how does reading slowly help solve questions faster yeah
it's actually very paradoxical so in in the first time in the first attempt i used to read very fast
and then i'll be like okay wait let me understand now so again i used to read it again
so um that kind of we invest a lot of time in re-reading the passage and also i used to read the
answer options also because i used to read so fast i never visualized and then again after reading
all the five options i'll be like okay two options are eliminated now the three options then the two
options so the final answer so i used to consume a lot of time and in the second time in the second
attempt i realized that i uh i started reading very slowly like after every sentence i used to
pause i is to visualize it okay what the author is telling i used to make very short notes and
then i used to go to the next sentence and uh like after reading the entire passage i never read that
i directly went to the answer options and even in the answer options i used to pause after
reading every other option so my timing reduced dramatically and also the accuracy improved and
even after i was left with two options i used to reread only the last two options
and i used to mark the option with full confidence so it improved a lot in my timing
after reading slow um so initially i thought reading fast will save me time
but it was consuming a lot of time and i could see a difference by reading slow
got it so a lot of people talk about the sc the cr course but you've done the rc course
you understand the value of that let's talk about a few things that you took away from the rc course
in rc force the taking notes is a very important thing while solving an rc and initially what
i used to do is i used to stop at irregular intervals and i used to uh see okay this is
an important point let me uh jot it down so what what used to happen is i used to lose my focus
my attention was uh you know it was not very proper where i need to stop and take notes
in egmi there's one beautiful strategy that you know you read it until there is an overload of
information and then you note it down so that helped a lot because i used to lose my attention
a lot uh when i used to go back and forth so those seven reading strategies and also the uh
understanding the meaning from the context so all those things uh club together uh helped a lot in
completing the entire passage and also there are a few people who recommend that you know used to
you need to skim the passage and then go back to the passage in the question after reading the
question so i used to do that in my first attempt uh but it it was a really bad thing and if you
remember i was struggling with inference questions yeah and uh skimming will not help in inference
i realize you care even the data inside the parentheses is also important so i couldn't
recognize what important how important it is so in my second item what i used to do is i used to
read the entire passage i completed it very very well and i used to get confident of the passage
and then i used to go to the questions so a lot of times i used to answer the questions without
even referring back to the passage so that also improved my accuracy and timing and only for
uh inference questions which was my week area i used to refer back to the passage and uh
see an exact wordings of the passage and come back so yeah so that makes a lot of sense and i think
uh you did a really good job of being able to fix that towards the end we'll talk about that
a little too uh but um any quick takeaways from the sca and the cr course yeah so in sc um i you
should just follow what egmr proposes because uh that approach i think is the best approach so
there are a lot of grammar rules and um i followed only grammar rules in my first chapter
um but there are certain exceptions and uh in my esr if i analyze uh in my sc my grammar was 80
but the meaning was really uh was 20 or 30 so understanding the meaning is the most important
thing even in essay especially when you go for 700 level questions uh where two three
answer options will be grammatically right but the one that matches the meaning intended meaning is
the most is a correct one so focusing on the meaning was a very key thing that i focused
and uh how to understand the meaning and how to you know understand the modifiers very uh what
exactly it is modifying so grammar rules with the meaning was very important and meaning is
the first priority right so i used to give second priority always so that was a very good thing and
also uh making out the errors initially before going to the options that like pre-thinking it
breathing the errors held a lot in sc and in cr uh the pre-thinking approach was really good
i i read the pa i used to read the passage and i used to make notes and the conclusion
the main focus was on conclusion and i used to pray thing on the conclusion and the line
of reasoning so once i do that rethinking all the answer options i can eliminate it in a in a
you know because uh without breathing i definitely i used to get confused and i have tried both the
approaches without pre-thinking and sleeping so yeah so you know which one was it yeah
yeah got it oh i think this has been super helpful now let's talk about a few more very very specific
things right so let's talk about the the level of support that you got from different people
this is of course before you started engaging with me um what is the importance of having
that kind of support system in place for a student who is doing a self-space course
um yeah so i did reach out to um egmat support team a couple of times during my prep
so initially i didn't focus much because i thought i should uh go for a lot of quizzes and after a
point of time i should reach reach out to them so i always had a one plan which even pile has
made a lot of videos on that like cementing course cementing and then yeah mocks so um and everyone
insisted on completing the course first and then going for the quizzes and so i uh finished off
the course i did some quizzes and then i uh i i got and whenever i used to um uh ask any question
or a query i used to get reply within a date so that helped a lot because it's a very quick reply
helps you you know you are you are in fire when you want to uh fix something and you are out
of touch then it will uh hum for your uh studies for the next day so especially people with job so
getting so so quick reply and also the app the exact process that one needs to follow so okay
support system was very uh uh was very helpful for me uh in in the entire uh duration so yeah
so i think uh the last part of the program is where you kind of got that last smile touch or
the last mile push from me and uh there was a very specific thing i didn't do any there was no rocket
science involved there there was one uh simple hyper-specific plan that i created for you that
listed out what you need to do basis uh all of the wealth of information we get from your data um how
what was this plan let's talk about that a little bit uh how did it help you improve and tell me how
um how you felt when you were just about to give the gmat and you scored like a 640 or 650 in your
mock and didn't know what to do yeah so uh yeah i reached out to you so i saw your video that you
created for me um based on a one mop so that was really amazing i thought okay and you just create
you analyzed it so quickly within five minutes i put uh get the entire picture of that entire walk
so and also i had analyzed it earlier so i knew these are the weekly areas but you told
the exact same things also some things which i didn't know like lack of stamina you are
going your accuracy is dropping at the end it's maybe because lack of stamina
so um i got very impressed about that video and then i am really happy that you uh actually uh
reviewed my mock and gave me some inputs so when i was pouring so uh my exam was on fourth
and uh i started giving a lot of marks so there are certain people who recommend giving lot of
mocks and so i thought okay i need to build the stamina i need to fix the timing strategy
so i started giving moss day after another and then i reached 700 730 in my eg mat initially
but before my exact exam date i was scoring like 6 40 then 6 70 then 600 i was like what's happening
and my exam is in like two days now then uh we rescheduled my exam so the best part is i saw your
interview with or just that 15-day hyper intensive plan that gave me a lot of hope like uh okay
so i even my graph was very similar to that person so i thought okay so giving a lot of mock
actually hinders so it might be different for different people but for me giving a lot of mocks
was hampering my uh my mental state my accuracy everything so i gave official mocks also i gave
egmat marks and i wasted those mocks actually by giving one after the another so that's the worst
thing that i did and then after reaching out to you told don't take mocks just do the quick
custom quizzes that will improve your stamina and i just focus on the quizzes that you uh gave me
and the best part is uh in the quizzes you told me how how many number of questions what accuracy
you need to aim for uh because you you might give that quiz you don't know have you performed well
or not right so once you give the target that 70 accuracy is a good thing so you need to target
70 here 18 rc so likewise it was a great thing to analyze how well i have performed and also
what time you need to give for those many number of questions so i followed that custom quizzes
and you also suggested me to solve od questions uh so i was continuously solving and i exhausted
the entire og in the last 15 days and i just gave quizzes and just one mock was remaining
official mock which i gave two day two three days prior to my exam and i scored a 7 30 in that
so i was like okay fine without giving mocks i'm in a good pace and those custom pieces and
also focusing on the weak areas so even in the custom ones you told just focus on the incorrect
uh the questions and on the unanswered questions so i just focused on those quizzes and yeah it
paid paid no got it so i think you were struggling a little bit with cr also towards the end and
i kept stressing on this one point that please create an error log please create an error log
so how helpful was do we just doing that exercise even if you may not have done it perfectly how
helpful was it for you on the exam so um i had an exhaustive error lock i was creating an error lock
but in the end i didn't know what was happening i was getting very very bad accuracy in cr
like uh my i was struggling with strength and weaken and i was like cr is gone i don't know
what's happening so i reached out to you like two three times only for cr and you gave me wonderful
pointers and one of them was the blog the egment blog that you suggested i read all the articles of
that um even for quant i read quant and then a data sufficiency cr and everything yeah so
those were really good and then i was like okay let me be slow now i will not focus on solving
a lot of questions i took every single question of og i made an exhaustive error log that i saw
a pattern i went through the strategic review of that cr and uh i was very slow at analyzing
i just took very limited questions and i just analyzed it properly and once i did and i i um
noticed a difference when i was uh taking notes properly so my main problem was i was not taking
notes properly so i used to read so initially i thought uh taking notes was hampering me because
i used to lose a focus yeah but so i stopped taking notes but then i again started taking
notes and i understood how much to take notes so there's a minimal level without wasting time
what exactly you need to focus just the conclusion and the eyes so those things helped a lot uh by
analyzing properly and creating an exhaustive error i think that's super helpful and you know
just take that just the right amount of notes because at times people create very exhaustive
notes that takes up too much of time when you don't create notes you can't visualize
so just that right that there's that fine line i think that's beautifully put
um any last takeaways that you would like to share with everybody about your gmat experience so 7 10
um first thing is don't uh like don't take a lot of advices some things might work for you some
may not work for you so the most important thing that you need to focus on is the comprehension
so without the comprehension you cannot go uh like you cannot use the gmat especially
if you're aiming for 700 plus you might go for shortcuts if you want till 7 670 or 680
but comprehension is the key is what i learned and reading slow and like understanding it
properly and then uh creating an exhaustive error lock where you can see the patterns
uh you know where exactly you are weak at and just focusing on your weaker areas will help a lot
and the most like the worst thing that i did in my prayer was exhausting the questions and the
mocks so please don't do that don't exhaust the marks don't exhaust the questions just
do the process and take the optimum level of marks and questions um and that will help a lot because
what i did was and at the end i exhausted all my mocks uh and i scored a 7 30 but i
i knew that i have given this mock earlier so it's an inflated score so i will end up at a 700 or
17. i told this to my parents and i went there and i got a 17. because if you had no if i had
not given that mock earlier i would have seen the real score so exhausting mocking questions is the
worst thing that you can do so don't do that we keep reiterating that everybody but they don't
seem to understand but now that you've said it maybe people will understand though it's a very
heartening thing to see your success story abu i think uh there are a lot of things that you did
at your end also that really worked very well for you um and of course there is the course so
again thank you so much for this interview i really enjoyed talking to you and all the best
for your b-school applications thank you so much for all your support thanks each of us