770 (99 percentile: quant 50 and verbal 45) in 1st attempt

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Hello!
My course: B.A. (Hons.) Economics, Shri Ram college of Commerce, University of Delhi
I joined Manya-the Princeton Review (Hudson Lane) on 12th December 2015. I was through with my first semester exams and I wanted to make the most of the succeeding semester. After consultation with some of my seniors and relatives, I shortlisted 2 centres for my GMAT coaching. Out of the two, The Princeton Review was the one that agreed to offer a trial class. I considered the offer a sign of confidence that the organisation had in its faculty. After a trial class of Quant I was convinced of the quality of teaching and I joined the centre.

Anas Khan sir taught my batch the quantitative section. Before joining the class I knew that Maths was my strong area. This even reflected in my first diagnostic test score, which was 640 (quant-46 and I don't remember the verbal score). For any student who's strong at a subject, it is natural for him/her to not pay due attention to the things being taught in class. However, as I attempted more questions and appeared for more tests, I realised that being strong at Maths doesn't guarantee a high score in the quant section. I saw that I was taking considerably more time than required to attempt questions. After this initial setback I started paying more attention to the techniques being taught in the class. In the initial days of applying the techniques and writing many things down, one takes even more time than one usually does, and that sometimes leads one to question the utility of the techniques. When I gave my second test, the increased time per question reflected in my score when it dropped to 560. However, the techniques being taught do work, and I say this with utmost confidence. After practicing for a while, my speed improved and so did my quant score. In the mock test that I gave a week before the test my score went up to 740 (quant-49 verbal-42
). My quant score on the actual GMAT was 50.

Anas sir's dedication to his job is evident from the periodic feedbacks that he used to take from me regarding the status of my preparation. He helped me to abandon my previous flawed strategy and adopt a much better one. My learnings from his classes can be summarised as follows:

1) (This one is for the students who've been generally good with mathematics). NEVER LET A QUESTION HIT YOUR EGO. I've experienced that when I couldn't solve a question I would spend a lot of time on it. Any person who follows this strategy is bound to ruin his/her exam. One should always spend a reasonable amount of time on any particular question and if things don't work out, one should move on. At the same time, care must be taken not to keep skipping questions also. Over time, one develops an ability to determine whether a question is solvable in the maximum time that one has allotted for each question. This ability comes only with practice; there's no shortcut or "Jugaad".

2) Be regular. Attempt as many pacing drills from the portal as possible. Attempting the questions under timed conditions prepares one to face the real test with confidence and a clear mind, factors that are undoubtedly the most important in determining one's score.


Sonal ma'am taught the Verbal section to our batch. To be honest, I was scared of this section from the very beginning. I was never an avid reader; consequently, I had an aversion to reading comprehension passages. I had the misconception that only people who like English can crack the verbal section. At that time I couldn't have possibly realised that I was completely wrong. With utmost gratitude, I declare that sonal ma'am paid a crucial role in this process of overcoming my fears. After every test that I would give, she would sit with me and analyse it, helping to identify the areas that needed to be worked upon. Even though she was posted to the South Ex branch of The Princeton Review, she made every effort to stay in touch with me and arranged a class every time she visited the Hudson Lane branch. I think her most significant contribution to my score improvement pertains to Reading Comprehension. Initially, I was apprehensive about the passage mapping strategy, just as any other student is. She was the one who made me realise the importance of passage mapping, which ultimately proved fruitful in the actual exam. I also thank her for the great extra material that she provided; My sentence correction improved mainly because of attempting the entire set of questions that ma'am provided.

Both Anas sir and Sonal ma'am were constantly in touch with me over whatsapp. The only thing I had to do to arrange a doubt session was to message my teachers. I can't possibly thank them enough for imparting all the relevant knowledge and for encouraging and supporting me the entire time. I owe my score to them.