Romit Acharya - 680 (Math-46, verbal-37)
Training
Csquare learnings happens to be my only institute where I got a comprehensive coverage in Verbal. Prior to Csqrl, it was more of self study, various forums/groups on Net. I belong to the majority who believes in having many books and resource material. To begin with, it was fine. "The more you practice, the better" was modified and rephrased to " The more study material the better". So, when I got the study material from Csqrl... I wondered whether some 100-150 odd page material will be sufficient.And it turned out to me more than that. I took web-based classes as Csqrl is not in Delhi.So after my office I used to have a 2 hour class via webex. With all the rules and formulas(csqrl special) and brilliant presentation by Rashida - I could see a big improvement in verbal. The rules related to Tenses, 3-point rule, Its test, S-test and the deadly FIRE. The best thing about these rules are.. they are much clear and adaptable than the explanations of OG.
Prepration
This was the sad part for me. It wasn't the 1st attempt I had this score...it took me a while... with a busy work schedule, at times night shift gave me quite a challenge.
Pre- Csquare learnings
I gave GMAT thrice with a best of 560. My initial scores in verbal were 26-28, with stable 50 in quant. Verbal was a huge let down. During this time I used Manhattan, Princeton, Kaplan and 800 series and not to forget 1000series for SC. It was always a "fix" solution while solving these materials rather than having a proper answer. The illusion of having good preparation came due to solving these materials again and again...which made me think that I'm good to go for real exam.
Post- Csquare learnings
It was very hard to believe that the very few pages of booklets along with few photocopy material would be sufficient.But after my 1st class.. I knew it was different study material. I simply completed my assignments in the manner I was asked to... the review sessions helped me a lot to fine tune and adapt to the particular rules Rashida had.I could devote 2-3 hrs on weekdays and 8-9 on weekends for my studies. Took lots of Gmat Prep exams by deleting the logs so that I don't see many repeat questions.I have extensively used OG guides and the Csqrl notes for Verbal.. as I was doing quant on my own... I followed books by Indian authors...on quant analysis.... it was full of shortcuts which I find handy... Though, my final quant doesn't justify my confidence in maths, but I got 4 questions wrong at first place... and from there on it was a catch up. So a 46 is not that bad. A 37 in verbal is a jackpot !!!
Only problem (blessing in disguise rather) with Csqrl is - Not many know about Csqrl. Thanks to my good "google" skills.. and after my 3rd attempt wherein I really wanted help in verbal.. I found Csqrl. I would have saved time had I got to know about it earlier..
