00:00:00
good evening soat how are you doing yeah
00:00:02
I'm good good evening Natasha so I think
00:00:05
it's been just about two weeks now when
00:00:07
you initially sent that text message
00:00:09
saying that you got a
00:00:10
7:35 and curent you just came out of the
00:00:14
uh Center and you got that score of 735
00:00:17
we looking at the score of 100
00:00:20
percentile uh with Quant about 88
00:00:23
percentile verbal n uh sorry 95th
00:00:27
percentile with 88 on 90 verbal
00:00:30
percentile 90 or 90 uh and data Insight
00:00:34
94th percentile so you also had shared
00:00:37
maybe I could just um yes the overview
00:00:41
right and um this is I think it's an
00:00:44
interesting view for all of us to just
00:00:46
see um you're looking at the Quant two
00:00:50
questions are wrong and when we we speak
00:00:54
and we speak quite a lot if these two
00:00:56
questions were below 14th question no
00:00:58
your percentile would have been very
00:01:00
different right you
00:01:02
got okay you it would have still been
00:01:05
around 98th percentile right the first
00:01:09
it it happened within the first 14
00:01:10
questions this is what s s said um and
00:01:13
then I think uh you had one question
00:01:16
wrong and that was towards 18th question
00:01:19
that had this been in the number four
00:01:21
question so my percentage would have
00:01:23
been down yeah and uh and in data
00:01:27
Insight you had about one to
00:01:31
four and yeah four questions four four
00:01:33
of them wrong again majority of them
00:01:35
were within the top 14 within the first
00:01:37
14 question and that's why the
00:01:39
percentile went down I mean we've I've
00:01:41
spoken to so many student who had five
00:01:43
10 questions Wrong five questions wrong
00:01:46
okay or even verbal for that matter and
00:01:48
still been able to get like 100
00:01:50
percentile that was not 99 percentile so
00:01:54
that was one of the trickiest thing but
00:01:57
um yes so I you then I asked you again
00:02:02
how do you feel about this 100
00:02:03
percentile score I mean yeah initially I
00:02:07
was really happy I was surprised that I
00:02:08
got such a good score because like I
00:02:10
started with con then I gave Di and then
00:02:13
I gave W so like as I was practicing
00:02:15
with Mo I figured that my wble isn't
00:02:17
that good so I was I was um of the
00:02:20
opinion that okay my cont is strong I'll
00:02:22
finish up these two uh um sections first
00:02:26
I'll build some confidence and I'll go
00:02:27
to wble with some good confidence but
00:02:29
while I was giving I figured that okay
00:02:30
there are a couple of questions which
00:02:32
were tricky I was not sure of them so uh
00:02:35
I took the break after uh like just
00:02:37
before verbal and I figured that okay
00:02:39
the first two did not go that great and
00:02:42
uh and I have to kind of be more focus
00:02:44
on verbal and like fortunately for me it
00:02:47
turned out to be good yeah so
00:02:49
immediately after the exam I was very
00:02:51
happy but yeah then after thoughts
00:02:52
settled down it was just like I realized
00:02:54
that this just the first step towards
00:02:56
getting the admit right so still there
00:02:58
there's a path
00:03:01
but we we'll still talk about this
00:03:03
because it's not easy as you say it
00:03:05
we've seen the struggles there have been
00:03:07
times when youve run out of the course
00:03:08
material you needed some more practice
00:03:10
and so many things in between and that
00:03:13
cannot go unnoticed because that is what
00:03:15
you've done to get that score and we'll
00:03:18
probably take about a few minutes to
00:03:19
just go about how did it all uh what all
00:03:22
the things that you did during your
00:03:25
preparation that you know that led you
00:03:28
to the score but before we get into that
00:03:30
could you just talk about yourself um
00:03:32
you know what are you currently doing
00:03:34
and how did this entire idea of the
00:03:37
GMAT that came into place so yeah I
00:03:39
graduated from bits Pani I did my Eng
00:03:42
from bits pan uh I graduated in 2022 and
00:03:45
since then I've been working as a
00:03:47
software engineer in Amazon right right
00:03:49
so it's been around two years here so to
00:03:52
me it kind of felt that just being a
00:03:55
software engineer is not enough for me
00:03:57
like personally okay yeah I mean
00:03:58
technically I'll achieve some press and
00:04:00
all that but I kind of felt that I I
00:04:02
need some more skill set in myself for
00:04:06
my at least to excel in the corporate
00:04:08
ladder right so I felt that NBA is the
00:04:11
right path to go and since I have been
00:04:14
from one of the most prestigious
00:04:15
institutions from the country right it
00:04:17
was for me that okay now that I've kind
00:04:19
of done I've done my undergrad from one
00:04:21
of the best institut from the one check
00:04:23
boox is done now the next yeah so now I
00:04:25
was kind of like okay we'll try for
00:04:27
something which is best in the world so
00:04:29
I think that I mean that was the main
00:04:32
motivation for me and yeah GMAT
00:04:34
obviously has to be the first step for
00:04:35
that right there any inspiration in your
00:04:39
workplace or your peer group
00:04:41
because
00:04:45
WhatsApp nothing in particular as such
00:04:47
for me was just that like personally
00:04:49
I've for me I have not not been like you
00:04:53
somebody has done this I need to follow
00:04:54
this particular path about excelling in
00:04:57
whatever I'm doing and whatever I want
00:04:58
to do right so want to do an MBA B from
00:05:01
the best place in the world you have to
00:05:02
do it from there that's it yeah perfect
00:05:05
um we we we'll obviously talk about it
00:05:07
in a short while where have you applied
00:05:09
and what are your thoughts so now you
00:05:11
found you you decided to go ahead with
00:05:13
gmad and decided with sandep sir H did
00:05:15
you choose the self-based course of the
00:05:17
live online classes yeah so I started
00:05:20
with the live online classes right so
00:05:22
like uh the kind of expectations which I
00:05:26
came up with was that okay how I studyed
00:05:28
during my coaching in and 12th standard
00:05:30
right that you'll be taught some Theory
00:05:32
and then you do some homework and next
00:05:34
day you kind of learn more Theory but
00:05:36
here it was kind of a bit different I
00:05:38
think that's primarily because there are
00:05:40
a variety of people here as well right I
00:05:42
mean from all sort of backgrounds here
00:05:44
so I think the thing was that here we
00:05:46
were mostly solving doubts in the class
00:05:48
sessions right obviously I'm not um I
00:05:51
did attend all the classes I used to
00:05:53
solve all the problems which were given
00:05:55
to me and uh uh yeah so that was I think
00:05:58
pretty much I started with that then
00:06:00
there was some personal emergency in my
00:06:02
family right so I kind of halted for
00:06:05
month month and a half I could much yeah
00:06:08
so then I had to gather up things again
00:06:11
and start again so that was the thing
00:06:13
for me so yeah so yeah I like when I
00:06:16
started with the classes I planned on
00:06:19
giving the GMAT
00:06:21
exam by June by end of June my plan was
00:06:24
to just finish it up by June and I think
00:06:27
starting in February was the idal time
00:06:28
but due to that emercy I kind of overran
00:06:32
by about month month and a half because
00:06:34
of that yeah yeah right so um two things
00:06:38
here obviously you mentioned that uh it
00:06:40
your expectation was to something will
00:06:42
be taught and then go back and do the
00:06:44
homework GMAT was this teaching was
00:06:46
completely flip side you have to do the
00:06:48
homework and then you know you'll be
00:06:50
corrected and then taught all right and
00:06:53
that's the ideal way did you see
00:06:55
yourself because of work or because of
00:06:57
press personal anything that you did
00:07:00
miss out on any of the session or coming
00:07:02
unprepared or you were very diligent
00:07:04
with your work what was it like no no
00:07:06
initially though I was very relaxed to
00:07:08
be honest so I just used to just attend
00:07:10
the classes I hardly studied anything at
00:07:12
all okay okay I just used to come in and
00:07:15
like like Quant and all okay that was
00:07:18
fine that wasn't such a hard thing I
00:07:20
felt personally so that I not study much
00:07:22
Theory but over the time I realized that
00:07:24
verbal was something I needed to work
00:07:26
upon right so that is I think that also
00:07:29
started started putting effort in the
00:07:31
last two two and a half months like
00:07:34
taking out like regularly studying for
00:07:36
two three hours at the very least right
00:07:38
beit anything and putting in more effort
00:07:40
during the weekends so that is how I did
00:07:43
that yeah but during the initial classes
00:07:44
during the week this I did not do
00:07:46
anything at all not much but but over
00:07:49
the course material content or the plan
00:07:52
that sir has or every week that he you
00:07:54
know has a plan um what stood out the
00:07:56
most for you in the learning phase of
00:07:58
your preparation
00:08:01
paent yeah so as I was saying for the
00:08:03
yeah for course wise I think the
00:08:05
material wise material is excellent I
00:08:06
think it is very exhaustive that that
00:08:08
I'm really helpful of so like I want I
00:08:11
was kind of frustated with maths and all
00:08:13
because it's been a while since I not
00:08:14
touched like I do recall like looking at
00:08:16
the question I do recall that yeah there
00:08:18
was a method to do it but I kind of
00:08:20
forgot upon it so I had to brush up
00:08:22
things so since the material is pretty
00:08:24
well organized right it was easy for me
00:08:26
to I I knew that okay this is something
00:08:27
I'm not very confident about and I need
00:08:29
to do more questions of this particular
00:08:31
topic so I just used to go in and just
00:08:33
do random questions of that those topics
00:08:36
right so that I think yeah the
00:08:37
organization of material is amazing even
00:08:38
the on the drives what we have right all
00:08:41
sorts of materials that is amazing that
00:08:43
is too good right so this um this break
00:08:46
that you had was it after the class
00:08:48
after the classes were done no no it was
00:08:51
towards the end of the classes I would
00:08:52
say so this is something again very
00:08:54
because something that you may have not
00:08:56
seen right it's the end a lot of people
00:08:59
people do go through this phase and it's
00:09:01
very hard to come back from that you
00:09:03
know people find it very difficult to
00:09:05
again sit back and get to studying so
00:09:08
how was your coping mechanism overall to
00:09:10
come back again to prepare what was that
00:09:12
driving force self motivation I would
00:09:14
just say yes for me it was I had
00:09:17
personally set a deadline for myself
00:09:18
right and but I had to do wait anything
00:09:22
right because I wanted to apply for
00:09:23
round ones application so I had to be
00:09:26
ready with my GMAT score by July at the
00:09:29
L test right so that for me time was
00:09:32
thinking I had to do it I not have any
00:09:33
option at all so but there are two
00:09:35
personalities that is coming it to up
00:09:37
you were slightly relaxed with the prep
00:09:39
you were very tighten up with your
00:09:41
deadline yes yeah initially I was
00:09:43
relaxed because once I kind of saw the
00:09:46
level of the exam and all those things I
00:09:47
figured that okay I need to kind of
00:09:50
solve a few marks not a few marks but at
00:09:53
least spend a month month and a half on
00:09:54
the solving mocks now I can get it done
00:09:57
right so I since I not anti that
00:09:59
particular emergency because of that
00:10:01
things got shifted then I had to like oh
00:10:03
time is running out now I have to
00:10:04
do it everything so yeah that was the
00:10:07
main something that was demanding from
00:10:09
workspace as well you did you have like
00:10:11
a long no it was pretty much a certain
00:10:15
yeah so for me yeah my work is kind of
00:10:18
on and off kind of a thing right I think
00:10:19
that is at all places it is such that
00:10:22
sometimes you need to put more effort in
00:10:24
work and sometime it is a bit relaxed
00:10:25
right so in that yeah in that sense one
00:10:28
thing was earlier I used to even work on
00:10:30
weekends as well right so now I kind of
00:10:33
uh made that boundary very clear that no
00:10:35
working on weekends weekend has to be
00:10:37
studying no matter just finish
00:10:39
everything by Friday then we'll open the
00:10:40
laptop again on Monday just study that's
00:10:44
all yeah that discipline is very
00:10:46
important I feel right so obviously you
00:10:49
got your score on on August 2nd because
00:10:52
I think we had some more conversation
00:10:54
around the fact that how is your
00:10:55
preparation going and you need it and
00:10:56
you were pretty much I think at the time
00:10:59
you around J July you were pretty much
00:11:02
scaled up to giving your GMAT and you
00:11:04
said that you had scheduled and you did
00:11:06
have a certain one or two question
00:11:07
should you consider doing it at the test
00:11:09
center or at the online uh do you have
00:11:12
any insight to it because I did mention
00:11:14
you know we could go for the test center
00:11:16
did you chosen it any other way no no I
00:11:19
I mean see I asked you where I need to
00:11:22
give it user
00:11:26
test yeah no that has been the thing
00:11:28
with me right so if I have trusted the
00:11:31
uh um the center here at the top 1% you
00:11:36
are saying something I need to follow it
00:11:37
because you guys have been doing it for
00:11:39
a while right you know procedure what is
00:11:41
there right you have said it I just do
00:11:43
that's it because see I'm totally new to
00:11:45
this I don't know what works better what
00:11:47
works what does not work better so it is
00:11:49
a and tested thing from your side so
00:11:51
yeah that's all so looking at those
00:11:53
timeline it's it's so surreal that you
00:11:55
know you gave your first attempt and you
00:11:56
got the score and you told and you were
00:11:58
like I was at a place Cas where you know
00:12:00
the Stanford and then there is soat
00:12:02
score and I was more Overjoyed having
00:12:05
your score right there so um you tell me
00:12:09
about uh what was the sequence of the uh
00:12:12
section that you took you did touch base
00:12:14
in the very beginning but in the exam
00:12:17
yeah so uh I was just I think reading
00:12:19
through a blog or something so somebody
00:12:22
had mentioned briefly that I mean they
00:12:24
at least generally at least that
00:12:26
particular person was giving the
00:12:29
sections first in which they were very
00:12:31
confident right for example I was good
00:12:32
in Quant so I started with Quant and
00:12:35
then after that di because di also is
00:12:37
more or less Quant I feel I mean in a
00:12:38
way right it is math related heavily and
00:12:41
verbal I was not very confident of so
00:12:43
that was the order in which I plan to
00:12:45
give the uh exam I did experiment with
00:12:48
it a little bit during the mocks when I
00:12:50
was giving mocks but this turned out to
00:12:52
be the best strategy for me I feel yeah
00:12:55
just to touch Bas on the mock because
00:12:56
you needed some extra support there how
00:12:58
did you find the p and how did how was
00:13:00
how did it play an important role it's
00:13:03
very helpful uh so uh as before giving
00:13:06
the marks I was just solving questions
00:13:08
and I was my accuracy was good so when I
00:13:10
gave the very first Mark I got a score
00:13:13
of 555 or something like that oh my that
00:13:15
kind of an eye opener for me ke okay
00:13:17
something's wrong with so then I started
00:13:21
giving more marks and I understood that
00:13:23
I had to manage my time better right
00:13:26
that and also I mean since I'm coming
00:13:28
from a j background I had this habit of
00:13:29
you know
00:13:30
going a with the questions doing this
00:13:33
question then we'll do this later and
00:13:34
all those things but G does not allow
00:13:35
you to do that right so you have to do
00:13:37
things in sequence you kind of kind of
00:13:39
have to adapt to that pattern there and
00:13:41
you have to develop your own strategy
00:13:43
that how you need to Target each
00:13:44
question okay if something is taking
00:13:47
more than let's say 2 three minutes and
00:13:49
you are still not sure of it just get
00:13:50
done with it and move on because there
00:13:52
are a lot you just can't waste more time
00:13:54
on one particular question because it'll
00:13:56
mess up others right so you need to kind
00:13:59
of come up with such strategies there so
00:14:02
yeah this was the
00:14:06
thing see the score report now in the
00:14:09
end it's written key five correct to
00:14:13
incorrect I
00:14:16
saw now I'm relating it back because
00:14:19
then we need a little bit more
00:14:21
analysis but now I can I can relate it
00:14:25
overall yes yeah so so was there any
00:14:29
section that seems to be like you T lost
00:14:31
track on time or you lost a lot of time
00:14:34
in any of the section uh during the
00:14:36
exam no not really because see as I said
00:14:40
right when I started with the mock I was
00:14:42
struggling with this a lot right so
00:14:45
towards the as my exam was approaching
00:14:47
so I kind of kind of paced up with
00:14:49
things and I always uh I think even yeah
00:14:52
I think even sanep had mentioned this
00:14:54
that leave three two three minutes at
00:14:56
least for reviewing your questions right
00:14:59
so I always whatever was the counter I
00:15:00
used to cut three minutes and be like
00:15:03
okay just finish everything
00:15:05
everything do not wait for things there
00:15:07
whatever is coming into your mind just
00:15:09
do it as fast as possible do not you
00:15:11
know second guess yourself whatever
00:15:13
comes first just do it because there's
00:15:15
no time here you need to be very quick
00:15:16
here right so that is I felt uh is very
00:15:20
important yeah so you were able to
00:15:22
complete all the sections within
00:15:24
the okay so cool and you also mentioned
00:15:28
that you were pretty surprised with the
00:15:29
high score given that the
00:15:33
top once not even once like official
00:15:37
GMAT mock which I give in those on are
00:15:40
scor good right so I was not very sure
00:15:42
that what would be the actual level of
00:15:45
the GMAT exam right so I was kind of
00:15:47
hunting online to find the how does the
00:15:49
practice mock relate with the original
00:15:51
GM and people I mean what I could gather
00:15:54
was that the official J GMAT is a little
00:15:57
bit harder than what is there in the
00:15:59
practice marks the official marks right
00:16:01
right and so I kind of felt okay they
00:16:02
might be closer to what we have in the
00:16:04
top 1% marks right so yeah I kind of I
00:16:08
was expecting a score around 705 715
00:16:12
right but 735 not at all so now when you
00:16:15
look back and if you have to write kind
00:16:16
of summarize entire preparation and the
00:16:20
content and S say everything into dos
00:16:23
and don'ts what would you say see the do
00:16:25
the foremost important thing in DOS is
00:16:27
key whatever s
00:16:31
you might have questions of
00:16:32
yourself I've been doing it the other
00:16:34
way around I've been successful with
00:16:36
that and all those things but whatever
00:16:37
you seen just do it just do
00:16:42
it but yeah that you start that's how
00:16:45
you start with and you then develop a
00:16:46
habit yeah okay this is how things are
00:16:48
working yeah and one thing I really felt
00:16:51
he when I was doing my mocks right so I
00:16:54
recall sandep telling this many times
00:16:56
that you keep doing it you keep doing it
00:16:59
and you feel nothing is coming I'm not
00:17:01
improving at all and out of the blue one
00:17:03
day everything the accuracy increases
00:17:05
your time management increases out of
00:17:06
the blue right that kind of happened
00:17:08
with me as
00:17:11
well I was kind of struggling with my
00:17:13
time management accuracy was not
00:17:15
improving and suddenly the next day
00:17:17
things started improving right F even as
00:17:20
you was saying so in doia whatever is
00:17:22
saying whatever The Institute says do
00:17:25
it you might have your questions but do
00:17:28
it whatever they say and
00:17:30
don't don't I don't
00:17:33
know what to say but flip back and forth
00:17:36
too much don't change in correct
00:17:39
to
00:17:42
answers yeah but but but I really like
00:17:46
the very relaxed attitude self motivated
00:17:49
and you've got that score you just went
00:17:51
it was so relaxing even during your
00:17:53
preparation to talk to you also question
00:17:56
answer and you're like sorted right it
00:17:58
because as a student also you've been
00:18:00
like extremely diligent and yes it took
00:18:03
time because of situation that you did
00:18:05
not anticipate but here you are with the
00:18:07
score so what are the five schools that
00:18:09
you finally decided to apply did you
00:18:11
apply or are not yet not yet so I've
00:18:14
been kind of lagging with my work so
00:18:16
I've been really busy there since my
00:18:18
GMAT so I did get in touch with a three
00:18:21
yeah so uh yeah I have to kind of get
00:18:23
back to him so I haven't done that but
00:18:26
yeah hope I mean I have to kind of talk
00:18:28
to him about what are the ideal schools
00:18:30
I should be applying to but ideally what
00:18:32
I would want is to apply in the M7 M7
00:18:35
schools of
00:18:36
course there nothing of
00:18:39
that yeah you said you've been in bits
00:18:42
now and nothing anything short of M7 is
00:18:44
not going to probably you'll not be
00:18:46
settling for you you've got a very good
00:18:48
score a great score I mean with this
00:18:50
score you can apply to any any top
00:18:52
schools now you just have to make your
00:18:54
application storyline really really
00:18:57
great thank you so much for sharing this
00:18:59
story so was just so so interesting uh
00:19:02
your overall journey and even I was a
00:19:05
part of it somewhere but uh you shared
00:19:08
it two weeks ago I was overjoyed and
00:19:10
even today when I talking to you I must
00:19:13
tell you of course because I tell this
00:19:15
to all our students as well but since I
00:19:17
am taking it it uh it's it's something
00:19:20
that is from sandep sir he obviously
00:19:22
passes a bigger congratulations to you
00:19:24
he's extremely proud I mean you get the
00:19:26
score it validates what he's doing
00:19:29
right and um if you do get a chance
00:19:32
anytime uh if you would like to you know
00:19:34
give a shout out uh please do especially
00:19:37
this month we we've said we like
00:19:39
completed 15 years and most of us uh you
00:19:42
know most of our students are Word of
00:19:44
Mouth they they refer each other all
00:19:46
right if there's anyone in your circle
00:19:48
and you would like to shout out let us
00:19:49
know about it that you've referred so
00:19:51
that you know we can give back to as
00:19:53
well um because this is this is
00:19:55
something that we also having a referral
00:19:57
program um please stay in touch with me
00:20:00
as well for something like this and I
00:20:01
will be able to assist you and any s
00:20:04
school we'll have conversations lovely
00:20:06
lovely talking to you thank you so much
00:20:08
for making it this night this evening um
00:20:10
and you have a lovely day byebye yeah
00:20:12
yeah thanks a lot I mean thanks a lot to
00:20:14
to 1% I would say thank you
00:20:18
again amazing score yeah
