A little bit from (and about) some of my students
Lavina came from a medical background. She was well-read and fluent in English. Yet, she had been struggling with GMAT verbal for over an year. She was a dedicated and a hardworking student, and we had a great time working together. I think more than anything else, we were able to build that confidence in her that she could do it.
Hi Anish - thank you for making the GMAT verbal prep so easy. Ever since we have started our sessions, I don’t feel the invisible 100 pound rock of stress siting on my head anymore. I owe you every bit of the positivity and confidence that I have regained after my GMAT fiasco.
It was a a great exponential-curve ride with Rinki. We started at a stage where her reasoning for even some of the easiest CR questions and understanding of some even slightly complex passages was not on point – thanks in part to the coaching classes she had taken before. After working together for a while, we reached a stage at which she could handle the toughest questions with confidence. She became like one of those boxing opponents who keeps asking to get punched even harder. “Sir, this one wasn’t that tough, let’s try an even tougher question” was something I got quite used to her saying on many 700-level questions.
Deep became my student while he was the MD of SAP India – by far the most senior professional I have taught. I’ll admit, I was initially unsure of how to teach someone so accomplished.
Deep intended to appear for Executive Assessment (a test by GMAC, the makers of GMAT, for experienced professions. Identical format, fewer questions). I think my experience with him taught me more than I could teach him. For one, I learnt that punctuality meant being logged in 2-3 minutes before the start time – every single time. It was a unique experience for me since I had never taught someone with as many years of experience. I learned more about how to relate learnings with the real world to get across to someone who had not been involved with formal education for such an extended duration.
Akshay has been another dedicated student who is experiencing significant improvement in his skills. (He has taken a “sabbatical” because of work, and will resume sessions in a while.) His pickup has been phenomenal from the first day. I think this has been because of two reasons. He asks questions repeatedly until he understands what’s being discussed. We have had sessions in which we worked on just one official question. And those were some of the most enriching sessions. Second reason: he started his GMAT prep with me. I do not mean to be pompous here. I simply mean we did not need to spend time and effort to ‘unlearn’ random hacks that many coaching institutes teach. (e.g. options with the words ‘being’ or ‘having’ are incorrect in SC; in an inference CR question an option with absolute wording – cannot, never, always, etc – is wrong).
Kuldeep came to me with a very specific objective. He felt fairly confident in Quant and SC. He did not have a grip on RC and CR. A limited budget meant we could only do very limited sessions together. Within those limited sessions we worked towards understanding how to learn, establishing the right mindset, and following a structured approach for RC and CR. He worked very methodically. Took breaks between sessions to revise and practice. Within five sessions, through his systematic approach, he saw a marked improvement in his grasp of RC and CR.
Shagun is a very energetic person. I think more than GMAT skills, I had to teach her how to take 1-on-1 sessions :). I had to push her to ask questions and not take my word for anything. She picked up what I meant in very little time, and we had a great learning experience together.
Happy teachers day sir! Thank you for being one of the best tutors, ever!
Adarsh was a unique experience. He “disappeared” after taking just one session with me. Not because he did not improve, but because after our session he understood exactly where he was going wrong and what he needed to do to improve.
Feedback from some of my Workshop students
In this mad world of GMAT coaching, it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, as there are innumerable choices and digital overload of high promises and grim realities. I had once read “when the student is ready, the teacher appears”, Not sure if I am still ready but found the right Mentor who can guide me through this Journey of demystifying GMAT. Anish is like the “MASTER YODA”, who tears through the Depths of reasoning by structured thinking “leading” to the answer instead of giving the hacks to solve a problem.
Anish has an unconventional way of teaching, he leads you to do question everything in a Verbal or a Quant Passage/Problem, and doesn’t give you the answer but leads you to the answer in a structured manner(Ask WHY’, HOW’S, WHAT’S and more). It’s quite mental fatigue at times when the old brain muscles are suddenly forced to use more logic & deduction than ever before.
He transforms your way of thinking from finding just answers from given options to logically deducing and even predicting correct options by finding flaws and shortcomings in the arguments itself.
Usually, I find that CR/RC is boring but after attending a few sessions with him, verbal is much more interesting than ever before. Now I am not driven by fear but the anticipation & excitement of new learning.
His clarity of thoughts and concepts are amazing. His approach towards the RIGHT MINDSET will not only help me to ace GMAT but in day to day life as well. Thank you Anish from the bottom of my heart for I am really enjoying this transformation (Step by step), you are not only a great teacher but a great mentor as well.
A participant’s comment in the end of ‘GMAT: a test of skills” 2 days workshop.