GMAT with CJ

"What's your target GMAT score?" It's a standard question I ask in my initial calls with prospective students. His answer, however, was anything but standard. "Sir, I don't have a target score. I just want to get the best I can. I want to realize my potential, and I'm not sure what score that corresponds to." I had rarely, if ever, heard an answer like that. And his story only became more unique. He was a Tesla E…

"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better." - Wendell Philips One of my students, who scored a V82 just last week, has his next attempt in a few days. As we discussed some hard CR questions yesterday, he missed five in a row. I could feel his frustration, his confidence sinking. I told him he had a choice. He could look at this the way he was, as a setback. Or, he could…

The biggest danger of building a top floor without a foundation isn't that the house will collapse. It's that after a few collapses, you might believe a house can 'never' be built there. I had a student who, after working with a couple of other GMAT teachers, was on the verge of believing she could ‘never’ learn quant. Why? Both teachers had started with hard questions. They would explain the solutions, but when s…

Why do GMAT scores plateau? We need three things to succeed on the GMAT: knowledge, concepts, and skills. Knowledge is the most superficial layer — it’s about knowing formulas, facts, and rules. It can be acquired quite easily. Concepts go deeper. They’re about understanding why those formulas or rules work and when to apply them. Mastering concepts takes time and deliberate effort. Skills, however, lie at the cor…

As I solved a quant question in front of a student, he remarked, "I doubt I can ever get there." Here's how I replied: "If you say you can't do this in 3 months, I'll agree. If you say you can't do this in a year, I'll start to doubt you. But if you say you can't do this in two years, I'll call that nonsense. I wasn't born with this skill. It might look 'natural' now, but it was learned over time. You doubt yours…

I often hear students say their problem is "overthinking." If that’s the problem, the solution should be simple: think less. But does that really solve anything? I suspect it only compounds the issue. You aren't faltering because you're thinking too much, but because you're not thinking things through. It’s the feeling of having a dozen thoughts in your head at once, without taking the time to untangle them—to see …

What if we ask a different question? Instead of asking, “How do I get my desired GMAT score?” we can ask, “How do I deserve my desired GMAT score?”. Wouldn’t that bring about a big difference in the way we look at the whole journey of GMAT preparation? Wouldn’t that make us ask questions very different from what we have been asking till now? I think that may also determine whether we succeed on the GMAT and, even …

“Do you think I can ever crack the GMAT?” I’ve heard this question a few times over the past few months. It comes from a place of exhaustion—after trying hard and still falling short. Lately, I’ve started responding with a question of my own: “What if I say, ‘No, you can never crack it’? What would you do then?” The question makes them pause. In that silence, many realize something surprising: even if I were to sa…

"How much time did you take to prepare for the GMAT?" A relative asked me this a while back. She had been preparing for months and was still far from her target score. “More than 10 years,” I replied. “You won’t need as much.” The GMAT primarily tests one's way of thinking - something I’ve been cultivating since high school. So, when it came time for the test, I didn’t need much separate preparation. The foundatio…

The GMAT tests you not 'on' these questions, but 'through' them. It isn't a test of knowledge, because you will likely never see these specific question types again. So why do business schools care so much about your score? Because they see it as a reflection of the skills that matter in an MBA program and beyond: deep comprehension, critical reasoning, and a fluency with numbers. Your GMAT prep, then, is about bu…

In 1984, Swedish psychologist Lars-Eric Unestahl offered a startling insight into sports psychology: “There is more of a chance of an athlete becoming a winner if they do not have winning as a goal.” Dr. Unestahl had observed that top athletes focus on tasks, not trophies. Their primary goal isn't to beat someone else, but to beat their own previous performance. This applies directly to anyone preparing for the GMA…

Why do some GMAT scores stall, even after months of preparation? It often comes down to one habit: we suppress confusion instead of resolving it. You read a statement. You're pretty sure it means X, but a small voice inside wonders, "Could it also mean Y?" It feels faster to ignore it. Evaluating alternatives takes energy, and there are other questions to do. We start to treat confusion like a weakness, a sign we …