More than GMAT PREP

Beat the GMAT and learn skills that last a lifetime

GMATBUDDYS now in

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SMASH THE GMAT ONCE AND FOR ALL

Many fail to make a big change on their GMAT score because they approach the GMAT as they would an exam that requires memorization.

The GMAT is NOT a test of memory.

It’s a high performance test that measures your reasoning under pressure.

This means that if you are far away form your target GMAT score.

1. You cannot study in a linear fashion and
2. Crash courses and bootcamps will be a waste of time.

Why?

Imagine that you don’t speak French.

Will a crash course prepare you for a debate on French T.V. tomorrow?

Notice the word debate.

A debate is LESS about memorizing words now and MORE about how well you have internalised using them.

It’s about creating coherent arguments under pressure.

The GMAT is the debate, and strong performance is:

LESS about the concepts you memorize now and MORE about how well you can use them to make decisions under timed conditions

This is key —> Under TIMED conditions

Most courses fail to help you execute under timed conditions because:
They are one size fits all

DO NOT develop your foundations
DO NOT develop your reasoning
DO NOT prepare you psychologically
DO NOT prepare you to think under pressure

And you will therefore not see big improvements because you:

Did not adapt your reasoning to function under timed conditions.

Remember:
If you do not change how you think you will not improve your score.

It’s that simple.

To improve your score you need to become a lean mean thinking machine that reasons quickly, explicitly and consistently under timed conditions.

and this is where I come in.

I will help you develop a better thought process to think and solve better under time, all the time, for long periods of time.

The tenets of gmatbuddy are:

Strong foundations
Explicit reasoning
Tough psychological conditioning

With the ultimate purpose of reasoning clearly and explicitly under timed conditions.

This is not easy, and often requires more than one iteration.

There are no tips and tricks that will magically give you a +100 point push.

There are no empty guarantees, just a promise that I will teach you a process that you can follow to improve your reasoning.

What we can do depends on where you are in the preparation process.

Step 1 is to find out how far you are from your target GMAT score. Start here:

The BIG SECRET about the GMAT is that your past has more to do with your score than any GMAT prep course you could take. Take 5 minutes to fill out this form and estimate the time you need to score a 700.


GMAT PREP SUCCESS STORIES

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February 9, 2023

Ayham was an excellent tutor, incredibly supportive throughout and curated a study plan according to my needs not only for a grade but specifically for the business schools I was interested in. Ayham has an incredible bank of resources that he has made which were invaluable for my studies and really helped as it’s often difficult to find reliable material for the GMAT. He is an incredibly kind person and I couldn’t recommend him highly enough.

google
June 15, 2022

Regardless your knowledge, bachelor, overall background or time that you need to dedicate to the GMAT, Gmatbuddy led by Ayham is just the perfect and more tailored mentoring programme that you can have in order to stand out and boost your GMAT. In my experience, Ayham has helped me greatly not only to score a better GMAT grade when I was struggling the most but also to learn faster, more efficiently and think differently to face my GMAT and MBA goals in a better way. Ayham is an outstanding professional and person. From a technical perspective he is excellent, he has been mentoring many students all over the world for years and he perfectly knows the best techniques to make sure that you succeed in your goals. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, I believe his greatest asset is his emotional intelligence and empathy towards his students as well as the way of transferring knowledge to others, he understands very well what is your greatest struggle and he tailors the programme to your needs. Additionally, he always gives his best in all his sessions and he is always willing to help more when needed. I recommend Gmatbuddy and Ayham 200%, without them, I would have not made it.

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June 1, 2020

I 100% recommend GmatBuddy and Ayham. After 1 year studying a course and on my own, I couldn't reach the level I wanted on the GMAT. Once I started to work with Ayham, he guided me to learn from my mistakes and to focus on my weak areas. He also helped me to develop my skills and to confront the questions with the knoledge I had. He changed my way to approach the exam and made me improve my level. After a tough year, I accomplished to get a 700, and if it weren't for Ayham, I don't think I would have done it.

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December 18, 2019

Thank you so much GmatBuddy! Ayham was invaluable in my preparation for GMAT. I had studied really hard for months, but was struggling so much with my anxiety and my head. The problem wasn't that I didn't know the stuff, but that my anxiety would invade my mind while studying. Ayham has great empathy and knows what are the key factors to overcome exam anxiety. He helped me a lot to understand that it's not about the score, but like a tennis match: you just have to focus on each poing, game by game, question by question. With that in mind, I was able to increase 90 points my score, which is what I need to apply to European B Schools. The main difference, is that with so many prep courses to choose from, you don't really know who's actually good or who just wants your money. With Ayham, I felt real support, he was there for me through every question and every concern. Thank you very much Ayham for everything!!

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December 6, 2019

I really recommend GMAT Buddy as its impact on your preparation will be invaluable. Have you studied so hard but not improving anymore? That’s where I was but then this great tool came into action. As the most precious secrets, I was told about it by word of mouth (Man, you need to work on marketing!!). Ayham’s job is impressive and unique. Any GMAT prep course is able, with more or less success, to teach you the theory you need for the GMAT but most of the time that is not enough. In order to obtain the results you aim for, the work you need to do is at a much deeper level, in your head! Seems weird to say but it is true. Ayham has great empathy and the priceless ability to understand how your mind reasons and approaches the problems, even just after the introductive session. From there, he will prepare a tailored program in terms of time and preparation level in order to strenghten you weakest points, improve your time management skills, your decision making process but most of all how you tackle the excercises. Moreover, during the sessions and all the time you will be preparing for the test, Ayham will be in close contact in order to keep you motivated and have a clear view of your progression. If this is not enough GMAT Buddy offers in addition to the 1:1 sessions a great platform that will help you to study (or review) the theory you need with interactive courses, slides, videos and specific excercises that will boost your speed on the test. With Ayham’s help I was able to upscale my result from 540 to 680 in less than 5 weeks. To summarize, if you are now approaching the test or you feel stuck with a score that is not enough, trust me, GMAT Buddy is for sure the best resource you can use.

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September 20, 2019

Before I met Ayham I took the GMAT once and did not achieve the score I needed to apply to an MBA program. At this time, I knew I needed to look for a GMAT buddy / instructor. A friend of mine recommended that I meet Ayham and give his lessons a try. From the very first day with him, I felt I was improving a lot in both the verbal and quant sections because Ayham teaches you how to efficiently put into practice all the knowledge you have for the test. Ayham makes special emphasis to help you understand what your weaknesses are and how to overcome them, and how to behave in case of crisis. In other words, he teaches you how to do the GMAT properly. He even provided additional tools to practice the verbal section, which in the end, has become one of my strengths on the test. Working with Ayham has been the best decision I’ve made since I’ve been practicing for the test. His motivational talks combined with his absolute mastery of the GMAT were the key to improve my score from 550 to 680 in less than a month.

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August 5, 2019

I would strongly recommend GmatBuddy to anyone struggling with GMAT. Ayham was my coach for about 2 months and he not only gave me the necessary tools to improve my score but he also helped me get the motivation and courage to keep trying when I was about to throw in the towel. Without his help I would have not been able to increase my score from 620 to 720, allowing me to get a place and also a scholarship to study in the school I wanted (IESE). The main difference of him compared to other GMAT prep programs is that he is able to identify your strengths so that you can take the most out of them. In my case, I was focusing too much on improving the quant and my score was not improving enough. He suggested me to work on my strength (verbal), of course wile keeping with the quant practice, and thanks to that I ended up getting a 99th percentile in verbal, which increased my overall GMAT by far. To sum up, GmatBuddy is definitely worth it! You you will feel accompanied during the process and you will get the necessary empowerment to master the GMAT!

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August 4, 2019

Working with Ayham was a transformational experience. I only enrolled with GmatBuddy for 4 - 6 weeks before I had my GMAT retake and I was at a point where I felt I couldnt make any further improvements but Ayham proved me wrong. I realised a 130 points score increase in the 4 weeks that we worked together. I think the extra personal touch he gives makes all the difference. He does not roll out a one-size-fits-all approach that you would find with other generic programs but tries to understand each candidates weak areas and tailor programs to help address each of them and then he follows up continuously to ensure that the skills learnt are mastered. I struggled a lot with time management and stamina so Ayham taught me how to optimize my time; how to make the best decision on which question to give up and when and how to fight for every question till the very end. His technique of tackling the long verbal passages were very useful and helped me tremendously in increasing my verbal score. The score increase I had was all I needed to get into what I consider the best European MBA program - IESE.

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August 2, 2019

I strongly recommend GMATBuddy and I personally felt that the classes I had with Ayham provided huge added value to my GMAT preparation. Through his guidance, I managed to upscale my GMAT result from 690 to 730 (at my first attempt) in just 8 weeks. He also supported me with the essays review during the application processes, that helped me secure a spot in three Top European Business Schools (INSEAD, IESE and IMD). As said above, I would underline 3 key highlights of Ayham's method that really "make a difference": 1) Fully-tailored resolution methods (for real)! While solving math section of GMAT, there is always some problem type that drives you nuts. In my case, even at University, I always struggled to solve permutations/combinations exercises. Ayham proposed me 3 different methods for solving them; one of them was extremely visual and intuitive and definitely helped me in tackling these exercises during GMAT test. 2) Realistic upscale Ayham is extremely meticolous in "upscaling" the preparation and set-up realistic objectives. In my case, we used the first sessions to improve my weak areas and then we moved forward to simulations. In general, he really cares about sthrengthening concepts and methodology at first rather than bumping straightforward to exams simulations (unless time constraints are strictly incompatible with this approach) 3) Psychologic preparation to exam Needless to say, but simulations and real exam are quite different matters. Ayham provided me with effective time management techniques, self-guidance methods for moments in which you literally "get stuck" during the test (it happens way more than I imagined) and several advices for speeding-up resolution of easy questions, in order to tackle the difficult ones. I feel that sessions with him were incredibly better than stremalined in-person/online GMAT courses. Also, I definitely recommend him for bridging the final prepration gaps... The ones that allow a candidate to consistently score 700+ in the test

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July 26, 2019

My plan was to get a high or at least good enough GMAT score in order to have a strong application for IESE Business School Full-Time MBA program. I am spanish and with a business background, so due to the fact that the school looks more and more for diversity in all terms I had to make my application outstand a bit to have a chance. Mr. Ayham Shakra helped me increase my GMAT score from 620 to 700 in less than a month. We met in 10 occasions, he helped me understand what areas I needed to work more in, taught me about them and gave me tools and exercises to keep preparing by myself. Not only did he do a great job and very close follow up of my progression, but I would say we also had a good time working together (I hope he could also learn something from me). Ayham Shakra gave me personalized assistance in my preparation, with amazing tips and tricks to help me achieve my objective. Honestly, I did not have my best day at test day because Ayham deserved me to get at least a 730. However, the average at IESE's previous year class had been 680 so that was enough for me to apply. The experience was totally worth it and I did not only achieve the desired objective but also got to know a magnificent proffesional (also ex IESE MBA) and a friend who I keep contact with nowadays, and to whom I believe I owe a lot. In conclusion, Ayham Shakra and the tool he developed, GmatBuddy, are a great way to go. I totally recommend it, very good luck!