GMAT Deep Dive Newsletter
with Anish
Sharpen your thinking, challenge your assumptions, and truly understand the GMAT — one deep dive at a time.
GMAT success starts with how you think. Get one insight every Saturday morning.
P.s. These emails aren’t meant to be skimmed. They’re meant to be read, absorbed, and thought about.
See you on Saturday!
Anish Passi
Multiple GMAT 99th percentile scores
“I just simply love his teaching style. The way he simplifies concepts – no shortcuts pure basics and logic.”
“It was insightful, to say the least. One BIG takeaway is to ‘become aware of yourself’.”
“Anish Passi is a genius. A wonderful GMAT coach and a wonderful life coach. I would have not been where I am in life, professionally and personally if I hadn’t engaged with him.”
Past issues of GMAT Deep Dive
In this video, watch how Ronaldo motivates his teammate to take a penalty. While there is a lot to like in the way Ronaldo goes about it, there is one key thing that stands out for me. Why don’t…
I often get this question from students in a tough spot. The scenario looks something like this: “I’m at a 425 on my GMAT Focus mock. I need to score at least a 655 (around the 90th percentile), and…
You might have noticed, I did not send out a newsletter last weekend. I am currently in Auroville, South India. My family has moved here for about six months. It’s still our first month, and we’ve been enjoying everything.…
I had a call with a prospective student who kept getting stuck on questions in their actual exams – taking up to 8-9 minutes on individual questions. (And these weren’t the first RC or MSR questions).I asked them, “So,…
I’ve been attending Vipassana meditation courses on and off for years.If you’ve ever been to one, you know how intense they are – ten days of silence, meditating from 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with short breaks in between.For…
The question that feels like an accusation We learned that there are five ‘W’ and one ‘H’ questions – who, what, where, when, why and how. Yet, one of these questions has somehow become a statement. In fact, not…
My AI assistant taught me a lesson So the other day, I asked my AI tool to help me draft an email reply. I shared my thoughts one by one. I asked it to check them – do they…
Many GMAT students wear long study hours like a badge of honor. Five hours yesterday, six the day before. But more hours don’t always mean more learning. In fact, after a certain point, they can mean less. Economics has…
I watched a documentary “American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden” about how the US Navy SEALs captured and killed Osama Bin Laden. One thing that fascinated me in the documentary was how the Navy Seals and the CIA prepared for…
Did you really see it, or did you just glance? My maid had been working in the kitchen for about 45 minutes—cleaning, chopping vegetables, moving around. Then she went to fetch the broom at the usual place right outside…
The voice in your head I carry a running commentary in my head all the time. I think most of us do. The other day I missed an easy shot while playing pickleball, and immediately I said: “What’s wrong…
The Tale of Two “Easy” Courses While pursuing Engineering in Canada, I needed to take two electives in my second year. There were two common electives that students from previous batches typically considered “easy”. The first one was a…
The woodcutter story Let’s start with a story. A woodcutter is in a jungle. He’s using his axe to cut a tree, and somehow he can’t seem to get the job done. He’s been at it for hours. He’s…
Understanding the rushing problem A student gets a question wrong. He finds that he had missed a piece of information in the question. That caused him to answer incorrectly. He thinks about it and says, “I rushed.” And the…
Today I want to talk about certain things I have realized about restarting something. I expect that some of you will relate. So I’d started working out with a trainer a few months back. I used to go to…
If you’re like me, you’ve tried everything to be more productive, but nothing seems to work. You’ve installed the latest task management apps, watched hours of YouTube videos on productivity, and read countless books on the subject. But still,…
I was playing cricket with my then four-year-old son. He was batting, but he kept missing the ball. I gave him gentle instructions: “Keep your eye on the ball,” “Move your feet closer to where it’s bouncing,” and so…
I watched a few people playing a friendly cricket match in a ground the other day. The batsman hit the ball. It went to a nearby fielder, and even before the fielder had had time to reach the ball,…
I know I have a harsh start to this article. But, honestly I did want to be harsh. Once you see it, I think you’ll agree – it is indeed nonsense. I’ll explain. In school, when you reached Class 9…
Hey everyone, Today, let’s talk about some habits that can quietly, but powerfully, upgrade your prep. Of course you’d understand, it’s not just about the hours we put in, rather it’s about how we use them. I’ll talk about…
I once met someone who had done a lot of winter treks in Himachal. And I don’t mean the kind where you hike in snow for a day and return to a warm homestay. I’m talking 14-day treks: day…
My son and I learn Spanish on the app Duolingo now and then. The other day, we got a simple matching game: five English words on the left, five Spanish on the right. My son started with the pair…
I often look at my mistakes and think: “Ugh. That was dumb!”. Quite common, no? I have started looking at mistakes from a different lens now, though. I’ll explain with an example from cricket. Hope you’re familiar enough with…
I saw this idea and similar images floating around on LinkedIn: “If you give yourself 30 days to clean your home, it will take 30 days. But if you give yourself three hours, it will take three hours.”* In…
The year was 1999. I was excitedly telling my mother about a movie I had recently watched. “It stars Sanjay Dutt. He plays a don in the movie. The name of the movie is Vaastav. (Vaastav means ‘reality.’)” I…
Let’s say you have a goal of getting 6-pack abs. How would you go about it? Believe it or not, GMAT prep and working out have a lot of things in common. On the one hand, the list below…
We had a vision test at school—a big board with rows of letters, just like this: The nurse would cover one eye at a time and ask us to read the letters with the other eye. I read them…