This is a continuation of GMAT Online – Online GMAT

PART 2: Ok, now that you know some pointers on what to look out for when you evaluate these test prep companies, let me provide you a brief overview and my personal opinion about them.

GMATPill Study Method

GMATPill is only focused on GMAT, unlike the other large prep companies that span SAT, LSAT, MCAT, GRE.
After looking at study materials from Kaplan, ManhattanGMAT, and several others, GMATPill served the best for me. Rather than tout them, let me just take a step back and give you my honest opinion. As I mentioned above, practice does NOT make perfect, UNLESS under the guidance of a good coach. Other prep companies go through hours of instruction. GMATPill compressed it all into 16 hours (fewest in industry) and instead of giving you question after question, Zeke (the coach) tries to shape your GMAT thinking strategy – your plan of attack. He wants you to THINK like him when you attack a GMAT question, and that means all the shortcuts he has in mind, all the EFFICIENCY in thinking about the concepts which is vital to answering the question as QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY as possible so that you have time to FINISH the test. GMAT Questions are all over the internet and the best source is the Official Guide – which are real test questions from previous exams. These questions serve as the “practice makes perfect” portion of studying. GMATPill supplies you with the “coach” part where Zeke helps you elevate your thinking strategy – then apply that new brain of yours to any possible question out there on the internet. In my opinion, it’s the most EFFECTIVE study method that I know of both in results (score) and time spent. I talked to Zeke and he had so many customers come from other prep programs where they spent a LOT of money, only to regret they didn’t find him earlier. Geesh…get on it. GMATPill is trying to grow bigger so customers can FIND him! Take advantage while you still can – not everyone knows about Zeke’s study method yet.

Price $327, 16 hours (also Online Quiz Analytics) + no books

Kaplan Online On-Demand

Kaplan is largely the traditional $1000+ classroom lecture style for 9 or so weeks. Their recent On-Demand offering is self-paced video instruction where they have the 9 classroom sessions on video and you can proceed at your own pace. They have other goodies including the ability to take a practice test at a real test center so you can simulate test conditions. Don’t underestimate the psychology of taking the GMAT exam. Kaplan has tons and tons of questions (they have a huge company) so you’ll never run out of questions. But as I like to say, practice does NOT make perfect…only with a good coach. They have improvement guarantee, otherwise you can retake the course or get some money back. This guarantee should NOT factor into your decision as I mentioned before.

Price $450, 23 hours + books

Knewton

Is a relatively new company that emerged in the last few years with a technology platform and aims to offer online videos complemented by 2-4 hours of in-person office hours. Online videos are of the classroom, accessible on-demand. Explanations, if not offered in the video classroom, are offered as text. Their core advantage is their technology platform where you can take adaptive tests (the GMAT is adaptive, meaning you answer a hard question, the next question is even harder). The learning process is also adaptive, as you learn the material the computer will feed you more questions in your weak areas as it finds your weakness. My opinion of this is that it offers you targeted practice questions (helpful, can help you focus on weakness areas and skip simple ones), but again practice doesn’t make perfect. To get over that 650-700 hurdle, you’ll need a GMAT strategy thinking coach to help you change your thinking process. They have a 50point guarantee, but like I said before, this should NOT be the selling point.

Price $690, 36 hours

ManhattanGMAT

They have a reputation for having good study materials – particularly sentence correction. Their products are sold everywhere online, craigslist, amazon, etc. They boast 99% test takers as their teachers. They are certainly competent, but the question for you as a customer is, can they teach you well and transfer that test-taking skill effectively? They screen their teachers and pay them $100/hr, compared to $25/hr for industry. The course focuses on mastering concepts. Their computer component provides several adaptive exams, they have a companion explanations book to the Official Guide (helpful). My opinion of them is they are highly competent, they are making a lot of money selling their strategy guides – pretty good since it helped them build a good brand name. With their brand name, they can get a lot of students to sign up for their course (much more money here), and by providing a Companion book to the Official Guide they’ve found even more areas to make money. I think if you want a lot of practice, ManhattanGMAT is pretty good. It’s just that there’s SO much material. And it’s not necessarily learned well by customers. You’ll spend a lot of time perusing the materials, probably be enlightened by a few things, but not necessarily efficient from a customer standpoint. Some students who took MGMAT kept telling me the prep was good but even though they didn’t do well, they don’t blame Manhattan GMAT. That got me thinking. Good material, just not necessarily transferred effectively into the brains of students. Though I would say it has obviously helped students, just not until after many hours of studying.

Price $1,090, 27 hours + guides/books

Veritas Online

Vertias in-person has the longest amount of time in the classroom with about 15 books to go through. Their online options are 1) video tape of all of those hours of classroom instruction and 2) live online classes scheduled at particular times (attend class in your PJs) and interact with your teacher with a headset. Also an option for chat. In my opinion, this is simply transferring the in-person classroom to online. You have a little bit of added convenience by studying at home but you still have to allocate time out of your schedule that matches whenever they are teaching. Usually wkday nights or wkend afternoons. Ugh..I’d rather be out in the sun or out with friends. If the schedule works for you, then fine. And again, it’s tons of material and practice questions to go through. As I said before, practice does NOT make perfect.

Price $700/$450, 42 hours + 15 books

Princeton Review

We just haven’t heard much good stuff from them. They appear to not have that great a product, simply leveraging their brand name developed over the past several decades and squeezing money out of those student victims. So I won’t say much more than this. I’m sure they are ok, just not spectacular.

Price $899, 25 hours

Related Resources:

• Online GMAT Part 1
• Online GMAT Part 2
• GMAT Prep Market 2×2 Matrix

Online GMAT: Going Online

With everything going online, there’s no reason why GMAT Prep isn’t going online. Let’s not be confused – the actual GMAT Exam that you take to go to business school – is a test taken on a computer at a testing center. That exam is not “online” or on the “internet.” What IS on the internet though is GMAT Prep materials. The old fashion way of preparing was taking a class for over $1000 and attending weekly classes on a Saturday. Well guess what? Nobody wants to wake up and do that anymore when the more effective and efficient way of studying is signing up for an online study method. Well there have been several notable companies that have emerged in this space.

PART 1: First let me show you how you should be evaluating some of the selling points that these test prep companies use. When they list out bullet points, which ones matter? How do you figure out which is the BEST TEST PREP out there?

50-Point Guarantee:
Don’t be fooled by 50-point guarantees by companies. What YOU care about is your own score. 50 point guarantees are very easy for students scoring in the 500 Level range. In fact, a good 70% of students score below 600. Offering a 50-point guarantee is a low hurdle because jumping from 500 to 550 is much much easier than jumping from 650 to 700. If a test prep company can get more 500 level students to signup, that’s more revenue for them. The number of students scoring in the high 600 level range are fewer. Pissing them off is not as important as pissing off the 500 level students because Level 500 students represent more money. If a test prep company gives money back or offers the high 600 level students to retake the course, it’s not much of a loss for the company. A test prep company is a business, they are maximizing their profits. Don’t get tricked by a company that offers 50-point guarantees, particularly if you are in the high 600 level range.

The GMAT is for business school. Think BUSINESS! Don’t get DUPED!

More # of practice questions or More hours of instruction
This is the area that appalls me. If you keep doing more GMAT practice questions, is that going to make you better? Does practice make perfect?

The answer is NO. Practice makes perfect IF AND ONLY IF you have a good coach. When you practice on your own first, you will improve a little bit. But shortly, you will find out that your improvement will STOP and PLATEAU. Many of the test prep companies offer tons of practice material. Your GMAT thinking strategy may change slightly but from feedback I’ve gotten from students who take GMAT multiple times from multiple prep companies, I find that their thinking hasn’t changed much. To really jump above the 650 hurdle or the 700 hurdle, you really need a CHANGE in your thinking strategy. NOT more practice and NOT more hours listening to instruction.

PART 2: Ok, now that you know some pointers on what to look out for when you evaluate these test prep companies, let me provide you a brief overview and my personal opinion about them.

Related Resources:

• Online GMAT Part 2
• Online GMAT Part 1
• GMAT Prep Market 2×2 Matrix

People are hearing about GMAT Pill through their friends who have already gotten success with GMAT Pill. Here’s an indirect compliment from a friend who was referred by his friend–who got into INSEAD!

Congratulations!

Email From Student From South Africa

By the way, this student’s questions have been resolved. There was some small confusion about shipping a product to his address. Just to be clear, this is an online video membership site you won’t have to pay for any shipping charges and don’t need to wait for any products to be delivered to your house or apartment.

And then from a different student who also referred his friend…

So if your friends start talking about GMAT Pill–don’t be surprised!

Related GMAT Prep Resources:

I Love These Emails – GMAT Prep Help
GMAT Pill Interviews Harvard MBA
A practice GMAT Math Ratio Problem
GMATPill’s New Quiz Analytics Platform – Check It Out
GMAT Prep Questions