Chris8242 wrote:
Let me start off by saying that GMAT Pill was AWESOME. I took the GMAT Prep practice exam before doing any studying and got 41V / 42Q / 680T. Certainly not bad, but I wanted a score that would put me solidly in the running for the top schools, setting a personal goal of 730. After about 6 weeks of studying with GMAT Pill I took the actual GMAT for the first time and got 45V / 47Q / 740T. Zeke did an incredible job with the program, and I recommend it to anybody looking to take the GMAT. Now for a more detailed review:
===VERBAL===
1) Sentence Correction Pill
This is your bread and butter - the SC Pill alone is worth the price of the whole program. As someone who grew up despising grammar, the SC pill not only presented ideas in a manner that I could learn and remember, but made the experience palatable as well. The frameworks are brilliant, and with practice I would find myself choosing the right answers without finishing the sentence by recognizing the common patterns Zeke lays out. The idioms framework was a bit unwieldy at times, but by writing down and practicing the sections that didn't come intuitively from speaking while ignoring those that did I was able to target my studying. Definitely my favorite Pill, and the ultimate resource to bring up your SC score.
2) Critical Reasoning
It seems as though the CR Pill has gone through some major changes since I finished studying a few weeks ago, and the apparent mandate for continuous improvement in the program is outstanding. Although I very seldom used the table top framework exactly as it was presented in the videos, the accompanying lessons on identifying the conclusion vs the assumptions were absolutely invaluable. Additionally, in questions where there are two answers that seem like they could be right, the Pill does a wonderful job of prioritizing argument strategies so you know which of two seemingly correct answers is stronger.
3) Reading Comprehension
I did not need much RC improvement so I spent very little time with the RC Pill
===QUANT===
1) Problem Solving
Once again, pure awesomeness. The fundamental lessons are the perfect refresher for all that math you forgot in high school, then from there you can do as many videos as you're comfortable with (they get pretty advanced and there are a few I just didn't consider worth my time, but others may). The best part is the shortcuts - I think the divisibility and triangle shortcuts alone bagged me 4-5 correct answers on my exam. In the quant section, you don't need to know everything about math, you just need to know what they are going to test you on. The PS Pill has a handle on what types of questions will show up on your exam and how to get through them as quickly and painlessly as possible.
2) Data Sufficiency
Data sufficiency sucks. Thankfully, the DS Pill makes it suck a little bit less. The attack strategies and thought processes presented will immediately up your speed and accuracy by familiarizing you with DS style questions. After that the frameworks do their job, which is to keep you from being tricked by the question! I think DS questions have the highest range of difficulty on the exam, and the DS Pill provides tons of examples and support for brutal level questions so that the actual exam feels like playing the game on easy mode.
===OTHER THOUGHTS===
1) Integrated Reasoning
The IR Pill had some good thoughts and helpful hints, but nothing that I believe would be a 'game changer' (take you from a 3 to an 8). This may be the nature of the IR sections though - you need to take your verbal and quant skills and combine them with some chart & graph familiarity to do well, and that's tough to teach in one section. I recommend focusing on the tradition verbal and quant sections and your IR score will move up with it.
2) Organization
The GMAT Pill program has A TON of content, which can be positive and negative. I was going to recommend a slightly firmer structure as far as what to do when in the program, but I once again noticed that there have been some updates that help remedy the problem since I finished studying. Kudos to GMAT Pill for being one step ahead of me! Additionally, I made myself a big checklist in excel to visually keep track of what I've done in each section and what order to do things in - a similar checklist built into the platform (possibly one that automatically updates) would be a great addition.
3) Customer Service
If you leave a question in the video sections it is typically answered very quickly and the email response time is phenomenal. I would like to see even more video explanations for some of the Practice Pill Platform questions, but it was a minor issue given all the videos already available.
Overall, GMAT Pill was everything I wanted and more. The innovative approach to GMAT studying presented in GMAT Pill is concise enough to appeal to someone on the go while being complete enough so that you're not missing out. It is, quite simply, studying done better. So unless you have an innate desire to spend hours learning about compound past subjunctive verb forms, ditch the textbooks, cut the fluff, and get GMAT Pill.
@Chris8242 wow! Great review of GMAT Pill and what a great score you got! That is excellent for all the schools. We had heard good things about GMAT Pill. Your review will help others. Good luck on your MBA Applications!