At first I thought it was just a collection of online videos, but with the iPad app I can watch videos during my commute to work on the train.

The cool thing about the app is that you can download videos to view later. So since I don't have WiFi on the train, I simply download the videos I need the night before and then when I go to work the next day, I can watch all the GMAT videos on the way to work. My only suggestion here, as I mentioned elsewhere, is to make the videos not autoplay while browisng the menu.

I also checked out the new Practice Pill Platform. I posted a few questions and the GMAT Pill Staff was pretty responsive to my questions.

I was pleasantly surprised with this. I don't think any of the other GMAT providers have these two big features. Of course, even without these two features, you can see hundreds of comments posted by other students - and GMAT Pill answers all of them.

I'm very pleased with the course.

I started knewton course on february mid. The course is dividen into 13 sessions. Its has three sections into each of its sessions. Each session comes with video lesson, Preassessment, homework, extra homework.

This course helps to build concept well. It has a lot of question and the live session are also on convenient time as per IST. I attended lot of sessions. The discussion during live session flows well. It's score is little skewed on tests but i improved a lot on GMAT for V29 to V38.I was already too good in Quant so didn't give much time there. I realy liked the course but i would suggest to take this course within 3 months and attempt the test. Delay would flush off the thing.

Having taken another prep course as well as the actual test before signingup for Knewton, I had a pretty good idea what GMAT questions should look like.

Unforunately, the Knewton questions really didn't represent what is ultimately on the test. Many of the questions are very basic, but what bothered me most was that the structure of the questions, the way they were posed, was nowehere near consistent with the actual test. The money back guarantee is great, and completely no hassle, so it might be worth taking a shot to boost your score significantly, but I found having to go through the course more of a hassle than anything else. About 2 classes in I realized that I would much rather be focusing in on my actual weaknesses than having to go through the entire Knewton course to qualify for the money bck guarantee.

In short, this might be a good course if you have no exposure to the GMAT, but if you have any sense of your abilities and what your weaknesses might be, I would highly suggest going another route. There's much better out there.

I had a lot of trouble with sentence correction, and I am a native speaker. Certain nuances always escaped me for some reason under the pressure of time constraints. I read the Manhattan Gmat Sentence Correction book, and found it very useful, but did not have a bricks to wall approach.

e-gmat is an excellent course because it precisely has a bricks to wall approach. I recommend anyone having any issues with Sentence Correction to first do e-gmat. If more advanced topics are needed, then go use manhattan gmat sentence correction book, as you would have already acquired a solid foundation to tackle the advanced topics.

To prepare for my GMAT, I used a variety of prep materials from GMAC, Manhattan Prep and other prep companies. I like the Manhattan GMAT series a lot for its focus on concepts. The explanations have sufficient substance to help learners grasp the concepts behind the questions. Other companies seem to lean towards elimination tricks, which work well for questions up to the 700 level but not beyond.

I have also found that the Manhattan GMAT series does not contain any serious typological mistakes, while than some books by other companies repeatedly contain frustrating typos. This is a small matter that can cause a lot of confusion to learners, especially in a timed testing environment. Manhattan GMAT's attention to detail makes a difference.

I attended two very workshops in Singapore conducted by Robert Wilburn. Those workshops helped me consolidate and further enhance things I had learned by that point.

e-GMAT Verbal live Prep is one of the most comprehensive verbal courses I have come across. I gave GMAT twice, the first time I used MGMAT SC books and Knewton course and scored 660. The sentence correction shocked me.

Once I started with the e-GMAT course I realized how much I did not know in Sentence correction even after having gone through MGMAT SC twice. It also covered way more material than the Knewton course. Also e-GMAT has a very strong emphasis on meaning and meaning change which is very useful in the real exam.

Similarly their RC course is a game changer. They have dedicated concepts on how to read a passage efficiently and respond to the answer choices. My RC accuracy improved to 80% after this course even for difficult passages. Previously, I got only 60% of the questions correct.

Their live sessions were a lot more intense than the Knewton live sessions. They covered more material and had more in-depth discussions. I would attribute 7-8 point improvement to this course. (You can see my debrief for more details)

So here goes! I'm trying to make this short as possible.

Started with a Princeton classroom course, Diagnostic 620. Studied every night, kept up with the syllabus. Test 2 620. Backed up, reviewed notes, went to Math Boot Camp. Test 3 490. More study. Test 4 600. Studied more, Test 5 620. Ugh!

As for the Princeton course: (a) Do not call and ask advice from customer service representatives, about anything. I found they typically were dismissive and discouraging. (b) Listen to your teacher, who should have your best interest in mind. However, do not listen to the teacher if he/she tells you to take the test within a month or whatever after the class ends. Test Prep courses give you math basics, and I truly believe the rumor that they work for people aiming for 500-600 scores, but not higher. However, if you are aiming for a 500-600 score, I do not think that means you should follow the test prep companies like they're the law. Use the test prep companies to get up to 500-600, then judge for yourself how much more studying you have in you. If you know your work ethic can handle a few more months of self-study, then do it! Practice is key (especially for Quant, for me).

After the Princeton course, I bought Manhattan GMAT books and continued working through the OG. From Manhattan, I ended up only really using the verbal note-taking strategies, which did bring my score up. For Quant, I stayed primarily with the OG and additional Quant OG, except for some browsing in MGMAT books. MGMAT tests were great. I scored in the mid-high 600s on all of them. Also during this time I took the Kaplan diagnostic and scored 650.

Took both GMAT Prep tests--Test 1 720. Test 2 710.

Then I made my first attempt at the real thing--650! Shoot. I'd had a terrible week, was half sick, had rescheduled to a town an hour away and stayed in a hotel the night before, only slept 5 hours. Anyway, I didn't give up, and I don't recommend giving up to anyone who has time for a second test before second round. My nerves were soooo much better the second time, there's no way I would have scored lower (FYI average score change for second timers is an increase of 30 points). Anyway, essays came through as a 6.

Then I started with a fresh copy of the OG. I ignored the additional quant OG at this point because the GMATPrep practice tests use some problems from that book, which could skew the final score. Anyway, I just kept working problems, leaving checkmarks on those I missed and circles on those that took too long, and also reading the solutions. After making it through all Quant problems in the book, I reworked the problems I missed, as well as the problems I took too long to solve. Then I went through the missed/too long problems again. During this time, I took a few more Kaplan tests. Scored 550 on all of them.

***Important! Also during this time, I did 5-10 of the GMAT Club Math Challenges/Tests. They are harder than the real thing, which is the point. Seriously. It made the test so much easier for me. Thanks GMAT Club! (I swear this is not a paid endorsement.) GMAT Club Math tests are well worth the money. I recommend working all of them and wish I'd given them more time.

Tried a third take at GMATPrep and scored 730.

Then sat for the real test again and viola! 740. Still waiting for my essay score.

So...

#1. Don't give up, and trust yourself more than anyone else.
#2. Quant is about practice. Practice practice practice.
#3. I don't recommend involved forms of tracking the questions you missed. I started a spreadsheet, then found it was a waste of time in comparison to working and re-working problems. That said, I didn't get a supergenius math score (46 raw/77th percentile), so maybe the supergeniuses with spreadsheets know something I don't (clearly, they do). Even so, unless you're already a math expert, the checkmark seems like enough to get up to speed, especially since what you need most is practice. I don't think time spent formatting a spreadsheet is time spent wisely.
#4. Trust your strength, focus on your weakness. I barely studied for Verbal between my first and second attempt (first attempt 92nd percentile, second attempt 99th percentile). I have a master's in lit and have worked as an editor for years.
#5. Take vitamins, do yoga, exercise, trying breathing and meditation. Drink 3-4 ounces of red wine the night before. Especially do these things if you are an anxious person or have a history of nerves. Listen to classical music, especially on the way to the test. I like Beethoven's 6th.
#6. Know that ultimately it doesn't matter that much. If you bomb, worst case scenario, down to the wire, give yourself another year and try again.
#7. Believing you can raise your score is 75% of the work. Keep believing it. No matter how bad your practice tests get. Just keep practicing and studying.

So, that said, here's a disclaimer--I worked 50-60 hour weeks for the 3 years preceding my GMAT prep, so I'm used to coming home from work and continuing to work. This work ethic is the #1 factor in my final score. Also, and I hesitate to go here, I always scored well on state-wide standardized tests as a kid and I was in the gifted program from a young age. I studied lit so my college-level standardized test scores dropped a bit until this GMAT score.

I'm saying this because I don't want to mislead people==I completely believe that everyone can raise their scores dramatically, with enough effort, patience, and positive thinking. However, if you've always had a hard time with standardized tests, then another 6 months of study when you've already put in 6 may not make a difference. What does make a difference is knowing your confidence level, knowing how much studying you need to do your best, and then putting in the work. If you get down on yourself because of a bad practice test, set yourself a time limit before you buck up and move on (maybe an hour? 2 hours?). Anyway, I've been a good-for-nothing at times and a crazy hard worker at times, so because of my own vicissitudes I have complete faith in the flexibility and potential of every human mind. What will get you where you want to be is good health--physical and mental, which means keeping a positive attitude, believing you can do it, and giving yourself room to make mistakes.

Good luck everyone!!!

--CrystalB

After first attempting the GMAT last year and receiving a score of 530 with especially weak math, I knew that I had to change my study plan. I had been using study guides and question banks but it evidently was not helping. I discovered Magoosh by looking for a GMAT preparatory site that had difficulty rankings for each question so that I could see where my strengths were.

As I had missed my choice school’s MBA application deadline I did not use Magoosh for several months. This was not an issue as Magoosh extended my access for a year at no extra charge.

The Magoosh lessons are extremely informative and provide examples for every situation you may encounter on the GMAT. They also provide tips and tricks to tackle every question that can arise on test day. The questions are of high quality and I found some of them to be harder than anything I faced when I wrote my test. Having a range of easy, medium, and tough questions allows Magoosh to be beneficial to anyone, no matter what their target score is.

Everything on their site is very intuitive, and you can make custom study plans from any mix of question types (data sufficiency, critical reasoning, etc). You can also limit the questions being given to you to either a random selection, adaptive questions, questions you previously got incorrect, or questions you flagged the last time you saw them. The site also allows users to set time limits, question limits, and the ability to see detailed solutions at the end of every question or at the end of a study period.

To prepare I studied the lessons and went through all of the quantitative questions. I flagged any questions I could not answer easily, and kept reviewing them until I could answer them all with relative ease. This helped develop my skills and improved my confidence and time management.

I cannot recommend Magoosh highly enough. I previously studied using well-known guides and failed, but with the resources provided by Magoosh and hard work I have been able to achieve my final score of 730.

e-Gmat course is something that a non-native should try if he/she is scoring low and is serious about improving the verbal score.

I started with the SC course and must say it was extremely useful. The course is detailed and it focus entirely on the fundamentals of SC and the concepts tested in GMAT.

After completing the course my accuracy rate increase to 90% my verbal score increased by 9 points. A word of caution, to see a substantial improvement on verbal score firstly, one need to have a good grasp of the fundamental and application of the concepts tested on GMAT and secondly one needs to be naturally good in comprehension and should be a good test taker. e-GMAT will help you on the first part, for the second part, one need to improve on his/her own.

Pros: 1. The course focuses on the core sentence structure and meaning of the sentences, which is essential to crack SC question.

2. Multimedia based tutorial. Very easy to comprehend and retain the concepts learnt.

3. Very handy to revise the concepts and it became very important resource for me to revise at the end of my study phase and revision is easy and quick. One can only refer to the summary files.

Cons:
1. The application crashed sometimes.

2. Could include more GMAT like question in the tutorial.

After finishing the course I also bought the OG Verbal Review Videos. It was extremely useful as it gives the step-by-step approach to crack the Official question. When ever I feel a little low about SC I just go through the video explanation of few question from this tutorial (OG Verbal Review Videos), and believe me it was a real confidence booster.

CR- course did not work for me though. Using e-GMAT method, I was taking more time to solve CR questions, but many have find it useful in this forum, I guess its more of a personal choice and to experiment different methods as to what works better for you. You can try the free tutorials and decide whether you want to take the course, many find it useful.

Overall, I think e-GMAT course is definitely a reliable verbal course especially for the non-natives and for those who are struggling with verbal score. I highly recommend it, and one can see a good point increment in verbal section of GMAT.

Magoosh offers a unique product, unique content at a unique price. Given that it is one of the smaller shops in the GMAT prep world some of you may have apprehensions and rightly so, because it is more or less an obscure GMAT prep company.

Thanks to GMATCLUB Magoosh will one day cease to be obscure as the content provided has been designed by accredited experts.

Most of the content videos (SC, CR, IR, RC and Quant) have been created by Brent Hanneson who is well known GMAT guru in Canada. Brent scored a 770 and he used to be an instructor at Veritas and now does private tutoring and a conducts a GMAT class at UBC. All the Math Questions video explanations are narrated by Brent. The Math questions have been inspired by old OG questions and not even a single explanation will leave you hanging.

Now for the not so great part, most of verbal questions are very good, but there are few out there that deserve to be done away with. Verbal questions have been created by Dave Scalise and are narrated by 'Verbal Lady' (well they don't reveal her identity). Unfortunately the Verbal lady is quite monotone and likes to rush through the explanations, but overall the Verbal content is solid. The RC passages are among the best out there at par with RC99, Veritas and MGMAT.

What really differentiates Magoosh is their customer service. Their response time for emails is almost none, if you email Bhavin Parikh he'll get back to you within 10-15 minutes. If you have any issues with the content you'll find that the Magoosh team has a real west coast work ethic. As they're easy to deal with and ready to roll-up their sleeves to help you out.

Overall, Magoosh offers an excellent product at a very decent price. I wish, I had found their website before I paid 1300$ for a prep course with a major test prep company.