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19 Nov 2015, 17:16
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Hi everyone,
I recently took my first GMAT on November 16th and scored a 720 (IR: 5/8, Quant: 48, Verbal: 41). I studied for about 1.5 months, and followed mostly the free GmatPrepNow materials which led to doing all of the questions in the OG2015 guide. I felt okay about my preparation, but the week leading up I started feeling that I could have done much more to study.
I have one more month where I am completely free of other responsibilities, and I want to use that time to get a more competitive score. I really didn't take advantage of all the available resources my first time taking the test, and I think being rigorous in my approach can get me to a 750+ score. Ideally I want to try to get both my quant and verbal up by two points or so.
For those who have taken either the EmpowerGMAT or Magoosh Premium plan, I wanted to ask you for your opinions. I don't want to spend too much money, and these programs seem to be the most economical. I've read all of the verified reviews and also seen a few comparisons, but I'm still on the fence. One priority is that the questions of each program be accurate -- I've been doing some of the harder verbal questions from various sources on GmatClub and sometimes the questions seem pretty wonky. I do have all of the MGMAT 5th edition books now, so I'll also be looking at those this time around. I also have the CR guide by PowerScore.
Magoosh Pros:
Magoosh Cons:
Empower Gmat Pros:
Thank you for reading, and please let me know if you have any helpful perspectives to share! If the GMAT Experts from Magoosh and Empower have anything to say, I'd love to hear it too.
I recently took my first GMAT on November 16th and scored a 720 (IR: 5/8, Quant: 48, Verbal: 41). I studied for about 1.5 months, and followed mostly the free GmatPrepNow materials which led to doing all of the questions in the OG2015 guide. I felt okay about my preparation, but the week leading up I started feeling that I could have done much more to study.
I have one more month where I am completely free of other responsibilities, and I want to use that time to get a more competitive score. I really didn't take advantage of all the available resources my first time taking the test, and I think being rigorous in my approach can get me to a 750+ score. Ideally I want to try to get both my quant and verbal up by two points or so.
For those who have taken either the EmpowerGMAT or Magoosh Premium plan, I wanted to ask you for your opinions. I don't want to spend too much money, and these programs seem to be the most economical. I've read all of the verified reviews and also seen a few comparisons, but I'm still on the fence. One priority is that the questions of each program be accurate -- I've been doing some of the harder verbal questions from various sources on GmatClub and sometimes the questions seem pretty wonky. I do have all of the MGMAT 5th edition books now, so I'll also be looking at those this time around. I also have the CR guide by PowerScore.
Magoosh Pros:
- Score Guarantee of 50 points -- This is huge. Either getting to 770 or getting a full-refund is a really generous offer.
- Big Question Bank - I think the question bank available is larger than Empower's, and it's also sortable
Magoosh Cons:
- Although I've heard good things about the quant section, I'm not sure how well-regarded the verbal section is
- I've heard that some of the questions are not representative of questions the GMAT will ask
- The course is not as well-rated as Empower (but it has a lot more reviewers)
- Maybe the course relies too heavily on the MGMAT materials which I already have?
Empower Gmat Pros:
- I've been told the program is more strategy focused (triage, guess it, things like that)
- In the reviews, people have really raved about it and said that had huge improvements (although I'm not sure how many started at ~700 score).
- I reviewed a few of the lessons, but sometimes it didn't feel like the strategies they proposed were the right fit (sometimes the guess-it approach felt a lot slower than me).
- I'm not sure how the verbal is -- I had a hard time following the CR lesson (the teacher seemed to just 'know' the right answer naturally)
- The score guarantee wouldn't be useful to me unless I score less than a 720 on round 2 (which I really hope won't be the case).
Thank you for reading, and please let me know if you have any helpful perspectives to share! If the GMAT Experts from Magoosh and Empower have anything to say, I'd love to hear it too.
19 Nov 2015, 18:12
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Hi chenm93,
First off, a 720/Q48 is an outstanding score (it's already above the 90th percentile overall), so you should apply to any Business Schools that interest you. By extension, a retake is probably unnecessary. If you plan to apply to Business School for the upcoming Round 2 deadlines, then you might better use your remaining time working on your applications. When applying to a highly-rated School, you need to make sure that you have a strong OVERALL application AND that you're presenting yourself in the proper way.
If you're dead-set on retesting, then you should know that - at your scoring level - the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes. You could have easily scored 750 the last time you took the GMAT, but you made a few too many mistakes and lost points because of it. The 30 points you're looking for can all be gained in just the Quant, just the Verbal or with a 'mix' of the two.
While it sounds like you've worked through some of the free resources on our website (www.empowergmat.com), there is NO strategy called "guess it" (I assume that you mean TEST IT - and considering your current abilities, knowing that strategy probably would have been enough to get you to a Q51).
1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
First off, a 720/Q48 is an outstanding score (it's already above the 90th percentile overall), so you should apply to any Business Schools that interest you. By extension, a retake is probably unnecessary. If you plan to apply to Business School for the upcoming Round 2 deadlines, then you might better use your remaining time working on your applications. When applying to a highly-rated School, you need to make sure that you have a strong OVERALL application AND that you're presenting yourself in the proper way.
If you're dead-set on retesting, then you should know that - at your scoring level - the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes. You could have easily scored 750 the last time you took the GMAT, but you made a few too many mistakes and lost points because of it. The 30 points you're looking for can all be gained in just the Quant, just the Verbal or with a 'mix' of the two.
While it sounds like you've worked through some of the free resources on our website (www.empowergmat.com), there is NO strategy called "guess it" (I assume that you mean TEST IT - and considering your current abilities, knowing that strategy probably would have been enough to get you to a Q51).
1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
19 Nov 2015, 19:13
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Bookmarks
Hi Rich,
Haha, yes, sorry! I absolutely mean 'test it'. I typed this up in a rush and I knew 'guess it' didn't sound right. 'Guess it' probably wouldn't be a very good strategy at all.
1) I will probably be applying to business school 3-4 years from now. I just graduated from undergraduate and have some time before starting to work. I mostly wanted to keep the score in the back of my pocket until then.
2) I would love to go to Stanford, Harvard, Wharton or Sloan. I know the average GMAT scores for those schools is right around where I'm at. But I figured if I have the time (and nothing else to do), why not try to shoot for something above those averages.
I guess another thing that is worth mentioning is that during the test there were times I definitely felt like I had to guess to get the answers (particularly on DS). I.E. I didn't have enough time to test more cases or guess between C and E.
Thanks so much for your response!
Haha, yes, sorry! I absolutely mean 'test it'. I typed this up in a rush and I knew 'guess it' didn't sound right. 'Guess it' probably wouldn't be a very good strategy at all.
1) I will probably be applying to business school 3-4 years from now. I just graduated from undergraduate and have some time before starting to work. I mostly wanted to keep the score in the back of my pocket until then.
2) I would love to go to Stanford, Harvard, Wharton or Sloan. I know the average GMAT scores for those schools is right around where I'm at. But I figured if I have the time (and nothing else to do), why not try to shoot for something above those averages.
I guess another thing that is worth mentioning is that during the test there were times I definitely felt like I had to guess to get the answers (particularly on DS). I.E. I didn't have enough time to test more cases or guess between C and E.
Thanks so much for your response!
