MrFong's story is indeed real. Obviously we do not recommend using GMAT Pill with so many other distractions, but every student has his/her own learning style so we respect whichever approach suits you best.

Lots of people score very well on GMAT every year and many post them here -- but how many of them are willing to put a face behind their words? Well, MrFong has done so and that speaks volumes on his behalf.

We are very appreciative that MrFong has been so supportive of our program that he even went the extra mile for us with the following video testimonial (with no compensation - and we certainly did not expect it). We are a small New York-based shop so it is impossible for us to reach out to someone in Singapore and force them to do something like this.

Of course, MrFong is not the only student to score a Q46 with lots of time left on the exam. John is another student -you can read about him here, and another guy here, another Oxford MBA here, a $50k guy here, a Goldman guy here, etc..

We believe in our program in helping you perform to the best of your abilities - but ultimately it is you who must walk through the door.

Having said that, I should note that you should not expect a score like this with that much free time using our program. Lots of students improve - and every once in a while, we get an outlier like MrFong who scores extremely high. But you cannot begin studying with this kind of expectation - and that's true for any program you sign up for. Keep things realistic and humble. Challenge yourself to do your best but don't expect any single resource to make it or break it for you.

Thanks and good luck with your studies.

I think its clear to anyone with half a brain that, if MrFong's story is true, his score has much more to do with his personal natural abilities and background, and much less to do with GMATPill.

This is not to say that GMATPill isn't a good program; to be honest I'd never even heard of it before now. It could be the best GMAT prep ever. But as they mentioned, for anyone to look at MrFong's results as typical or as a blueprint well then you are kidding yourselves.

Well, I can't really do much other than assure you that it's true.

If it helps my case any, you should note that as far as the GMAT is concerned, I happened to be in a particularly favourable position. English is effectively my native language, and I'm not all that many years out of high school; both of these mean that it took less time for me to "catch up" than it would for many test-takers, who seem to me to be up to 30 years old and native speakers of languages other than English. In addition, my classes in high school included a large helping of mathematics (A-level Mathematics, Further Mathematics, and Physics), which likely helped fortify my quantitative ability.

It just happens that English and mathematics are, and have always been, two of my strongest subjects. I'm certainly no genius - if the GMAT tested my Mandarin Chinese, or my geography, then I'd probably have landed at a total score of 200. If I'd become a Literature student in high school like I was planning to as a teenager, I'd likely have needed a lot more time preparing for the GMAT. It might be a flaw of the GMAT that it only tests these two subjects, but I figure that that's why MBA applications consider more than just the GMAT.

That being said, I do feel that the GMAT Pill suited my style of learning particularly well. Other programs may well work better for some of you, and you should certainly feel free to look at all of your options. Think about what's worked best for you in the past, and figure it out from there. If you're great at studying alone, then the Official Guide might suffice, saving you a whole lot of money - I've heard of some engineers whose native language is English scoring in the high 700's with just a day or two of flipping through the OG. If you feel that you need an actual person coaching you, then I hear that Manhattan GMAT's private tutoring is of a pretty high standard, albeit at a fairly high cost, as well. There is Kaplan, which seems to be "the establishment". Or there are possibly tens or hundreds of other options out there.

As mentioned, preparation really does seem to be the key to scoring on the GMAT. For the reasons mentioned above, most of you will likely need more time preparing for it than I did. Some of you will barely need any time at all. Just figure out what works for you, and run with it.

- MrFong

P.S. - Santanu: My very first practice test was taken waaaay before I started my preparation for the GMAT, and it was one of those free, downloadable ones from a signup website. I was, at the time, still thinking about whether an MBA would be "NPV-positive" for me. I'm not sure about the reliability of CATs from outside of the official GMAT Prep program, which is why I say "about" 700.

You finished the verbal section in 35 minutes? Borderline impossible, IMO.

MrFong

Thanks for addressing my 700/740 confusion and for making an attempt to give a more 'well-rounded' point of view in this post. You must be a genius, no matter what you say - doing 37 quant problems in 50 minutes at 1.35 minutes per problem I can still live with, but doing 41 verbal problems in 35 minutes at 0.85 minutes per problem is monumental, almost incredible.

Great score.... congratz

I think clearly this is a fake debrief, with rusty maths and verbal skills, and 20 hours of preparation, one can not achieve this, plus 40 minutes left in verbal after completion. Only 'Heman' can do it.

What is your IQ Mr Fong ? 175.

I am also curious as to why you finished the Verbal so early. If I were you I would spend some additional time to double, triple check every answer.
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This post is a shill at the very least. Just count the references to GMAT Pills. The author is too much of an avid proponent of GMAT Pills

Wow! You must be lightening fast. I purchased a course to speed up my reading speed, but 41 verbal questions in 35 minutes is unbelievable. But why were you in such a rush to finish the GMAT, don't you feel that you could have got 800.

Geez, fellers. Still with the scepticism, huh? XD

I'm certainly no genius. I actually know this for certain - my parents, being typical Asian parents, had my IQ tested when I was a kid. It's not a number I'm ashamed of, but suffice it to say that I'm... not a genius, heh. If only! Once again, I'd like to stress that I'm pretty much an average dude, who's just lucky enough to have had a solid foundation in precisely the subjects which the GMAT evaluates.

You guys are absolutely right to point out that the amount of time I spent on the verbal section was very low. This was a function of a number of things:
- As mentioned, I'd almost run out of time during my 2nd essay, which made me feel like I had to rush a little on my Quant and Verbal sections.
- During my preparations for the GMAT, I'd found that there were certain questions I needed quite a lot of time to answer. I had therefore gone into the GMAT intending to budget about a minute for each of the simpler questions, hopefully leaving me with 5 or so minutes for each of the harder ones. It just happened that I didn't run into any verbal questions that seemed to me to be particularly tough. There must have been some that I answered incorrectly, and therefore clearly should have spent more time on; I was, of course, unaware of this fact during my GMAT, and therefore just kinda sprinted through even the trickier questions. Big mistake!
- You can't go backwards on the GMAT, and check any of your earlier answers. If I could have, I certainly would have. The GMAT just doesn't let you do it.

So... lemme just put it this way. You're welcome to remain sceptical regarding my score, and I certainly would not fault you for it. Seriously. There is, in fact, a certain wisdom in taking all that you see on the Internet with a hefty helping of salt. On my end, I would not deign to be one of those people on the Internet who, upon encountering others who don't believe what they're saying, make nasty insinuations about sexual acts and the disbelievers' mothers.

If any of you do believe me, and want to know anything at all that you think could help you, then feel free to ask me about it. The one area which I think I do have going for me is that I feel that I'm a generally helpful person with a reasonably positive attitude, so I'll be glad to help anyone who desires it, in any way I can.

EDIT: P.S. - Someone79: 800? Maybe, maybe not. Might have just ended up changing some of the correct answers to incorrect ones. On the whole, I should definitely have taken more time with my questions, but that wasn't something that I knew that I should have done before I finished the GMAT. Y'know the saying - hindsight is 20/20.

Wow, amazing score! Thanks for the debrief.

I agree. I too finished my Q with 17 minutes to spare and scored a meagerly 50. I purchased this software "Millionaire Memory" that comes with ways to improve the reading speed. Let's see whether it really does so. Anyways, congrats on your score.

Just wanted to point out that in the video MrFong says that so many years out of high school he had forgotten stuff, then two posts later he says "I'm not all that many years out of high school."

Seems like a red flag to me...

Oh lordy. Still with the suspicion.

I'm in my final year of university. That's years out of high school, but not as many years out of high school as many GMAT takers, who I assume are taking them around the age of... 28? 30?

MrFong

Must say that your initial post looked particularly biased and is partly to blame for the significant dose of skepiticism on this thread. The audience here is an aware one and you probably will not find any other high-scorer's debrief with so many doubters.

Anyways - one quick question for you - the 35 minutes you took for verbal included the 4 RC passages as well - right? Did you spend time to go through the passages at all or did you jump into the questions straightaway? Your reading speed must be phenomenal indeed. Don't be frustrated with yet another question on the time you took for finishing the verbal section - am quantitatively inclined and am finding it tough to balance the equation here:). If I subtract a paltry 6 minutes even from your 35 for reading 4 passages at 1.5 minutes per passage, it leaves me with 29 mins to read, analyze and answer 41 questions - at a stupendous 0.7 minutes per question!

Someone79

You find 50 in quants meagerly? Wow - you really set very high standards for yourself. I had finished quants with 11 minutes to spare and got a 50 - was quite happy with myself, must admit.

Santanu ji,

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read
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"read between the lines

I recently took my GMATs. Best of luck for the GMATs.

IMO, GMAT is one exam .
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Heh. I'll be the first to admit that my initial post was clearly pretty one-sided, but in my defence, I'd like to note that I was just calling it like I saw it. Again, there are plenty of prep programs out there, with a few that are pretty well-established and have had numerous reviews; any potential GMAT-taker should of course examine all of the options available before plonking down a couple hundred quid for a program.

With regard to the verbal timing: Yep, that includes all of the passages. I skimmed through each of the passages before tackling the questions, which might have taken maybe a minute or two per passage. I do think that I can read relatively quickly, which certainly helped me shave time off of both my verbal and quant sections.