Join a prep class or not ?

Question

Dear Friends,

Many Thanks for creating such a detailed forum about GMAT. I always get most of questions answered just by browsing in the forum. I alway receive immediate reply to my quant doubts from the forum members and I really appreciate that.

From the subject line, you might get what my question here is,
Whether to join a preparation class or not ? I know this is completely individual decision and depending upon everybody's capability , the answer varies. However I need your help to decide this.

I read all the reviews given in this forum. My question is, does a coaching class really improves scores ?

Before that, few lines about my studies.
I am an Asian female, worked in IT few years. currently I am not working.

I started studying for GMAT in April and studied for around 3 months now (around 2 hours daily including weekends). My target score is 750. I have solved Princeton Review, OG 12 and half of OG 10. Done Manhattan SC and CR bible. I have all the required and right books mentioned in this forum.

Recently, I gave mock and my score in power prep is 630 (Q 47and v 30) and Mgmat is 600 (Q 39 and V 34). Compared to verbal I am better in Maths overall. Although I am not perfect on concepts like probability, I need to work on them more now and I am studying at least 4 hours daily.

RC is major problem area for me and accuracy in CR is 85-90% and SC is 80% in OG 
while in RC, it is only 50% but I am sure I can improve by practicing. I have not taken GMAT date yet. Once I will start getting better scores in mocks then I will take a GMAT. Getting gmat date is easy in this country where I am residing now because only a handful of people appear for GMAT. I just want to make sure that my preparation is near my dream score before appearing for the actual exam.

Now after long opening sentences, here comes the actual question.

I am thinking to join Knewton classes. They have the most economic offer present in the market. Whether I join Knewton or not I am going to take GMAT club Maths tests anyway. After reading all the reviews, I am not able to decide on it. How much a coaching classes can improve in any body's performance? will it be beneficial to somebody like me? I know it's not easy to answer this, but I will appreciate if your answer helps me even little to decide upon.
Can somebody please help me to decide? Also reviews from those who completed/attending Knewton classes are welcomed.

Thanks and Regards,
sstudy

bb · Answer

Hi there, a few quick questions:

1. What was your score when you started studying? You are 630 level right now; where were you before?
2. When you are working on OG 12, do you set a time limit?
3. Taking a class is one alternative, what would be your other alternative?

Couple thoughts for you:
1. You won't improve RC by just practicing
2. Accuracy in OG does not mean much as the questions are in a easy to hard order; 50% accuracy at the end is better than 90% in the beginning
3. There is a significant overlap between OG 10 and PowerPrep - keep that in mind
4. Solving a lot of questions does not guarantee a high score

sstudy · Answer

Dear Founder,

Thank you very much for your immediate reply.

Here are the answers.

1. What was your score when you started studying?

I am sorry, it will look strange but I didn't take test before. 
When I started with GMAT, I tried a couple of Maths problems from forum, I realized that I am making mistakes in simple maths calculations as I got addicted to calculator from last 10 yrs. Even though my Maths fundamentals are quite good, I was not sure that I could solve a single question from diagnostic. I know this is not a good start. But can't travel back to change it.

2. When you are working on OG 12, do you set a time limit?

Yes, I timed every question. I am happy with my timings so far.
I can solve / some times guess the answer in the allocated time for each question. The same is true with my timings of mock tests.

3. Taking a class is one alternative, what would be your other alternative?

My other alternative is self study. I bought books specified in this forum which can occupy me for another month. My next study plan is solving official guide supplements for Quant and Verbal and then Kaplan Advanced.
Now it doesn't matter for me whether I apply in R1 or R2 what matters the most for me is getting the possibly highest score for me.
Again, I am not working for a year now so the next carrier leap for me is doing MBA.

I heard many people saying that practice and practice..that will improve your score. I thought so before reading your post.

After analyzing my performance in OG and Mgmat test,
I can tell you that, I can solve almost all simple problems, I can solve half of the medium hard problems and very few from of the hard level problems.

Very helpful thoughts given here on my post. Your guidance is very much valuable to me.

Thanks again.
sstudy

bb · Answer

I don't know about should you or should not take the class - that's a personal decision. I have changed my mind on it a few times. I would say that if your time is worth money, I would definitely take the class but if you are between jobs or a student and spending extra time on research and stumbling around is not costing you anything, then you may keep trying with self-study.

As to what you should do, may sound obvious, but the key is knowing why you can solve those medium/hard questions and making sure you do the next time you encounter them...

As to what you should do, may sound obvious, but the key is knowing why you can solve those medium/hard questions and making sure you do the next time you encounter them...

sstudy · Answer

Thanks very much for your reply.
Yes, I understand it's a personal decision and hopefully I will decide it soon.
However your inputs have given me a direction to think.

Thanks for writing it.
sstudy

Hussain15 · Answer

My suggestion will be to go for a self study for atleast 2 months. Complete whatever the resorces you have, then take the GMAT Prep. The result at that time will be show the real picture of your ability. I hope by saying that you have all the resources, you mean all the legitimate ones, which will have CATs too. So practice on CATs & take the GMAT within 3 months. If the score is not as per the target, go for Knewton & avail the money back guarantee. If you will go for Knewton now, the base score for the guarantee will be their diagnostic test, which I believe is too harsh in scoring.

So go for self study, be here, participate & best of luck!!

Posted from my mobile device

So go for self study, be here, participate & best of luck!!

Posted from my mobile device

gurpreetsingh · Answer

If you are in a dilemma, then do self study first and analyze your performance for 2 months. If you still need some help then only go for the class. Gmat prep companies have very good Gmat study resources. Choose the resources wisely according to your weaknesses.

sstudy · Answer

Thank you Hussain and gurpreetsingh for your replies..
I will decide soon upon this.

Thanks again
sstudy

Cclay · Answer

I think bb had some excellent points.

One that I would like to dwell on a little is the way in which you are doing your self-study. From your answers to bb's questions, it sounds like the bulk of your studying revolves around solving questions. Are you going back and re-analyzing the questions to figure out exactly what you did that made them wrong? Are you then finding other ways in which you can redo the same problem and other routes to the correct answer? Are you taking the time to really learn the basic concepts before launching into more problems (for example, are you firm on general permutations and combinations? Can you solve a linear equation or pick out the subject and verb in any sentence?) Those basic skills are really the foundational groundwork that lay the base for further study. If you do want to continue to self-study, I would suggest definitely spending some time on those.

You might find this article helpful: https://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-s ... t-prep.cfm

And also - just to throw it out there - we do offer a self-study program which I think you would find very beneficial: https://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-prep-self-study.cfm (but obviously I'm biased towards our own programs!)

Best,
Caitlin Clay

sstudy · Answer

Dear Caitlin

Thank you very much for your reply. I went through the post you suggested. It is pretty impressive. I am following that now. I already have all the 8 books. I guess that will suffice for studies. As you correctly stated I am not revising my mistakes very throughly. I don't feel enthusiastic to go through all the questions I solved. That may be the reason I am lagging. Thanks for brining it to my attention.

Will write you more about my progress.

With Regards,
sstudy

Cclay · Answer

Hi Sstudy,

I'm so glad you found the article useful! It sounds like you're on the right track to some good study habits. Let me know if you need anything else!

Best,
Caitlin

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