I just took the GMAT and I scored a 720!!!!!
I'm so happy!
My story: I was struggling a lot in improving my score. I had taken a pre-test and scored a 490. I decided to then take
MGMAT and I studied at least 2 hours daily outside of class. My score after the class was only a 520 despite many months of hard work and lots of money spent. I was consistently getting raw scores in the 20s and 30s both in verbal and quant. I was completely bummed. I used the typical materials you get with
MGMAT (GMAC stuff,
MGMAT books, online resources, etc).
I then took a couple of weeks off and decided to try a 1-on-1 tutor.
MGMAT's tutors are quite expensive, so I asked my friends and they used a service called Arbor Tutors. I got a tutoring package and it was like I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. They offer both in-person and online tutoring, but I decided to do online to save commuting time and have the comfort of my own home. Initially I wasn't sure about online, but three of my friends tried it and they loved it.
It wasn't easy - the tutor made me struggle to really understand the material. We leveraged my
MGMAT studies which helped a lot. The tutor was a GMAT and GRE expert and that helped a lot. We went through fundamentals of quant and sentence correction first. Then some practice questions, then CR, then more practice questions and back and forth until I finally felt like I had it.
I took several practice exams prior to the real test and they ranged from 700 to 740 and I ended up right in the middle with a 720.
I'm SUPER happy. This was the only thing holding me back from a top MBA program and now I feel ready to apply for first round this fall. The additional bonus was Arbor Tutors has some application consultants who help with applications, interviews, school choice etc. I'm going to sign up for another package to help me with that.
It was TRULY painless!!!
Pros: They helped a LOT and made my GMAT dreams much more attainable. Huge tutor selection - bios are posted at the Arbor Tutors website.
Cons: You have to purchase a tutoring package ahead of time (although they let you pay for one session initially sometimes and then get credit back towards the packages).
Anyway - good luck! I wish I would have gotten a tutor from the beginning.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Good Luck,
Andrea