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The premium package of Magoosh was the best deal I could find for my online GMAT preparations. While the price was reasonable, I wish the content was a tad bit better.Not that it is insufficient, on the contrary it is a very good starting point esp. to brush up on basics.
During my preparation, I found Magoosh particularly helpful in finding my weak areas. The tests can be filtered down to difficult level , no. of questions, time, etc.
Another major plus was the email support. More often than not, my doubts would be cleared within half a day. The respondents were sincere enough to follow up till my doubts were fully cleared.
Overall, this was a great add-on for my 1-month GMAT prep, if and when I retake the test I look forward to using the new features that have been added!
I decided to go with Magoosh because I needed a low cost GMAT prep option (I had barely any money to spend on GMAT prep). I had tried self study for a few months with no discernible progress, so I knew it was time to take another route. I signed up for Magoosh premium after a friend suggested the program to me and I began my study using 2 of the three month study plans offered by Magoosh. I did a combo of the 'Version B: Math Focused' plan and the 'Version D: For Advanced Students' plan. The Advanced study plan called for use of the MGMAT complete set of strategy books and the OG 13, so I used those as well. Between these three resources, I spent a grand total of roughly $275 on my GMAT prep.
Overall, I found Magoosh to be an awesome investment. For $99, I got a full year's access to a whole tome of videos on all the subject matter covered by the GMAT, all the way down from the most basic frameworks up to the 700+ level concepts and strategies. For me this was priceless, since I came to my study very rusty on Quant and needed a refresher bootcamp type of prep. I was already very strong on Verbal, having previously taken the LSAT (basically GMAT Verbal on steriods), so I didn't use that part of the Magoosh offering too much.
In any case, to improve on Quant, I watched all of the math videos, per the Magoosh study plan, and was able to re-acquaint myself with these math concepts that I have not seen since high school. Magoosh was helpful for me personally as someone with a short attention span and a busy schedule because the videos are short and to the point. No long drawn out explanations; instead, the material is practical and concise. Just the way I need it. What is more, Magoosh has an iPad app. This allowed me to conveniently study on the go. No need to lug heavy books around all the time; I could just use my iPad on the train or whenever I had a quick moment (the other advantage of having short videos).
I must say, I spent a lot of time studying, usually about 4 hours per day for about 8 weeks, over 200 hours total. This was in part because I was using two study plans at once. It was a lot of work but it was what I needed to excel. Magoosh was great because, again, the material is super digestible, so I rarely felt lost (which was one of my concerns when deciding whether to do an online course--what if I have question or get lost, who will answer my concerns?) Even if I did get lost or fail to understand something, the Magoosh response team is AMAZING. They reply straight away, usually within a few hours of submitting a question and they answer in a way that really makes sense. Most of the time when I had a question, even if it was a complex inquiry, someone from the Magoosh team would respond in a way where I didn't need to do a lot of back and forth follow up to understand the response provided.
If you are like me, someone who does not have thousands to spend on GMAT prep, but who is motivated to achieve a 700+ score, I would definitely recommend the Magoosh offering. It is HIGHLY ECONOMICAL (1 year access for $99!!!) and user friendly. Simply put, it is well worth the investment.
I am Pavan. Before subscribing for e-GMAT I took class room coaching from Manhattan Review which is not up to the mark. The difference between the way e-GMAT teaches and class room coaching institutes is very huge. Class room coaching institutes teach only tricks but not concepts. e-GMAT strikes right at the head of the nail with necessary concepts.
e-GMAT will definetly help students who are very poor in English...the approach is long lasting.
Pro's
1.Good website
2.Good content
3.Good teaching
Con's
1.Very few number of practice excercises.
2.Same examples in all online classes (topic wise)
3.Should include more practice examples.
EGMAT is the best verbal course I have come across for non-native speakers. Although I scored a mere 34 in Verbal, I came pretty close to my target of 37. I started in the 20s in all MOCK test and it was only after going through the course that I landed up in the 30s.
These guys are dedicated in terms of course design and structure. Strategy sessions by Rajat were really helpful for me to finally zero in on EGMAT. Although I could have done better had I followed the curriculum to the T, I am happy with the current score since I have landed in the 80% range of most of my target schools.
Anyone looking for improvement in verbal be it SC, CR or RC, if you follow the EGMAT approach dedicatedly, I am sure your accuracy will jump up from your current level. I had a 30% accuracy in SC and after EGMAT it came to 70%. If you have any more questions about the course please feel free to drop me a PM and I will give you whatever feedback I can. Thanks EGMAT Team!
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I would like to share my experience so far with the study curriculum of e-GMAT. I believe my review will be most helpful for non- natives. I am from India a B. Tech and MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai (MBA aspirants from India would know). I have around 4.5 years of post graduate work experience and generally work 60-70 hours a week. I am a FRM holder and CFA Level 3 candidate and have academically done well throughout. I am a credit analyst and frequently required to write reports and do number crunching. Thus, I was a bit overconfident and never thought taming GMAT would be difficult. GMAT humbled me, showed me I was wrong.
1st Attempt (January 7, 2013) (570, Q47, V22): Disaster - I was applying for Autumn 2013 intake for two specific courses, however, as the average work experience of the class was around 7 years I was asked to apply after a minimum of 5 years work experience plus for Autumn 2014 intake. Though I knew this was not my final attempt, since I had already registered for the exam I tried to give it a shot. The resource material used was Manhattan entire strategy guides, and OG. Quant PS was quite easy for FDP, Geometry, word problems and algebra. DS was a bit tricky for number properties.
Sentence correction: Too different from how we are taught English in our schools. We can frame our own sentences which we know are correct and carry with flow. However, when subjected to sentences with different structure finding the correct answer was tricky. I read the Manhattan SC book twice and tried to memorize all the idioms. Though I understood the rules, their application was far far away. Whenever subjected to a complex sentence I would read the entire sentence and was unable to find anything wrong with it. I would read the answer choices, look for splits, madly try to look for parallelism and many other mistakes. Accuracy suffered and timing was poor.
Critical Reasoning: I was okay with the CR from the beginning. The guides helped identifying the types of problems etc. Timing was decent except the only few where I was stuck between 2 choices and had to re-read the question and the choices.
Reading Comprehension: Tough! Solving the problems in time was impossible. I took around 15 mins to solve 4 questions. The guide said make notes, read the 1st para/sentence twice. I followed everything but, still, accuracy was poor and time consumed was highest.
Interactive reasoning: The guide had just a glimpse of what the problems will be like. Not too many problems to solve. I did not know even just before taking the exam that for each individual question you have to answer the sub questions correctly or else you will not be awarded a point for that question.
Exam experience: I did not touch quants or solve any problems for at least 1 to 1.5 months before the exam. I only wanted to focus on verbal and my timing. The argument essay was okay. IR managing time was tricky. Quants though wasted time on few DS questions but still solved all the questions with 3 mins to spare. Took my break. Verbal I had heard the first 10-15 questions are very important, they will decide your overall score. I spent the initial 45- 50 mins with the first 20 questions and from there the disaster was waiting to happen. I submitted the answers to the last few questions even without seeing them.
I was shattered, even with this low level preparation I had expected a score of 640 plus so that I could improve to a 700 plus score in my final attempt. Then at the end of FY13 I started looking for study options. I had long working hours, so classroom programs were not for me. While exploring across GMAT Club I came across the e-GMAT program. I attended one of the free session on SC and strategy and I liked the course at once. I registered for the Verbal live prep program.
Here is the difference that e-GMAT brought to my study program.
Sentence Correction: It is a remarkably well-designed course. I moved finding splits and what sounded correct to finding the errors and looking for meaning. My problem-solving approach has changed in all aspects, now breaking the sentences into clauses and the subsequently looking for errors such as subject verb disagreement, verb, pronouns, structure, modifiers and idioms errors. The structure was set and timing has improved with practice. The applications files and online classes were eye openers, how the concepts were applied to each and every question. I realized at times the split was irrelevant and the sentence had other errors that made it incorrect. While in my prior approach, I used to select the answer choices based on the split. The concept files are amazing and helped in my daily work as well.
Critical Reasoning: The course has been great in improving my accuracy. It gave me tools which can be applied with precision. The new concepts were ABC test for finding the conclusion in case of confusion. I learned a better application of negation test, variance analysis which helped me in assumptions and evaluate type questions. And pre-thinking has become a part of solving the problem. Though I just have one pre- thought answer to question before seeing the options, the process made choosing the final answer easier.
Reading Comprehension: I have tried to internalize the RC passages using the RC strategies. Humanities passages don’t haunt me anymore. Still I need to improve on my timing and accuracy.
Interactive Reasoning: I haven’t seen so much material on IR on any forum. All type of probable questions from graphs, 2 part quants, table, verbal, MSR etc. Though the question on standalone basis are not tough but been familiar with the structure has its own rewards.
Presently, I am almost a month out from taking the GMAT exam, still I believe that e-GMAT course has already made a big difference in my performance in my verbal scores. On my Manhattan mock tests I am able to complete the verbal and IR portion on time. Accuracy has improved and my raw score is hovering around 34- 35. I am trying to improve the same in the range of 37- 40 in my final month.
Wish me luck for my GMAT exam next month. The best part of the course is that it teaches you a new way to look at the problems and helps you to internalize the process and apply it across all questions. I hope my review will be helpful to non natives.
I have opted for the verbal online course of e-gmat.This course is very beneficial for the beginner as well as for others. Initially I was afraid of Engilish grammer but after seeing the e-gmat course I now very comfortable to give gmat exam in Nov.
e-gmat step wise approach is very unique and provide a strong base to understand SC,CR and RC questions. In SC question, once one read the e-gmat process one can easily find out 2 to 3 mistakes and can eliminate 2 to 3 options very easily in one glance and then its saves time to solve problem.
Before taking egmat i can only get 15 to 20 questions right but now I reached up to 30 to 32 in test trials.
Its instructors are very co-operative and online live programs are also very helpful.
I had finished up the OG13 and was looking for fresh questions. I had taken Magoosh GRE and found it pretty good so decided to go for Magoosh Premium (99 for both quanty and verbal). I think I'm happy with the content. I got a 750 on my GMAT and I can definitely attribute some of this sucess to the Magoosh software.
Magoosh QUANT- The quality of quant questions are pretty good. At one point I found myself addicted to
them. One area where I think Magoosh has an edge is the online platform to practice questions. The video lessons were excellent, especially the ones on Probability and Counting (permutation/combination). There are plenty of DS questions so people having trouble with DS questions should definitely benifit with this section. I finished all practice questions in Math.
Magoosh Verbal- Also good. The SC questions are especially of good quality and their video explanations are good too. I wont score their RC sections too high. I found a good number of their answers as arbitary, OG answers made sense and related to the paragraphs. But it could be because I lacked an understanding of the passages. I finished about 60% of the questions. I liked the fact that the SC questions specifically tackle some of the oftern tested concepts and idioms on GMAT.
The Manhattan course I took from Joe Lucero and Tom Rose was incredible! My score went from a 550 diagnostic to a 760 on test day. The strategies taught by Manhattan are simply the best. In particular, I benefitted from the timing strategy, the critical reasoning diagramming, and the number properties guides. Moreover, they give tremendous personal attention to their students. Joe Lucero helped me create a study plan for my last two weeks that I think alone boosted my score 100 points. Definitely money well spent and I would whole heartedly recommend this course to anyone considering taking the GMAT! Thank you Joe and Tom!
After getting a 660 (Q50, V29) in Nov 2011 (It was all self-preparation, solving only the OG and taking the practice tests from MGMAT. I also bought the MGMAT SC book), I decided to make it 700+ and apply for Fall 2014 (Due to pressure in my job and some other issues, I had to skip my plan to apply for Fall 2012 and Fall 2013)
In Oct 2012, when I resumed my GMAT preparation, I started searching for a comprehensive course for Verbal, which could boost my score. I came across e-GMAT, and after going through the trial videos, I got impressed and decided to enroll for Verbal Online.
I started the course, and then realized that I should have enrolled a long time back. It gave me a very solid framework, based on which I can look for patterns in the GMAT verbal questions. All its rules and the method of teaching impressed me a lot. Especially the RC pack helped me the maximum.
Then I thought to upgrade my account to Verbal Live-Prep. To me the SC and RC sessions helped a lot. All credit goes to Shraddha! She is an excellent teacher. Somehow the CR sessions were not that impressive to me. I know Shraddha could have done a better job if she could have taken those as well.
Pros :
1. Great course for non-natives. It makes all the concepts needed for GMAT crystal clear. Worth Buying.
2. The audio- visuals are more effective than buying books such as MGMAT SC
Cons :
1. Offline support of the team is very weak. If you send an email to them for help, there is no guarantee that someone will respond. After you change the subject of emails, I used to get reply that my email had reached their junk folder, and hence I had to send reminders for reply
2. All the faculties (except Shraddha and Payal) are not that friendly,predictable and to some extent, may be professional. I remember that initially one of the faculties was very friendly and was really helping me a lot related to my doubts. But one fine day he JUST STOPPED responding to my emails (Please note that in those emails I was just asking for help. No fight. No abuse.) I sent repeated reminders but it seemed as if he simply started ignoring my emails. Am still to figure out what exactly went wrong. After all, I paid for the service. Also, this behavior looked a bit unprofessional and unpredictable to me.
3. I ended up getting a 690 (Q49, V34). I still believe that as per my preparation with e-GMAT, I could have easily cracked 720+. What I think pulled my scores down was my test taking strategies. e-GMAT still don’t have its own practice tests. May be they should add that. Grockit might not be that helpful to people.
But in conclusion, despite whatever experience I had, I would still recommend the non-natives to buy at least the Verbal Online course. It simply is too good to make up your foundation for GMAT verbal.
Prior to signing up for Magoosh, I had taken the GMAT twice before and done respectably, 710 and 690. However, with a quantitative background and seeking admission to top 10 programs, I recognized that my quant sub-score needed help (only a 44 both times) to achieve the "80%" threshold. This is where Magoosh came in. I was struggling to understand the shortcuts and precise methodologies required for these quirky GMAT problems and the breadth of video solutions was something I didnt find in any other programs and is what truly put me over the edge. While I didn't improve my overall score too drastically, I did improve my quant sub-score to a 49 and the critical 81%. Thanks for the help, Magoosh!