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I was having a hard time to improve my quant skills throughout my prep. Before finding TTP, I had tried basically everything from other prep courses to Khan Academy to half the threads on this forum.
However, I had significant problems to score above 40 points consistently.
I reached out to Scott from TTP on this forum and we setup a call, he was very honest and told me that it would be hard work but that my goal of a Q47+ would be possible.
TTP has a great interface with very helpful analytics to back up your learning. I have to warn all those who think this is a quick fix however. The program is quite lengthy and exhaustive as it covers all necessary topics, but that also means it is not something that one can finish in 4-6 weeks.
All in all I was very happy with TTP and I managed to improve my quant score from high 30´s to a Q47 on test day.
I can fully recommend this course to everyone who struggles in Quant.
Cheers,
Chris
My GMAT story may be similar to others. I am 15 years into a career in medicine and I had not seen algebra in 2 decades. When I decided to pursue an EMBA I took a practice GMAT without studying. My starting quant score was a 20. Based on hours of combing through GMAT club threads I realized that I'd need to put in about 6-months of studying to reach my goal of ~45 on quant.
The studying that followed was:
- 4 weeks of Manhattan Prep Foundations of Math (to re-learn the basics)
- 3 months of all Manhattan Prep Quant Books with corresponding OG questions
- All Magoosh online video tutorials and began using GMAT club quizzes
- Completed All OG and OGQR questions and targeted GMAT Club quizzes based on my weaknesses
- I also hired a recommended tutor for weekly sessions to address how to 'problem-solve' and crack the GMAT questions.
At the end of 8-months of studying and doing all 6 Manhattan Prep CATs (each take twice), and all 6 GMAC CATs, I never scored higher than a 42 on a practice exam, with most of my quant scores falling in the high 30s.
Throughout the frustrating studying process, I frequently encountered answer posts on GMAT club from Scott and Jeff at Target Test Prep. Their clarity of thinking through problems very much aligned with how I think. So I emailed them 2 weeks before my scheduled exam and asked if I could get additional tutoring before my test to get a bump to 45.
Jeff and I spoke on the phone and to his credit, he stated that I was not hitting my mark because my studying was a 'mile wide but only an inch deep'. He didn't think that a crash course of tutoring would help in 2 weeks. Jeff suggested that I take the exam and, if I didn't hit my mark, then to spend 3-4 months completing his Target Test Prep program.
As predicted, my 8-months of inch-deep studying only allowed me to score a 38 on quant - extraordinarily deflating after 2/3 of a year, 20hrs/week of studying on top of a full-time career.
After taking a month to rethink strategy, I opted to dedicate the next 3-months to Jeff and Scott's Target Test Prep. Their program diverges from 'learning to get questions right' and heavily reinforces doing 'so many questions' of different levels of difficulty that you simply 'cannot get questions wrong'. TTP breaks down 18 quant categories with a depth unseen in other programs then follows the chapters with multiple sets of easy/medium/hard questions.
I completed their program in 10 weeks - faster than the 12-14 weeks that is recommended. It took 3-4 hours/day with 8-10hrs/day on weekends. My prior studying did help with many sections.
After completing their program, I spent ~10 days doing a couple of GMAC CATs then re-took the exam. TTP allowed me to hit a 47 on Quant - this was a score I'd never seen before on any practice exam. Their style of embedding knowledge with deliberate practice made the second go of the test wonderful. It even helped my IR score jump from a 3 to a 6 mainly b/c of the deeper understanding I developed for relationships and principles.
One fear prior to joining TTP was whether doing non-GMAC questions would mimic the real test. I state with certainty that the hardest questions in TTP are harder than the hardest questions I encountered during my second shot at the GMAT. In fact, I did no OG questions the 2nd time around and I felt better prepared for the exam.
Deliberate practice with super tough questions after forming a deeper understanding of the material is what I needed and TTP offers just that. Couldn't recommend the program any higher. Scott and Jeff are available to talk when you have a question, which is pretty remarkable. And their integrity for not selling me a couple of quick $500 tutoring sessions when they knew it wasn't going to help is also commendable.
Even though an Indian, I am don't have an IT background and didn't have stellar quant skills. In fact before TTP, I used to think that maybe I am inherently bad at maths. My quant score in my first mock was an abysmal 31. It was at that time that I realized that I needed professional help. I scoured the net for good online courses and chanced upon TTP. It had the best reviews and after taking the 5 day trial I was convinced about it's efficacy and chose the maximum learning plan (self study).
The aspects of TTP that appealed to me most:
a. Brilliant interface - simple and easy to access.
b. Guidance - they have a fixed sequence of chapters progression and a very systematic study plan - you never have to guess what to do next.
c. Depth - they don't presume any level of knowledge and start from the very basics, building a strong foundation.
d. Analytics - weak areas (in terms of chapters as well as sub topics within chapters) are highlighted and error types can be logged for future reference.
e. Cost - most value for money. At ~200-250$, TTP holds it's weight respectably among the most premium options.
Results: I consistently scored 48-49 in mocks and in the actual GMAT, scored 48.
YOU WILL NOT REGRET TTP FOR GMAT QUANT! GET IT NOW IF YOU’RE SERIOUS ABOUT SCORING 700+
Before I started using TTP, my GMAT prep and practice test scores were inconsistent. Based on online reviews of the “best” materials available, I began studying for the GMAT with Manhattan Strategy Guides, Official Guide Questions, and the Free Official Practice Exams. While the Official GMAT Material is gold, don’t bother wasting your time with Manhattan’s Strategy Guides – there were not enough practice problems and I did way too much passive learning which lulled me into a false sense of security about how much I knew. On my first Official GMAT test, I scored a 670, falling 40 points below my practice test scores and 60 points below the 730 that I desperately wanted before applying to T10 business schools. A close friend of mine who had achieved a 760 with TTP recommended that I stop everything else and focus on TTP to achieve more consistency in my scores.
As a former engineering major, I had good math intuition, but still had a lot of gaps in knowledge from moving around a lot in middle school and high school. To achieve 49+ on Quant, I really needed a program that solidified my knowledge base through an engaging development of theoretical knowledge and practical application of concepts through MANY DRILLS. My goal for GMAT math was to develop muscle memory so that solving math problems would feel just like riding a bicycle. I felt as though that level of comfort and consistency in solving problems would help reduce any anxiety I felt on test day. TTP provided that and so much more!
COMPLETING TTP REQUIRED TIME AND DEDICATION, BUT IT WAS WORTH IT IN THE END!!!!!
My only regret is that I didn’t start TTP sooner. It is very comprehensive and available at such a reasonable price. Give yourself ~2-3 months to diligently go through all the modules. TTP is not something that you should attempt to fully complete in a month. That being said, there is a short study plan you can follow if you are on a time crunch.
Immediately after signing up for TTP, Scott offered to do a call with me, where we identified my concern areas (work /rate, combinatorics/ probability, and advanced geometry) and mapped out a plan of action. I’m bad at following plans so, initially, I skipped around between the different modules and focused on the hard problems, which quickly proved to be a big mistake. The modules really do build on each other and I needed to work through the easy and medium problems first to identify my knowledge gaps and building a strong foundation. Working from the ground up takes awhile, but it really is the best approach. I complemented TTP with the two additional Official GMAT Exam Packs offered by GMAC.
My favorite parts of the TTP platform:
1. ANALYTICS: Not only does TTP provide a dashboard that displays your accuracy and predicted score range, it also allows you to DRILL into the topic and subtopic areas that you are weak on and directs you to the chapters where you can review the relevant material. This level of detailed analysis was so incredibly helpful in establishing a strong foundation. I would spend a lot of time reviewing the topics that I had below 50% accuracy on and paid attention to these topics when doing OG questions and practice tests. The analytics section is also useful because if you have data-driven insights on what your strong and weak sections are, you KNOW which sections to focus on versus skip over on the actual test. Previously, I was relying on my gut to gauge which questions were difficult or would take me a long time to complete, an approach that was not always accurate.
2. TARGET TEST PREP FORMULA SHEET: Target Test Prep provides a helpful cheat sheet of formulas. I printed out this sheet and as I went through the TTP course and Official Problems, I would jot down additional formulas and tricks that I thought were important, but that I would most likely forget a few days later. I looked over my “customized” TTP cheat sheet in the days leading up to my exam.
3. ACTIVE REVIEW SHEETS: TTP Provides Active Review Sheets that you can print out and take notes on as you go through the different chapters. I found it extremely helpful to note the different permutations of a specific problem type on these sheets, especially if it was on a topic that was one of my weakness areas e.g., work/rate problems. People emphasize error logs a lot, but I think having clear, brief notes on the different problems you might encounter on test day is also helpful to review in the weeks leading up to the exam. As I reviewed my notes, which also served as a kind of checklist, I was able to reassure myself that I knew enough, had covered all of my gaps, and was ready to take this test!
4. VIDEO LESSONS: Each chapter has video lessons. I would often review videos on my morning commute or when I had down time. Active learning is best, but sometimes it was nice to just watch videos passively to refresh my memory on a particular topic.
5. FLEXIBLE: Because I am a self-directed learner, I found the well-designed platform offered the flexibility I needed to focus on my personalized needs at times that were most convenient to me.
THE BIGGEST BENEFIT TTP PROVIDED WAS CONSISTENCY IN MY QUANT SCORES.
Post TTP, I only scored 49+ on the Quant section of my practice exams and official exam. Before I took my official test, I signed up for Kaplan’s Official Test Day Experience, to get a feel for what it’s like to take a GMAT practice test at the same test center as my actual GMAT. Although I had to use a Kaplan Practice Test rather than an Official Practice Test during this experience, I found it SO HELPFUL to go through the motions of test day a few weeks before the real thing.
On test day, I found myself extremely comfortable with most of the easy and medium questions. There were still some hard quant curveballs that got me towards the end of the test, but overall it went really smoothly, and I was ecstatic when I saw that 770 at the end of the exam! I hope this helps, and remember that persistence and active practice is key on your GMAT journey!
Would be good to hear how you balanced your verbal commitments with the TTP course?
I also used the Target Test Prep flexible program and found it much better than some of the other materials I used (Kaplan, examPAL). My weakness was in Quant not so much verbal however to keep my verbal fresh before test day which was on October 15th, 2018 I purchased the Official GMAT Verbal questions and practiced for about an hour each day (I studied verbal for 3+ hours). In terms of verbal nothing is better than the official questions. I also practiced with the Official Quant questions and was very comfortable with them because Target Test Prep's questions are very similar to the ones you'll see on test day. Hope that helps!
Before starting Target Test Prep (TTP), I spent so much time and energy utilizing various books and online platforms. For my 2nd retake of the test, I decided to prepare with Magoosh and walked out of the exam DEVESTATED. My quant score had plummeted from my 1st test score and I sat there in my car thinking “how did I get dumber?” As soon as I got home, I signed up for TTP. My friends who were taking the GMAT SWORE by it, so I knew that it was time to give it a try.
I began TTP and was impressed by how thorough the platform was. Because I used so many other platforms, I would always notice when one platform failed to teach a certain concept. That was never the case with TTP.
At one point during my TTP program, I came to a brief halt. I told Jeff that the reason that I hadn’t started the combinations chapter was because I had found combinations to be so challenging in the past and I was scared. He assured me that TTP’s combinations chapter was great so I begrudgingly started the chapter. Jeff was ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! I felt so comfortable with combinations after that chapter, which was amazing because I had been struggling with them for months. TTP did an outstanding job of simplifying topics I had previously struggled with, such as geometry, combinations, probability, and number properties.
Before TTP, I dreaded taking practice exams because my math basics were so shaky. When I took my 1st post TTP practice test, I thought to myself “this seems too easy. I must be failing”. Nope! I just had a really strong grasp of the material. Post TTP, I only scored 49Q and 50Q on my practice and actual exams and I was so proud of myself.
When my friends who are about to start the GMAT process come to me for advice, I always tell them not to waste their time with other platforms and to start with TTP. My biggest GMAT regret is wasting my time and money on all of these other platforms for 7 months when I should’ve just started with TTP.
TTP is in my opinion the best Quant resource out there. Scott and Jeff are the gurus who put together this platform that teaches you all you need to master for scoring the highest score possible. The interface is clean and intuitive, allowing you to focus on what's most important: Learning the materials
Also, I found the personal tutoring session extremely valuable. They drill down on topics, making sure you can solve the problems on your own the most efficient way without sacrificing accuracy.
I highly recommend TTP to anyone who wants to improve their Quant score from any level.
I started studying for the GMAT middle of last year when I took a Manhattan GMAT course. Upon completion of the course I felt I knew the material but realized that was not the case when I took the actual exam. Next I utilized magoosh which improved my quant score a little bit but no where near where I had desired. After magoosh I tried TTP as a a friend swore by it. I utilized the course as well as Jeff once a week for private tutoring. TTP excels in breaking down each topic thoroughly. After utilizing TTP and Jeff my quant score increased 10 points to a 48. Would definitely recommend this service to anyone struggling with Quant.
Target Test Prep was truly invaluable in my prep for the GMAT. Before coming to Target Test Prep I felt like I had tried almost everything - Manhattan GMAT, Manhattan Review, Veritas, Varsity Tutors, Magoosh. I officially had the GMAT blues and was feeling a bit hopeless. Through Target Test Prep, though, I was able to raise my score from a 640 to a 730, a score I am incredibly proud.
After chatting with Jeff Miller at TTP for the first time, I immediately felt more hopeful and confident that I could master the GMAT. He explained that many people complete courses from other GMAT prep companies and still find themselves in the same situation I was in - I needed more thorough prep catered to my individual needs. The curriculum at TTP, written by Scott Woodbury Stewart, is the best GMAT quant prep resource I’ve found to exist (and I tried a lot of them). It is incredibly thorough and comprehensive. Jeff was also such an amazing teacher and cheerleader - he gave me more pep talks than I thought it was possible for one to give. I cannot thank him and Target Test Prep enough.
Target Test Prep is the best online software available to study and conquer the GMAT exam bar none. The website is user friendly, the platform excellent, and the material first rate. I would not even consider nor would I recommend anyone use another software or prep. I found Jeff and Scott to be awesome individuals to work with and very accessible. My score improved tremendously as a result of the material provided by Target Test Prep. The material was very applicable to the GMAT exam, the practice tests were on par with what I experienced during the exam and I could not have improved my score without TTP.
TTP was excellent. I did the personal study sessions with Jeff who was a great teacher. We went through the material systematically, and I saw real, tangible progress every week. Jeff was beyond just a tutor, he was someone that truly cared about my progress., and was a real sounding board during the ups and downs of the GMAT process. The online platform are great too. Very user friendly, clear, and organized. I was able to methodically work through my trouble areas, all while tracking my progress and messing my performance week to week. If I had to do it all over again I'd definitely use TTP. Can't say enough about Target Test Prep
This is a course review right? Is tutoring included in the course? Did your vrebal score go up too because that is not a part of a math course and should not be included in this review. This feels fishy!!!
My understanding from reading debriefs on the forum is that Scott and Jeff answer questions and if needed so calls with folks who struggle. It is not an advertised aspect of the program but from what I have read the support they provide is really helpful and genuine. This person seems to have also requested tutoring which is not included in the course obviously...
PS. This is a 2-year old review so I am not sure this person is going to be around to reply but they registered in 2013 and reviewed the course in 2017. I doubt it was a fake account... I am not sure TTP was around back then :-)
This is a fantastic review, as I went down almost the exact same path with MGMAT > Magoosh > OG > etc. I am starting TTP this week. Do you have any general advice to better retain the information or any other general tips for things you would do differently if you could go back? Also, did you incorporate verbal review into your studying over those 10 weeks?