Beat The GMAT - the MBA Social Network

Hi everyone! I’m David Park, Beat The GMAT’s CEO. As some of you may know, Eric and I have been working together closely over the last three years in order to transform Beat The GMAT from its beginnings as a simple discussion forum into the large GMAT/MBA portal it is today.

I’m happy to announce the launch of Beat The GMAT’s new Verified GMAT Course Reviews directory today!

While working on Beat The GMAT over the last couple years, I’ve seen many members ask if they should take a GMAT prep course, or which course was right for them. Picking the right course is a critical decision for obvious reasons. I’ve also seen many other sites that tried to create GMAT course review directories. But none of them did a good job. Most of the other sites only have a few reviews. And even the reviews that are out there aren’t particularly informative.

So I was thinking about Beat The GMAT in the shower a couple months ago when a eureka moment hit me like a tank. (Sorry about the mental image – but we’re nothing if not brutally honest here at Beat The GMAT!) Why not build our own directory of GMAT course reviews? After all, Beat The GMAT is the largest and most active GMAT/MBA community on the Internet. Many of you have taken GMAT courses. Even if only some of you shared your experiences, we could build a real decision engine that would help all students make more informed decisions about GMAT prep courses.

Of course, a review directory is only as good as the reviews in it. Not only do you need lots of reviews, but you need lots of real reviews from real students. So our team decided to verify that the people who wrote the reviews had actually bought the courses.

Because of Beat The GMAT’s position as the leading GMAT/MBA portal, all the national test prep companies agreed to help us verify all reviews without having the ability to read the reviews first – positive or negative. They only receive information related to the purchase. You can learn more this process on the Verified GMAT Reviews Process page.

The entire Beat The GMAT team is super-excited about our Verified GMAT Course Reviews directory. Although we quietly launched this new feature last week, we already have more GMAT course reviews than any other site. Today, you can find detailed reviews of each of the national GMAT test prep companies. In the future, we’d like you to find detailed reviews for any specific GMAT test prep location. Ultimately, we’d like you to even find reviews of individual teachers because your teacher makes the biggest difference in your experience.

We hope that you find the Verified GMAT Course Reviews directory helpful. Just as importantly, we hope that you’ll help other Beat The GMAT members by writing your own GMAT course review.

Oh, and don’t worry. You’ll be seeing more of me in the coming months (although not in the shower).