Hi guys, I took my GMAT on Nov 7 and scored a 730 (45 V 44 Q), my first practice test in October I scored a 630. I took about 3-4 weeks of studying an hour or so during the weekdays and doing a practice test on the weekends. The main tool I used was Empowergmat. I was pretty strong in the verbal from the beginning, but they still taught me a few great tricks that helped me get into the 99th percentile. I was able to learn these tricks really fast, every lesson had a new little trick that helped me score big.
For the Quant, I was pretty horrible when I first started. Within the first week of studying on Empower my quant score improved a lot, and I got a 690 on my next practice test. Seriously, at first I thought I would just use the OG books and do a bunch of practice problems, but I'm so glad I found Empower. It's so much cheaper than most of the other services ($99 a month for unlimited access to all of the study materials on all subjects), and they taught me tricks that could be applied to most quant problems. I don't think my score would have increased so fast if it weren't for the lessons. And I only paid for one month, so it was only $99. All the lessons were really easy to understand and you could do as many or as few as you needed to. Some of the lessons I didn't really need, so I just skipped them, whereas some of them I needed more practice with. They give you certain practice problems to do from the OG books to teach you concepts so you don't have to waste time doing every problem in the book.
For me, having only a month to study was fine, but they also have multiple month packages to save money, and study plans for all different time lines. I probably viewed less than 10% of the content on their site, there were soooo many more lessons I wish I'd had time for.
They also have a 70 point increase guarantee, where if you study with them a lot and your score doesn't increase 70 points, you can get some/all of your money back. Obviously I didn't get to use that but it's a nice offer! I would highly recommend them!
For the Quant, I was pretty horrible when I first started. Within the first week of studying on Empower my quant score improved a lot, and I got a 690 on my next practice test. Seriously, at first I thought I would just use the OG books and do a bunch of practice problems, but I'm so glad I found Empower. It's so much cheaper than most of the other services ($99 a month for unlimited access to all of the study materials on all subjects), and they taught me tricks that could be applied to most quant problems. I don't think my score would have increased so fast if it weren't for the lessons. And I only paid for one month, so it was only $99. All the lessons were really easy to understand and you could do as many or as few as you needed to. Some of the lessons I didn't really need, so I just skipped them, whereas some of them I needed more practice with. They give you certain practice problems to do from the OG books to teach you concepts so you don't have to waste time doing every problem in the book.
For me, having only a month to study was fine, but they also have multiple month packages to save money, and study plans for all different time lines. I probably viewed less than 10% of the content on their site, there were soooo many more lessons I wish I'd had time for.
They also have a 70 point increase guarantee, where if you study with them a lot and your score doesn't increase 70 points, you can get some/all of your money back. Obviously I didn't get to use that but it's a nice offer! I would highly recommend them!
