GMAT Strategy

Editor's note: Knewton update as of August 2010

Read Knewton reviews: We have over 30 Knewton course reviews written by Beat The GMAT members https://reviews.beatthegmat.com/knewton

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Any reviews on this company? I came across them on an AD from google today and was curious to see if anyone has tried them out.

I'm interning with them pretty soon. Any Qs that you'll would like me to ask?

All rightey then, I am in the knewton office today and will be here for a coupla days. Anything you want to know feel free to ask, and i shall try and get an answer at the earliest.

Might do an interview if i can enough Qs and if they are willing/have time

Hey Neo, would just be interested to hear your overall impressions of knewton- do you think they're on to something there? Is there good technology behind it? Do you think their system works?

jeremycarr wrote:Hey Neo, would just be interested to hear your overall impressions of knewton- do you think they're on to something there? Is there good technology behind it? Do you think their system works?

I think what they are doing is very interesting. I've taught classroom and online so i know the limitations of both. I spent a good bit of time with Brad, who is Faculty Director and he walked me through the entire online teaching setup at Knewton. I saw the sound-proof classroom where classes are taught and he also took me through a mock classroom. Brad admitted that the first time even he wasn't sure about the whole online teaching because of the biggest limitations is that you cant see your students face as you teach and as a teacher, one picks up very quickly the visual signs that a student hasnt understood something. Knewton works around this by having TA- Teaching Assistants who assist the teacher as the class goes on. Any student can ask a Q at any point and it goes to a list of Qs. Now, depending on the teacher (apparently Dahn Tamir takes ALL the Qs!!) TAs either answer the Q or pass it on to the teacher. So, a student can get a personal answer straightaway or if the teacher thinks its a Q that would benefit everybody else, he makes it visible to all the students. I thought this was a great idea! I mean, i've seen it happen over and over again. A student is unsure of something but prefers to sit quietly rather than ask. Which doesn't help at all. In the privacy of the online world, you can ask whatever you want and not worry about what the others are going to think of you. In fact. Brad reveals they had one student who asked so many Qs, they had to dedicate 1 TA exclusively to him!!

They currently use Adobe Connect to teach the classes. That software is impressive. And powerful!! The tech team at Knewton claim they can build something similar AND better in 2weeks but Brad's not too keen to take them up on their bet

I havent taken their course myself so i dont know if it "works".What they are doing though seems to cover many of the short-comings in today's traditional classes. They've got a great line-up of teachers which is impressive. The software they've built constantly calculates your potential GMAT score based on the way you are performing in class or on the tests or on the practice Qs. It can be pretty heartening to see yourself at a 600 and watch as your practice steadily pushes that up to a 700+

Are they on to something?? Probably

So, neo2000 what the current status?
Do you teach for Knewton?

I see knewton GMAT is one of the partners now...

aim-wsc wrote:So, neo2000 what the current status?
Do you teach for Knewton?

I see knewton GMAT is one of the partners now...

LOL! no i dont have the 99percentile score that Knewton requires of teachers. Not to mention they've already got impressive teachers :-p

I just scored a 720 on my test two days back, and improved on my previous highest test score by 60 points.

Heres my review on Knewton

The Positives :

1) Very helpful set of people. They reply back to all your queries with a lot of detail and you can expect most responses back within 24 hours. I have got responses on Sunday as well, at times.

2) Online learning works . Their site is adaptive, and it generally throws questions to you which it feels you are weaker on.

3) 50 pt guarantee should work for most. I improved my score by 60 points from 660 to 720. Also I had a balanced score as Knewton focuses equally on Quant and Verbal . I have read that a lopsided high score is inferior to a balanced score with the same total.

4) Although many people feel that Knewtons questions are a rip off of the Official material, this strategy works. They drill the Test Prep Makers strategies into your head, and you are far better off doing questions that are similiar to those that you will see on the exam. The SC in verbal were a breeze, as I could spot most errors with ease.

6) Their Quant Strategy and Verbal strategy sections are excellent. They do significantly improve your skills at choosing the correct answer, or atleast chosing between 2 answers , when you are in doubt.

7) Despite many complaining that Knewton Diagnostic isnt a valid interpretation of your actual ability , the truth is that my final scores are more in line with their tests than the Official Gmatprep. This is also because many GMATPrep problems are already tackled by most of us on this forum or in the Vebal and Quant guides, while practicing.

Again for the money back guarantee , they chose the highest of your two previous scores. Either the Offical GMAT or their diagnostic.. So if you score a 660 on their test and have scored 690 on your actual test , earlier , your money back guarantee is based on your baseline of 690.
They could have very easily selected to use the lower of both scores, or just use their diagnostic for the money back guarantee. The fact that they used thehigher score means that they are confident in their material and techniques, and the overall Knewton product. I feel very comfortable in recommending Knewton to any future candidate looking for a one- two month testprep.
8) Instructors on Knewton are top notch, and the live sessions are fabulous. I attend the classes twice. Once live and once I went through the archives. It definiately helped. On many ocassions the TA spent more than 20 minutes with me after class to take me through individual concepts.

9) The guys are value for money. The course isnt expensive, given the fact that they have been offering discounts on most courses off late.

10) Videos of most individual topics , where you are weak, are an excellent way to strengthen your concepts.

11) You cant rewind a live class, but at Knewton you can see atleast two archived lessons on each class, with different instructors, and also attend a live class in addition to that.

Negatives

1) The tests on Knewton specially the Quant section is simpler than the actual GMAT. I was able to complete all tests with 5 minutes to spare, but on my actual GMAT I was gasping for time.

2) There is no printed material offered to support your online learning. The practice questions are to be answered online. But you can take print outs of the material should you need them.

Overall Review

Can confidently recommend Knewton to any candidate looking at improving his test score. They deserve a 5/5 . But Ill give them a 4.5, because they can still improve on the Quant practice tests.

As a current student I can provide some input based on my limited experience.

Firstly, the CEO of Knewton is a mastermind. He got his MBA in HBS and worked for Kaplan. He truly developed a domain expertise and then was able to launch Knewton. In the first class, he presents many of the points in favor of getting an MBA. His expertise seems solid and he clearly gets along well with his students and leaves an impression. Over and above this, he's very open minded and approachable. He definitely provides a sense of trust and confidence and has led me to have faith in this group of people. Now about the course itself:

The first thing I would recommend for you to would be to form a basis of judgement about Knewton. To do this, simply sign up and get involved in their trial period. Sign up - for free - give it a try. You can attend a live class, access some of the concept videos, or even take a diagnostic test. After all, my opinion is just another one, it is subjective and the best way for you to know something is to experience it on your own rather than read my experience.

1. Professors - I am going to talk about the people first because it is truly the most important factor of production and they are the most important intangible resource at Knewton. All the professors are based New York teaching via Adobe Platforms online - this not only creates operational efficiency but also enables consumers to get the TOP TOP NOTCH teaching. All their professors are not only incredibly smart in their fields but they are extremely passionate, energetic, and collaborative. They seriously channel so much motivation that you feel like doing all the GMAT problems right after class. The mix of technical expertise + educational transfer of knowledge is present so far in my experience.

2. Classroom Live - During the class sessions, there are two professors who are being broadcasted and there is a teaching assistant helping you with your query's. Additionally, the slides are broadcasted and any supplementary material is available for those. It's not a boring lecture, but an engaged hands on session (nice because it starts to prepare you for business school). Everything is extremely well organized and coordinated in your screen and you need not to worry about a thing. If you miss, there are archives of all the lectures taught by other professors. So you can access the class anytime. If you want to truly learn something and get different perspective - you can attend the live class and view the archives of the same class to get a more accurate grounding on the subject (this is not a necessity, but for some it helps engrain certain concepts).

4. 50 point money back guarantee - basically if you don't get 50 points from your baseline score (1st diagnostic) they give you your money back. Mr. Ferreira in his initial speech mentioned that there have been students who surpassed this and have gotten 100, 200, and even 300 point increases. However, all this with dedication, effort, and hard work. Also, as per the previous post, I wasn't aware that many people complained about the diagnostic as it is misrepresentative of your actual score in terms of quant ... but essentially it translates into them giving you a (50 point + margin of error) money back guarantee. So, look it at from the bright side. I still, however, am skeptical about this and would love to hear a representative from Knewton regarding this issue.

5. The system - the system is very well organized and has all the tests youve taken, all the concepts you need to learn based on the answers you have provided for all the questions. Basically, Knewton adapts to you and figures out what are your weak areas and then introduces concepts + practice to improve. I'll leave this to an expert :P

6. Feedback service - Any questions, queries, suggestions, tips--> within 24 hours you have your answers and on top of that there are office hours - even on sundays.

It spent quite a long time surveying the industry of GMAT prep courses before actually joining and I opted for two online tools - Knewton, and Grockit. I think both make the GMAT not a grueling test but a fun intellectually stimulating experience that can truly be beaten if you have the right tools, adopt a strategy, and follow thru.

As a soon to be MBA entrepreneurship student - I think that Knewton is doing extremely well. It is building up its brand extremely quickly - thru brand associations, quality service, and deep domain expertise from Mr. Ferreira. Aside from these factors, its competitive advantage is innovation and a lean operation- their adaptive software is unheard of in the industry. And last but most importantly, the human resource factor - highly motivated brilliant minds. All this will be reflected in customers experience who will come back to forums like this one when they beat the GMAT and talk about "Their Knewton Experience." If Knewton goes public, I'm investing!

Looking forward to my 3rd class tomorrow :) Hope my post wasn't too boring or repetitive.


Jasdeep Lamba

I took knewton's free gmat test and scored 660 (Q45, V35). How close would this score be to the real GMAT score? any idea?

I felt quant was quite easy, I missed only 4 Qs (all silly mistakes) but still got only Q45

Verbal was OK.. SC was easy .. I found CRs to be quite challenging though...

..

Jajij,

Sorry that we have not lived up to your expectations. We work very hard to provide our students with the best GMAT course around.

Please shoot me an email at JoshATKnewton.com -- and I'd be happy look over your progress with you and see what we can do to boost your score on the test.

Sincerely,
Josh

There is definitely some dishonesty going on here. I suspect it is on the part of Knewton. On several verbal exams I have scored as follows:
Princeton Review 46, 46, 45, 43
Pearson Vue 45, 44

I just took the Knewton practice exam and my verbal score was 34. Am I the only one who sees a disparity here?

I see this is your first post, nibake -- welcome to the community! Not sure what you'd be saying is dishonest, but I don't see any 34's on our free CAT in the last few hours. Anyway, I am happy to help you look at your results if you have an inquiry. Feel free to PM me.

Best,
Chris