GMAT Strategy

Dear All,

Has anyone heard of a NextStepTestPrep tutoring company? If so, how good are they comparing to many other GMAT prep companies such as Manhattan GMAT courses/tutoring classes, Kaplan, etc.? What about a self-study? Is it possible to improve by 250-300 points by self-studying? Please advise. Thank you.

Gugandra,

I'll offer you a completely unbiased opinion based off of my experiences - It is possible to improve your score by self-studying. HOWEVER, I would say it is a million times easier/ more efficient to do it with a tutor. Why? Because they know exactly how the test works and have figured out all the minute details of the test that they will probably tell you so that you don't have to learn it the hard, slow way. They will also teach you how to actually study for the test. If you have the money you should consider Manhattan Gmat's tutors. There are people who post here all the time that are extremely good at what they do. If you spend some time looking around you will see experts from different prep companies answering people's questions and giving more efficient ways of solving problems than GMAT does. In fact, I am willing to bet pretty heavily you will have some great responses to this post. Final thoughts - know yourself. If you are brilliant you may not need anyone's help. However, getting a professional's help will make the whole process much easier and make it more enjoyable. Trust me, I know because I am doing it the hard way.

-BP

Hey bplley00,

Thank you for your response! I agree with you that with the help of tutors I can most likely learn better and more efficiently but how to choose the right one, because they cost a lot of money and I don't think you can get a refund if you don't like the way they teach after a couple of hours tutoring? Thus, I really need to know which tutoring company provides the best service. I contacted one of the MBA consulting companies about their services and they recommended nextsteptestprep company saying that they are #1 on one-on-one tutoring services. I contacted them and it seems like their price is lower than the one Manhattan GMAT charges, but I have just heard of nextsteptestprep recently.

You are saying you are doing it a hardway. Are you preparing for the GMAT now? What is your strategy? How long have you been studying? What schools are you targeting? Maybe we can share some ideas?

Gugandra

Hey gugendra
I am myself preparing GMAT and have appeared twice with my score being 640 n 650 respectively I am now getting tutored by the KNEWTOB guys n I can tell you that I cn feel the difference. Though I intend to appear in the end of june but still I feel I am happy wid the way things are going. I am based in ahmedabad. Do feel free to mail me in case u need help.
Regards
Dr manish jain

bpolley00 wrote:Gugandra,

I'll offer you a completely unbiased opinion based off of my experiences - It is possible to improve your score by self-studying. HOWEVER, I would say it is a million times easier/ more efficient to do it with a tutor. Why? Because they know exactly how the test works and have figured out all the minute details of the test that they will probably tell you so that you don't have to learn it the hard, slow way. They will also teach you how to actually study for the test. If you have the money you should consider Manhattan Gmat's tutors. There are people who post here all the time that are extremely good at what they do. If you spend some time looking around you will see experts from different prep companies answering people's questions and giving more efficient ways of solving problems than GMAT does. In fact, I am willing to bet pretty heavily you will have some great responses to this post. Final thoughts - know yourself. If you are brilliant you may not need anyone's help. However, getting a professional's help will make the whole process much easier and make it more enjoyable. Trust me, I know because I am doing it the hard way.

-BP

Hi Brent,

You are absolutely right. Does your company provide tutoring services? If so, how much does it cost per hour? What is the minimum number of hours I need to register to if I want to use your services? Please advise. Thank you.

Gugandra

Gugandra,

Sorry for such the late response. I am getting ready to take it once more and I would say spend a good amount of time getting familiar with the test and the concepts being tested. I don't know about you but I haven't been use to playing with Sentence correction as I was a finance and Economics major. So I basically went through all the Manhattan books to get a solid base. Once you do that I would focus on the OG and GMATPREP. For my third time through, I have retyped out the entire OG book and GMATPREP pack 1 questions and organized them categorically. But basically, start with the basics and as you go along you should catch onto things and you will learn things and the general way the test works. My GMAT prep scores right now have ranged from 690 to a 740 so I am hoping it is closer to the 740 by the time I take the test for the third and final attempt in the next month.

As far as schools go, I have a few in mind, but we shall see based on my final score.

-BP

Hi, I am in similar dilemma. I have been an average commerce student. And its been 6 years since I gave any exam. Which also means all maths fundas look super new to me and grammar sounds latin. I have been scoring badly (just once I reached 500+, of my 3 mock tests). But, just a sider, I know I am not that bad. Its rusting and also completely out-of touch thing. And, I have never taken a tutor in my life (was an avergae kid, and didnt mind it that way).
But I have one more problem, I am aiming to give my test this December and apply to schools in coming year's enrollment. Which only means, I am on tight schedule. I have gone through the complete MGMAT course book pack. But, I have noticed, I take time connecting problems to fundas that I learnt, which leads to longer time spent on each problem (almost 2 to 2.5 mins per prob, which I know is unacceptable). And in Verbal section, I just dont get SC & RC

My target score is: 720

So, I would love to know:
1. Should I opt for a tutor or not?
2. Any good (read, great) tutor in Mumbai, anybody know of or took tutoring from?
3. Is online tutoring actually helpful? Does it work in achieving the target score?
4. Can a tutor actually be helpful in Verbal coz its just grammar and reading skills?

- KM

Hi, Gugandra. In my opinion, I think that having a private tutor will increase your chances of getting the GMAT scores you are aiming for. I am also in search of Vancouver tutoring services for GMAT preparation, and there's one that I found that looks promising: www.MyGradeBooster.com. Has anyone tried their services?

I've had private tutoring and I did self study, too. Some of the pro's of self study are that you can go at your own pace, youre not limited to the time constraints of tutoring, its much more cost effective, you can spend as much time as you want on any particular topic without having to ask a tutor to constantly repeat himself. Conversely, when you're having issues solving a problem, it takes more time for you to understand your mistakes.

Some of the benefits of tutors are that you have a mentor to guide you, and if you're lucky, the tutor will love what he teaches and that's contagious. Also, having a tutor really helps one learn the most efficient ways to solve problems.

I'd suggest that if you did get a tutor, you should try to to do some self study first to develop some good questions.