590 -> 720 in 22 days [48Q 40V unofficial]

[dareborn]

This is my story. I took the GMAT today.

My journey is different in the sense that I only used one program and I studied for only 22 days.

I strongly recommend the program I used: The Economist GMAT Tutor.

I subscribed to this program after reading some positive reviews online. I subscribed to the 'Complete Prep' (cheapest one, approx 300 bucks -> one GMAT). I started the program on January 21st, 2014.

The program accumulates the total number of hours you have put into each section. In my case, I studied 30 hours and 3 minutes for Quant, 22 hours and 6 minutes for Verbal (Approximately 52 hours). I completed 75% of the entire course by the time I took the GMAT.

I am not paid to advertise, but this program is really worth the money. On the first day of subscription, I completed a simulation test and scored a mere 590 (Q39 V34).

The program gives you 4 simulation tests in total.

January 26 - 590 (Q45 V27)

I left to UK for a week of holidays.

February 16 - 690 (Q50 V36)
February 19 - 650 (Q50 V30)

Take note that I never scored higher than 700 in my practice exams. The Economist GMAT score forecast showed that I should achieve a score ranging from 650 to 700. I was rather surprised when I received my score of 720. Economist GMAT Tutor greatly strengthened my verbal section. My final score represents the 94th percentile. During the exam I was aware that I did not do well in my Quant section, I also did not manage to finish either sections on time (1 question from completion in both cases).

Really do consider The Economist GMAT Tutor when deciding what study material to use for preparation! I studied a little over 2 and a half hours a day, as long as you distribute your work over a span of time anything is possible!

[dareborn]

One thing I should add, The Economist Tutor program runs on artificial intelligence, meaning that the difficulty and progress of the course depends on how you perform in each separate topic. The program is tailored to strengthen your weaknesses.

[sopori.ashish]

Congrats!
Could you elaborate on how your performance jumped from 590 to 690?

[deepeshb]

What do u mean by unofficial ? Is this post more of a promotion tactic to promote the Economist prep course ? Incase its not bravo ! Kindly elaborate on the strategy employed I'd like to boost my score from 580 to 700+ too..have been trying for a while and have enrolled in the online course with a well known program..

[dareborn]

Congrats!
Could you elaborate on how your performance jumped from 590 to 690?

In my first simulation test, I did really poorly in my quantitative section (SO many careless errors). The Tutor program automatically focused on the basic algebra, geometry and alot of data sufficiency questions. The program is free to try for a week, I finished 25% of the content in a week and I thought it was worth the investment. You guys can give it a try too, you'll understand what I mean when I say that the program adapts to you. Also, they introduced a specific strategy to tackle sentence correction, ALOT of grammar review. I also scheduled one tutor session, she introduced me to englishpage.com which helped with my SC even more.

I was really disappointed to see my grade unchanged at 590 before I left for UK. I guess my week in UK raelly helped because I could relax quite a bit before school started. When I came back, I had a tight school schedule (I'm in my final semester, loads of mandatory project work) so my study pace slowed down quite a bit. I also went back to gym (I was really lazy during my winter break), I think this helped quite alot because the exercise provided me with a lot more energy to focus GMAT.

I reached around 60% of the content by Feb 16th and decided to give another shot at the simulation exam. That is when I scored 690 (you can notice the drastic improvement in my Q and V), this gave me alot of confidence because I set my real exam on the 21st.

Feel free to ask me more if you have any additional questions!!

[dareborn]

What do u mean by unofficial ? Is this post more of a promotion tactic to promote the Economist prep course ? Incase its not bravo ! Kindly elaborate on the strategy employed I'd like to boost my score from 580 to 700+ too..have been trying for a while and have enrolled in the online course with a well known program..

When you finish the GMAT, you get an unofficial score report that day, that is what I meant by unofficial. (It is very likely that my final score is the same as the one on the unofficial score report)

I didn't plan or specifically prepare a strategy, I just completed 75% of The Economist Course and went for my GMAT. I spent 2 to 3 hours every day on the program (not in one go, but usually in 4 30-minute sessions, something you can set in the program). I also did short 10 to 15 minute sessions on the bus/train when I travel.

To be honest, the program is free for its first week, you should give it a try and you'll understand what I mean. It is quite a hefty investment but after my trial week I thought it was worth the investment. But, of course, you might not think the same.

[Sky78]

It is bit hard to believe... your verbal score jumped from 27 to 40 in just 22 days... There are certain red flags in your post...(1) You joined this forum 21 Feb and posted your success story on same day ? Why ? Did you join just to post this ? (2) There is no strategy at all other than Economic tutor course... Could you please elaborate what magic they do in 22 days ? There are many non-native speakers - including me - who have been prepairing for months and hardly see any improvement in verbal. 3-4 points jump is acceptable but 13 points jump in JUST 22 days... WOW

[sofia_gmat]

yeah your post makes me have some doubts too...it just feels that you scored 590 on your first exam cause you were either too relaxed because it's just a diagnostic test or you weren't having any contact with algebra etc so just 3 weeks were enough for you to refresh your memory or something. What I am trying to say is that your case isn't much representative and the advice you are giving may not work for 99% of people here. It will be sad if all of the desperate people who have just few weeks left will spend so much money on the Economist course and not get the result.

Also I am saying this firstly because I scored 410 on my first test and 500 in 2 weeks! It happened because I didn't know at all math and technical words like odd, integer, equilateral, isosceles etc., so I just didn't understand the questions. Secondly, I did the 7 day Economist prep too and it didn't let me go further than 18% saying that according to their policy i exceeded the limit. So I wonder, why did it let you do 1/4 of the prep....

[dareborn]

It is bit hard to believe... your verbal score jumped from 27 to 40 in just 22 days... There are certain red flags in your post...(1) You joined this forum 21 Feb and posted your success story on same day ? Why ? Did you join just to post this ? (2) There is no strategy at all other than Economic tutor course... Could you please elaborate what magic they do in 22 days ? There are many non-native speakers - including me - who have been prepairing for months and hardly see any improvement in verbal. 3-4 points jump is acceptable but 13 points jump in JUST 22 days... WOW

The way the program is structured is to tackle the questions with a systematic approach. My SC improved drastically because I was able to instantaneously eliminate answers based on certain sequences/words appearing in the text. Yes, I joined just to share my story because I believe that more people should benefit from the program, since I read so many stories of inefficient preparation.

I have to be honest, I just followed the topics that was automatically assigned to me by the program. The program ADAPTS to you, it focuses on your weaknesses and improves it. My weakness was data sufficiency and SC so most of the time the program gave those kind of questions.

[dareborn]

yeah your post makes me have some doubts too...it just feels that you scored 590 on your first exam cause you were either too relaxed because it's just a diagnostic test or you weren't having any contact with algebra etc so just 3 weeks were enough for you to refresh your memory or something. What I am trying to say is that your case isn't much representative and the advice you are giving may not work for 99% of people here. It will be sad if all of the desperate people who have just few weeks left will spend so much money on the Economist course and not get the result.

Also I am saying this firstly because I scored 410 on my first test and 500 in 2 weeks! It happened because I didn't know at all math and technical words like odd, integer, equilateral, isosceles etc., so I just didn't understand the questions. Secondly, I did the 7 day Economist prep too and it didn't let me go further than 18% saying that according to their policy i exceeded the limit. So I wonder, why did it let you do 1/4 of the prep....

For your interest, I am a non-native speaker also (Hong Kong Chinese). I study engineering and I am in the final year of my bachelors. I think the reason I did so poorly in the first time is mainly because I was really not accustomed to data sufficiency questions, not that I have not been using algebra in the recent past. If you look at the simulation test I did on the 26th (5 days after), I did really poorly in my verbal but improved drastically for my quant. I think my first test verbal score was a fluke.

I know what you mean, as I said, it is a hefty investment. That is why I used my trial week to the max before I decided to purchase this. I don't know why you got to 18% is the limit for you, well it was 25 for me.

[dareborn]

People say a picture is worth a thousand words. If these screenshots dont convince you and you still think I am paid to advertise, then just press back and read another post. To be honest, the program costs approximately the same as 6 kaplan/princeton books, but guarantees results. Also, it worked for me but maybe not for you. I am just suggesting a more efficient prep tool. Another reason that pushed me to purchase this is that I don't have time(late feb!!) and I needed a good GMAT score (i have a rather low GPA of 3.2).










Wish you all the best of luck.

[Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT]

Hi all,

Congratulations, dareborn, on your very impressive score improvement! That is really quite a feat, and I know you must have put in a lot of time and effort into your GMAT prep.

And I can confirm to all of the conspiracy theorists out there that dareborn is not an undercover Economist employee.

While a huge jump in a GMAT score is extremely impressive, it's not uncommon, and this underscores the amount of work dareborn put into his/her studies. The Economist GMAT Tutor guarantees a score improvement of either 50 or 70 points, depending on the level of plan you choose. And interestingly, we just conducted a survey of past students and found that about a quarter of all students had a score increase of at least 90 points.

We recently launched a feature on our blog to showcase students' stories (https://gmat.economist.com/blog/category/student-stories), and if you'd like to be featured, dareborn, just email me at [email protected]. We'd love to learn your study secrets!

Thanks for sharing your story!

Regards,

Elizabeth

[bdrrr]

HI Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT,

I am Bruno, I believe we've already exchanged a few emails regarding the Economist GMAT Tutor Android App.

From dareborn initial post, I noticed this:

I subscribed to the 'Complete Prep' (cheapest one, approx 300 bucks -> one GMAT).

While here:
https://gmat.economist.com/plans
I do not see such ~$300 plan.

Has it been discontinued? Is it a special rate? Can you please give details on this detail from dareborn?

Given dareborn feedback, I am going to do some more research on the Economist GMAT offer, on top of the one I did regarding your Apps. I could consider the described ~$300 plan.

[happyis]

Exactly what i noticed. I'm waiting for a reply from them also.

HI Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT,

I am Bruno, I believe we've already exchanged a few emails regarding the Economist GMAT Tutor Android App.

From dareborn initial post, I noticed this:

I subscribed to the 'Complete Prep' (cheapest one, approx 300 bucks -> one GMAT).

While here:
https://gmat.economist.com/plans
I do not see such ~$300 plan.

Has it been discontinued? Is it a special rate? Can you please give details on this detail from dareborn?

Given dareborn feedback, I am going to do some more research on the Economist GMAT offer, on top of the one I did regarding your Apps. I could consider the described ~$300 plan.

[dareborn]

sorry for the typo!!! i meant 300 euros! i used a discount code i found on google