There are a few things which are really good about the GMAT Tutor from the Economist:

- Personalized guidance from the tutor, in this case was Issac, who was very patient and gave valuable tips
- Good pacing, if you dedicate approximately 70 hours in total, you should be able to finish the course in three months
- Good for students who are working / parenting at the same time as the courses are fluent and not just questions, there is a simple feedback system
- Dynamically changing question set ensures that the full list of questions are taught
- Short 30 minutes quick lessons such that you can still fit in the course when you are too busy; this can be extended to a longer time period

Minus points:

- Relatively expensive for an online course
- Ability to only choose from Quant/Qual; and not in a more granular axis - for example if you would like to focus on data sufficiency etc

My suggestion is still, take the course for 7 days - there should be a trial period, to see if you would like the format before you take the plunge.

It's great for someone looking for an adaptive testing tool. I like the set up and ease of use. Pumped to take the GMAT!

I took Knewton about a year ago. Hated it. It was a waste of time, money and concentration.

The GMAT tutor is different. Their program goes through the quant (which is what I need help on) very well. Whenever I have had a question the tutors have emailed with the answer. Finally, at least for me, confidence seems to be a large portion of the test. The staff over there has been very supportive and has made me believe that I can succeed. I haven't taken the test yet, and am still working through the problems, but this program has really helped me move in the right direction.

I've decided to take the GMAT on February and after 3 week with the official guide I understood I needed more help. I've signed up to this course on March and I'm about to take the test this Monday, 10 and a half weeks later, yet I've finished most of the course (over 90%), while working full time.

For those who never took the GMAT, this course is great. It forces you walk through everything. I have a strong math background and it still helped me with the tricks needed for quick and efficient solving. The course simplify complex subjects, even the hard-to-nail probability with combinatorial questions.
In the verbal section, this course do wonders with SC. I started with a very weak sentence correction and now I have a great statistics of about 1 mistake for every 10-11 SC I do. In the reading comprehension and the critical reasoning I found the explanations good but not great, so it is now my weakest point.


The biggest problem I found with the course wasn't in the content. It was the UI and the statistics tool. The website only tells you your stronger and weaker points but does not change it as you get better at certain point. The statistics tool only tells you how much of the course you have completed, and no statistics of the success rate of the different subjects, which was much needed for me. At some point I started my own statistics and wrote down on a paper where I was wrong or right. It turned out that my statistics were completely different from those presented to me at the course website.
As for the UI, there is help window on the side of every question. A great idea and really helpful, only it's about a square inch and the content needs more than that. It's really tiny and you can't properly read what is inside. The same goes for the home screen where you cannot easily find the subjects you want to revise, it's just a long,long list of subjects.
Moreover, no android app so I couldn't enter the website from either my phone or my tablet. That's a shame, because I spend almost two hours everyday going to wok and back and this time could have been more productive.

Overall, I recommend the course for those who do not need a boost in just one subject, but a complete start-over. It is thorough, and teaches you almost everything you need to know.

Good luck!

Hello,

in October 2012 I took the GMAT for the first time after months of preparation and got a score of 360. I was devestated. Then I tried The Economist GMAT Course. Although my motivation should have been below zero, this Tutor really made me sit at the desk for hours I never did before with such a good mood. In Feburary I took the GMAT for the second time and scored 560.

560 doesn't sound too good, but for me it's awesome and well enough. I am gladfull for the Tutor.

Not sure if the Tutor still offers a refund if one doesn't score high enough. But don't count on that. Because I think the software makes it almost impossible to reach the required amount of work time to be able to get a refund. But that was only my personal impression. And in the end, I scored so good, that it wasn't a problem.

Try it out. It's a good investment.

I think this is an good program that breaks up the studying. I haven't taken the GMAT yet so I don't know how effective it has been, however I would like it if the modules would let you better pick what you could be doing.

First of all, let me begin by saying that I am a mom of a toddler who did not have much time to devote to GMAT in order to score in 700s. I have been weak in Math since school days. English is not my mother tongue. Despite my time constraints and shortcomings, GMAT Tutor gave me the confidence to crack the GMAT exam in my own little way. I could have scored in 600s, had I devoted more time.

I began with GMAT tutor trial and before I knew it, I started loving devoting time to Math and Verbal sessions on Economist tutor. The most important part that the GMAT tutor did was to convince me that you do not have to be a geek or a Math wizard to crack the GMAT Math section. With the knowledge of basic formulas, time management, and "ball parking " (a good and valid guess based on your limited Math knowledge), you can handle the Math section well. Solving the problem step by step and consuming time will lead nowhere. Even with reading passages, CR questions, GMAT tutor imparted nice tips and tricks that helped me race against the time on GMAT exam day.

I loved logging into my Economist tutor account and going through different topics one by one even if it was for 30 minutes at a time. For me it was fun and interactive without the price tag of a live tutor. GMAT tutor would introduce a topic, explain, and make me do practice questions on the current topic right then.

Although GMAT tutor is excellent, I would still recommend taking as many practice tests as possible including the GMAT tutor practice tests. If someone wants, she can add books (Princeton/Nova/GMAT official guides/Manhattan) to her GMAT material. For example, for Math I also referred Nova and grockit.com in addition to GMAT tutor.

Overall, investing time and money on GMAT Tutor is worth the consideration.

After studying for the GMAT previously, I knew that I needed try a different technique for my last attempt in order to achieve a score above 700. Overall, I think the Economist Tutor is a great program, but I was simply burnt out with standardized test material this last time around and did not use it to its maximum potential. If you are learning GMAT concepts for the first time, and have the time to give this program a few hours a day for a few months, I highly recommend it.

Pros: -Program offers a unique perspective on difficult math concepts, in most cases better than any other test prep program
-You cannot passively go through answers, the program forces you to stay focused and on track
- Concepts are presented in a way that the materials builds on itself

Cons: - They need to be more transparent about the time commitment this program requires if you want to get through all of the material. If you are working 50+ hours a week, you need a couple of months
- **my biggest con**- For folks who have taken the GMAT in the past, you cannot choose the concepts you wish to work on, you must stay in sequential order. I understand why they want users to follow a certain sequence of lessons, but for $500+ dollars, they need to be a bit more flexible

I took the GMAT last year in July and did miserably. My mock tests were good, but my exam bombed big time. So I thought something was wrong with me on the test day. But I decided not to give up and take the exam another day.

I was researching for some courses online, and I read about the 70 point assured increase in the GMAT Economist course. I payed 1$ and went through with the course for a week! I realised how intensive the course was and how well planned it was. I paid the rest and started cracking.

The course has an option of choosing between the math and verbal sections or allowing the software to choose the pace for you.
I went with the software as there is a fine balance between both the sections.

The basics of math which I needed to brush up, were neatly presented and explanations were made simple. This, along with some sums after every concept was very useful. In the verbal section, there was an intense focus on sentence correction, which I think I needed as I am not a native english speaker. The CR question types were covered strategically. The explanations for how to crack the RC's were good, but I felt there were not many questions in this field.

Another highlight of the Economist GMAT prep is the fact that its extremely easy to review the concepts you have studied. There is no need to take notes, because its already there! So, before each test, reviewing concepts were made easy.

I used the classes for both math and verbal and the teachers were extremely smart and helped me (I left these for the end, something which I regretted. If I had cleared my doubts regularly, it would have been better)

On the exam day, I was well prepared but I was still a bundle of nerves.
My score increased by 90 points, but I have not reached my target score yet.

Im not giving up, Ill definitely beat the GMAT one day.

I would recommend the Economist GMAT Course to both people who have taken the test and those who haven't as the course content is extensive and it adapts itself to your skill level! Definitely worth the investment!

I've been studying with the GMAT Tutor from the Economist for about a month now and I am definitely seeing improvements. I've yet to take the real exam so it is hard for me to throw out numbers, but overall I would sum up my experience with the course as positive.

pros:
- practice anywhere, anytime
- set timed sessions ranging from 5 to 60 minutes
- built in "timer" questions that help you to build a perception of how long it's taking you to answer certain kinds of questions
- feels like a competitive video game so the content is pretty easy to get through

cons:
-a little bit hard to jump around although their is an option to choose what your session covers
- not yet sure how score estimates compare to real test
- no AWA questions provided - you have to get prompt from elsewhere and submit essay incl. question for a grade.

I have been taking this course for about a month now and I am extremely pleased with the way it is going. I started with the trial thinking I had nothing to lose from giving it a shot, and I discovered that I really liked it and I ended up buying the course. My score has been slowly but steadily improving in both sections. I still have two months until I take the GMAT, and I seem to be on track to get a score that I would be happy with.

My favorite part about the course is the fact that you can start a session at any time for as short as five minutes. I generally prefer the 20-30 minute sessions, but if I'm pressed for time sometimes I'll squeeze in a shorter one. The program seems to use a solid algorithim and the lessons are very educational. I was afraid that a computer course would be too dry (compared to a live course) and I would get bored quickly, but the program is pretty fun and presents a really good course of study. The only drawback to any online course is that you have to be self motivated, but if you can handle that, this is a great course.

The GMAT Tutor is a unique and generally valuable tool for GMAT prep. Designed to constantly interact with the student, GMAT Tutor is best for those with busy schedules who need to fit targeted practice into set chunks of time. You don't have to worry about organizing material to study or figuring out what your weaknesses are, as GMAT Tutor does it all for you.

That said, I don't think GMAT Tutor will be enough for those who seek 700+ scores. It's a great place to start, but especially for advanced quant, other resources will probably be needed. Overall I'm glad I enrolled.

It's a good course but be prepared to put in 100+ hours to get the results you want. I did the online only course and it adapts to what you need to focus on. I.E. if you need to focus on a specific verbal or quantitative section, that's what you work on until you master it.

Practice tests are realistic but I thought the scores were low compared to what I got on the actual exam. Tutor sessions are via Skype.

Would be 5 stars except: Essays are generally returned within 2 days, but I had to wait a week for one of them. Limited instructions at the beginning. I.E. no instructions saying don't take a test, use a tutor session, or send in an essay until you've completed this portion of the course. I only found out after I had used a test, tutor sessions, and sent in essays too early.

The study materials are good with fancy technology. It did help a lot with the Verbal and Math. Also, it is scientific because the system designed the review part for you. The only problem is that I did not get enough time to study

I found it better than books, including Manhattan, because it targeted my weak areas automatically and let me practice on. It is really hard to categorize your own weak areas manually because there are 100s of categories in maths and verbal section of gmat.

When I started practicing for GMAT using Manhattan, my score improved from the range of 630-650 to 680-690 during the last few months of 2012. I was flip-flopping between Maths and Verbal, sometimes my Maths was low and Verbal was high, while at other times my Maths was high and Verbal was low.

I purchased GMAT Tutor in the middle of January, and practiced several hours of the day in front of the computer. By the mid of March, my score was flip-flopping between 710-730. It was a great improvement. My Maths core was solidified by tricks mentioned by the GMAT Tutor. Basic Sentence Correction was strengthened and Reading Comprehension was not tiring anymore. The essay practice improved my essay score to the range of 5.0-5.5.

I would like to see the following improvements:
- After I completed 80%-90% of the tests, the GMAT tutor focused only on limited weak areas. I would like it to cover even the areas where I was strong so that I get more practice.
- Cover Integrated Reasoning questions
- Improve Sentence Correction
- Sample GMAT Test not reliable

I would recommend this course for anyone just starting to prepare for GMAT. I have wasted countless months relying on books and not advancing to magic 700 figure.

After doing this course and reaching 700 figure, please complete at least 10-12 mock tests. You can buy these mock tests from Manhattan, 800-score, or Veritas.

Before the GMAT exam, I did one mock test every day.

I used the one week the free trial and from the first 10 minutes I felt connected with the program, it is very advantageous to have the opportunity of this free trial, I was confident to pay the course.

It doesn?t matter the level I have, the program will adjust to my pace and knowledge, topics that are easy will go fast, and those topics that are difficult will present extra exercises and explanations.

I feel that this program is helping to improve my English as well; explanations in the Verbal prep are good grammar tips that are helping me to prepare my English proficiency exam too.

Support is amazing, I have received a satisfactory answer to all the questions I set to the tutors; they always give a quick and clear answer when I need a clarification.
I have used the program 2 to 3 hours per day, I feel the improvement, I have my appointment in 2 weeks, probably is not going to be the last one, I will post an update after my result. Right now I feel that I have chosen the best option available in Gmat preparation. (My status: I have used the program for 1 month, 2 to 3 hours per day, I have completed 1/3 of the program. I need over 710, and I have 8 weeks more available to prepare exams).

Hi,

I used to score around 570-600 on all available simulation tests, I needed only a score of 600+ to get where I want... however I took GMAT economist mandatory simulation test with a result of ridiculous 490.

I completed only 75% of the quant section which is where I needed improvement, and 35% of the verbal. In total I put in about 60h of studying in it. I wouldn't say the app is as adaptive as advertized and the price is obviously too high, but on the other hand these are the market prices.

Tips&tricks in the course boil down to using educated guessing, which isn't something you haven't learned through your education.

My real GMAT score was 530, therefore I'm in for one more attempt. I would recommend this course if you have iPad or a smartphone, because you can access it easily anywhere. But most of all I would recommend you to work really hard and don't give up. There is no "snake oil" easy solution to high GMAT score, I think the economist's GMAT is a handier than written materials, and helps to organize your learning... (saving you about 1/3 of the time).

They only provide you with a set of problems and the algorithm they use is not too great. The worst part is that the same (five/six) RC passages keep coming back with only one new question - which is very unlike the real GMAT.
If you want to go back to the lessons/basics, they do not allow you to do so....you are only allowed a view of the summary of the basics that too is a tiny window.
The access to the website is automatically revoked after the completion of the duration, and after that you are expected to pay $90 per month. The probability of accessing the course beyond the ninety days is higher, but they allow that for only for the additional price.
It was a sad experience for me.

Before I signed up for the Economist Complete Prep, I spent about 6 months to do self-studying using official guide and other prep books to prepare for my 1st GMAT. Despite all the hardwork I only got 680.

And I saw the GMAT tutor from the economist and signed up for it. And guess what, even though my improvement seems small- only 40 points, but the programme has really helped me improved on areas that I did not do well. And I think I should have signed up for this course earlier, instead of trying save the money, that would have saved me 3 months to half a year of preparation time.

Pros:
- self paced.
- structured course that can adapt to your learning, and this can save you a lot of time. Preparing for GMAT should not take too long, more effort should be spent on applying for the school you want isn't it?
- Very clear instructions and feedbacks from the computer. I actually think I don't need an instructor to be honest. And in case you need, you can always schedule 1 with the tutor.

Cons:
- Questions in the Verbal section is easier the actual GMAT test. But this is not a big problem. The Economist GMAT course will teach you all the fundamentals you need to know.
Once you complete the course, just do the free prep questions/tests from GMAT Preptest from MBA.com and more practices online to familiar yourself with the difficulty.

Would I recommend it? Yes I will, wholeheartedly. My wife is preparing for her GMAT now and she signed up for the The Economist GMAT course too. And I just got an offer and scholarship from one of the world's top 50 university. Thank God!

Ok, so I've taken the GMAT twice and used books both times to prepare: Kaplan, Princeton Review, and the Official Guides. They are all great (OG is the best), but I realized that nothing beats actually sitting down at your computer and working on problems. There's just something different about having to work the problem out with only a notepad and pen. (You can't write on your screen you know?)

Anyway, the GMAT Tutor has been super helpful because it's computer based and it works according to your level of ability. (I've been using it on my iPhone too, it works well.) My score is already climbing when I take the GMAT practice test software on my computer. I'm pretty sure I'll hit my goal of 700 with another 6-8 weeks of practice.

Their guarantee is awesome too, and Beat the GMAT gives you some sweet discounts and bonuses if you go through the site.

Check it out!