I have used GMAT prep products from several companies including MGMAT(purchased all the verbal and quant books), Knewton(online GMAT course), Magoosh(quant and verbal). My current GMAT score is 680; however, I thought that I could do better and decided to use Economist's score guarantee and give the exam another try. So far, I have completed about half of the course and I see some pros and cons. I will start with the cons. I use their app a lot because I like to study on my iPad but I don't seem to be able to ask a tutor about the specific question that I am currently working ( this feature is available if you are studying on regular PC) and after I move on I can't go back to the same specific question so if I accidentally press the continue button I won't be able to go back and revisit the question. A big con for me is that I can not go back if I wanted to revisit a specific question or topic. Also, for someone who already scored 680, most of the course so far is a waste of time because I had to go through all the basics. Another big thing for me is the lack of video instructions which I find very useful when studying. The verbal section seems somewhat light and the quant has heavy emphasis on plugging numbers. Overall, If you scored 620 or less you will find this course very helpful and will most likely see an improvement in your score if you complete the required curriculum. If you get a question wrong, the software will keep giving you similar questions until you master the topic and start getting the questions right. Customer service so far has been top notch and I have always received responses to my questions very promptly. I have also received several email reminders from tutors regarding the progress of my study plan. Overall, if you have the money to spend I believe that you can get a lot out of their platform. It is also nice that they have money back guarantee promise. However, I can not speak for the ease of getting a refund because I haven not taken the exam yet and I have not been through the process of asking for a refund yet. Also, I am still not completely convinced that it worth that premium compared to some of the cheaper prep platforms such as Magoosh.

Pros:
- Repetition of materials
- Tracking and forecasts your score
- Tons of study material
- Phone app so you're able study on the go. Super helpful

Cons:
- Tutoring wasn't that helpful
- Unable to choose the areas you want to focus on. The only choice you have is to choose between verbal or quant
- Very long and repetitive

This was the first course that I had and it really impressed me for the easy way in tracking the progress. The explanations are really good. In about 80-100 hours it is possible to finish it with good retention of the content (don't hurry expecting to just finish it). The only thing that I missed is that some verbal questions were too obvious differing for the official questions. Also, they should consider to have a full practice test, including the essay and IR sections. Overall, I recommend the course for those who struggle in tracking and organizing their study topics.

I haven't completed the course or taken the test, but the Economist Tutor has helped me stay focused. I have tried self directed study before and it hasn't worked very well. This test prep keeps things fresh and seems to provide a clear direction that I am confident in. I also thinks it saves time since the content is provided in a linear way so you don't have to spend the time deciding on what to study. I am happy with the product so far. Lastly, the customer service I have received has been pretty good.

A very good way to prepare for the GMAT.
Lots of way for you to learn, and it adapts to you, just like the actual test.

My only issue is you can't go back and practice certain sections. For example, if you want to practice powers/exponents, you can't just decide to do 200 questions to improve, you can only follow what it gives you.

The GMAT Economist Tutor is the best application for that I've used for preparation for my second GMAT exam. I am an engineering student that is preparing trying to get into an 3+2 MBA Program. Although I love business, I haven't had the need to take many business courses so it is helpful to get the transition from the engineering mindset to the more business or GMAT mindset.

I really like how the application works to anticipate what you need and suggests lessons for you. The questions and content does get more difficult the better you do, just like the actual exam. It does more then just quiz but actually teach strategy to the questions and how to go about the test. But it also teaches you content so you know what is actually going on. So you understand the verbal questions or the math pieces.

The GMAT Economist Tutor also provides an online version but also an iPad version so I can pretty much take it wherever. The application also allows for practice exams, tutor advice, and even an essay that can be scored. So it really covers a lot of the bases. But it still takes a lot of time and effort that you have to put in. It is an expensive test prep program, but worth it.

I recommend it 100%. Before I subscribed to the GMAT Tutor I was studying from the GMAT Review books and the Manhattan - I was studying without a clear direction and not optimizing my time. Now I feel more secure about my preparation and my performance during the exam.

the program has been extremely helpful for me to learn at my own pace and over an extended period of time. i had done intensive in person classes and private tutoring before but found that my work schedule did not allow for intensive studying. i had done the test in the past but wanted to work at my own pace in order to try to improve my score. economist gmat has proven to be the most effective way for me to put time towards the gmat. i can study at any time for any amount of time and feel and see progress.

Pros:
ideal for long term study
make your own schedule
not dependent on tutors or schedules
predictive algorithms are great at selecting material and ensuring efficient study

cons:
not as good for intensive study
less personal touch

The Economist GMAT Tutor is a web-based course that extensively covers the verbal and math portions of the exam. In addition to providing review of verbal and math fundamentals, the course also allows for the submission of five essays based on previous GMAT AWA prompts. The grade received from the course also provides detailed feedback regarding your essay, allowing you to adjust your technique to meet the requirements of the exam. You also have the opportunity to schedule Skype tutor sessions for feedback on your essays and simulation tests, or any other topic.

In addition to the content of the course, which adapts to your skill level as your progress, it also provides estimates of your exam grade based on course performance and simulation tests.

Overall, the Economist GMAT Tutor is an easy to use online course that covers almost the entire spectrum of topics and techniques necessary for success on the GMAT while providing feedback regarding course progress and grade projections.

I have yet to use all the 'perks' included in the course, however I have been using GMAT Tutor for over a month and I think it is very useful.
I've not only learnt a lot of techniques to answer questions faster, also, the GMAT Tutor really teaches you to put them in practice and sort of helps embed in your head when to use such techniques. I've already improved my score (from mock tests) over 50+ points.
The only drawback is that I only payed for 3 months, and am not sure if I will be able to finish the course on time without having to pay an additional 700 dollars.

Hi everybody,
First a little introduction about my self: I did a bachelor at the rotterdam school of management IBA. I always have been ok with math, however I'm not an native speaker (I come from france).
I studied the gmat with the economist for one month, about two hours during week day and 6 hours during weekends (I was also working).

I took the gmat and I got 640. I was a bit surprised and disappointed because I had for my three online test with the economist 620 then 670 and finally 690. I was electing more than 710.
The problem is that I scored low one verbal. Prehaps because I was over confident about that part as with the economist my scored improved a lot (from 28 to 38). I think I was used to the way the economist asked the questions, or maybe I was to not enough concentrated on the real gmat (stress ect)
However I would strongly recommend the economist: It is intuitive, it give a lot of tips. You should take more than one month to prepare the gmat, if you want to score above 700. I think in three months if you only do that, 6h a day it should be more than enough!
I did not study more than 4 hours one the IR and got 7: I think it the same as what you learn in quant!
I do not have my awa yet.

I found the Economist GMAT Tutor to be extremely helpful, especially because I travel abroad extensively for work and simply couldn't commit to regular in-person classes. The tool teaches you what you need to know as well as important strategies to raise your score that are unrelated to pure quant/verbal knowledge. I didn't take advantage of the Skype tutoring sessions until much later in the process and definitely should have capitalized on one of their "strategy" sessions before taking my first GMAT. The tutors are extremely helpful and friendly. The mobile app was useful for cramming in some quick refreshers when I was commuting or had a few minutes to spare.

I also found the entire team, including customer service, to be very easy to work with and flexible, which was a game changer for me and my unruly schedule.

I would absolutely recommend the product and think it's a very strong alternative to the more conventional courses/companies out there. Helped me raise my score by 80 points.

First of all, this program really delivered results. I took my first GMAT in July, and scored a 570 (33 V, 35 Q, 5.5 AWA, 6 IR). After about three months of the Economist GMAT course, I took the GMAT again in November and scored 720! (40 V, 49 Q, 6.0 AWA, 8 IR).

After the results of my first GMAT attempt, I decided that I needed help studying and determined to find a course that matched my needs. I was deployed at the time, so I needed a course that had a flexible schedule, and so I avoided courses that had set webinar times, and in person attendance was out of the question. I did the week-long free trial with Economist GMAT and I liked the way the course presented information. I also took a practice test at the end of the period and scored a 590, or about where I had scored a month previously on my real GMAT, giving me confidence in the practice test's accuracy.

This program is self-paced, meaning that it is entirely up to the student to schedule study times, and how long to take on each question. However, the program will determine what types of question the student most needs to practice, meaning that as long as the student can "show up" mentally prepared to study, he can focus on studying rather than waste time deciding what to study.

The Economist GMAT also provides several practice tests, which were incredibly accurate, but only cover Quant and Verbal (a week before my practice test I scored 40V/49Q on a practice test, the same score that I earned the next week!). There are separate graded essays, which I chose to do immediately prior to the tests to best simulate test day.

The other useful feature of the program is the ability to schedule Skype tutor sessions. The biggest drawback of these sessions is that they really need to be scheduled at least several days out, probably a week or more, and the student must choose the subject for the session when it is scheduled. However, the tutors are definitely experts, and can provide detailed insight into problems as well as strategy.

In a final word to students trying to choose a program - choose one that motivates you to do the work, because in the end it is you and not a program taking the test and earning a score. Some people respond better to certain approaches, but this program worked for me and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a self-paced course.

I had enrolled for the Economist GMAT tutor with the hope of raising my GMAT score by 50 points or more. The course offered a guarantee in these lines and after taking the free 7 day trial period I enlisted for the same. But unfortunately my decision to trust one of the leading economic magazine in America bombed and I wish to share my opinions and experiences so that prospective test-takers can evaluate their requirements and my experiences before taking up the course.
I had bought the ultimate prep plan with the economist GMAT tutor which guaranteed a 70 point improvement on march -2014.Before taking up the course I was hovering around mid 600 range with the official GMAT prep test and I felt I needed a course to help me breach the 700 mark.
I worked with the software for around 160 hours and at the end of the day my official GMAT score was at the same place where I had started. After dedicating almost 4 months on the program I was greatly disgruntled that not one of the various promises made by the company were held true and I had run around circles thanks to the program.
I list out the various cons of the program in my opinion:
1.Simulation tests & Scoring Estimate:-
The simulation tests(6 nos) are a very poor indicator/simulator of your actual test scores/conditions. In some of the tests that I took the quant section literally had more than 20-25 data sufficiency questions. No matter how poor a student may be in that particular question type, it is no reason for a simulation exam to keep throwing the same type of question.
There was no IR or AWA section which means you will not get a actual feel of the exam and the stamina needed if only the verbal and quant section provided in the tests are taken.(I used to gather AWA questions from MBA website and IR question from the GMAT Prep software before taking the tests)
The scoring estimate provided was very illogical where in certain tests I had 8-9 questions wrong intermittently were scored equally to those where I had scored 15-16 questions wrong continuously. And when questioned on the logic of these estimate the people in charge send a standard text copied from their website. There were also cases where the question types were wrongly labeled. I had a data sufficiency/problem solving question label in Verbal section.
2.No timing or difficulty level available.
Although there are a number of practice questions available, a very few of them are timed and there is no indication of difficulty level(the no of people who got it right/wrong or the range to which the question belongs to).Since the program is adaptive, you cannot go back to these questions later on as there is no simple way to archive the questions.
If you want to analyze your performance and timing there are no tools with the software that help you to analyze your strengths and weakness.
3.No new or innovative strategies:
Once the program identifies your weak areas it keeps throwing questions on the same area with the repeat of the basics . It does not provide any new or innovative strategies or tactics to overcome your weakness and the foundation lessons can be found in any high school textbook. Especially for quant which was my weak area prior to taking up the course remained so till the test day.
4.Bogus money back guarantee:
The money back guarantee offered may seem attractive to many at first. What I felt was the money back guarantee is just a gimmick to get people enrolled to test the bugs in the program and streamline it for the future. Also there are many wordings in the fine print which people may miss such as a compulsory session with an instructor on strategy for the exam that has to be taken 7-14 days before the tests. But the Economist tutor people have written it in such a manner that users may understand that all sessions have to be taken at least 7-14 days before the tests.So if you take the strategy session 15 days before the actual test you lose your qualification for money back.
A 45 minute session a week before your exam with an instructor can work wonders and gain you a 70 point increment than the 160 hours you spent with the program is what is being implied by such a guarantee.
5.Proof Reading:
The questions though numerous in quantity were poor qualitatively with a number of typo errors. This coming from a tutor program owned by one of the supposedly best business magazine in the united states made me wonder about the quality of the program itself and the credibility of the question makers.
6.NO IR section:
The program for its cost could have provided a comprehensive IR section with the question types tested so far in the GMAT. But the theory covered is very meager and literally of no use when you take up the original test.

There were a few pros too in the program
1.The verbal section was comprehensive and covered most of the questions asked in the GMAT till date. I found the Sentence correction especially good.
2.Highy flexible with regards to timing as it is a online program where you can schedule a session based on your availability. However, at least two to four half an hour sessions a day with the program will be helpful than a number of 10 minutes sessions.
3.The AWA grading done by experts is especially useful in identifying weakness in your reasoning and style and the pointers provided are genuinely helpful.

All in all I would not recommend the program to re-takers as I believe you already have got the basics right and need to work on either your test taking tactics or on advanced topics. Both of the mentioned items are not covered by the program.

So the GMAT TUTOR is very convinient - phone/ ipad/ laptop. You can start anywhere.

However the biggest problem i found with the course was - you cannot revise old topics in a full screen window. They have a 3 inch wide window in the software where you will have to read vertically extended passages of notes.

Secondly they do guarantee a full refund of your fees. But they dismissed me over a technicality. So brace yourselves when you are paying for it. Consider the money spent. I wish I didn't have to apply for the refund in the first place. But now I have less cash and a low score!

I bought the software twice actually because they only give you a 3 month window to complete the GMAT. I had to renew my subscription.

I only found their one-to-one skype sessions helpful as some of the teachers were pretty good! But otherwise I would advise against it because there are much better courses available online who don't do false marketing for people with tight budgets.

I have found one that is alot cheaper than GMAT TUTOR and my recommendation for people Re-appearing for the GMAT - GROCKIT.

Hope this was helpful to a few people. All the best!

I am extremely satisfied with the Economist GMAT Tutor. First of all, the layout of the online system is extremely fluid. I can organize time-tailored practice sessions, schedule a tutor, review my progress, and analyze my strengths and weaknesses. This contributes a lot more to my studying pattern than I could have imagined, mostly by keeping my seemingly endless studying very engaging.

I think the "computer adaptive" aspect of the program is the most impressive. The program quickly identifies my strengths and weakness and tailors a study program that suits my needs. The online tutors also have access to data and progress, so they know exactly what I need to practice to improve my score. Their tutors are also extremely helpful and very timely in their responses to my "Ask a Tutor" emails.

Overall, the Economist Tutor is an excellent program that is great for people who do not have the time to enroll in an online or classroom based course, but still want a comprehensive, tailored studying experience.

Excellent preparation. I don't like the videos because sometimes I think they are toos low and I get bored, sometimes too quick and I need to hear it again; here I can really go as fast or slow as I need, even just stop practicing if something else needs addressing, and it doesn't go on without me.

Plus the methods and explanations are great. I would like to have such an assistant for everything I want to learn !!

I did not pass the real GMAT yet but I firmly believe this preparation will improve my score.

I have been using The Economist GMAT Tutor for a couple of weeks. The course is great and gives you an extreme amount of flexibility, which is good for anyone with a full time job. The course is also adaptive, so it recognizes the types of questions that you consistently get wrong and works on them until you show improvement.

They also give you a good amount of practice tests so that you can test what you have learned in a test-taking environment.

Overall I have enjoyed it and would recommend using it.

The course was great and every practice exam was very accurate. The adaptive technology was very realistic and the material was presented in a great manner.

I took one of the exams from the GMAT Prep Software before I started the program and scored 640 (I don't remember my quant score but I got a 32V and 6/8 in IR). After 9 CAT exams and 2 months training with the The Economist GMAT app I achieved 720 on my actual GMAT (49Q, 38V, 8/8 IR, 5.0/6 AWA). The app helped a lot with my Verbal skills, I even got a 42V on my CAT exams but had fever on the day of the exam and could barely finish it on the test day. I would also recommend the program for your essay (AWA) training. Whenever you submit an essay you'll a really harsh review as feedback but don't feel let down because I got a 3.0-3.5, 4.0-4.5 and even 2.5-3.0 and on my test I got 5.0. The essay reviews may not be realistic on the way they evaluate you but the way they teach how to write the AWA is pretty easy and intuitive. I did not use the app for my IR training, I didn't train for that but the Math training is pretty straight-forward and it's even more difficult than what you'll actually find on your test. Don't over-train yourself with other programs. I definitely recommend you this program. I took because I had not much choices living in Peru (South America for those who don't know it) and helped me a lot!