After scoring well below my target score on my first and second attempts (I had taken a review course and self-studied the second time), i decided to give Empower a try after reading many positive testimonials. I decided to dedicate 1 month to re-studying for the exam. I followed Empower's refresher curriculum. I very much enjoyed the flexibility and breadth that the review program offered. Empower taught me invaluable techniques and strategies with which to attack the gmat. Going into test day i had a high level of confidence in my ability to hit my target score. After taking the exam i was very pleased to see i got a 710, with 99th percentile in verbal. I owe it to Empower Gmat for the well-thought out and efficient review course.

Rich and Max are great tutors to have on your journey to beating the GMAT. All of the tutorials are well explained and detailed.

This course is completely self study and you have the option to shorten or lengthen your study plan based on how much time you have until you take your official GMAT. This course will give you video lectures on key quantitative and verbal techniques and will immediately quiz you on the lessons learned in your next tutorial. At the end of every week or two you will complete a practice exam (These are not included but for $50 you can get 6 from MGMAT) to get a baseline of where you're at and then Rich and Max go over more learning modules to help you dominate this exam.

You should keep this review in context since I've only been using the program for about a month and I have yet to take an official GMAT. However, if you follow the instructions and stay diligent with your studying then there is no excuse for you not to crush the GMAT.

Hello fellow GMAT takers,

Like most of you, I struggled when I first started studying for the GMAT. I wanted a good score so I paid for an expensive online course, bought a ton of books and was discouraged when I wasn't seeing the results I wanted. I scored a 590 on my first official exam and that just simply was not good enough for me. Then I came across EMPOWERgmat.

With the help of EMPOWERgmat, my score jumped to a 650 and I improved my quant from a 42 to a 47 (a score I never thought was possible).

I am a visual person, so for me the way EMPOWERgmat explains each problem and shows you how to work it out (in the most time efficient way) was super helpful. I also learned a lot of shortcuts. There were entire quant concepts that I felt comfortable solving before I started EMPOWERgmat, but come to find out EMPOWERgmat solves them quicker and easier.

One element that I was surprised to learn from EMPOWERgmat was test strategy. Going into the test I thought I had to solve every problem and that each problem was "worth" about the same. Wrong. EMPOWERgmat explains which problems are put in the test to trick you up, waste your clock and frustrate you. Those problems you are supposed to skip. Yes, skip. Make an educated guess and skip. The concept of this floored me but they were right. Controlling your test "tilt" is super key and EMPOWERgmat helps you manage it.

Bottom line, there are many many GMAT products out there, trust me I tried a ton, but EMPOWERgmat was my ticket into my top grad program and it can be yours too.

Good luck!!!

I had used Manhattan Prep, but EMPOWERgmat is what pushed me over the top. The 2 month study guide was perfect for me. Rich and Max are really engaging and listening to them really built my confidence. I truly believed I was going to become a GMAT Assassin and crush the test if I just used their easy to follow strategies. Two strategies in particular, TEST IT and TRIAGE made all the difference in the world. To be honest, I should've received a higher score. I felt discouraged because the questions felt so easy to me and I took that to mean I wasn't doing so well on the test.

The thing I like the most was the entire test-taking approach. The content was great, but how to actually approach the GMAT - I don't think there's a better program out there for that. For the first time I stopped trying to spend time on EVERY single question. If it was too hard or I knew I would spend 3 minutes to figure it out, I dropped it. Rich and Max were so ingrained into my head I was laughing at questions on the real thing because I knew exactly what they would say. Their delivery really made the course fun, and I am sad I found out about their platform late in the game.

Oww what an amazing path we did together.
i was a retaker with 590 v26Q44 score previously and i had only 06 weeks to have a least 650
due to application constraint.
For my first attempt i only used Manhantan books. 02 days after official test, i started again
with well know books (Veritas, Princeton, ...). 02 weeks after i score 590 on the mock, i was so disappointed.
i started looking for a real SOLUTION, which means for me affordable and efficient as i had only 04 weeks left at that time.
in 20 min i decided to take EMPOWERGMAT. why? $85 / per month was excatly what i needed in term of time and was affordable.
And it had 5/5 reviews on gmatclub. so why not? i mean at that point i didn't have anything else as solution.
The EMPOWERGMAT tatics helped so much on quant and the 5s scan on SC really help me on the verbal section.
I will always remember Rich final podcast before the exam: i won't tell you good luck because there is nothing about luck on this exam
put everything down on the pad, work of each point, dump any nasty or crazy question.
During the exam, i was calm,confident. I dumped 3 - 4 crazy questions on the quant session and had 49.
On the verbal, the 5s scan helped so much when i was out of time on the SC. I had a small passage on last 10 questions, i was running out of time
in the past i would have skimmed but i didn't this time, thanks to Max advice. And it gaves me confidence to dump 2 CR questions which was my weakness any way.

Taking EMPOWERGMAT was a very smart decision and i don't regret any of dollars paid for that course;it was worth it.

May be in the next coming months or years i will retake the GMAT just to be in the 700 club, but 680 was what i needed for my applications
PS: Engineer, non-native.

In 2015, I gave my GMAT 4 times. ANd I took two different courses before enrolling for EmpowerGMAT

- 1st attempt I used GMATPill and scored 600
- 2nd attempt I used eGMAT and scored 590
- 3rd attempt I just focused on OG guide and scored 640
- 4th attempt I used EMPOWERGmat and scored 710

I would like to specially thank Rich from EMPOWERGMAT for reaching out to me after my failed third attempt. His insight into the ESR report was very helpful as it helped me decide my next steps. He recommended that I change my approach for Quant and SC which I did with the help of EMPOWER total booster course. The concepts tested on the GMAT are all basic ones.

It all depends on how you use your resources (time, mental energy and your skills) wisely. Throughout the course both Rich and Max do a good job on emphasizing what is really required to do well on the GMAT. And the best part was I got a response from Rich within 24 hours for any questions whether it was related to strategy or content etc.

After spending two months with the course I was able to change my approach for Quant - using simple neat tactics such as using numbers to solve problems, working with answers to solve questions, dumping question that was either difficult or questions Rich asked us to dump questions. The last one is very very effective because it saves a ton of time for other questions that really matter. During my actual GMAT, I followed this advice during the Math and Verbal sections. This definitely helping during my Verbal section as I was mentally drained out.

For Verbal, Max's approach for solving SC problems was very helpful - start by glancing the answer choice to get an idea on the concept tested, read the question carefully and cross out answers. Before the course I used to take more than 1.45mins to answer SC question, but with the new approach I was able to solve SC questions within 1.15 mins. I would definitely recommend working with Rich and Max through their EMPOWERGMAT course. It is worth it.

I believe EMPOWERgmat was the key piece to me earning my 700. They have a score booster curriculum for those who feel their GMAT abilities have hit a ceiling. This is exactly what I needed. I really liked that they took all the GMAT study plan strategizing out of my hands; their syllabus is easy-to-follow, and as long as you just do what they tell you, your score WILL improve. Rich and Max bring a lot of enthusiasm to their instructional videos, making long study sessions easier to endure. They evoke the "athletic coach persona" and communicate the GMAT concepts and strategies in a way that really motivates you to crush the test. I noticed occasional misspellings in the practice problems in their videos and minor bugs in their online platform (as of 01/16/2016, it looks like they completely revamped and upgraded their platform!), but these small issues never got in the way of my studying. Their website may not have the shiny production value of the large, established test prep companies (i.e. Manhattan GMAT), but it's the value of the content that counts, and EMPOWERgmat delivers.

The most important thing I learned from EMPOWERgmat was to alter my approach and mindset - it's not about how much content you know, it's almost ALL about strategy. Once you nail the concepts down, you have to realize that the GMAT will reward those who treat the test like a business situation. To specify, you have limited resources (time), and the GMAT will reward (with a high score) those who maximize the utility of their limited resources (spending time on problems you know how to solve and/or strategically guessing versus spending all your time on difficult problems that don't count much towards your score anyway). This fundamental shift in mentality completely freed me to not get bogged down in the concepts I didn't know or with which I was not comfortable. EMPOWERgmat hammers this perspective into all of their instruction so that it becomes second nature. This is what paved the way for me to earn that 700. For anyone looking to boost their score or take a high-quality course from the comfort of their home, I highly recommend this course!

I had used flashier, more expensive on-demand, multi-media GMAT prep courses the year before and had not really found a huge amount of success with them. EmpowerGMAT was recommended to me by a friend who had significantly improved his GMAT score and has since made it into a top B-school. I was immediately impressed by the simple format, clear instruction style, focus on practical tactics as well as actual knowledge. The explanations of why the B-schools actually care about the GMAT were so helpful as it finally put this pretty beastly test into some context. At least I understood why I was being put under intense time pressure in the quant section and why certain approaches were more important than others. Prior to this explanation it had just felt as though the schools were being sadistic for the sake of it. After all, I am good at maths and yet they seem to care so much about this one, single test. Grr. Although I ultimately made a silly schoolboy error on the quant section on test day (ran out of time - Doh!) I did raise my overall score and rate the EmpowerGMAT course very highly. Their customer service has also been exemplary and when I needed them they were prompt, polite and very helpful.

I used EMPOWERgmat to help prepare for my 2nd crack at the GMAT. I scored 700 on my first try, but I knew I could do better on the Verbal section. I'm happy I found EMPOWER because their "Score Booster" programs provided just what I needed. The videos on the site cover all the details, without wasting any time. RIch and Max do a great job of breaking down the material and providing tips on how to best approach problems. One of my favorite aspects of the EMPOWER experience is that Rich and Max will always let you know which questions are "worth points." This made me realize that in the past I had put much time and effort into problems that were not necessarily as "important."

Their approach to SC helped me realize just how logical that section is and I began treating those questions with the same confidence I approached the Quant questions. In the past, timing was an issue for me on the Verbal section and I found the RC and CR EMPOWER tactics to be extremely helpful in my time management efforts. Come test day I was able to attack the passages with confidence and use proper note taking strategies to cut down my time spent on each question.

My Verbal score increased from a 37 to a 46 in just 2 months! My goal was to keep my Quant score (49) right where it was and to improve my Verbal score and that's just what I did in 2 short months using EMPOWER. It had been almost 4 months since my first GMAT attempt so I found the Quant Score Booster to be helpful in refreshing my Quant skills to get back to where I was originally. I 100% recommend EMPOWER for all retesters who are committed to improving their score and just need some guidance along the way!

EMPOWERgmat really helped me organize my approach to the GMAT. After self-studying for about a month and a half, I used the EMPOWERgmat Score Booster to inject some purpose into my studying. The course provided me with new, simple techniques for both verbal and quant and allowed me to develop an effective strategy for each question type. I started to understand how the test makers were thinking and I was able to identify the difficult questions that were not worth worrying about. If you are seeing minimal improvement with self-study or other courses, I highly recommend making the switch. The course simply gets to the point and allowed me the confidence to score a 730 on my first attempt.

I had taken a course prior through another reputable company and that was great. It set the foundation for me but I needed something else to give me that final push. That's where Empower came in.

I think what sets Empower apart is they have a great support system in case you have questions and their material really reflects that they understand the test and want to give you every piece of advice to help you ace it, from your mindset going in, even to miscellaneous things like what you should eat or small tricks you can do.

Through Empower I was able to push my score from 710 to 740 and make no mistake, those last 30 points are very difficult to achieve.

Overall, a strong score is always dependent on your work ethic first. No course by itself will help you achieve your goals without it, but having Empower did everything outside of that to guide me there. Thank you!

Most likely, I do not fit the profile of a lot of GMATers out there: My wife and I just had our first child when I started studying, I was running a de novo business AND I have been out of school for 10 years. I was short on sleep and did not have the luxury of dedicating time to a classroom course.

To sum up my experience with EMPOWER: Excellent. Rich and Max really try to get everyone to understand not just the concepts, but HOW THE EXAM WORKS and HOW TO BEAT IT.

Highly Recommend If: you are budget conscious; do not have the luxury of time to devote to a classroom setting; you have a good baseline to work with.

A very surprising aspect of EMPOWER: the staff and Rich are very engaged.
When you watch the lessons and listen to the podcasts and you hear Rich say, "email me - I want to hear about your GMAT experience" he absolutely means it. As an example: I was scheduled to take the GMAT in September. My infant son had not slept at all the evening before the exam. I went into the testing center on fumes. I BOMBED the verbal. My raw verbal was a full 10 points lower and my GMAT score was 100 points lower than my last two CATs.

I emailed Rich and shared my experience with him. Over the course of 1 day and several emails, Rich spent time trying to dissect if there was more to my poor performance than a lack of sleep. He loaded me up with a few tweaks to the Empower tactics, reinforced some others and off I went to my 720.

In fairness, I did need to employ another course to supplement my verbal. However, the tips and methods Max teaches in Empower are very helpful. ?Patterns Patterns Patterns?
I would generally suggest to supplement the Empower course with a question bank outside of the OG with good explanations. Rich and Max do a great job articulating the concepts, but I still needed additional questions to practice on.

I do want to thank Rich and the Empower team. I appreciate your support and hope to hear about many more Empower success stories.

Before using EMPOWERgmat's course I was using another online course that is very well known for its good quant explanations for over 6 months. I took the GMAT three times, but never scored higher than 570, whilst I needed to score at least 600. I explained Rich from EMPOWERgmat my tactics and he quickly gave me motivating feedback. During the entire course Rich and his team will boost your confidence that you need during your test. Some questions are just too hard to answer correctly and they distract you from answering other, easier questions correctly. EMPOWERgmat taught me that not every question matters and I listened to them, as I did not have anything to lose. During my GMAT quant I triaged (strategically guessed) four of the harder questions and I told myself they were too hard to actually count. Eventually I scored 48 on the quant section, an amazing increase from the 39 I scored on my previous GMAT and no I do not consider myself a maths genius, but more the opposite! I was even more impressed that I saw my score boost by this much in only one month time. Thanks EMPOWERgmat for the insights and the great and fun explanations. I am more than satisfied with my 610 score!

I was able to improve from a 580 to 720 (Q47 V41 AWA6 IR7) after just two months with Empower! I did use another test prep company right before Empower, but I really believe the tactics and tricks Empower teaches are worth preaching and their methods are refreshingly different. On test day, knowing when to trash a question was absolute key during the quant section.

I took a GMATprep practice test 2 weeks before my exam date and I got a 660. I was so disappointed and almost lost hope that I could obtain my dream score. But I tried my hardest anyway and what I think made the biggest difference was focusing on the verbal section. The same amount of points in verbal meant so much more than the same amount of points in quant. That was something I never would've realized without Empower. I should probably mention my quant score only improved 3 points since day 1! Without Empower I wouldn't even know how to study smart and use my time efficiently.

Now I am able to apply to my target schools knowing that my GMAT will not be the reason I do not get in.

I used EMPOWERgmat a little bit before taking the GMAT the first time and I scored 640 - on par with my discipline and practice. I felt embarrassed by this score so I decided to actually follow the ScoreBooster module for Quant and Verbal. I studied for about 3 months consistently by going through each module outlined in the ScoreBooster packet.

My strength was not Quant, so that's where I focused most of my time initially. However, the more I focused my practice time on Quant, the more frustrated I became as my practice test scores were flat in the mid-600s. I decided to take Brian's advice from the EMPOWERgmat team and focus on Verbal.

Max's modules in Verbal were super helpful to exploit my strengths in Verbal. I revisited my past practice tests and realized how weak I was on CR prompts, so that's where I focused my study time. Amazingly, my scores improved. I stopped worrying about all the math formulas and instead focused all my time on CR prompts and SC tactics.

It all came together when I took a practice exam a week before the GMAT. I totally fumbled the Quant section in that practice exam, I was ~10 minutes behind pace and ended up racing through the last 15 questions, just clicking-through on most. I thought that low 600s was inevitable given how poor the Quant section went for me. I put myself back together during the 8 minute break and knew I had to just crush Verbal. So I did - all that practice really paid off. I submitted the last question and thought I would be lucky to get mid 600s. My score: 700. I was shocked! How could that be given how badly the Quant section went? I scored 99th percentile in Verbal. All that focus on Verbal redeemed my score and helped me feel much more confident.

So I took the GMAT the next week with the same approach - do the best I can on Quant, stay on pace to avoid the anxiety of rushing, and then just freaking attack Verbal like a rabid lawyer. I got a 710 and feel happy with that...

EMPOWERgmat's approach to Verbal was crucial for me. If you struggle with Quant or are just average at it like me, then I recommend doing the Verbal ScoreBooster. Exploit your strengths, and you'll achieve a higher score faster. Worked for me.

I decided to go with empower because of its affordable price, the score booster method which allows you to skip most quant fundamentals, and the various advice and strategies used to work around certain questions and save precious time for the questions that do matter.

For the Quant part, I feel that EmpowerGMAT will definitely be more helpful for people that already have a good grasp of the fundamentals but do want that extra boost by adding efficient strategies to their arsenal, such as the art of triaging and test it methods that must become like reflexes. While those strategies may feel at first counter-intuitive, I do feel that they are much more effective than focusing solely on extremely hard quant questions such as the ones you can find on GMATClub

The Verbal part is extremely useful; I would probably recommend EmpowerGMAT just for their advice on RC which will help you achieve easily 100% accuracy on any level questions. The CR methods are broken down to very simple concepts that are easy to apply and clearly show you which topics are worth more of your time. The SC part focuses less on remembering many complex grammatical rules, and is more oriented towards simple things to look out for, as well as clearing out obvious mistakes in wrong answer choices.

Unfortunately, I failed the official exam a couple of days after finishing the course. I scored a 640 while I was aiming for a 690, which I consistently got on CAT?s at home. I was extremely stressed, especially on the quant part and to my surprise the verbal was a complete disaster.

I rescheduled an exam for the next month, and sent an email to EmpowerGMAT in order to explain what happened.

I got in touch with Brian, who was extremely helpful in identifying the factors that led to the scores I kept getting, and just as I suspected myself, I was not correctly applying the strategies given by EmpowerGMAT. Furthermore, my knowledge of the material was not really an issue, and thus more practice questions were not going to help me much.
Brian also wrote me a detailed email that outlined exactly what strategies I absolutely had to implement on the test day. I felt that this email as probably the most helpful advice EmpowerGMAT gave me.

I only had enough time to test them on one GMATprep CAT before the real exam. I got a 710, breaking through the 700 barrier for the first time.
The next morning, I focused as much as possible on implementing the tactics that had worked the day before. I couldn?t believe the score that showed up: 740, ranking in the 97th percentile.

Those tactics helped me achieve a score that many, including myself, have only dreamed about.

I would highly recommend EmpowerGMAT, especially to the people that feel like they are beginning to stall and don?t gain any more points by doing additional practice questions. I would also encourage people to contact them directly and tell them about your particular issues or situation, the EmpowerGMAT team is extremely kind, helpful, and comprehensive.

I stumbled upon empowergmat via their 5 days for 5$ event that they had back in June 2015 and wanted to try the course out as I was looking for study tips and tricks to improve from my 690 in my 2nd GMAT attempt. I wanted to reach 730+ but had already exhausted all the available resources. I enrolled myself for the 5$ event and I was surprised to see the the depth and clarity in their verbal video tutorials by Max and the follow up questions not only cemented what you learned in theory but also taught you about the common traps. After the first day itself I enrolled myself for 1 month and as they provide a month to month billing (highly transparent and helpful for short term commitment that I was looking for!), it proved to the boost that I needed to push my score from 690 to 750 in 1 month.

Max's appraoch to CR completely changed my thought process and it made me more confident of dealing with 700+ level questions. The SC approach was straightforward without the use of unnecessary grammatical jargons. RC was taught with an eye out for achieving maximum accuracy while not going abvoe the average time per question.

Rich's test it and triage approaches in quant not only helped me in undertsanding the various time saving strategies, these also helped me in understanding the mind of the test maker at GMAC.

All these strategies worked wonders for me in the actual GMAT and I was able to clearly see why the incorrect answers were incorrect. Once i had this undertsanding, i was more confident with my answers.

I would definitely recommend EMPOWERGMAT to retakers who are looking at a highly compressed preparation schedule that will give them amazing results.

My first attempt was in mid-July 2015 and scored a miserable 580 Q39 V31. I was stunned with my quant score as I have never scored this low during my mock tests.

Luckily, however, I came across to the EMPOWERgmat course, which, I think, is the BEST available course so far. The studying process with the program is efficient and gives you the tips and knowledge that you will use during both preparation period and the actual exam. More importantly, Rich?s videos are so much fun as well. He is the real GMAT assassin!

Following two months of preparation (70% of the time spent on Quant section and the remaining on Verbal), I showed up at the test center. The AWA section and integrated reasoning went OKAY and then when I moved to the quant section I felt way more confident and followed Rich?s instructions. I completely failed in the verbal section as my RC skills are very low and was so frustrated that expected the exact same score as before. Anyways, I finished the test and the score popped up: 650 Q47 V32. Improved my quant score by 8 points and verbal ? by 1 point only.

Even though it is just the beginning of my GMAT journey and 650 is not a good score at all, I wanted to share this experience with you. This 70 points improvement would have been IMPOSSIBLE without EMPOWERgmat. The next 70 points improvement will come from the stress management during the exam and from more preparation for the verbal section.

Good luck to you all!

EMPOWERgmat helped me earn 740, the 97th percentile.

On my first GMAT Prep test I scored a 520, and although I was kind of terrified, I learned that that was actually better than the average starting score, which made me feel a lot better. I set about following the 3 month study plan with an obsession. I think the thing that made the biggest difference is understanding that to get good at answering GMAT questions, and working the adaptive CAT, you have to build specialized skills.

Here are the skills from the course, and my own reflections that enabled me to get a 740:
+Double check - Especially on the questions you know you can do. Early on, I missed way too many questions I because I made stupid, idiot mistakes. Rather than just hitting my head against the desk, I reflected on what bad habits were causing those mistakes. Before you click ?next?, double check.
+The test measures thoroughness. If the question says, n > 2, don?t just think 3, consider 2.1.
+Attention to detail - When you read a question, read it carefully enough to catch exactly what it?s asking for because they?ve got a brutal punisher answer waiting for you otherwise
+Spotting the gaps - This is especially helpful in CR, and DS. In Empower, they teach about the 3 common flaws/assumptions: 1-No other factors, 2-Success, 3-Relevance. In every CR argument, you can count on at least one of them, and you?ll know how to answer every assumption, strengthen, weaken, and evaluate the argument question. In DS, knowing what?s missing makes finding the right answer a lot more direct, and sort of takes the mystery out of it.
+Being in control when you read - It's way to easy to race through the content as you read, but I'm sure you noticed that when you don't race, you're far more accurate. For me at least, it was night and day. The only way to perform at my best is to read with careful, slow, high engagement.

You should also follow EMPOWERgmat's rules to picking your best score really carefully. That changed everything for me. I owe EMPOWERgmat everything for sharing this strategy, and I hope that others can benefit from the system the same way I did. The course did it all. It teaches the content, the tactics, and the x-factors, and for a fraction of the price of other courses.

Taking EMPOWERgmat is like leasing a Rolls Royce for $99 month. It feels like it's too good to be true, but it's the real deal. You'd have to be nuts to take another course.

I came across Empowergmat here on the forums and since my verbal and math skills were stagnating around the 33/42 mark I felt like giving them a try.

I only took the course for one month as a way to prepare for my official Gmat that was creeping closer each day but I learned so many techniques and ways to think about the test!

I especially loved the verbal modules as the key techniques and understandings I derived from the course quickly got my verbal from a 33 to the 40 range. I also really liked the Little things that they added, such as how you should view the test and what really matters.

All in all i am extremely happy about the experience and feel that it would have taken a lot longer time to reach the 700 level (even more to get a 720) without the use of Empowergmat.

Thank you Max & Rich for your teachings!