An MBA candidate looking for a gmat tutor reached out to me with the following request:
I will pay you 10,000 € to help me score a 700+ on the gmat in 1 month.
MBA candidate and GMAT prep student
My answer was NO.
He had tried most top gmat prep online courses available, signed up for their tutoring sessions, attended online gmat classes, and used up the credits to consult with their online gmat tutors.
I turned him down and explained why (I am paraphrasing now):
Your foundations in math and reading comprehension are not developed enough to achieve a 700+ GMAT in 1 month. Either pursue another goal or give yourself more time.
After a long conversation he expressed his gratitude and wished he had met three years prior. The funny is that if he indeed had met me 3 years prior he probably would not have taken my advice.
A good gmat tutor will amplify your efforts to achieve your goals, and ALSO
save you time and be honest about your prospects of achieving your target gmat score.
GMAT hacks or tips and tricks don’t work when you take the GMAT
The gmat is a computer-adaptive test – the gmat scoring algorithm assesses your performance as you answer each question and adjusts the difficulty of the problems based on your performance. Because the gmat is timed, you have very little time to answer each question. Unless your verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning skills are very well developed, you will not have the time to execute consistently and solve quantitative and verbal problems at a 700+ level score.
A hack, tip, or trick simply won’t matter. All it can do is give an already strong candidate a little extra edge on the actual test. A significant improvement in a short amount of time is possible with a few gmat tutoring sessions but other criteria are required as I will describe below.
A gmat private tutor is much more than a 760 gmat score on the real gmat
Any serious test prep service hires 99th percentile test takers. But the a great gmat coach is a lot more than that.
The gmat tutor overlapping set. An intersection of:
- A master test taker who scored in the 99th percentile.
- High empathy – most tutors take high performance for granted. You need a gmat instructor who can appreciate that the ‘obvious’ is not so obvious, and explain seemingly complex ideas in simple terms.
- A great motivator. This can be hard and you want someone who can help keep your chin up.
GMAT strengths and weaknesses
Another business school candidate reached out with the following message:
“My GMAT strengths lie in the quantitative section and data sufficiency. I am particularly good at identifying patterns and working with numbers to solve problems. Additionally, I have a strong understanding of basic math fundamentals such as algebra, geometry, and probability. My weaknesses are in the verbal section, primarily reading comprehension and sentence correction. Although I understand the concepts in all sections, I struggle with applying them during timed practice tests. To improve my weaknesses, I have been utilizing official gmat prep tests and studying strategies to help me better comprehend reading material quickly and accurately answer questions about it. Additionally, I have been focusing on strengthening my grammar skills by reviewing verb tenses, conjunctions, adjectives/adverbs and other important aspects of English language.
Nevertheless, I cannot seem to improve my score in a meaningful way. Can you help me?”
This is not uncommon. An expert gmat tutor understands that solving under timed conditions is a different ball game. Most gmat courses fail to account for improving performance under timed conditions. This was the main problem in that student’s gmat preparation: failing to account for improving her work under timed conditions.
After years of experience, I found that this is the hardest thing to improve. You can solve thousands of problems, but if you don’t change how you solve them to fit in, on average, 2 minutes per question, you will not make a meaningful improvement.
A gmat prep diagnosis might surprise you
Gmat score improvements don’t simply happen when you improve your math or English. Because the GMAT is a quantitative and verbal reasoning test, many hidden variables come into play that an online diagnostic is unlikely to identify.
Consider what reasoning means:
The act of reading or consuming a set of information, understanding it, and make inferences based on that information.
What you need for a 700+ gmat score
- Mental stamina, focus, and anxiety management
- High level verbal comprehension of the English language
- An intuition for good grammar
- Excellent ability in basics of linear equations, geometric visualisation, and mental maths
- Skill in paraphrasing large bodies of text into simple mathematical equations
Any decent gmat tutoring package must include a diagnosis of the above and regular evaluation.
How gmat online tutoring should work
A thorough diagnosis and review of your official scores
This includes an assessment of the above skill set and gmat history, weighed against your gmat goals. I sometimes turn people away because their target gmat score is unrealistic in the time frame they envision. In many cases, they agree that more time is required and we develop a strategy that factors in their career goals, admissions applications, and plan B. You don’t want to be left hanging if your objectives don’t work out.
An overhaul of your thought process
Some ideas cannot be transmitted via self-study gmat online courses available and a gmat prep course that includes one-on-one sessions with an experienced private tutor will be required. One of those ideas is solving more efficiently under timed conditions. Among the vast plethora of resources available, an attentive gmat tutor can pinpoint you to the information you need to do a lot more than you currently can with less effort. Excellent test prep is not about presenting you with a linear path. Instead, it factors in individual learning style and a student’s individual learning needs.
Regular assessment by your private tutor
This happens in two ways: assessing performance when I work with students during gmat lessons, but ultimately, on official gmat practice exams. A good benchmark is to spend 20 to 30 hours of self-study between practice tests.
How to determine if you are a good candidate for a big score improvement with gmat tutoring.
- You have not solved all the gmat problems in the official guide or other formats of gmat test prep.
- You have obsessed over gmat math (this is a common error) and neglected working on sentence correction, critical reasoning and reading comprehension.
- You have not hired any gmat tutoring services.
Why I became a gmat tutor
About a decade ago I was working on a startup in the transportation industry. Uber moved into Barcelona, Taxi syndicates were hard to work with, and so I decided to work in a domain I knew so well and to which I held all the keys. I’ve always had a knack for standardized tests and officially began my one-on-one gmat tutoring service.
One-on-one private gmat tutoring is more art than science
The gmat is one of the most exciting tests I have ever taken. All standardized tests present a challenge, but the GMAT is a test one takes relatively late in adulthood. Effecting change in oneself, let alone in others, requires a great deal of introspection and the patience to understand someone’s problems and develop a solution that works. It is a lot like therapy. One size does not fit all, and empathy pays a great deal.
The best gmat tutors will hold you accountable
If you want to get into business school or hit that 700 on the gmat, talk to me. I want to help you. The path may not be linear, and we may hit a few road bumps, but if you don’t give up on your goals, I wont.