Rating Test Prep: Who Gets The Best Scores?
GMAT and GRE test preparation is a great business. Students’ hopes, dreams, and potential careers can rest on the outcome of a three-hour multiple-choice test. Admissions committees tell us that they view candidates’ academic potential holistically, and they do. You cannot change much about your undergraduate record but can influence your own GMAT or GRE score.
That’s where test prep comes in — and the people preparing materials and teaching courses know that good performance on those courses will make a difference in students’ opinions. Or do they?
In our big fat survey of GMAT and GRE test-takers, with responses from 859 P&Q users, we saw a direct correlation between high scores and high recommendations. It’s in fact, quite linear, writes MasterAdmissions founder Betsy Massar in our published report. If you achieved an average GMAT boost of 91 points, you gave your test prep service the highest score, a ten on a ten-point scale. If you only managed to improve your GMAT score by 40 points, your likeliness of recommending the service to others fell to four or less.
Consumers of test prep materials, courses, and instruction can be a fickle bunch, however. In a previous story on our survey, we looked at 11 major providers of test prep platforms. For the results of the survey, we grouped together all users of the test prep company’s platform, whether the student used it with a tutor, on top of a class, with both, or on their own.
Here’s what we learned from those who reported score increases (and yes, a few reported score decreases). The firm with the highest average score increase, or 91.3, was Manhattan GMAT. Magoosh came in for the silver, and E-GMAT, third place for the bronze. The numbers were close, but all three beat the average score increase of 83.3 points.
We figured the company that led to the highest score would lead to the happiest customers, but in this case, things aren’t always that linear. Manhattan Prep was not the most highly recommended provider, in fact, it came in third after Target Test Prep and GMAT Club.
With nearly 600 responses to the question, “How likely are you to recommend the platform you used to a friend or colleague?” Target Test Prep came in first with a score of 8.8 out of 10, where 10 was “extremely likely.” The average score across all platforms was 8.3, a fairly generous number — but unsurprising since the average of all students who responded with score increases was 83.3.
We also saw in the aggregate that people were more generous in recommending the platform than they were in recommending their tutor or their class – perhaps familiarity breeds contempt? Approximately 70% of students were likely or extremely likely to recommend the tutor or class to a friend or colleague, while 85% of students agreed to the question when it was asked specifically about the platform.
To see the full results of our test taker satisfaction survey, click here.