How P&Q Readers Rate Their GMAT Test Prep Companies

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.

Magoosh’s fairly low ranking surprised us in this part of the survey, given that respondents reported increases of 89.2 points, well above the average, and just a notch below Manhattan.

As for Target Test Prep, respondents were very willing to recommend that platform to others, despite a 75 point increase, lower than our average of 83.3, and the third-lowest in reported. GMAT Club was also a favorite — with a stronger sample size than Target Test Prep — but their average score increase of 81.7 was still lower than the average.

In fact, we directly asked students whether they thought the materials helped them improve their score, and the results were as follows.

Veritas, Target Test Prep, and Manhattan took the top three positions, but both Veritas and Target Test Prep were below the score increase average. In fact, Empower — with the lowest average score increase of all companies — fared better than expected with a 4.31 average for fifth place. Manhattan Prep, which had the highest score increase of 91.3, had the third-highest score of 4.34. (GMAT Club’s 4.34 was rounded up from 4.339.)

The official GMAC materials, which do come from the actual producers of the test, were not as well-regarded as less-official providers. They did come in better than the average in student perceptions of that the materials helped improve their score, ranking in sixth place. The official GMAC did not do as well in making difficult concepts clear, where they came in almost dead last before Kaplan.