Private Tutor Session with Keith

I only had 5 hours of private tutor time with Keith of Manhattan GMAT Chicago, and I improved my score by 50 points (from 650 to 700). I had spent about 3 months of self-study (including 2 online math fundamentals courses from Manhattan GMAT) and scored a 650. I had scored in the 50th percentile for math and 91st percentile for verbal. Needless to say, my quant needed work!

I studied for another 6 weeks on my own and did worse (620 overall with only a slight improvement in my quant and obviously worse on verbal). Needless to say, I was frustrated and defeated. I chose to meet with a private tutor vs. a prep class because I didn't want to invest another 9 weeks into studying.

I met with Keith for 5 hours total and focused solely on quant. From the first meeting, he diagnosed my issues (apparently I was studying TOO much) and taught me a few concepts that I kept getting tripped up on. I actually took the next 5 weeks very easy. I did one practice test, met two additional times with Keith and studied about 3 hours the week of the test. My score improved to 700 (71st percentile quant; 88th percentile verbal). Perhaps just not studying was really the key for me, but I wouldn't have felt comfortable enough to stop studying without Keith's belief in my ability.

I will also say though that at least 4-5 concepts we covered appeared on my quant section on test day - so that definitely did help! Both Keith's knowledge and encouragement were crucial to my success.