~A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE~
In our continuing series of GMAT test prep company profiles, we spoke this week with Dave Killoran, CEO of PowerScore. Killoran entered the test prep field almost 20 years ago, working initially as an instructor for industry giant Kaplan. Seeking to provide an alternative to Kaplan’s approach to test preparation, he founded PowerScore in 1997.
Operating in several locations throughout the United States and Canada, PowerScore offers a 30-hour GMAT full course and a 16-hour GMAT single weekend course, as well as both live, in-person tutoring and telephone tutoring. PowerScore prides itself on being able to offer one of the lowest full-course prices on the market, as well as a lower per hour cost for individual tutoring.
In the interview that follows, Killoran describes the evolution of the company since its founding, talks about what PowerScore looks for in its instructors and gives a glimpse of what he believes sets the company’s offerings apart.
Clear Admit: How many GMAT tutors do you have? Who are they? What are their qualifications? What markets do they serve?
Dave Killoran: We probably use about 50 to 60 GMAT instructors. They really come from all walks of life, but a requirement to get an interview is to have scored in the 99th percentile on the GMAT. We want our students to be able to look at our instructors and feel confident that they can help them improve their own scores.
But while a high score is a requirement for an interview, it is not a guarantee that someone will be hired. We are not looking for someone who has a business background necessarily. We look for someone who is a good speaker, who has a lot of personality, who likes the GMAT, and who likes to teach. Some of our instructors are lawyers, some are business executives, some are working as professors at universities.
In terms of the markets we serve, we are all over the place. We are stronger in terms of the number of students we serve through our full course programs on the East Coast than on the West Coast. But our weekend courses are offered all over the country as well as in Toronto, Canada; tutoring is offered in most cities in the U.S. and Canada, and through our books we are able to assist students worldwide.
CA: Describe the type of candidate you feel would be best served by PowerScores’s approach to GMAT prep? What sets PowerScore apart from other test prep companies?
DK: Basically, we have a two-fold approach to test prep. First, we try to teach students the basics of what they are going to be tested on. Some other test prep companies like to go more for a tips or tricks type of approach. While I think there is a place for that, you really have to focus on what the real test subject matter is first.
As for the test subject matter, it’s not as if people don’t know the math, but they may not have seen it since eighth grade. And most people know how to argue, but with critical reasoning, if you don’t understand the underlying foundation of how the test makers actually view the exam you are going to really struggle with the test. So first what we want to do is really provide a foundation so people know what they need to know about the test.
And then we teach them what the test makers are doing when they design the test. The real key is that it doesn’t matter what you think, it matters what the people who make the test think.
I think the ideal student for the full-length course is someone who wants more structure and more direction. The full course meets on a regular basis over 10 sessions, so you are constantly coming back and getting feedback, and the lessons are stretched out in a structured manner. It’s a slow build. The full course is definitely our flagship course.
Then there’s the weekend course, which involves 16 hours of lecture packed into a single weekend. The content we cover there is very similar to the full course, we just don’t go over as many questions. But while it’s called a weekend course, there is really a lot more to it. There are pre- and post-course components, which allow you to do work prior to and after the class. Generally, students who take the weekend course tend to be a little more self motivated and have less schedule flexibility. It’s sometimes a lot easier for people to fit the course in over a single weekend than to commit to 10 continuing sessions with the full course. So basically, the difference in ideal students for each comes down to a difference between motivations, structure and schedule.
There are also our tutoring services. Tutoring is the perfect device to transfer information because it is perfectly matched to the individual student. We will sit down and talk to you about your strengths and weaknesses, review your early test results and then we create individual plans that help students directly in a particular way according to their individual needs. Some people are math phobic, so with them we focus on quant. Some people come in and are engineers, so they have the math down, but they might want to focus on critical reasoning. Basically, anyone who has a question in a tutoring session knows he or she is going to get exactly the answer he or she is looking for.
Finally, there are our books. We have a couple of different books. The first two we published were the Critical Reasoning Bible and the Sentence Correction Bible. They have started to become very popular. In them, we supply more information than might be necessary to allow students to say, “This is what I need, this is what I don’t need.”
We were about to put out a Reading Comp Bible but then thought no one will read it because no one really likes reading comp. Instead, we combined all three parts to create the GMAT Verbal Bible, which we put out eight to nine months ago. And then, probably by next year, we’ll put out the GMAT Math Bible.
CA: Part of the PowerScore sales pitch is that you offer the lowest full-course price out there, as well as some of the lowest per hour tutoring fees. Is that right? What do your services cost?
DK: That’s something that goes way back into my personal history. Basically, I think a lot of what is being offered out there is really overpriced. Some companies have a lot of test centers across the United States and so have a massive overhead. Others I think just charge too much.
Our approach is that we charge what we think is reasonable. The quality of services we provide would warrant our charging more, but we don’t see a reason to do that. The thing I love about this is that it’s a business, but it’s also education. I have a really strong commitment to the fact that when people come to us as students we are trying to help them with the future they want to create. We don’t want to start that out by gouging people.
PowerScore’s GMAT Full Course costs $995; GMAT weekend course, $395; private tutoring ranges from $80 per hour (telephone tutoring) to $150 per hour (open-ended private tutoring). For a full fee schedule, click here.
CA: Is there anything new on the horizon in terms of services or offerings?
DK: We are in the process of developing two online courses – a live interactive online course and another on demand version of that. I expect them to be available later this year. We’d aimed for October but it’s looking more like November, because when you are trying to develop somehting that is that complicated and complex, it takes some time.
CA: How does a student determine which level of test prep is best for him or her?
DK: We definitely try to put out enough information on our website so people can make an informed decision, and we offer a free GMAT help area on the site to give people an idea of what we do. We like to look at ourselves as not just a friendly company but a very personal company. Some students come in and they really should just buy a book, some people would thrive in the full course, and some others would really benefit from one-on-one tutoring. If anyone has any confusion about what level is most appropriate, we always say just give us a call. When you call us there’s not a big voicemail system where you have to press seven buttons. We like to answer the phone and actually talk to people. And no one here works on commission, so we won’t try to sell you something you don’t need.
For more information on PowerScore, visit the company website or call (800) 545-1750.
Read the full article: GMAT Test Prep Company Profile Series: PowerScore