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Continuing our series of GMAT test prep company profiles, we’ll look today at one of the larger players in the field, Princeton Review. Founded in 1981 by Princeton University graduate John Katzman, the Princeton Review provides test preparation for high school exams such as the PSAT, SAT and Advanced Placement tests as well as a variety of graduate entrance exams, including the GRE, the LSAT, the MCAT and the GMAT.
To learn more about the company’s specific GMAT offerings, we interviewed Shadna Wise, Princeton Review executive director for graduate marketing. In the transcript that follows, you’ll learn more about Princeton Review’s instructors, its classroom and online course offerings, private tutoring and more.
Clear Admit: How many GMAT tutors do you have? Who are they? What are their qualifications? What markets do they serve?
Shadna Wise: We have hundreds – not quite a thousand, but at least 500. We look for a combination of things in our instructors. We want someone who is engaging, someone who can teach and explain and enlighten, someone who can create his or her own lessons. Scores on the actual GMAT are important as well – they must be in the top percentiles. And they go through a rigorous training program to ensure that they can present to a group in a way that everyone can understand. To this end, we also want them to be flexible so they can accommodate the range of needs in any classroom.
In terms of the markets our instructors serve, we have sites in more than 50 locations in the United States as well as in Canada. We also have international locations in Korea and India, though because I don’t work directly with our international programs I don’t know as much about those offerings.
CA: Describe the type of candidate you feel would be best served by Princeton Review’s approach to GMAT prep? What sets Princeton Review apart from other test prep companies?
SW: I think it’s anyone who wants to go to business school and wants to score well on the GMAT. Our courses are designed to help students who are scoring high already and just want to achieve the very highest scores and gain admission to the very top schools. But we also have programs that are designed for students who maybe have been out of school for a while or who want to get a good enough score on the GMAT to go to their local community university.
Our offerings are definitely for someone who is busy and needs a convenient schedule. We offer a lot of different types of programs, be it online after work or in one of our classroom courses. There are choices for that busy mother who decides she wants to go back to business school but is working and taking care of her kids at the same time. And there are choices for the guy at work who is traveling a lot and trying to advance in his job and wants a program he can take part in during his off hours.
It tends to be very much about convenience. Princeton Review students are very busy and want to do what they can to fit test preparation into their lives. With this in mind, we customize students’ homework based on diagnostic assessment. It isn’t just rote – exactly the same as what everyone else in the class is working on. Instead, the homework assignments are designed to target just the areas an individual needs to focus on most.
Also, our instructors are designed to teach not to present. They are passionate about what they do. And we do cover every concept tested on the GMAT, so our students know they will be absolutely exposed to every concept on the test.
CA: What is the typical Princeton Review class size?
SW: Though Princeton Review is a big company, our classes are actually quite small for the GRE and GMAT – an average of six students for our classroom courses. And our small group tutoring services average just three students. They are small by design. We want to make sure once again that our teachers are teaching rather than presenting. If you have a class that is more of a presentation format, you can have hundreds of students. But that’s not what we do.
Instead, our classes are small by design so that if a given group has more trouble with math, our instructors can focus on that test. By design, so if there is a group that has more trouble with math our teachers can focus on that. The small group setting allows our teachers to spot check and adjust based on actual student needs.
CA: How has the Princeton Review curriculum evolved over time? What are your distinct offerings?
SW: We have a seven-session classroom course, our GMAT LiveOnline and Online courses, small group tutoring, private tutoring, and private online tutoring. Basically, we are a company that has been around for 18 years and the evolution of our offerings has mirrored the evolution of how students choose to prepare and how they are getting their education overall.
In the beginning, Princeton Review’s courses were in your typical classroom setting. Everything took place sitting in the classroom. But over time, we found that there were students who wanted more targeted instruction. In part this had to do with shifting schedules. What students’ schedules looked like 20 years ago is nothing like what they look like today. So we added offerings that increased scheduling flexibility and convenience for busy students. And now, the latest kind of evolution has been the move online. There is so much instruction that can be done online, and for the GMAT in particular, those offerings can be a no brainer, especially for people who are really busy or who travel a lot or who are trying to balance work and family life.
CA: Is there anything new on the horizon? Planned expansion to new markets?
SW: We are always assessing our course – the strength of our course and what students need. We have found that students average a 90-point improvement after taking our course, which is pretty big. That kind of score increase can really alter your admissions decisions and possibly even influence some financial packages. So we continually want to make sure that we are delivering life-changing, option-changing score improvements.
We are also attentive to the need in the marketplace. Market demand is what let us know we needed to add online learning to our offerings. We are always looking for new ways to ensure that we are adjusting to the needs of our students.
CA: How much do Princeton Review’s services cost?
SW: Well, the very most affordable would be our whole line of books with Random House. The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) did a survey to determine the most influential books out there, and Princeton Review’s Business School Guide came in as one of the top. And that’s a book that costs just $23. So in terms of the cost of our services, it can start as simple as purchasing a book. But our most popular options are our classroom courses, which cost $1247 for a 21-hour, seven-week session.
(Other options include Small Group Tutoring, $1440; GMAT LiveOnline, $899; GMAT Online, $599; and GMAT Express Online, $132. Princeton Review also offers a variety of private tutoring options, which range in price from $150 an hour for single subject tutoring to $375 an hour for an 18-hour premier all-subject package with elite tutors. For a full list of Princeton Review’s GMAT offerings and fees, click here.)
CA: How does a student determine which level of Princeton Review test prep is best for him or her?
SW: Pretty much what we recommend for anybody even remotely thinking about business school is to start researching it. Find out what the requirements are for a given school – minimum GMAT score, GPA, etc. That will start determining really fast what level you need.
You might also want to take a practice test, which you can do with us. If a student finds they are scoring within 50 to 60 points of their target goal, maybe they want to consider one of our online courses. But if it’s more like 120 to 150 points they are looking to increase their scores by, maybe they want a classroom course. And then there’s the convenience factor. If they are traveling a lot for work or balancing between work and family life, the flexibility of our online options might make more sense than the in-class courses.
CA: Is the fact that Princeton Review offers test preparation for such a range of exams in addition to the GMAT an advantage? If so, how?
SW: I think it depends on the devotion and effort we put into the GMAT. We have a complete team in our company that does nothing but GMAT, so we are no different than a company that only offers GMAT prep. I’ve never quite understood the argument that because we offer prep for several exams our GMAT prep should suffer. Maybe we do the LSAT and MCAT as well, but our folks that design our programs for MCAT don’t go over and do GMAT. It’s never a robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario.
For those of us at Princeton Review who work with the GMAT, our main focus has been and will continue to be making sure that we have the very best GMAT teachers we can and that they are passionate about what they are teaching.
Read the full article: GMAT Test Prep Company Profile Series: Princeton Review
