GMAT HERO

When I worked for Kaplan before, I got to know that Kaplan offers a pretty-looking service called "Higher Score Guarantee".

But this kind of guarantee is a sham. If a student goes to a test-prep school to study for at least some hours, how come this student will score even lower than before. It is almost impossible that a student scores lower after a hard study. So if a test-prep company gives you a "Higher Score Guarantee", it actually guarantees you nothing.

There will be no tutors, teachers, or institutions in this market that can unconditionally guarantee a student a score that he or she desires. Even I, a GMAT guru who knows some, but not all, of your exact GMAT future questions, still cannot unconditionally guarantee a student an unrealistic high score that may come out of his or her whimsical thought. We need to do an evaluation first. Then we can work out a score that I can guarantee. 

How it works:

There are three determining factors for a student to achieve a good score on a test.

Factor #1: The factor of self

First, it depends on the student's own aptitude, such as IQ, EQ, physical stamina, and personality. Just give you a good example: you cannot make a mentally retarded person to score a score over 700 in his or her GMAT exam (the Rain Man cannot be seen as mentally retarded. Actually this type of person is called "Idiot Savvant" in psychology). 

Let me give you another example: if you watch the Olympic Games these years, you will hardly find a non-Black athlete in a 100-meter dash. In the same way, you will hardly see a Black athlete in a swimming competition. Have you ever thought about why it is like this? The reason behind this phenomenon lies in the special physique of Black athletes. The composition of their bodies is mainly muscle. You cannot put an iron machine into water and wish it float. In the same way, you cannot beat a race car on track and field by driving a horse cart.

Secondly, you need to be physically fit. You cannot expect an old man who has a serious heart disease to sit the whole exam and score high.

Finally, you personality counts. A detail-oriented and patient person tends to score high.

Factor #2: The factor of a good trainer

Everybody needs a teacher/trainer when he or she learns knowledge in his or her lifetime. Teaching/training does improve a person's knowledge and skills.

But trainers are in different qualities.Let me give you another good example: if you watch the Olympic Games these years, you may notice that in Ping-Pong  and Diving matches, the Chinese athletes got almost all gold medals and they almost monopoly these games. But two Australian girls won the gold and bronz medals in the 10-metre platform event at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Chantelle Newbery (Michell) chose for her final effort her pet dive - a backwards two-and-a-half somersault - and executed it almost faultlessly to win from the favourite, China’s Lao Lishi. Her teammate Loudy Tourky won the bronze. At that moment, I was dumbfounded when I saw the result in fron of the TV. But soon the two girls celebrated and embraced their two coaches who are Chinese. Then I realized that the two girls were fortunate to get the best diving trainers in the world. Plus their talents and hardworking, they sure emerged as the best and got the medals.

Factor #3: The factor of some luck

Quote from the last two lines in Page 13 from the GMAT Handbook (pdf):

"(Total) Scores are reported in intervals of 10. The standard error of measurement is 30-40 points."

According to GMAC, two students’ scores have to differ by at least 41 points before they indicate a difference in the abilities measured by the GMAT which means that colleges cannot determine the better qualified of two students whose scores are 530 and 570.

So this is the evidence for why we need some lucks! You certainly want a 570 instead of 530. For example, you may hate Probability questions in the math section. In your exam day, if you do not encounter any Probability questions, you can consider yourself lucky and you may score higher than if you take your test one month later.

the Scope of Exact Score Guarantee

It is not like "Higher Score Guarantee". I guarantee you the exact score based on your base level of knowledge on GMAT.

Usually for Quantitative Scale Scores, I guarantee a scaled score of 45, which is in the 66th percentile based on the most recent data.

For total scores, per some ambitious students' requests, I guarantee a total scaled score of 700, which is in the 89th percentile based on the most recent data.

A Team Work of the Guarantee

The Exact Score Guarantee can be achieved only by a team work.

If I work hard to prepare you but you just lay back and do nothing, then I cannot bring you a good score. We need to work hard together.

Let me give you an analogy to explain how my strategy works:

I am a General of the Air Force and you are a General of a field army. In order to occupy the hostile land, I will lead my bombers to do the carpet bombing to obliterate the enemy's strongholds. But I cannot guarantee to kill every enemy soldier in the battle field. Then you need to lead your foot soldiers to charge the enemy position and kill all the soldiers either by shooting or by bayoneting or by strangling using bare hands. Using whatever way, remember that it is you, and you only, who will win the final victory in the battle field.