July 8, 2016

Top 3 Reasons Online Tutoring Can Boost Your GMAT Prep

By Mahlena-Rae Johnson

Tutoring can help all types of students build their skills for an exam. Online tutoring in particular is a great way to get the assistance you need to study for the GMAT. If you are struggling with certain types of questions, specific GMAT sections, or test-taking skills in general, working with an online tutor could be the solution you are looking for. Here are the top three reasons online tutoring can boost your GMAT prep.

1. It’s convenient

Working with an online tutor means you can meet them wherever you have a device and an internet connection. There’s no need to find a mutually acceptable location or account for travel and traffic. As long as you and your tutor can find a regular time to meet, the logistics are simple. With a click of a button, you’re ready to go! This means you can spend less time in transit and more time studying for the GMAT in a comfortable environment. It also means you have fewer excuses to bail out on a session or procrastinate, ultimately helping to ensure you fulfill your prep plan. The meeting place is your computer or your tablet or even your phone. Simply turn it on, and let the learning begin.

2. There are more tutors available for you

If you live in a major metropolitan area like Chicago, Houston, or Philadelphia, you may be able to find a plethora of talented instructors to help you improve your GMAT skills. However, if you live in a less populated area, tutors can be few and far between, much less tutors that specialize in the GMAT. Plus, those scarce tutors may not have availability that matches your schedule or your timeline for taking the exam. Online, you can work with a tutor from almost anywhere in the world, in any time zone. Additionally, you find someone who can help you with your specific GMAT needs—which leads to the third reason.

3. You can focus on what you need to learn

An online tutor tailors instruction based on you. Instead of trying to figure out why you’re getting the same type of question wrong over and over again, you can work with a skilled professional who has a range of proven tactics for you to apply. Additionally, an online tutor isn’t going to give you what you don’t need; this is not a one-size-fits-all lesson plan. Time and strategies can be adjusted as you gain strengths in certain areas and need more work in others. Online tutors also have an array of resources at their fingertips to easily send you and screen-share with you, as the Internet is full of excellent tools to help you sharpen your skills—and the tutors know which ones are tried and true.

For example, let’s say you took a practice test and scored better on the Verbal section than you did on the Quantitative section. You want to improve in math, so you and your tutor work together to improve your quantitative skills while maintaining your verbal skills. As time goes on, your Quantitative score rises to a level that you feel confident about, but you think you can do better in Verbal as well. So now, you and your tutor shift gears to improve your verbal skills while maintaining your more developed quantitative skills. Through online tutoring, together, you can reach a higher skill level on the GMAT, which would have been much harder to attain on your own.

Remember, you don’t have to prepare alone. Thousands of students connect with instructors every day through virtual platforms and move closer to their educational goals. To take your first step toward boosting your GMAT prep, consider the convenience and personal benefits of seeking online GMAT tutoring. Good luck!

Mahlena-Rae Johnson is a professional tutor and contributing writer with Varsity Tutors, a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement.