Tara is phenomenal — especially when it comes to GRE Quant. My score went from a 160 Quant to 168 — this trulyyy would not have been possible without Tara! I have also gotten acceptances at multiple schools, including my dream school – Stanford.

He is unique in what he teaches you — strategy, shortcuts, and how to take the test smarter. Most of what he goes over you’re not going to be able to find anywhere else. The test is made so that you run out of time — with Tara’s tools, I was able to finish with time left over (something that felt impossible to achieve). I have recommended him to many of my close friends, and will continue to do so if anyone ever needs Quant support for the GRE. His prices are also quite reasonable in my opinion, especially when you compare to other test prep companies which only give you generic information and content that is not specifically catered to you. Additionally, he is so kind and supportive — I loved chatting with him during and after classes and actually enjoyed each of our lessons.

110% – hands down – go to Tara for anything GRE Quant. You will not regret it.

Tara was an incredible tutor for the GMAT Focus. I can’t rave about my experience enough. I started working with Tara about 3 weeks before my GMAT Focus exam, specifically on quant, and he is a big reason I am one and done on the test! His knowledge about the GMAT Focus algorithm and shortcuts for quant problems helped me tremendously. Tara truly goes above and beyond as a tutor and I feel so lucky to have found his website a few weeks before the exam.

Tara is absolutely the best. With his help, I improved my GMAT score 140 points and was admitted to Harvard Business School!

I began my GMAT preparation with a Manhattan GMAT online class and MGMAT workbooks. I even added a MGMAT private tutor (who was 3x more expensive than Tara), but I still couldn’t crack the test. I then searched for help elsewhere and was fortunate to find Tara, who was the highest ranked tutor on every online forum I visited. With his help, I developed the skills, and more importantly, the confidence to tackle the GMAT.

Tara is patient, thoughtful, and adaptive — and he creates a customized approach for each student. I am proud to call Tara a friend. He is truly the best in the business.

I worked with Tara for several weeks this past spring on GMAT math, which culminated in a 770 GMAT score (99th percentile: 49Q / 45V). I’m writing this review because I am pleased with my score, and believe that Tara is directly responsible for the good results, as I had been scoring in the high-600s / low-700s on practice tests prior to working with him.

A few points I’d like to touch on:

1) Intellect – Tara is, hands down, one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He is so quick with numbers, which was very helpful while we were going through the hardest GMAT math problems. He has an advanced science degree from University of Chicago and is quantitatively solid.

2) Ability to teach difficult concepts – during the actual GMAT exam, especially toward the end of the quantitative section (where the questions are the very hardest if you’re getting the earlier ones correct), there were 7 or 8 questions where I remember arriving at an answer and thinking “wow, this is exactly how Tara taught me to do it,” or “I’m glad that Tara taught me that shortcut.” The time we spent together definitely contributed to my ability to get some of the hardest GMAT questions right.

3) Dedication / alignment of interests – one of the things I worried most about when finding a tutor was whether the individual would have my best interests at heart. From the beginning, Tara was highly invested in my success. I’d get text messages from him (at random times) with photos of GMAT problems and solutions that would be similar to the ones we had gone through during our sessions – they would include helpful tips and “here’s another way to approach it if you get stuck” type commentary. It is clear that Tara takes immense pride in his work, and he’s always thinking about you, even outside of your sessions. He also spent lots of time outside of class looking through specific questions that I had emailed him in advance. Also, he sent me messages of encouragement and helped me manage some of the emotional / psychological aspects of the test as well. He clearly had an intrinsic urge to help me do well.

4) Personality – I know this might not seem immediately relevant to some folks, but I also want to note that Tara is humble, ­­understanding, and patient. He has a very cool / calm / collected demeanor, which makes him very easy to work with. Despite the GMAT being a horror of an exam, I always looked forward to our sessions. He’s also open-minded about how you arrive at your answers – I’ve found that some tutors try to force you to do problems their way, but Tara takes the time to figure out how you approach the problem, and then gives an objective critique of your approach (often, he has a much faster way that he can show you). He is very easygoing and low-ego.

I took the Manhattan GMAT course a few years ago, and have done a bunch of Manhattan and Official Guide problems, with lots of spinning my wheels and no real improvement. Tara added direction and structure to my studying, and taught me how to approach the toughest math problems. I took a lot of time deciding which tutor I wanted to work with, and I’m very glad that I went with Tara. I think this is some of the best money I’ve ever spent, and it was completely worth it.

I unconditionally recommend Tara. Happy to discuss this further if anyone is on the fence or has any questions at all. Feel free to shoot me a message at coliou2 @ gmail. Good luck!

Tara is the man! If you need help on GMAT quant, you won’t find anyone better.

After studying for 6 months on my own I needed help…fast. I had taken the GMAT once and my score was nowhere near what I needed for my target schools. I read Tara’s reviews and was excited to find a personal tutor in Chicago. When I found out he would be doing the sessions over Skype I was skeptical, but I ended up really enjoying the interface. I came away from each session with pages of useful notes and examples to reference.

Given my time constraints, I needed an action plan and that’s exactly what Tara provides. He breaks down the different types of questions and problem solving strategies to help you navigate the test. The strategies he teaches go far beyond the books/materials available through the major companies and his methods are tested and proven.

I did 10 one hour sessions and improved my GMAT score by 50 points – all improvements in the quant section. Tara was very flexible with scheduling time to meet and always responsive if I had questions in between sessions. He also provided some helpful advice the day before the test without charging me extra.

I seriously can’t thank Tara enough.

If your goal is to succeed on the GMAT or a serious standardized test, my biggest piece of advice is: use Tara.

I started my MBA application process with the lofty goal of being accepted by a highly selective business school. Unfortunately, my first GMAT practice exam put me nowhere near the range of most applicants to those schools (620). On top of that, I was a philosophy major in undergrad, so I knew the questions about my quant skills could potentially be major marks against me for the business school admission committees. To that end, I realized that a huge portion of their assessment of my quantitative skills would come from the GMAT. As such, doing well became very important to me. Again, I did not have a math background and was scoring well below my goals on practice tests.

To help me, I figured I needed someone who knew the GMAT inside and out and someone who had succeeded on it before to show me how to be most successful. I looked online and found stellar reviews for Tara, and called him that day. He was very flexible with timing, and as I worked full-time, was willing to meet me at nights to help me prepare.

Between working full-time and taking grad school classes, I told Tara that I only had time for 6 1-hour sessions, once per week. I told him that I was scoring between 41 and 42 on the quantitative section and asked him to honestly tell me if I could significantly improve that score in 8 weeks. Tara told me he would help me work as hard as I was prepared to work to achieve the highest score possible. With his encouragement I decided to really put in some time studying and signed up for six sessions with him.

15 minutes into the first session I already could tell what a game changer Tara was going to be. Within those first few minutes he had assessed my quantitative knowledge and figured out where the holes in my capabilities were. By the end of an hour, he had written out 8+ pages of clear notes and strategies that proved invaluable in my prep for the GMAT. These were not the typical rules that books take you through in 500 pages, where you waste time re-reading strategies you already know– these were clear, concise, pragmatic strategies that helped fill gaps in my knowledge that were directly applicable to individual GMAT questions. Most of what I saw were rules and techniques that I had never even heard of before, but that helped me on GMAT questions.

That night, after one session, my GMAT practice already felt significantly easier. Each week Tara would focus on several of my weaknesses, using a combination of lecturing, doing practice problems together, independent practice work, and taking actual tests together to help make sure I would be comfortable with any sort of question the GMAT could throw at me.

And every week, for all six weeks, I left with a packet of new strategies that gave me ways to attack problems that I had previously thought I would never be able to answer. Tara offered simple techniques that allowed me to answer supposedly hard questions quite easily. I could feel my progress accelerating as I became excited for the date of GMAT.

Tara was so thorough in his teaching of number properties and strategies to use on any and all GMAT questions, that by the end of my studying I had trouble finding questions that I no longer knew how to do. Through all six weeks, he continued to give me new tricks and knowledge that I had not previously had.

Throughout our lessons, I came to view Tara almost as a super computer– I could not find a question that gave him any trouble at all, or that even caused him a moment of hesitation. And yet despite this intellectual prowess, not once did he seem condescending, arrogant or judgemental of my significant quantitative shortcomings. To the contrary, he was quite disarming and actually a lot of fun to work with. He was very supportive and continued to give me confidence as I got closer and closer to the big day– he was just a genuinely cool guy. I actually chose to meet a final time with Tara the week before my GMAT, and once again he gave me about 6-7 new strategies, 5 of which I used exactly as they were taught to me on the test 10 days later.

When the day of the test arrived, I spent the hour before the test reading through Tara’s notes for the 100th time. I was nervous, but as soon as I actually began the test, the nerves dissipated as, question after question, I kept going back to strategies Tara taught me. I found myself, on almost every question, going back to an explicit strategy we had covered together.

I could not believe my results: an 8 on Integrated Reasoning, and a 49 Quant. Combined (with a 44 verbal) it was a 760 overall score (99th percentile), far above my target score. Looking back I know this was a direct result of my work with Tara. I am very appreciative and incredibly thankful for Tara and the time we spent together, and I could not recommend him more strongly! Thank you for everything Tara!

I highly recommend Tara if you are looking for quant test prep.

Tara’s teaching philosophy is unique. Tara knows the test exceptionally well. The way he structures his content will help you cut out the noise and fluff you sometimes get from formal test prep courses. He shares little things, such as timing strategies and shortcuts, that will help get you to your target score.

I’ve worked with tutors in the past, where I spent the majority of the sessions working on problems myself. The tutors shared a list of problems, had solutions next to them, and referred to the solutions verbatim if I had questions. Unlike these tutors, Tara ACTUALLY teaches. Every question he puts in front of you is very intentional. Tara knows exactly what each question is testing and makes sure you understand. If you don’t, he remembers and knows where to find similar questions for you. He expects you to do your homework, put in the hours on your own, learn the basics, and bring him questions. You will get so much more from time spent with Tara than most of the tutors out there.

I also had zero issues working with Tara online. He’s actually incredibly proficient at using the digital tools available to replicate an in-person session. Again, Tara does this way better than other online tutors I’ve worked with. The way he writes out his notes and works through the problems live with you online is very structured and easy to follow.

Working with Tara helped improve my GMAT quant score from 38 to 47. My overall GMAT score also improved 100 points. I am retaking my GMAT to put my best foot forward. I am confident that the foundation I gained from working with Tara will take my score to the next level.

Set up a trial session with him, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

I had a fantastic and very successful experience working with Tara in my preparation for the GMAT. I had taken the Veritas Prep course before and had been studying for ~4 months before I started seeing Tara. My best live GMAT score at the time was 610. I had been scoring 660 on practice tests consistently but on test day I couldn’t seem to put it all together. . so after a collapse on my 3rd GMAT exam I decided I needed to make a change.

I started researching GMAT tutors and Tara stood out in particular so I reached out and he was very helpful/prompt in responding. I worked with Tara multiple times over a 2 week period in preparation for another swing at the GMAT. There were a lot of holes/gaps in my quant capabilities, which is why my scores were fluctuating so much. . so working with Tara over those 2 weeks helped me fill in those gaps, improve my floor, and greatly increase my confidence going in to test day. I not only increased my floor with Tara, but he helped explain in very fine detail how to go about solving some of the far more challenging problems as well – things I had never really considered prior. Additionally, he does a great job with general test taking/timing strategies, as well as teaching & explaining the core math skills required to excel on the GMAT.

Test day #4 finally arrived and it was the most confident I felt going into any exam, and was ecstatic to see that I scored a 720!! Tara was instrumental in my 110 point improvement and for anyone serious about excelling on the GMAT and getting into a top tier business school, Tara is an easy choice.

Tara is an exceptional tutor. He was always flexible and very responsive for setting up times to meet while I was studying. With tremendous help from Tara, I took my GRE exam today and scored a 164 out of 170 on the GRE math section.