Manhattan GMAT 9-Session In-Person Prep Course Reviews

In researching GMAT courses to take, I read many reviews and talked to a few people. Most people said Manhattan GMAT was the best, and the reviews were certainly excellent. I signed up, hoping it was worth the price.

It was. MGMAT's 9-week live course isn't cheap, but it is excellent. I highly recommend it if you are serious about getting a top score (I got a 740). The written strategy guides are good, the OG Archer is a must-have resource (the other online resources are pretty good, too), and my instructor was excellent. He was funny, enthusiastic, very smart, and very able to break down complex problems into bite sized chunks.

Ultimately, your score really depends on the work you put into studying for the test. With discipline, focus, and a few months of your life dedicated to studying, you can do very well on the GMAT. But having a top notch instructor and a solid curriculum really help too. If you're serious about getting an excellent score, I highly recommend Manhattan GMAT.

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I decided to sign up for MGMAT because I wanted to score in the 700+ range. Studying on my own was not yeilding the results I wanted, because I noticed that I was getting the same types of problems incorrect, without being able to truly analyze my weaknesses and create a systematic approach to improve. I was still able to recollect my basic quantitative and verbal skills, but MGMAT instruction and cirriculmn helped me improve my test taking strategy and timing for each problem. The MGMAT curriculum accurately categorizes the types of of quantitative problems into several topics, and by studying thoroughly each topic through the GMAT books, and the syllabus recommended problems, I was able to recognize the types of quant. problems immediately during the exam. This allowed me to quickly devise a strategy thus saving time spent on setting up the solution approach for each problem. The in class instruction was especially helpful for the more difficult problems because our instructor was able to extrapolate a simpler problem into a 700+ problem and explain the similarities and differences. This helped me understand how more challenging problems are phrased, and how to translate these problems into math. One particular example is for combinations/permutations & probability. I was never able to fundamentally grasp this topic until our MGMAT instructor gave us a hands - on example during class. After that, any such problem was easy!

I highly recommend MGMAT to those who are serious about their GMAT scores. There is a lot of homework during the course, and additional study time required prior to the exam, but I saw the results and was able to monitor how my score increased with each subsequent practice exam.

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I had a very positive experience with Manhattan GMAT here in Chicago. The instructor was attentive, responsive to email, and helpful. The materials were also very helpful, and allowed me to be efficient in my self study. The curriculum was well constructed, and allowed me to progress in an ordered manner. I was someone who didn't need a ton of help in verbal, but did in quant. MGMAT provided just what I needed. Additionally, I had to reschedule my class several times at the last minute, and MGMAT was more than willing to do so. Lastly, the location was a bit noisy, which was unfortunate.

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I am very very happy with what MGMAT offers. I just got a 710
and I am satisfied with my score.

My fundamentals were strengthened after taking Ron Purewal's 9 week training, and I then went from 640 to 710 because of
1. the advanced DS + advanced SC workshops from Daniel Patinkin and Emily Sledge,
2. Ron's "Thu with Ron" which they give away for free !!

My confidence got a real boost after the advanced workshops because they teach you how to tackle hard problems and that makes the 600 level questions look easy.

MGMAT offers a complete package and I never looked at any other material - the strategy guides are excellent for strengthening your fundamentals, the instructors are top class, and the customer service is awesome. They really take care of students. I am also glad I got two 180 day extensions for online resources. I took the training months before and wasn't able to take the test immediately, so I had to delay taking the test and those extensions were very valuable.

Trust me ... If you really want to crack that 700 barrier you have to go with MGMAT.

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ManhattanGMAT is excellent! I started my 9-session class in January with Hemanth as my instructor. He was an excellent instructor and went through everything thoroughly.

My quant improved a ton - in my diagnostic exam, I took 10 minutes over the 75 minute time limit to finish the quant sections and only got a 43Q (70th percentile). On test day I got a 49Q (85th percentile)! MGMAT is known for extremely difficult quant problems, especially at the 700+ level.

My verbal did not improve from my diagnostic exam. (I am a native speaker). In my diagnostic exam I got a 41V but on test day I got a 37V. I am not sure why this is as I have scored at least a 38V or higher on all of my practice tests. I do wish that the MGMAT verbal guides had multiple choice questions in the back (to simulate test questions) instead of the short answer questions that they currently have.

In total:
GMAT Diagnostic Exam: 700 (43Q 41V)
Test Day: 710 (49Q 37V)
+10 Points

In addition to the class syllabus, the class provides what is called a "study organizer", which details the exact problems that you need to do for homework for every day of the 9 week class. The study organizer includes what is assigned in the syllabus, as well as additional problems. I would say that I averaged about 25 hours of work a week on this course (3 hrs class + 21 hrs HW). It is a ton of work, but it is great!

The NYC location also provides a testing center that is pretty warm, but good for taking practice exams and studying.

A serious suggestion: The practice exams really need to be improved.
1. At the higher levels (700+), the quant portion of the MGMAT CAT exam will give you 3-4 probability / combinatorics questions. In reality you may see 1-2 of these problems on exam day.
2. The verbal portion of the MGMAT CAT exams will front-load the RC and CR questions, and you will usually finish all of the RC questions at around question 25-30. In reality it is more spread out. This is important for timing. You may find yourself finishing early on the CAT exams because the last 5-6 questions are SC questions, but on test day you may not have enough time if your verbal section ends with 4-5 RC or CR questions.
3. If you are a high scorer (700+), the later CAT exams will give you more 600-700 level questions, since you would have exhausted all of the 700 level questions in MGMAT's question bank. For example, I scored 700+ in my 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th CAT exams. In my 6th CAT exam, the last 13 questions in my verbal section were of 600-700 level. I got them all right, and I got an inflated score. In reality, the questions will be about 700+ level difficulty if you are scoring this high.

If MGMAT's CAT Exams are the best on the market (besides GMATPrep), then I really don't want to think about how bad CAT Exams from other providers are.

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I believe that the content of this course is incredible. However, throughout the 9 weeks I constantly felt like I was drowning in the material. Homework took over 20 hours week after week (sometimes even 30 hours or more). Having said that, if you take homework seriously you should see a great score increase. In my case the increase was 50 points from CAT1 to CAT3.


My instructor was not stellar, he knew the material but it was apparent that he was new and has not found his groove for teaching the class. I took a make up class with another instructor and it was a night and day difference. So I decided to use up all of my make up classes with this man. I think I saw a huge improvement in my quant score because of this instructor. He was INCREDIBLE!

Couple of areas of improvement:
1) bring back office hours! students should have time to ask specific questions. the classroom is not a good platform for that as time is stretched there as is.
2) Have us take one CAT exam during week 5. Currently as is we end up taking 2 CATs within 2 weeks... kind of silly if you ask me.
3) Consider giving an extra week for students to catch up.

Some great things about the class:
1) It is very structured... the content is great and if you follow their study plan you will do great.
2) The Online Labs are priceless... make sure you take the time to do them
3) DS strategy has helped me a great deal.
4) Some instructors are truly gifted when it comes to teaching

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I took the Fall 2011 nine week MGMAT class in Evanston, IL. A room booked in the Hotel Orrignton, Evanston, IL was used for the class. Our tutor was Viren Tellis, a Kellogg JD-MBA student. He was smart, with a good sense of humor.

Who am I?
I am a mechanical engineer, working in the software development area in an US company. I have a Masters from an US university. I obtained 550 in my first GMAT and currently preparing for my second GMAT. Although I believe the review has nothing to do with my score, I wanted to disclose my score before you spend your time reading the review.

Why MGMAT?
I choose the MGMAT because all the online review for the MGMAT courses and books were excellent!

When I went to take the sample Kaplan course, I was informed that shooting for 700 is not necessary! Be practical and shoot for 650+. On the contrary MGMAT did not limit the target, rather focused on content. The feedback I got from GMAT Club forum resonated with my findings.

Although I did not research much about Veritas, I felt two study sessions per week would be too much for me. I prefer studying on my own rather than sitting in a classroom.

How did the course go?
Once the class started, it went fast! I was having hard time to keep up with the home work. There was a scheduling conflict for room and we got an one week of break. I was able to finish all the homework up to that point and started working on the foundation of verbal book. When the course ended, I had about 90% content covered.

We were instructed to take an exam three weeks after the course. I did so. But I took a different route during my practice after the course. The rest is history.

Debrief

How was the Instructor?
The instructor Viren Tellis was energetic, smart and funny. He would not move on to the next topic until everyone in the class understood it. He used make funny mnemonics to help us remember rules, tricks etc.

What did I like about MGMAT?
+ Content based learning

+ Access to great books, both online and offline, online video labs, online recordings of class

+ Access to online tools: OG Archer, Online Exam and assessment, question bank, forum, online classroom, weekly half hour of personalized phone help

+ Great tutors: covers a good amount of material and questions in class

+ Post exam evaluation was very good to identify my problems and get going accordingly

What could be improved?
Although I listed a ton of issues, these are just suggestions for improvement. If I researched correctly, the MGMAT content, tools and methods are superior than any other test company out there. I would strongly recommend MGMAT to the future GMAT test takers.

- MGMAT says that the course requires about 15 hours of reading every week. I spent about 20 hrs/week, but had hard time finishing it. Specially if you are working full time, it is more so.

I was creating notes during my reading, slowing me down. However, I would argue that note taking is good for you.

One class was rescheduled due to the availability of the room. This provided a great break to catch up with the home work. I wish there were one more break! This kind of break should be included in the course.

- The course is not tailored to fit a particular need. I am pretty solid at Math. But I was just sitting there doing the simple drills that did not help me much.

To solve the problem MGMAT can introduce three variants of the course: a) Math Emphasized b) Verbal Emphasized c) Same weight on both (i.e. current offering). A pre-assessment can be done online to categorize and suggest the student with better offering customized for him/her.

- The CAT assessment could be enhanced by using the graphical tool available for OG Archer. The textual representation is hard to read and categorize.

The article on practice test evaluation points out five areas to focus on during the analysis.

I. 50+%, Correct timing
II. 50-%, Correct timing
III. 50-%, Fast
IV. 50+%, Slow
V. 50-%, Slow


- The OG Archer graphical tool is great but not available for OG 11, OG 10 etc.

Moreover, the OG archer does not show the difficulty level on the chart. It would be better if the Y-axis showed the difficulty from 200 to 800 and the size of the bubble as the %right.

- No audio material is available. This could be helpful for commuters.

- The online interface is not very user friendly. It took me a lot of time to get used to it.

Any other advice for prospective students?
- Do you research. Take the sample classes offered by different companies. Read reviews. Seek for help in GMAT Club. Find out what’s best for you before you decide.

- Take notes and do it with your own hand. The notes created by other people don’t help you much. Notes that you wrote yourself recalls the memory much better than any other notes.

- If you choose MGMAT, make room for at least 20 hrs of time per week for the home work.

- Finish the foundation book(s) BEFORE the courses begin. You won’t have time to read it during the course. If your foundation is not brushed up, the course content will be a waste.

- Take the time to familiarize yourself with the online resources. They have great resources but poorly organized.

- Replace the CR book with the PowerScore CR bible. Although the MGMAT CR book is good, PowerScore CR is much better. Please note that the course is synchronized with the book so it may cause a bit of disorientation. Rest of the materials are of excellent quality.

- Do not look for any other materials/books out there. I have tried plenty. Stick to MGMAT, stick to OG and you will be almost there.

- Use the half an hour phone session offered every week. I did not use it much. But realized it could be helpful.


Good luck!

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Today is my last MGMAT class. Good course, and instructor Josh Braslow was excellent. He has 8 years of GMAT teaching experience and very well versed in all GMAT subject matter. He is also very good at keeping everyone in the class engaged. There are 9 class sessions, 9 online lab classes. One thing I liked was the ability to watch recorded sessions of any classes you miss. You also get a weekly 30 min session of free phone tutoring. The recordings are from the online class, and the material is pretty much the same. If anyone is considering the online class, I would also recommend it. I live an hour from the MGMAT center, and if I were to do it again, I would consider taking the online one.
I took a Princeton Review practice test last year and got a 550 without ever looking at a gmat question or having an idea of what was on the test. My first MGMAT score was 610. Second was 650, and third 680. I'm doing really bad on the quant. I got a 61%/96% on my last test. My test is scheduled 3 days from now. Wish me luck!
Anyone with questions about the course, instructor or books, please feel free to ask.

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I am currently enrolled in a Manhattan GMAT course (NYC), and I'm very pleased with it. The office is great, they treat their students very well, the technology is top-notch (new laptops with WiFi connections), and the teachers are _excellent_.

The workload is HEAVY, but of course you shouldn't spend all of that money to go and slack off. The homework is a very important part of the course, and they expect you to do it, no excuses.

I don't know if it is a fluke, but after two lessons my practice exam scores went up 40 points. We'll see...

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I took the MGMAT 9 week class prep course and all the online classroom recordings are available to me as part of the package I purchased. They are great but not as great as in class instructors.

In my opinion, unless you really need tips and strategies, one can do just fine with MGMAT + OG books. I mean, MGMAT class really was all about forcing me to study 30-40 hrs every week on homework. Most of the stuff they went over in class was strategy and tips. If you think these in class prep classes are going to teach you everything, including fundamentals, you are mistaken.I found this hard fact after spending $1400 in the course.

So to elaborate on MGMAT - my personal opinions:

* What did I expect from MGMAT 9 week course and was I satisfied with the program?
I thought for $1400 or whatever they charged me, I expected the course to teach me EVERYTHING, including the fundamentals in both math and verbal. However, this wasn't the case. The 9 week course is more about teaching you strategy for GMAT and also to provide overview of each section. You are expected to do all the studying on your own based on their syllabus. BTW - the syllabus is so unrealistic. No way in hell I can work FT and get all the stuff done.

You also get those online classes ($900 or so) as part of the 9 week course. Those recordings are boring and not as effective as class lectures. However, learning the GMAT strategy alone can increase your score by 70 to 100 pts in my opinion. So if that's worth it for you, then take either the online course or in class course. Otherwise, just buy MGMAT books and study by yourself. that's what their syllubus makes you do anyway.

* What's the quality of the lecturer in classes?
My lecturer was top notch. She had Stanford UG and Harvard MBA. She knew what she was teaching and her lectures were vivid and fun most of the time.

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