Keith Blume Reviews

I debated between doing and online or in-person course for the GMAT. I never regretted going for the in person option. The extra personalized attention you get the in-person course made the money for the course worth it. I found the post course assessment and study plan that Keith put together particularly helpful. I also did an hour of private tutoring to help me revise my study plan after taking the test and not reaching my target score. Keith was also always happy to answer questions via email, which made me feel like I was continuing to benefit from the in-person course even when I wasn't physically in class.

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Keith and Manhattan Prep were instrumental in my preparation for a successful GMAT score. Every week we learned new tips and tricks to help master how to take the exam that I am sure I would not have picked up otherwise. Keith is a great instructor who actively tries to make sure everyone in the class is understanding the problems we are working on at that time. Also, the general breadth of resources the course comes with are invaluable. The online homework tracking tool helped me not only perfect my timing, but also easily track how I was doing and where improvement was needed. The Manhattan Prep practice exams, combined with the GMAT practice exams, are more than enough in that respect. I definitely believe this was worth the money!

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My experience with Manhattan was great, especially for the quant section. My tutor Keith is very experienced and knows the material really well. He is also very personable. Setting up the post course assessment with him was easy. Manhattan's proprietary tests are also helpful. The quant section on those tests is brutal, but good for training you to manage the pace. I would not fret too much if you are not getting perfect scores in the first 2 attempts with the Manhattan practice tests. Gradually i did see my performance improve. If you are a working professional like I am, i highly recommend the course. It did really really hold me accountable.

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I found the Manhattan Prep test books and the overview of the GMAT that my instructor provided to be very helpful. I personally got more out of the books and the first class than I did the remaining eight classes, but everybody learns differently and I have a more independent learning style. That being said, my instructor (Keith) was great. He was supportive, patient, and encouraging. Even if I didn't find the class to be particularly helpful, I think access to an instructor is invaluable. If nothing else, purchase the Manhattan Prep Test Books and work through them on your own. I can't emphasize how helpful and manageable they were.

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I highly recommend Manhattan Prep for GMAT preparation. When I was researching test prep options, most sources suggested Manhattan Prep was the best. In my opinion, Manhattan Prep has the best material and strategies to effectively prepare for and perform well on the GMAT exam.

I took the 9 session Live Instruction course with Keith Blume. Keith was an amazing instructor. It was evident from the first class how genuinely interested he was in getting to know his students individual strengths and weaknesses and helping each one succeed. Keith is truly passionate about his job and is a highly effective teacher. I am grateful for his guidance in helping me exceed my expectations on the GMAT exam.

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I signed up for the 9 session prep course with the expectation that most of the benefit I'd get out of it would be from the books themselves and from the motivation to stick to a study schedule (something I had previously failed at). However, it turned out that in addition to those benefits, the live classes taught by Keith were extremely helpful in making the strategy tips work for me. He helped us understand the nuances of the more difficult GMAT questions, especially for Quant. I also appreciated that we started the sessions with an open forum where people could bring up questions or concerns that had come up over the past week, either specific to a certain problem or general testing/admissions strategy questions.

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Keith helped me increase my GMAT score by 90 points, from 640 to 730. We focused mostly on math but that seemed to be his greatest strength. His teaching style covers both basic lectures and question and answer formats but he also approaches the test in an abstract way as well, showing how each math topic relates to other math topics and how to quickly assess a problem and identify the steps needed to solve it. Because the GMAT only allows about 2 minutes per problem, speed as well as accuracy is incredibly important. Keith helped me tremendously on my timing. I was finishing tests either guessing the last 7 questions or sometimes even finishing the test with 5 minutes extra and my quant score was very poor. Almost every problem we did together was timed, no matter how hard it was. He also helped me identify lost cause problems, or problems that are so complicated and time consuming that is best to guess an answer and then move forward to the next question. Because of Keith my quant increased 40 to 48 and my verbal increased by 4 points from 38 to 42 and I was able to apply to a much higher caliber of schools due to my new increased score.

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I found the 9 session GMAT prep course very helpful for a few reasons. The primary reason was to motivate me to stay on track with weekly assignments and a structured review plan. I think that some people would be fine to buy the books and work through them on his/her own and at his/her own pace. With my busy work and social schedule, I found the structure to be incredibly helpful.

Another reason that I thought the class was helpful was for the little tricks of the trade that the instructor provided. At some points I felt the classes were a waste of time, but every once in a while we would learn something that could save me 20 seconds on a quant problem and would make it all worth while.

I did not find the verbal review to be very helpful. On the actual test I ended up using only 1-2 things that I learned in the classes. My improvements in verbal came really as a result of simply doing a lot of practice problems.

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