Kaplan Review

BB,

Thank you for letting me post on this, and my apologies - I have a crazy job so I am kind of slow to respond. Yes, I think the Manhatten program may be better, but honestly that is just from getting their books - so I guess in a way their publications are much better. I guess I just made a generalization that their class was better because their books rock, so I apologize. The problem I had is that I live in rural western North Carolina and Kaplan was the closest at 1.5 hours away (Knoxville, TN) and Manhatten was in Atlanta or Charlotte (3 hours away). Kaplan did tell us that they could raise our score up to 90 points - which they did and they graciously fullfilled all their end of the bargain. The customer service in Knoxville was also great. My teacher was also very good - and he had scored fairly high on the GMAT himself. The best thing about the class was they gave you homework which made you accountable and made you study. I also, made some good friends in there - one great friend who is in Duke's EMBA program now. Personally though, I get the feeling that the course is meant for folks who want around a 600 and want to get into a non top 25 school. It will give you a great base to start with. However, (and I think about this everytime I do these crazy ass problems) to get into the top schools you have to do a little more. bb, Kaplan offers a 800 class for people who have scored 650 or above but they are only offered in large metro areas like Atlanta, LA, NY, etc. I however I could not do this, because I'm a hick! You can spend a lot less money on things like these tests on here, as well as the books mentioned above and do just as well IMHO.

I have SCOURED these boards and here is basically the magic formula:

Quant:
OG
The OG purple and green books were good too, just more practice.
GMAT Club tests - The hammer, the best.
Manhatten number properties

verbal:
OG
SC - Manhatten SC Guide
CR - Powerscore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible, the Manhatten GMAT CR Guide is good too - but if you can master the LSAT book - your good to go.
RC - The Kaplan premier online program was good for this, but basically any book that will give you reading practice - Manhatten RC book is good also.

Also, I bought the Kaplan 800 book but the math was not near hard enough - the verbal was pretty good.

I hope this helps and thanks bb.

P.S. As soon as I get into the OG companion I will let you know.....