I was consistently scoring around the 720. I came across the 50 point guarantee scheme that Knewton offers. I was pretty excited about this course. The instructors Dave, Jessie, Rich, Jen are really good. I liked the verbal part of the course. The questions very much resemble with the GMAT type. Knewton also offers 6 practice CATS including the diagnostic. However, I did not like the scoring algorithm. I mean that making 3 mistakes in quants would land me up at Q46. The only thing that I did not like about Knewton course is the CAT algorithm that they use in their CATS. Else, the course is nice. It did give me a 20 point increase. And yes, they gave my money back. This part is great. They mean what they say. They did not ask me a single question.

All the material is there but I didn't use it to the full potential. I do think MGMAT should look to design a specific course for students that are looking to break a 700. I didn't notice a lot of the advanced material until very late. I was unsatisfied with my score but I will be retaking the exam and will use MGMAT again as I think they are the best.

I felt the class recordings were somewhat remedial but I did find the labs to add great value. They teach you tricks on strategy and how to think through a problem. Having access to 6 CAT exams was great and they give very thorough details and explanations, however I did notice some of the questions being repeated which inflated my score.

All in all, I think MGMAT has everything you need as long as you stay committed and focused- especially if you take the self study route!

I recently finished The GMAT SC Pill, and would like to share a few things about it here for all to see. Excuse me if this gets a bit emotional but I must say it’s about time someone stood up (Zeke Lee) and simplified the GMAT prep process, started to use simple language, and made easy to remember methodology for attacking the GMAT, especially sentence correction.

The unique study method Zeke has created is ever so important in SC because SC could drive the best of us crazy with the almost countless idioms, expressions, and grammar rules in English. He has come up with a method that is both visual and auditory and I am yet to come across something to match it in my GMAT journey so far.

My experience so far in preparing for GMAT began as a GMAT instructor for Kaplan, and apart from a few basic strategies that I learned there, I can say my score had remained in the 600s. I also studied MGMAT and felt an immediate improvement after going through their guides too but still feel they lack the psychologically stimulating edge that The GMAT Pill provides.

Let me describe how it felt to move from Kaplan to The GMAT Pill for the first time...(This may sound a bit far out there but bear with me:)) It feels like when a person moves from Jakarta to Bali! Trust me, the difference is huge. Your GMAT Pill for Sentence Correction is awesome. Moving from Kaplan's online course to the GMAT SC Pill was an awakening!

Here are just a few of the things I have learned from The GMAT SC Pill:

1.I learned to remember X&Y consistency, and watch for keywords such as “and”. As soon as I see “and” in a sentence now, I immediately focus on whats on the left and what’s on the right to make sure they are consistent.

2.I learned a cool concept that Zeke calls “Laundry Lists and Long Sentences”. By this I mean lists of items, be they nouns, adjectives, phrases etc. The important thing with “laundry lists” is that they are following a parallel structure.

3.I learned to deal with verb tenses better than I used to. One of the most enlightening things in the SC Pill was the lesson on past tense. Zeke showed that if the sentence starts in the past tense, then it’s most likely that if there were other actions in the past tense after that event then the tense to use would be past simple. If the writer wants to emphasize a past before another past then you use the past perfect (had +verb-ed)

4.I learned to use the visual concept of Apples and Oranges, when facing comparison issues, and this helped me greatly in an area that I was kind of less confident about before taking The GMAT SC Pill

In addition to these benefits, I got a feeling of confidence from Zeke’s tutorials that I had not received elsewhere. I guess it’s because Zeke has a very common sense approach to the GMAT, and I think none more so than on sentence correction. He truly believes and proves that anyone can master sentence correction in this cool product. If I had only gotten my hands on this sooner...

Regards and thanks Zeke

Brendan Brosnan

I was really not able to completely grasp the logic behind the CR Questions. I had already referred few other recommended sources but they really did not help me in improving my CR accuracy rate significantly.It was then that I came across e-gmat course. I found many reviews for e-gmat's SC course but there was virtually none for e-gmat CR course.The most important thing about e-gmat is that: they claim their course is designed for non-natives. This fact drew my attention. I finally took the e-gmat CR course. The interface is very clean; topics are well arranged. The interface tracks your progress. The explanation to each question is explained very methodologically. I really appreciate their efforts in building this excellent platform.

I agree with the general belief prevalent among GMAT community members that Manhattan is a very good material for GMAT preparation.

I bought 12 book set from Manhattan GMAT about a year back and was amazed by the level of detail in both the verbal and quant segment. The level of detailed analysis presented and the comprehensive explanation is great. Even the quant supplementary material which has a fantastic set of advanced quant questions. This is supplemented with easy to use tips and strategies.

I found the tests that were offered by Manhattan GMAT to be a good indicator of scores. The MGMAT tests are pretty close to what the actual tests were.

My first two misguided GMAT attempts resulted in rather pathetic scores of 500 and 540(Q40, V24). I finally realized that I had to strengthen my concepts if I had to improve my score significantly. That’s when I decided to take the Knewton on-demand course, attracted by the 50 point increase or money back deal.
It helped boost my overall score by 120 points to a 660 (Q46, V35). I was thoroughly impressed by the Quant, CR and RC sections of the course and the strategy tips and explanations helped me a lot.

Pros:
1) Concepts:- Lucid yet complete explanation of all concepts related to the test.
2) Faculty:- Excellent.
3) Format:- Easy to use interface.
4) Study material:- Excellent notes and explanations.
5) Practice tests: Fairly accurate.

Cons:
1) Practice exercises not up to the mark. Too many questions with similar patterns. Difficulty level low-moderate.
2) SC explanations and structure were not as good as on the other sections.
PS. - Not very sure about response time for clarification of queries as I had not tried it.

The MGMAT self study and single topic focused books are great. My biggest weakness has always been the SC & RC. With the help of the resources I was able to turn a 32-38 average verbal score to a 36-44 range on my practice tests. Unfortunately I underperformed during the actual test due to heavy construction on the roof of the building making it hard to concentrate, but the books were great and definitely helped. I would go as far to say the SC book is a must have for any one that is not in the top %ile for verbal. My only complaint would be the online question banks that you receive access to should be larger.

I enrolled in the Live Online course in December with plans of taking the GMAT in March and, if necessary, retaking it in April. My experience with Manhattan GMAT was excellent. My teachers (Gilad Edelman and Marc Fienberg) were great. They had a thorough understanding of the material presented in the course and were great at answering questions asked by students. The course is a lot of work, but it is well worth it if you are shooting for a top score.

What really made Manhattan GMAT great was not only the quality of the instructors, but also the extensive amount of materials provided to help you succeed. The study guides are very thorough and are great at explaining the concepts. Especially with the quant, these books were fantastic. The OG Archer they provide is also extremely helpful. It allows students to time themselves on official guide questions and records answers. Based off this data the system identifies strengths and weaknesses and allows one to study accordingly. It also provides answer explanations for all the math questions. My one issue with the Archer is that the questions in the supplemental verbal and quant guides do not have answer explanations in the Archer. This would have been very helpful as the answer explanations in the official guide are not particularly helpful.

All in all, I had a great experience with the course and would recommend it to anyone. In the end, I improved 90 points above my initial diagnostic test. If you are serious about getting a top score and are willing to put in the necessary effort to master the material, Manhattan GMAT should be at the top of your list for GMAT prep courses.

The MGMAT recorded courses are great if you want to score between 600-700, which may be all you need. However, in order to get 700+ the courses themselves don't really cut it.

On the other hand, the books, online tests, and other materials are GREAT! Paired with Google it's all you need to drag you up from a 500 to a 770 ;)

The yellow pad and pen are a great addition to the pack - it eases you into the simulating the tests. The online tests the MGMAT has are a bit more challenging in the math department than the real test but the pressure that creates to learn the shortcuts of the math problems will help you out. SC was what tripped me up the most, but the MGMAT SC book paired with the Official Guide (included in the package) dragged me through that kicking and screaming.

And of course, since it is a pricey course, after you're all done you can sell the books on ebay for a few hundred too. If I were to do it again I'd skip the 9 online courses and just get all the books + online practice exams.

When I started the E-GMAT trial, within the first 20 minutes, I knew I just stumbled upon a goldmine.

I was struggling with verbal throughout my prep scoring around V32-33 and my only problem was SC. The first thing I did was by the MGMAT SC book (the bible) which in all honestly is a great book. It covers topics welll, and the examples are good (probably 8/10)... however it didnt work. The reason MGMAT didnt work was because its like reading a text book, they teach you all these fancy terminology which you dont really need....what you do need is HOW TO APPLY these techniques ... *enter* E-GMAT.

E-GMAT was great! Although I didn't do as well on my official gmat as planned my verbal score was 38 (my target).

However my quant score unfortunately killed me. I am a finance and economics major, and I got a little cocky about the quant.

The owners (or creators) of E-GMAT are wonderful. They are incredibly helpful and take a personal interest in their students. After my official GMAT I was really depressed, and NOT because of verbal, but because of Quant (something E-GMAT doesnt cover). And yet they were incredibly helpful, and managed to boost my confidence and get me going again!

I will go through E-GMAT again and I am confident my verbal next time will be around 40.

Bottom line:
THE BEST SC tool out there! It is NOT just for Non Natives, it is for EVERYONE trying to perfect SC.

5/5