I live in a city that doesn't offer many in-person Manhattan GMAT courses but was told by friends it is the best course to help prep for the test. So I signed up, a little warily, for the online course.

It was fantastic! It was super convenient to just log in from my home computer once a week, and I had an especially engaging instructor. He made it fun and the course content kept you paying attention and on your toes - constant problem-solving, with easy tools for class participation in the online platform.

The syllabus was really user-friendly and outlined clearly what I should prepare for each week's course, and what I should study on my own if I needed more practice or harder questions in any area. The OG Archer tool was incredibly helpful - it was an analysis I could review at any point showing how I was doing on different question types and difficulty levels. It helped me understand where I was fine and where I should focus my studying efforts (I work full time so I had to use my studying time as efficiently as possible).

Though the GMAT math is supposed to be stuff you've learned in high school, I hadn't really done that kind of math for a while, and I'd also never learned some things like factorials. My instructor was great at walking us through concepts and the Manhattan workbooks and other resources also gave me great practice. I especially liked the easy online format for question practice, where I could set a timer for individual questions or a whole question set to practice budgeting my time per question (this was an issue for me at first - spending way too much time on some questions).

The Manhattan course consistently offers tips and reinforces the most important, like accepting that you won't answer every question correctly, not wasting energy studying for the essay and IR portions of the test, since schools don't look as critically at those as long as you are at a certain level, etc.

Manhattan also has partnerships with other organizations like MBAMission and you can look at free stuff like b-school guides for your top choices, to help you prepare for your actual applications. I also viewed a recorded webinar with essay writing tips that ended up being really helpful when I got down to the actual applications. Great set of resources all around.

I wasn't always set on business school, so I had to do a lot of research in a short period of time to get a handle on the process. Manhattan GMAT resources were a huge help.

Highly recommend the program!

I signed up for Veritas because it has been considered one of the best, and I didn't want to mess around with inferior study materials on my 3rd go around with the GMAT.

I actually started with the books only for about a month, and then transitioned to the on-demand course - which was well worth it!!

The good:
-Comprehensive materials, tons of practice problems. Kudos to people who actually finish every book and every question.. there's A LOT of material!
-Access to great instructors. With the course, you get access to daily live office hours sessions. Biggest value of the course, invaluable!
-Easy to follow lessons. Good stuff.

The not so good:
-Mixed bag of instructors. Some instructors will blow you away and are phenomenal. Some leave me scratching my head wondering how this person could possibly be an instructor. Disappointed that not every instructor was amazing.. I mean this is a major selling point that Veritas pushes!
-Very little on test strategy. Almost all the materials are focused on foundations and concepts. I had to seek out additional materials on strategies, especially on timing.
-Could be better with statistical analysis of my performance. While Veritas has plenty of practice exams, there isn't much in the way of helping you analyze them. I took one MGMAT practice exam and was blown away by how much depth of analysis they provide relative to Veritas.
-Instructor no-shows. Huh? On multiple occasions I log in for office hours and nobody shows up. Granted, customer service was fantastic when I complained, but I still feel it's unprofessional.

Overall great experience, but given some frustrating experiences and the positive experiences with other test prep material, I feel like I got great value yet I'm hesitant to say Veritas is the best course out there.

In the end, Veritas helped me raise my score 80 points so either way, I got a great result!

Knewton saved me.

I don't have the $1000+ to put out for a program that may or may not increase my score as much as Knewton promised to. The cost of Knewton's program and that guarantee talked me into using them.

I took my first GMAT in February and got a 550 (30Q 36V). I needed a 650. So, I bought some books and eventually signed up for Knewton. I followed all of the courses, did all of the work and all of the tests but even at the end I wasn't seeing much of an improvement - that is until I took the GMATPrep tests and saw my scores from them being 620 and 660.

Once I got to the test center, I had no idea what to expect as my Knewton scores topped out at around 610 but my GMATPrep scores went up to 660. I ended up getting a 660 (41Q 40V).

I love Knewton. The way this course was delivered was perfect for me. It took a lot of work but there was so much content that you really could figure out how to do just about anything. My quantitative score went up from 30 to 41, I think that in itself is a testament to how effective Knewton is. I also really enjoyed the instructors, they made the course very enjoyable.

I could not recommend Knewton enough. With that guarantee and the price, how could you not at least try it?

When I took the GMAT in 2006, I thought a single volume, all-in-one book was enough. And it was enough, at least to get a 710.

Fast forward to 2012. My previous score had expired, so I needed to retake the test. What I felt I lacked in my previous attempt was a focus on concepts, instead of just "tricks". Manhattan GMAT seemed to advertise more than any other prep program that it was "concept-focused". Not only was this true, but I think it had the perfect balance of concepts with strategies ("tricks") to make it the perfect prep program. Full disclosure: I consistently scored very high on the Verbal section, so I completely blew off studying the Verbal strategy guides and focused solely on the Quant section. I'm sure the Verbal was just as good, though. :)

Finished with my course about 4 months ago and took the GMAT in November, finally getting around to leaving a review.

The course was great, the main benefit of the sessions is the guidance they give in test taking strategies. This applies to both general things such as how to manage your time and what to bring to the test as well as strategies for all the individual types of questions (IR, SC, DS, etc.).

In addition, for those who can't make it to all the live sessions, Manhattan also has recorded sessions so you can make up anything you miss. This was huge for me because I missed 3 sessions during the 9 session course and was able to watch the videos later on.

I spent about 4 months using the MGMAT books and self study method prepping for the GMAT. I scored a 630. During just a few hours with Chris over the course of the last 4 months, I was able to improve my score to a 730. I whole heartedly believe that his tutoring made breaking 700 possible. He had an excellent knowledge of the material, worked well with me specifically, was easily accessible, and was an excellent teacher / communicator. Without him, I remain convinced that I would have been struggling to break 650 and subsequently fighting to get into a my target grad schools. Thanks Chris and MGMAT.

I went to Manhattan GMAT because I had taken the GMAT twice and scored 650 both times with good verbal (95%) but poor quant (50%). I had one last shot at the GMAT before the admission deadline.

For my first 650 I had done quite a lot of preparation but on the day I misjudged the quant timing so I was not hugely surprised when I got this score. However, the second time I took the test I had worked very hard to learn all the mathematical principles, do hundreds of OG practice questions and focus on my timing. I was very disheartened to get a score of 650 again.

I called up MGMAT who put me in touch with Sarah. We booked a session right away. In all, I had three sessions with Sarah, two face to face and one online, and we focussed solely on quant.

I talked her through my approach and immediately she identified that I should modify my study technique so that I placed much more emphasis on reviewing in detail every question which I practiced. Previously, I had only reviewed the questions which I answered incorrectly. I had also not really understood that a good review involves understanding the principles of each question and critically thinking 'how could they have made this question harder?', 'what have I learnt from this?'. After my first session with Sarah, I reviewed every question whether I had answered rightly or wrongly.

Between our lessons I noticed the difference immediately. My review process became more sophisticated and I began to 'see' how to rephrase questions very quickly and understand the potential traps that each question presented.

Sarah also showed me that certain concepts such as prime factorisation could be used across whole ranges of questions. This seemed to unlock a lot of questions which I had been unable to do previously in the 2 minute time limit per question.

One critical point that Sarah taught me was the importance of strategic guessing. I had done very little of this in my previous attempts because it felt so unnatural to approach a question knowing that you were going to have to strategically guess. This really unlocked the quant section for me. In each question after 45 seconds if I was not certain that I could get to the answer in time then I would put all my energy into making the most intelligent guess possible. At first, I felt very uncomfortable doing this but after a while it made a significant difference to my practice test scores.

The day of my final test came and I incorporated everything that Sarah had taught me as well as all the principles that I had learnt in my practice reviews. I had to guess quite a few of the questions in the test but unlike before I actively narrowed down the potential answer choices. The final few questions of the test were quite challenging so I felt cautiously optimistic that the section had gone well.

Then came the moment of truth and 740 appeared on the screen. All the work had paid off.

I wouldn't have been able to do this without sessions with Sarah. She never promised that I would get over 700 or sell me something that she couldn't deliver on. Instead she gave me lots of encouragement and was very patient when I had any difficulties. Although I still had to do lots of work she made sure that I did the right type of work which would actually benefit my score. I'd recommend personal tuition even for a few hours to anyone who feels stuck with the gmat like I did. Now on to the next stage!

First of all, MGMAT is the course you want to take when studying for GMAT. I have taken GMAT before I took the course from MGMAT and I scored 620. After taking MGMAT and of course following their instructions, I increased my score to 720.

Both instructors I had were very helpful and were very willing to help. Any question we had, they always answered with clear and specific answers. They never left us with unclear responses. Additionally, they always showed us different routes we could take to solve the questions in quant section and gave us very helpful tips and encouraged us to solve the questions in different ways, which helped me very much.

The course structure itself was very clear and it was administered in the most entertaining way possible so that we were not bored or we lost focus.

Personally, when I needed help, I emailed either of the instructors and always had a very good response. They did not hesitate to go out of their way to help.

So for those of you out there looking for a good GMAT course, I highly suggest MGMAT because it definitely offers value for the price you are paying. It is worth every penny.

I recently took my GMAT for the first time, and was very pleased to have received what I consider a very good score(770). Although I have no prior experience taking the GMAT, and therefore no real "benchmark" to compare to, I am certain that the instruction I received from Manhattan GMAT was instrumental in allowing me to achieve such a result.

I think the bulk of Manhattan GMAT's success stems from their uncompromising focus on teaching. Indeed, it is very well advertised that ALL of Manhattan GMAT's instructors have scored in the 99th percentile of the GMAT. Less touted, however, is the rigorous selection and training process, all of which further refines the class of potential instructors. The result is a very concentrated group of uniquely qualified, extremely capable teachers. My course was no exception, and, despite a class with a diversity of scores, I feel that the whole class was able to receive the resources and instruction necessary to improve dramatically.

While teaching is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of the Manhattan GMAT experience, it is certainly not the only advantage offered to students. In particular, the depth of available resources is a HUGE part of--as would be said in the business world--the "value proposition" that is offered to customers. Manhattan GMAT has truly applied itself to deconstructing and dissecting the GMAT content and structure and, as a student, this seemingly unlimited set of information is made fully available. This is ironically both overwhelming and comforting at the same time; the depth and breadth of resources are initially very daunting, but it is refreshing to know that the team at Manhattan GMAT has exhaustively investigated and optimized every facet of the GMAT.

Finally, there are a few intangibles that I believe make Manhattan GMAT a very worthwhile experience. Firstly, students are provided with a definite approach--a "roadmap" as it is termed by Manhattan GMAT--that is pretty much guaranteed to ensure score maximization. In addition, I really appreciated the extra "office hours" and after class sessions with instructors. Moreover, included in the class are tools that helped me to develop a personal GMAT "gameplan," which really helped me approach the test in a very methodical way. The one-on-one 30-minute review of my personal testing history, included with the class, was also VERY helpful. With regard to the online class, the environment was very similar to, if not better than, an in-person, location based classroom approach. Having TWO instructors really is a bonus!

All in all, I am thrilled with my Manhattan GMAT experience. As others have mentioned, there are some small things that I would like to see improved(i.e the CAT is not as accurate as I thought it would be), but it is hard to argue that Manhattan GMAT is not extremely effective at its core purpose: to maximize students' GMAT scores. Like anything worth fighting for in life, mastering the GMAT will likely take dedication, hard work, and the right approach. I trusted Manhattan GMAT to guide my approach, and, fortunately, I haven't had to look back since.

The course goes over a lot of great tips to decode many of the GMAT tricks. It's also a great way to review everything that will be covered and give a well-rounded approach. The instructor David was great at keeping the class engaged. The problem is that with 3 hour lesson, probably about 2 hours is actual learning. With "dumb" questions from other students and random stories, I felt like time was wasted. Devoting 6 hours a week after work, plus all the homework and skillbuilder lessons was extremely time consuming. If an hour could have been cut out, it would have been great.

I found myself missing the regularly scheduled classes just so I could watch later and fast forward through the chatting and over-explaining. That being said, I would highly recommend my instructor. He was extremely knowledgeable and highly motivating.