I took the GMAT prep course in SF and thought it was great. Veritas Prep breaks down every aspect of the GMAT into 13 books. I took the time and read through all of them to prepare for my exam. Do all of the practice questions and the homework. All of the lessons are online in case you need to review something, and I was also able to e-mail my instructor. Matt Douglas was also top notch, he explained things in ways that you could understand them and was engaging enough to make the 3 hours at night go by with relative ease.

Unfortunately, my exam didn't go so well. I was really busy at work and bombed the test. Thankfully, I am going back to the Veritas classes and am going to take the test again.

Manhattan GMAT was recommended to me by friends who have gone to the top business schools in the country. Everyone pushed me to get a 700-720+ on the GMAT as a baseline score and told me to enroll in this class. They were absolutely right.

It's impressive how different prep programs can be - I've taken Kaplan and Princeton in the past but Manhattan GMAT is well-designed and well-executed. The course increased my practice exam scores +120 points and got me above the baselines suggested above. Great experience and great value for a process that can otherwise be very unpleasant (I don't know of anyone who loved prepping for and taking the GMAT). Thanks Manhattan GMAT! I would recommend this to anyone I know that is looking to prep.

I took the Manhattan GMAT class in fall 2011 and had a great instructor, Rey Fernandez. We spent more class time on the math, and what was most helpful was his focus on pointing out common mistakes and strategies to remember concepts.

After my first time taking the test, I was disappointed with my verbal score and completed a post-test evaluation with MGMAT. The team was more than available and after a 30 minute call, we talked through my struggles and developed a game plan to get the score I was aiming for. This was incredibly helpful, and using only the books and materials provided by MGMAT, I was able to raise my score by 50 points.

enrolled Sept 13 2012

The instructor was quietly passionate about the material, which made the course engaging through twelve 3-hour sessions. He taught with slides that were well designed and executed. He covered all of the course material and provided useful summary handouts. He knew the material well, sometimes providing alternative solutions to problems.

The curriculum is comprehensive and the study materials (12 course books) are well organized. The books consist of a Skillbuilder to do prior to class, a Lesson section that the instructor more-or-less follows in class, and then homework problems. The problems in the lesson section seemed to be higher than a 75th percentile level of difficulty and were carefully chosen to get a concept across. The homework problems are typically organized, like the GMAC Official Guide, from easier to harder. There are a good number of difficult problems to work on. Homework problems can be done online, in which case the time spent on each problem is tracked. As long as the course is, I don't feel that any time was wasted going through the course materials.

Veritas' online on-demand lesson videos are okay, although not as engaging as those taken in person. VP's practice CATs seemed to me to be about as difficult as the real GMAT. I would not agree with those who suggest that VP's CATs are more difficult, although one section or another would seem easier or harder, so it's important to take several practice CATs (or at least some of the sections).

Overall, Veritas Prep gives you everything you could need outside of your own dedication to expend the effort needed to score well on the GMAT. The course gives you many opportunities to think hard about the nature of your weaknesses and therefore how to strengthen them. The instructor and the curriculum drives home the crucial message not to mistake activity for achievement (although a lot of activity is involved!). I don't' think I could have achieved my score without the help of the Veritas Prep course.

Excellent choice for for someone 2 -3 months away from exam time. I felt that the course brought together some great elements, here are the highlights:

1. Loved that the course was held in an office building in the financial district after hours. It was really convenient to go from work to class twice a week. I only missed one class (and you can have the option to make it up online or by attending another instructor's class) which is largely due to the location - no excuses

2. Great set of prep books - there are 12 in all and you bring one for each class. Nice system, and there are tons of practice questions by topic in each book. I thought that the skill builder and lesson sections were written pretty well too - easy to follow for individual study

3. Great instructor. Matt was particularly effective at teaching the math sections. I have much more confidence in algebra, geometry, and statistics questions than before the course. Would recommend Matt without reservation to anyone - he is truly and expert on the subject matter as well as a really effective teacher and approachable guy.

I tried the Veritas course as an introduction to the GMAT. It created a wonderful environment and introduction to the exam. The math was skewed towards someone who has a fair conceptual understanding of the sections. The course moved quickly but the homework could allow someone to work at all levels. The verbal was a fantastic overview but again requires much personal investment.

Veritas is a great over-arching review and allows the clients to delve further into GMAT material once the course finishes. I recommend using the course as a jumping off point and spending an additional 3 weeks afterwards to study solo. Another great thing Vince offered was a review and in-depth analysis of a practice GMAT exam. This allows a true external opinion and analysis of the types of questions one may be continually missing.

I took the Manhattan 9 week course w/ Ron. Great teacher. I front loaded all of the reading so didn't have to do much homework during the class. I'd highly recommend doing that - it really improves your ability to process and participate in class. The class is not separated by advanced vs non so you may find that it lags you if you are already testing well after your first diagnostic. However, the strategy I learned in the class was critical to my test taking abilities and was 110% worth it. 9 weeks was a good amount of time to let the material sink in since I was working full time and unable to focus much during the week. I thought the 8 course books provided great material - better than I've seen elsewhere. However, I did check out some add'l problem sets from other programs just to give myself more exposure.

I highly recommend Kim Cabot's class. She manages to make studying for the test fun - and I could go on about how much I despise the GMAT. Kim is a highly entertaining teacher and extremely intelligent.

Manhattan GMAT is very well organized and the handouts and online resources give its students a huge advantage over a student just studying from the Official Guide.

With all the hype about how Kaplan is the apotheosis of test prep, I recently forked out the cash for their classroom based course and have mixed reactions about the effectiveness of such service. Just curious if anybody else shares the same opinion....

Sure their textbooks provide extra practice, and easy to understand explanations, but is it really worth the $1400 for just eight classes??

First of all, my Kaplan teacher did not show up for the first two classes. He simply forgot he was teaching on those nights. So we were asked to agree on a makeup lesson, which really threw a cog in the wheel for those of us who were working and/or had other commitments. To add insult to injury, when the teacher finally did come, (he also happened to be a GRE and LSAT teacher) he frequently confused the subject matter that he was teaching. It was so frustrating getting responses like "let me get back to you on that", which by the way he never did. It was the details that we were interested in, and yet he just flat out froze up when confronted with questions like "Which comes first in the AWA, the Argument or Issue essay?" Or, when asked to explain the negation strategy for CR. Or even how to attack boldfaced questions.

I am not totally dissing Kaplan, but frankly they charge way too much for both a lack of specialization and limited services (no advanced PS or DS). $1400 for eight classes (the first class is a diagnostic paper test) boils down to about $180 per three hour session. One would expect to receive keen insight which can not be simply read in the answer explanations, but instead the instructor did just that- SIMPLY READ THE ANSWER EXPLANATIONS. I have paid a fraction of the price at a community college for much more difficult courses and received far better value for money.

Essentially, IMHO Kaplan is milking off it's research from a decade or so ago, not keeping pace with recent additions and changes to the test. True, the GMAT is standardized but it is and will continue to evolve (hence the experimental questions). Their course uses age old strategies and tips that one can easily obtain by actively reading a $25 textbook. Furthermore, Kaplan seems to prepare students for the 550-650 range, obviously sub-par for the course of the big leagues.

Just wanted to share a quick story about my experience with test prep courses. I started studying for the GMAT about a year ago and enrolled in Manhattan GMAT a few months into the studying. I thought that the course was helpful in teaching the math concepts, but did little to really help with the actual test taking strategy. I took the test feeling mildly prepared and got a 640. I was beyond disappointed. I gave it another shot about a month later, thinking that the results of the first test could be attributed more to nerves than to ability, and got a 680. An improvement, but not the score I was looking for.

After being waitlisted at my top choice, I revisited the test one final time. I'm someone who needs a bit more direction and structure with studying, and I wanted to make sure I gave the test my best shot, so I enrolled in Kaplan advanced. From the beginning, the course keyed in on not only the test content, but also the strategies (mostly for quant). I already had a solid knowledge base from prior studying, but the Kaplan course was just what I needed to take it to the next level. I was testing in the mid 700's on their practice exams and ended up with a 740 (48Q/42V) on the real thing. I was beyond thrilled.

I post this to tell people that were in my position to consider the Kaplan course. I realize that it's pricey, but I really think it's worth it if you can swing it. It took over a year, but I finally got the score I wanted.