Manhattan GMAT 9-Session In-Person Prep Course Reviews

As painful as going to a class for three hours every Sunday was, Keith made it worth it. He gets to know you and eases all of your stresses around not only the GMAT but also the business school application process in general. He challenges you to tell how you are reasoning through problems so that he can see where you need to adapt your thinking to align more with the test. He teaches strategies for the exam that you actually remember during practice CATs and on the exam itself. I went from very low early CATs to beating my target score on my first GMAT exam thanks to Keith. I would highly recommend!

Read More

I took the 9-week course with Dave Mahler in New York and had a great experience. I had already taken the GMAT once before, but did not get my desired score and decided that the best way to improve would be to sign up for a class. Dave was very helpful through the entire process and made the course really engaging (not an easy task for a 3-hour evening weekday slot). Even more impressive is how attentive Dave has been (and continues to be) even after my official time with the course has concluded - he has offered to continue helping me by analyzing my CAT exam scores and hop on phone calls to help talk through ways to improve. Thanks to Dave and the staff at Manhattan Prep for the helpful study materials and personalized instruction

Read More

I took Mike Morgan’s Manhattan Prep course in Philly. Mike was invaluable in helping me prepare for my GMAT exam. He was an incredible teacher throughout the 9 session course. I went into the course with no background on the GMAT and came out feeling very prepared. He ensured everyone in the class really understood and was comfortable with the content, while keeping class interesting and fun. Mike helped me prioritize the weekly work and was always available via email and text. He continued to serve as a resource in my studies after the class ended. Mike helped me achieve beyond my target score!

Read More

I recently completed the GMAT in person course from Manhattan Prep and mike was the instructor for my class.

We only had 3 people in the class and mike made the learning process very practical..

He taught us the different test taking strategies and we solved 3-4 questions applying these strategies in class as we learned them

He is very easy to talk to and this really helped me with asking him a lot of questions.

Three months after my course, I am still in touch with him to get his help and talk about my preparation strategies.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the class. The 3 hours I spent there every Saturday flew by as it was a really practical environment where we were constantly learning and solving questions.

I haven't taken the official GMAT yet but the scores here are from my latest practice test

Read More

I took the Manhattan Prep 9-session GMAT prep course with Ryan McGorman, and I really appreciated the emphasis on both the Verbal and Quant sections. Ryan focused on providing effective test taking techniques and overviews of exam content.

After completing the course, I signed up for additional tutoring sessions with Ryan. In these sessions, we focused on tackling my weaknesses and clarifying strategies for time management. With his help, I was able to score a 710 on my first try at the GMAT, and I know the strategies I learned will help me score even higher next time.

If you're looking for a top notch GMAT tutor, Ryan is your guy!

Read More

Manhattan Prep and my instructor, Shelton, were absolutely amazing (and I am writing this even though my score dropped by 20 points post my first test attempt, which has nothing to do with Manhattan Prep - I am a terrible standardized test taker). I would highly recommend you start the course six months prior to your planned test date to fully benefit from everything the course offers, which provides invaluable tips, testing strategies and insights into the exam. The study guides and all the resources outside of the classroom are fully enough (no need for additional resources) to get a good score. I mentioned that my score actually dropped by 20 points from my first attempt (my first attempt was only based off of self-study for about three months), but it was compounded by the fact that I took my second attempt literally before my ninth session (trying to meet the early deadlines) so I did not get the benefit of the "full" course. That is why I write to start the course six months prior to test day as that is what my good friend did and he was accepted to UPenn (and recommended me to the Manhattan Prep in-person session). The quant strategies are particularly helpful (it drills down to even knowing when to bail out so you have more time to spend on those questions within your range of ability and even best guessing strategies).

Read More

I found this course to be a worthwhile investment. I signed up primarily for accountability, but I also found the content and strategies very helpful. Jeff is a very good instructor - from a teaching perspective, as strong as any college professor I have experienced. To learn the test and stay motivated/accountable, this course is worth the cost and time commitment.

My quant did not improve significantly throughout the course but I owe this to a lack of studying on my part. Jeff provided us with intuitive explanations of tough math problems, but I did not invest the time on my own to master them. I think a bit more time could have been devoted in the course to reviewing the signals/triggers for certain patterns/tells in quant problems, but there is a certain point where you just need to teach yourself the content if it's been a while since you have memorized basic math.

The focus on timing and strategic approach to taking the test was very valuable. The "Yellow Pad" timing method is extremely helpful and I used it religiously during my exam. This course taught me that getting a handle on timing and the related nuances of an adaptive model is half the battle.

Overall, very pleased. Would recommend to a friend - particularly someone who is very committed to attending business school.

Read More

After about 5 years away from school and looking for a career shift, I chose to take the Manhattan Prep 9-class in person course in preparation for the GMAT. After graduating from school in 2014 I took the GMAT as a baseline with the anticipation that I may want to go to business school in the future: I scored a 630. For the next five years I spent zero time thinking about the GMAT, although I did work in a field that is fairly quant heavy. That should give a fair amount of background on where I stood going into the MP course. I chose to take the in person course based on the consideration that a set curriculum and a sense of accountability to show up to class each week would help me study more. I think this was the right choice for me.

The course itself was presented in a manner that made it comprehensible for anyone with even a minimal mathematics background. The structure of the course is such that it builds on itself week by week and homework is meant to introduce concepts that would be expounded upon in the next class. I found the course to be critical to my performance on the exam in such that all concepts for answering questions, strategies, and problem type were discussed at nearly all levels of difficulty in class. The course follows a basic outline: present a concept, work through an easy version of the problem as a class, work on a harder version alone, mix in that concept with others in a problem set. I found this manner of learning to be helpful and allowed time for recalling mathematical processes learned years ago.

As for the homework/workload, it is paced at a fair clip but not breakneck speed. I spent about 10 hours a week on homework and performed one 4 hour practice test every 2-4 weeks. The course uses a MP website to direct tasks, readings, problem sets, etc. This clearly set out study plan helped keep me on track and direct my studying. I found this program to be most useful in that it set foundations and built upon concepts learned earlier in the course. One final product that MP offers is interactice videos that explain different concepts/strategies. This was particularly helpful to review as a refresher after finishing the course and just before sitting for the exam.

Finally, my instructor, Jeff, was phenomenal for a variety of reasons. Principally, his presentation of concepts was articulate and easily understood by all members of the class. It was clear based on the variety of backgrounds of my classmates that we were not all starting at the same level. Jeff understood this and was skilled in presenting the material and answering questions in a manner everyone understood. Jeff was always available to help after class or through email. Many times I emailed Jeff with a problem or concept I was struggling on and would have a video back from him talking through the problem within 24 hours. I would recommend him to anyone.

I ended up taking the exam once and scored a 720 (48Q, 41V). I took this improvement from a 630 years ago in large part to be due to the MP curriculum and the instruction and availability of Jeff.

Read More

I took both the in-person 9 week course as well as a few supplemental in-person tutoring sessions with Dave Mahler (instructor for both).

The course was a great introduction to the proper approach to each section and topic matters as well as best practices. The books are well-written and there is a wide range of basic through advanced material for everyone. Dave did a great job managing students' different levels of comfort with each topic and is a very engaging teacher. He cuts through a lot of the BS and makes sure that his students are focusing their time on the most important topics. Dave was also generous with his time, both before and after class as well as offering to answer one off questions or review practice test scores with all his students via email. My score went from an initial 660 up to 700 following the class when I had to take some time off from studying due to work commitments.

I engaged Dave for some top-up tutoring a few weeks later and he helped me diagnose a few key process areas that were deflating my score as well as teaching me new techniques to help with problematic content areas. He was also great about providing tailored follow-up problems that helped reinforce the areas covered each session for extra practice. Following a few one on one sessions with him I was able to bump my score to 740 and couldn't be happier with my decision to use MGMAT for my prep.

From the instructors to the online portal for tracking assignments and all of the excellent content, Manhattan Prep definitely went the extra mile to help its students succeed.

Read More

The first time that I took the MPrep GMAT course, I made significant progress during the course but was unable to find the time to study after the course ends (it is recommended that you self-study for 2-6 weeks after the course concludes). I took the Manhattan Prep class again roughly a year later and saw even greater benefit from the course given a starting knowledge base. I found there to be great benefit to the in-person course (particularly with my instructor, Jeff Volmer) to pick up small tips and tricks that added small bumps to my score (accumulating 10 points here and there adds up). Jeff was helpful during class, outside of class, and even after the course concluded. The quality of the Manhattan Prep resources was instrumental to helping me achieve my goal GMAT score.

Read More