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. :)

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!

To prepare for my GMAT, I used a variety of prep materials from GMAC, Manhattan Prep and other prep companies. I like the Manhattan GMAT series a lot for its focus on concepts. The explanations have sufficient substance to help learners grasp the concepts behind the questions. Other companies seem to lean towards elimination tricks, which work well for questions up to the 700 level but not beyond.

I have also found that the Manhattan GMAT series does not contain any serious typological mistakes, while than some books by other companies repeatedly contain frustrating typos. This is a small matter that can cause a lot of confusion to learners, especially in a timed testing environment. Manhattan GMAT's attention to detail makes a difference.

I attended two very workshops in Singapore conducted by Robert Wilburn. Those workshops helped me consolidate and further enhance things I had learned by that point.

If you want to score a 700+, look no further. Going through the well explained Manhattan GMAT guides and watching Thursdays with Ron alone will help you score that 700+.

The Manhattan GMAT guides are detailed and explained in a way that is understandable to any beginner with rusty quant or verbal.

The Manhattan GMAT test analysis has the detailed level of analysis that no other test prep company offers. I also loved their OG tracker, which helped me pin point my weak areas and practice OG questions by topic.

Thursdays with Ron is a hidden gem that is absolutely free. Watch these sessions and you will no longer think about quant or verbal in the same way.

MGMAT and Ron Purewal are awesome! My score improved from 650 to a 710 just because of MGMAT and Ron.

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.

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 would like to highly recommend the Manhattan GMAT preparatory material as well as Kevin Shen for individual tutoring sessions to people looking to achieve a top GMAT score!

I was looking for a course because I wanted to improve my score as I was aiming to get a place in a top 10 business school. Initially I used another supplier so after an extensive research, I decided to go with the Manhattan GMAT self-guided study.

MGMAT provided me with extensive material on Quant and Verbal that helped me build a strong knowledge base for the exam.

Furthermore I cannot stress enough the value Kevin Shen, my instructor, provided in helping me achieve my target score. His help was critical in helping me improve my score in the range I was aiming for. Kevin has the ability to identify your areas of improvement not only in terms of knowledge but in terms of test-taking strategies. This in my opinion is very important for success in the GMAT!

This is a great refresher course for people who have learned the basics of Math/Verbal techniques but need a good brush up.

MGMAT does an excellent job of summarizing key concepts that you'll need, then applying them to how you will see them on the GMAT. It covers enough topics to be comprehensive without going into too much detail you'll never need to know.

The best part about this program in my opinion are the CAT exams that MGMAT provides. The explanations that they provide to debrief your exam are outstanding, and really help ingrain the reasons as to why you got the question wrong, or how you could have approached it more efficiently.

I would highly recommend this program to those who are diligent with self-study and would like to work on their own schedules.

I used the Manhattan GMAT Self-Study Guide (purchased from MGMAT for $480) and followed their curriculum. This approach was hugely beneficial for me. This Study Plan came with a detailed day-by-day study guide -- which chapters to read each day, which problems to do each day -- which kept me on track. The plan is designed for 9 weeks of study. I condensed it down to 6 weeks. What this meant was that I would do two days worth of studying for each day. On top of working a 9-5 job. On weekends, I was logging in 6 hours each day (to make up any of the problems I didn’t get to during the week). (And in case you were wondering, yes, I wasn’t much fun to be around this last month. And yes, I ate crappy food all the time. )

I'd like to backtrack for a moment and say that once I got my MGMAT materials, I took an initial MGMAT CAT exam to see how I'd do. At this point, I was only vaguely familiar with the GMAT content, and just needed to know where I stood. I scored a 580—I am horrible at math.

Anyways, one of the nice things about the MGMAT Self Study approach is that throughout the 9 (or 6 weeks), you end up doing most of the OG problems in the book. And, included an OG tracker in Excel, so I was able to track my answers, timing, and get a detailed analysis of my weak spots. It really broke it down for me -- I can't say enough about how helpful it is.