Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Reviews

I decided to enroll in the course after it came highly recommended by a few colleagues. However, I was utterly disappointed by Manhattan Prep's live class for a few reasons.

Firstly, the course is unbelievable expensive (even for an undergrad the course will run you about 1000 dollars). I used a few free online trials from other companies (all of which offered their services for a fraction of the cost of Manhattan Prep) and was much happier with my free trial then I ever was with Manhattan Prep. Also, Manhattan offers no score increase guarantee at all.

The teacher was incredibly smart, but I did not see much use for his being there to be honest. There was not much teaching going on in this course. Most of the material was learned beforehand through Manhattan's Strategy Guides (Overall, those are quite helpful, even to me, and I am a visual learner). Thus, the class conisted of us solving a few problems, and the teacher going through explanations, but Manhattan Prep gives the same explanations through their learning software.

Further, I could tell the teacher did not really want to be there. He did not seem to care about his student's performance, and it was clear this was just another job for him.

Manhattan's learning software (atlas) is actually quite good due to the comprehensive syllabus, and high-quality OG explanations, however, all of this can be had for a fraction of the cost using Manhattan's cheapest offering.

Overall, I might be inclined to recommend some of Manhattan Prep's services, but definitely not the live course. It was a waste of valuable time and money.

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Manhattan was a good starting point that helped focus my GMAT strategy. The classes were good to teach the tips/tricks and high level thought strategy needed to wrap my head around basic quant & verbal but I don't think it was as helpful if you needed basic math & verbal skills teaching.

I actually used the online test diagnostics to hone in on the specific sub topics that I needed help in most and that was very useful to pinpoint my weak areas vs. haphazardly studying. On the more $$$ side but I would take the course again if I had to redo this whole process!

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The Manhattan Prep course was immensely helpful in improving my GMAT score. As someone that had never taken a standardized test prep course, it was very helpful in terms of test taking tips and tricks. I found a lot of value in having so much structure put in place (pre-course work, prep class, homework, recommendations on when to take practice tests). It was also helpful to be able to get personalized coaching based on my performance on practice tests on where I should focus my time in studying. The coach helped me develop a personalized study plan based on when I was planning on taking my actual GMAT.

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Some background: I am an international student based in a Middle Eastern country with absolutely no quantitative background. The last time I took a math class was in high school, and I graduated high school 6 years ago.

I decided that I wanted to take the GMAT and took a diagnostic test and scored an underwhelming 580. I signed up for an in-person private tutoring course by another well-known international prep company, and I was able to consistently hit the low 600s, but never past 650. After doing some research and seeing some of the great reviews on here, I signed up for an online course with Manhattan Prep.

Since the company is based in the US, all but one of the course timings were not suited for my schedule. The only course that was available, and took place at a convenient time, was Josh Braslow's course.

Josh is a GMAT instructor living the dream, teaching GMAT skills to people around the world online while living on a Mediterranean island. This works out great timezone-wise for anyone in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. We also had a few U.S. based students who wanted to get their GMAT lesson out of the way early in the morning before they went to work. The point to consider is that you will likely find something that works for your schedule.

Josh is a great instructor and will absolutely take you where you need to go with your quantitative skills. He makes himself available to all of his students for questions, and even offers great insights and strategies that he has taken the time to figure out himself. This isn't an instructor who is being provided with the lesson plan, he creates one that is unique to him. He makes sure that everyone gets a chance to contribute, and everyone walks away knowing so much more about the exam than before. His emphasis on strategies is essential to any significant score improvement. His insight on sentence correction is also invaluable, and he did a great job walking us through the various approaches that made the verbal section very manageable for a non-native speaker like myself. In the weeks leading up to the exam, my GMATPrep scores ranged from 720-770, (With my highest Q at 50, and highest V at 47) and I finally sat the test and scored a 730 (Q47/V42), which I am more than happy with. Definitely worth the money.

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Elaine was a lifesaver - she made the process enjoyable and manageable. She is very smart and knows the test process in and out but what makes her GREAT is that she can communicate how we as students can apply what she knows in a way that makes sense. Also the Manhattan Prep materials from the books to the webinars were awesome! Helped me get into my dream school! My class was small and that made it really nice to be able to ask questions and engage. I studied on my own for 6 week prior to the class and I do believe that helped me quite a bit so that I could stay on track. The homework is heavy and you need time on your hands to be able to keep up.

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The services provided by Manhattan Prep GMAT prepared me very well for the GMAT. It is the most comprehensive set of materials you will find anywhere. You definitely need to put in the time, but the MP GMAT team is a great resource. The team was happy to analyze my CAT data in order to find my areas of focus. Mark Sullivan and Joshua Braslow are really genuine people and were extremely willing to work with my accelerated schedule. They provided a lot of encouragement throughout the process and ups and downs. I thought the online class would be useless, but it turned out to be super engaging and helpful.

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I took a 9 session, live online course with Elaine Loh at Manhattan Prep. I couldn't speak more highly of her and the overall experience. I got a 580 on my first practice test at the start of class. My score slowly went up throughout class and peaked on test day at a 730 about 5 months after the start of class. Elaine brought a ton of enthusiasm and motivation to every single class. She also was extremely responsive and helpful after the class ended. She gave me multiple suggestions and strategy tips in the weeks leading up to my exam. I was able to increase my verbal score 3 points thanks to her last minute advice. I recommend Manhattan and Elaine especially to all GMAT takers.

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Prior to starting private on-line tutoring with Joshua, I took a Manhattan Prep review course with Isaac. The review course helped me re-learn a majority of the quant material, but I needed additional help preparing for the sentence correction and critical reasoning parts of the exam. After the course and prior to starting with Joshua, I was consistently scoring around a 600 on practice tests, with low verbal scores (31/32).

My sessions with Joshua were challenging and often focused on sentence correction. He assigned thoughtful homework after each session that truly helped me finally understand the material. Joshua completely transformed the way I approached sentence correction, allowing me to bring up my verbal score to a 40.

Joshua also taught me a number of test taking strategies that helped with my quant timing and data sufficiency, helping me improve my quant score from 43 to a 47.

Overall, Joshua is an extremely patient and knowledgeable tutor. I believe he is the reason why I was able to surpass the 700 mark. I strongly recommend working with Joshua if you are looking to achieve your goal score on the GMAT.

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I took a 9-session, live online course with Stacey Koprince and Brian Birdwell at Manhattan Prep. They are FANTASTIC. Not only are they subject matter experts, but they are engaging and bring the material to life. Moreover, they made themselves available to answer my questions and always responded promptly, day or night.

While there are many GMAT instructors out there, one of the things that really differentiates Stacey and Brian is their ability to provide tailored guidance to people in all score ranges. When I started out my scores were in the mid-600s. By the end of my preparation, I was scoring in the high-700s. They were able to provide me with foundational tools and guidance that were vital to breaking the 700-barrier and test strategy that helped me reach the upper-700s. Without their guidance, I never would have reached these milestones.

The bottom line is Manhattan is a great test prep company and Stacey and Brian are two of the best. If you are serious about test prep (and you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t) I HIGHLY recommend using their services. If is one the best investments you can make.

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Avi was a phenomenal instructor. I had 4 sessions of private tutoring with him and within those sessions he diagnosed why my score wasn't improving and gave me tips on how to increase my overall score. I ended up seeing an improvement that I didn't think was possible in the short amount of time I had to prepare. My score went up 70 points since my last test attempt, and 100 points overall since the first time I attempted the test.

Avi convinced me that I had the skills necessary to get the score I wanted on the test, and that I just had to get my confidence up to match my skills. Without his guidance and belief in me it would have been a much longer and more painful road to the GMAT score that I wanted.

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