Manhattan GMAT 9-Session In-Person Prep Course Reviews

I took the 9-week Manhattan Prep course with Jeffrey Volmer (in the D.C./Northern VA area) in winter 2018 and was very pleased with the experience. Jeff is an excellent and patient teacher who always made himself available outside of class hours to answer questions.

The Manhattan coursework and classroom format encouraged self-study. For someone who may not be motivated to study alone and profits from the pressure of having to keep pace with peers, this is a great option. In addition to reintroducing the grammar and math concepts that one will need to ace the test, the Manhattan curriculum emphasizes the strategies a test-taker must use to optimize his or her score under the time constraint and how to recognize and approach recurring “tricks” that the test throws at you. Jeff did a great job of giving equal currency to the test content and strategies.

I started studying for the GMAT without having taken a math course since high school (eight years prior). Given the intensity of the quant, this was my greatest weakness. But the Manhattan textbooks (especially Foundations of Math) provide an overview of the basics and ample drill exercises to help improve on that portion of the test.

I did not take the test for business school so I wasn’t trying my damnedest to break 700 (I didn’t). The programs I applied to also accepted the highest score in each category (Quant/Verbal/IR/Essay) from any test sitting, so I had different incentives from someone applying to an MBA program. If you struggle in one category, I would recommend supplementing the Manhattan coursework with a tutor as you get closer to test date. If you are in the D.C. area, I’m fairly certain Jeff offers tutoring and would make an excellent one-on-one teacher.

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OVERALL: I recommend this class if you know what you need to work on and are looking for a group setting and if you're trying to get to high 600s-low 700s. If you're trying to get to high 700s, I would recommend a private tutor instead (once you are consistently getting high 600s), because you will not be hitting those less-frequently-tested subjects during this class.

RESULTS: I was getting about 630 on my practice exams (I was using Manhattan Prep practice exams which are notoriously harder than the actual exam). My first real exam I got a 710 and then I hired a private tutor from Manhattan Prep. I took the exam again and got a 720, but on my third time got a 750.

PREPARATION: I had done very minimal preparation work before signing up for this class. I had done a few online quizzes and quickly realized that I wasn't just going to be able to wing the GMAT exam. I signed up for this class and really committed to it - I went to every lesson and did all the homework, etc.

RESOURCES: The Manhattan Prep portal is very easy and straightforward to use. You can set up and take infinite quizzes online and even specify them to subjects you want to test. There's a page where you can analyze the problems you got wrong as well. They give you all the Manhattan Prep books which I found very useful for preparing for the exam - many forums recommend these books, but they are included when you sign up for a class. They also give you a GMAT scratch sheet (and special pen) which is VERY helpful for when you take the actual exam and they teach you how to set up your scratch work most efficiently (time is so crucial on the exam!). They also gave us a copy of mbaMission's Complete Start-to-Finish MBA guide which I found helpful for applying to school, particularly when I was trying to figure it all out.

COURSE SET UP: The class meets once a week for three hours, with a break around half time. We spent about half the time on quant and then half the time on verbal. We did not really spend any time on the writing section and limited time on IR. You have a significant amount of homework (this is where you work on IR). You will get as much from the class as you put into it, so you do really need to do the homework.

INSTRUCTOR: My instructor was very knowledgable and helpful. He made class fun as well - a three hour class can be rough especially after a full work day, but he made it enjoyable.

CLASSES: As this is a group setting, we obviously don't have time to go off on tangents to whatever any particular student's weakness is. However, I think we covered a lot of the basics - enough that you should be able to get a good score.

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I took my first diagnostic test back in Nov 2017 and scored a 520. I decided to do a 9 session in person class with Manhattan Prep every Saturday. Ryan was an awesome instructor and the class was very collaborative. He created a great learning environment, where my classmates and I strove to help each other understand tricky questions and materials. The course provided a great framework for my GMAT studying. However, I do think most people will need to study for several months or use other services to propell them to higher scores. After Manhattan Prep I scored a 640 & 670 respectively. It wasn't until I used tutoring and TTP that I was able to get to my target score (740).

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I took the Manhattan Prep 9 session course with Keith Blume in Chicago. I was very pleased with what I got out of it. Keith is a natural teacher, and his course sets out the path for what you need to do each week. If you commit to the course and put in the work, you will definitely end up better off. After completing this course, I walked into take the test feeling very confident and was able to beat my goal by over 20 points! Up 100 points from my very first practice test.

Anyone who is serious about doing well on the GMAT should look into this course!

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Hi, I took the course here and while the instructor was great and was the only best thing about the course, the course in itself wasnt too helpful. The basics covered are yes helpful, but the basics can only bring one to a certain score, and for me this course barely helped me cross a 600. It is very overpriced, I would recommend buying the verbal books but thats about it. Their quant material, as compared to the quant material of other online courses, is very, very basic in the least. The end of chapter questions are no where near the testing standards. Their 6 practice CATs are good, but other than that, I found the course lacked in preparing one in terms of the difficulty of the GMAT. The instructor is great in that he is so helpful in helping you understand everything about the GMAT, including relaxation tips, mental strategies but I wish I had rather heard those helpful tips without the >$1500 price tag. The instructor is the best thing about the course, and is one of the most helpful resources, but the course on the other hand, is too basic.

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I knew I would need a class in order to actually spend time working on the GMAT, and the class structure was extremely helpful. Ryan McGorman is the epitome of a teacher- you can tell he's been teaching the material for a long time, and has practical suggestions on how to improve your score. I honestly didn't hold out much hope for being able to improve my score enough from my initial practice test of score of 600 (or 510 on the one Manhattan Prep gave me!), and thought it would take at least three to six months. Miraculously, I had signed myself up for an exam the week following the end of my course (all of 8 weeks), and went into it expecting not to reach my target score of 730, and actually scored a 720!!! Turns out diligently doing all the work Manhattan Prep assigned, and attending class with Ryan actually works! I listened to his advice about moving on quickly from problems that weren't my strengths, and actually finished all sections of my exam with time to spare!

I'm debating whether or not to invest time in a second exam (as they recommend since most exam takers score better on the second one), or to move on to my applications as I'm quite happy with my current score. :) Thanks Ryan McGorman and Manhattan Prep!

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I participated in the MPrep 9 week course in Manhattan with instructor Ryan McGorman. I really enjoyed our weekly sessions with Ryan as he was not only smart and funny but a talented teacher. The course was an excellent starting point for me in my GMAT prep. My verbal was naturally higher than my quant, but both needed plenty of refining. Ryan did an excellent job laying the groundwork for me to gain a better understand and ability with the material and really helped me boost my verbal score as well as help me figure out what areas of my quant needed the most work. The improvement on quant came largely from self-study of the Mprep material simply because the number of repetitions I needed to really understand the material would not have been possible in a class setting, but I learned some great tricks and tips. Very worthwhile class and a great instructor.

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I had a great experience at Manhattan Prep where I took a GMAT prep course with Logan Thompson. His teaching style was very engaging, constantly seeking feedback on where we felt we needed more help and probing to make sure we understood each point. I went into the class feeling pretty apprehensive about the exam and came out feeling confident in the core strategies I learned. My score from the exam was ~50 points higher than when I first took a practice test and was good enough to get into my target schools, so thank you, Logan!! I'm also appreciative for Logan encouraging us to stay in touch after the class and provide his input on our business school application and decision process!

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I took the 9 class GMAT Prep course with Manhattan Prep in the Spring of 2018. I cannot begin to explain how helpful this course was. I ultimately raised my score over 100 points from the first test I took at the beginning of the course until I took the GMAT.

The course is very rigorous and requires a huge time commitment. I think it is smart to sign up and order the books as soon as possible before you begin the course. It would have been very helpful to have reviewed some of the basic Algebra as well as clean up my grammar before the course began.

My instructor was Jamie Nelson and she was very helpful and was always willing to answer my questions as well as everyone else's in the class. She also helped me develop a strong study plan that ultimately help me achieve my desired score. Jamie is a great teacher and I would highly recommend taking her class.

I would highly recommend this course for anyone who is trying to improve their GMAT score.

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Dear GMATClub community!

I am so excited to share my GMAT experience with you all. I've read countless testimonials (looking for insights or tips) over the past 4 months, anything to help break the 700 point barrier.

If you are searching for a quick fix, or a silver bullet, stop reading right now - I am not that guy. My 730 score came from a lot of smart studying (see below), the Manhattan Prep course, guidance from my instructor Keith Blume (he rocks!) and support from my friends and family. I can give you all some tips that I wish I had taken advantage of much sooner.

First and foremost, if you are in the Chicago area, I highly recommend taking advantage of the 9 week Manhattan Prep course with Keith Blume.

I took my first practice exam and then realized that I needed professional help. I didn't not know the answers to most quant problems, but even more concerning was that I had no clue what was being asked (divisibility, prime factors, evenly-spaced sets - get out here!). To make matters worse, I not only bombed the questions I gave my best efforts, but also ran out of time. I had to hit the pause button many times just to see the remaining questions (btw - hitting the pause button during practice exams is a horrible practice - DON'T DO IT - you'll only cheat yourself from improving your test day strategy).

Manhattan Prep - Hands down, the best thing I can say about the program is that you will not be surprised in any way during your exam. Like most people (even those with 700+ scores), I got close to 50% of the questions wrong, but Manhattan Prep helped with 2 key components.

1. Identify the concepts being tested (the study guides are really well-organized for this)
2. QUICKLY determine a strategy (Work Backwards, Smart Numbers, Algebra approach - Keith was very instrumental in this aspect). Percent change or rate/distance problems, for example, would sometimes take me 4 minutes to solve, until I learned that there were multiple different ways to solve the problems or to eliminate 2 or 3 options.

Ok so a little bit amount the progress during my 4.5 months of prep

GMAT ONLINE PRACTICE EXAM - 580 - Jun 20
M-CAT 1 - 580 40q 30v - Aug 31
M-CAT 2 - 630 45q 32v - Sep 21
M-CAT 3 - 640 44q 34v - Oct 5
M-CAT 4 - 600 43q 31v - Nov 1
M-CAT 5 - 640 40q 37v - Nov 21
GMAT - 730 48q 41v - Nov 27

Biggest takeaways I wish I had started using earlier

I know it's been said before, but it's worth repeating - simply plowing through countless problems won't help improve your understanding of the concepts. Doing a 1000 problems a month is a waste of time. It is much more efficient if you fully understand the problems you face. Understand not only how to get the correct answer, but also understand why the other options were incorrect (especially useful for verbal).

Time yourself - You should become a master at the difference between 90 seconds, 120 seconds and lastly 180 seconds (bail!!!) Keith showed me through assessment reports where my score was negatively impacted by poor time management. The more I learned, the more questions I could correctly answer. The paradox was that my scores were dropping, Keith made it very clear that I should treat every question as if it were an investment. Good investment - ok, put some more time into it. Bad investment - Get out as soon as possible!!!

Error Log (spreadsheet) - During the first week of the course you come across a file to download to keep track of work. I completely dismissed this file (big mistake). I would say it's a waste of valuable time to keep track of every problem you face. Once I start to keep track of the problems that I got wrong or those I took longer than 2.5 minutes (you should time every single problem initially and then maybe blocks of problems later), I felt my confidence go up. The tricky part of the preparation is that you go through each subject individually, but unlike the study guide, the exam changes subjects from question to question. I would catalog the questions I got wrong or took too long to solve and then use the Manhattan Navigator solutions guide to learn how to solve the problem. Then after 2-3 weeks I would have roughly 30 quant and 30 verbal questions. I would try to solve these 60 questions for a second time. Many times, I would still get half of these questions wrong (or over 2.5 minutes). Typically, after 3 or 4 attempts I was able to correctly solve all the questions. Using the error log and writing out, in my own words, the mistakes I was making and also writing down, in my own words, which steps I should take to solve the problem was very helpful. I didn't do the most problems, but every single problem I did, I eventually mastered.

The Manhattan course also has many interactive videos (which are awesome and as entertaining as instructional videos can be). Several videos test your ability to identify concepts / question stems / strategies to be used - I highly recommend getting this down pat

It terms of work-load - I covered all the Manhattan study guides (sentence correction I had to re-read) and the OG (just the problem sets). I did all the problems; the Manhattan navigator tool was great to track which problems were still "new" after I had completed the 9-week course.

My CR scores were lagging and eventually I purchased the CR Bible by Power score. I think it is worth while ($25). The CR Bible strategy is different than the Manhattan strategy and for me it made a big difference. Manhattan teaches to read the question stem, before reading the stimulus - I found that reading the question first biased my approached to the problem. I also think the CR bible helped me learn to more quickly identify the subject being tested. An additional resource to improve sentence correction is a free 4 part Youtube series by Veritas Prep - But I recommend watching the videos only after you've completed the sentence correction study guide. The videos are great complimentary resources, but they are not to be used as your foundation in your preparation. I watched these videos twice, once after my 9 week course and then once again 3 days before my exam.

I didn't spend much time on IR (much easier on real exam than Manhattan Prep) or AWA (google chineseburned and do 3 practice essays)

I'm so happy!!! I threw away all my flash cards; now its time to start working on the rest of my applications.


Good luck to you all - If I could get a 700+, so can you

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