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MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course?

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carriedinterest
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MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   05 Jan 2010, 06:48
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I have decided to enroll in an online prep course before taking the GMAT in April / May. Having read a number of positive reviews on this (and other) sites, I've narrowed my choice to MGMAT Online or Knewton. Though both programs have been reviewed in depth on this forum, I haven't come across a side-by-side comparison of the two. Accordingly, I would greatly appreciate insights from people who have first-hand experience with one (or both) of these programs.

The way I see it, the pros and cons are as follows:

Knewton

Pros: reasonable cost ($690); unique algorithm adapts course content to the student's individual needs; 50 point money back guarantee; longer (and more frequent) office hours; great interface for on-line classes

Cons: relatively new on the GMAT scene; long course length (13 weeks); no hardbound course materials (the course is entirely based on on-line content)

MGMAT

Pros: rumored to be the best prep course on the street; strong (market leading?) materials; content geared toward students seeking to break the 700 barrier; shorter course duration (9 weeks)

Cons: expensive ($990 after discount); no money-back guarantee; syllabus may be unrealistic for candidates holding a full time job (especially those working 60+ hour weeks!)

Any further insight would greatly appreciated!
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Cclay
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   05 Jan 2010, 08:41
Hi there,

While I can't speak about Knewton, I would like to address your analysis of MGMAT's online program:

In terms of a money-back guarantee, I would refer you to a blog post on the subject which describes our reasoning: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... uarantees/. What we encourage instead is a Post Exam Assessment, which is free as part of your course. If you take the exam and are not satisfied with your course, you can sign up for an in depth analysis with an instructor going over your strengths and weaknesses and how you could study to improve. Additionally, no matter how they did on the exam, our students can retake our course for $300, whenever they like.

Our curriculum is indeed intensive, because we want to give you the best opportunity to do well. What we find is that people who, like you, work full time often do not complete all of the homework for every week. Instead, they do the reading and some of the problems, and save the rest of the problems for after the course. The good news is that you have access to your online resources for three months after the course is over, with the opportunity to extend this access for free for another year after that. So if you can't complete everything during the 9 session course, you'll still be able to keep studying after it's over.

If you're worried about the price, you may also want to consider our Guided Self Study program. You still get two half-hour sessions with instructors, but the classes are recorded instead of live. This costs $790, which may be something you're interested in.

If you haven't already, I would urge you to attend one of our free trial classes. This will give you a better idea of what our classes are like, and may help you make your decision. You can find a list of upcoming free events here: https://www.manhattangmat.com/free-gmat-prep-course.cfm

Best of luck in making your decision. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to call us at 1-800-576-4628 or email at studentservices@manhattangmat.com.

Best Wishes,
Caitlin Clay
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Manhattan GMAT
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akuma
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   05 Jan 2010, 09:25
Hi,

I'm currently enrolled in the full in-person 9-week MGMAT course and all I can say is that the course is very demanding. As you may already know, your GMAT score will inevitably reflect what you put in.

As far as the two courses go, I feel as if Knewton and MGMAT use different teaching methodologies; albeit, both are highly structured ways of prepping. MGMAT is more old-school: here's 10 books, study organizer, stopwatch, now it's up to you. Knewton claims of it's "smarter and revolutionary" way of prepping: adaptive without any traditional resources i.e. books)

So it's ultimately up to what your study habits are. If you're like me who find it hard to self-motivate and self-study, then either prep is ideal. I would suggest that if you're going to spend $1000 then you should aim to get the best of both worlds. Get all the Manhattan guides, OG, OG Quant, OG Verbal (they offer the package on the MGMAT site for like $280?) and also sign up for Knewton $690. Yes, there will be a lot of overlap but I think it's a smart way to reinforce concepts :-D
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carriedinterest
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   05 Jan 2010, 09:38
Thanks - very helpful advice. Do you know if Knewton's material is regarded as being as rigorous as MGMAT's?
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   05 Jan 2010, 09:55
carriedinterest wrote:
Thanks - very helpful advice. Do you know if Knewton's material is regarded as being as rigorous as MGMAT's?


I've stumbled upon some posts about Knewton and I read somewhere that they have a lot of easy to medium-level questions but lack a lot of hard 700+ questions. With that being said, I've also read that they're curriculum does a pretty good job covering a lot of the fundamentals. MGMAT is more geared towards individuals looking to cross that 700+ barrier. If you're just starting off, try going with Knewton and then gradually supplement it with MGMAT guides as they are IMO the best in the business.
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carriedinterest
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   07 Jan 2010, 09:33
Update: I've gone with MGMAT. Knewton was very tempting, but I ultimately chose Manhattan due to the strength of their materials and shorter course length (9 weeks vs. 13 weeks at Knewton).
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   07 Jan 2010, 09:54
Great news! Thanks for choosing us! If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to contact us.

:-D

Best,
Caitlin Clay
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Manhattan GMAT
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   07 Jan 2010, 10:18
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carriedinterest wrote:
I have decided to enroll in an online prep course before taking the GMAT in April / May. Having read a number of positive reviews on this (and other) sites, I've narrowed my choice to MGMAT Online or Knewton. Though both programs have been reviewed in depth on this forum, I haven't come across a side-by-side comparison of the two.


Hi carriedinterest,

Sounds like you've already mad your choice, but I wanted to throw in a few reasons for future readers to consider Veritas Prep's live online GMAT course (which we call Virtual Veritas Prep):

In Virtual Veritas Prep, our instructors teach the exact same 42 hours of in-class material, in an identical fashion, as they do in person. Students receive the same 15 lesson booklets, 15 GMAT practice tests, over 1500 problems, and 25 hours per week of toll-free phone support and unlimited email support. This is more than what any other leading GMAT prep company offers.

Students and instructors collaborate using an interactive whiteboard and instant messaging utility making note-taking fast and easy. Every Virtual Veritas Prep class is equipped with two instructors (who both have scored in the 99th percentile on a real GMAT and have passed our extensive screening and training process), allowing the primary instructor to teach the material while the secondary instructor acts like a teaching assistant, answering student questions. Students are able to instant message their questions to the secondary instructor and receive answers, all without missing a sentence from the lead instructor.

Not only do you get access to our live online course, but you'll also receive six months of access to Veritas Prep on Demand, our self-paced online course. This is ideal for when you might miss a Virtual Veritas Prep class or you want to review the material again. And, because we record all Virtual Veritas Prep™ class sessions, students can replay any sessions they want, at their convenience, for six months from the start of their course.

Like our in-person classes, Virtual Veritas Prep is backed up by our simple guarantee:
You may retake one Veritas Prep course of equal or lesser value, for any reason, free of charge within 6 months of the course start date. If you take a Veritas Prep Full Course, Virtual Veritas Prep Course, or Veritas Prep Intensive Course and your score doesn’t improve, we will refund your entire tuition or you can repeat the course free of charge!

Best regards,
Scott

P.S. You can also enroll in Veritas Prep on Demand (our self-paced online course) by itself. You can learn more about that here.
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   21 Jan 2011, 12:33
Veritas Prep is possibly the worst GMAT course available on the market. I attended Veritas Prep. live class conducted in a hotel near Stanford University, Palo Alto.

If you want to save money then either go with MGMAT or Knewton but don't waste your time or money on Veritas Prep.
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   11 Sep 2011, 04:11
MGMAT was really great. i had less time and i went thru only the tests and used the test analyses. It was great! i improved my scores with just the indepth analyses they gave. (i had already covered the core course once, a year ago-not from MGMAT. Plus i covered most of the 10th OG).

i have also been thru the Knewton course. My experience was very bad. Altho the course material is good, but it suffered from various big drawbacks (which are probably hidden from view at the outset because of their hype about being adaptive and about the money back guarantee. as such i think if you take any course with the mental surety that you WILL achieve 50 more points on GMAT, you will be able to get there with your hard work)

MGMAT is good.
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   11 Sep 2011, 14:14
Both the options are good...But i my fiend has taken manhattan and improved 12o points.....
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Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink] New post   14 Sep 2011, 07:04
Hi All,

Since this thread has been reopened, I guess it's Knewton's turn to take the stand. We are, indeed, adaptive. The GMAT is an adaptive exam, which is why it makes a lot of sense to prep for it using the same structure. Our CATs were developed by one of the chief designers of the actual GMAT, so we're pretty confident in the accuracy of our algorithms. Our content is rigorous, and since it's all online, the number of core class sessions (13) really has little bearing on how long it takes anyone to complete it. All of our classes, in both our Complete Prep and Premium Live versions, are video archived, which means you can access them whenever you want and move through the course at entirely your own pace. Complete Prep offers 4 months of course access, and Premium Live offers a full year. Premium live also offers 24 hours of supplemental live instruction every week - 6 days a week, 4 hours per day - where students can dive deeper into problem areas and interact with teachers. We guarantee a 50 point improvement on your previous official GMAT score or your first Knewton diagnostic, which is a pretty hard deal to argue with.

We strive to provide an excellent prep experience to all of our students, and we generally succeed. Our final course satisfaction ratings are overwhelmingly positive from students who have completed the course. As in any service organization, there will inevitably be students who are unhappy for one reason or another. Ritu2301, I'm very sorry to hear you were disappointed with Knewton. I'm sure that if you brought your problems to a student support adviser, they were happy to hear you out and work on a solution. I do agree that anyone can improve by 50 points if they put in the work, but it's still nice to be guaranteed your money back if you don't ; )

I hope this is helpful. Please don't hesitate to reach out via PM with any questions.

Good luck studying!

Jessie
Knewton GMAT Team
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gmatclubot
Re: MGMAT Online vs. Knewton - which course? [#permalink]
14 Sep 2011, 07:04

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