Veritas Prep Full Course vs. Manhattan Complete Course

Question

Hi there,

I am in Washington, DC and looking for any advice that can be provided in regards to the in person courses mentioned in the title.

A little background on me, I last took the GMAT in January 2012 and attained a 620 score with a 6.0 on the writing portion. I took an Online Kaplan course and was rather careless about it, as I was also a Senior in Undergrad and prioritized that over GMAT studying. So, I am looking into doing a Full or Complete in person course, because seeing someone every week or other day will give me more incentive to go, AND I hear that complete course instructors generally care much more about guiding students through the process.

Anyways, I was hoping someone/anyone could provide insight between the two programs. Has the quality of Manhattan gone down since they were acquired by Kaplan? I've never heard of Veritas before last week, do they have strong reviews? Is there a preferred brand between the two? The main reason I'm not going to Kaplan is from the poor experiences I've had with them in the past. Instructors that I would be choosing between are Marcus Hedahl (Manhattan) and Anthony Ritz (Veritas). The searches I've done have given me a few reviews on each, but hoping someone has encountered either of them in their GMAT past (or currently).

If this is in the wrong forum section, I apologize and have no issue moving it.

Thanks!

KarishmaB · Answer

GMAT Club has verified reviews of Veritas and Manhattan courses of Washington DC. People have talked about Anthony Ritz in the reviews so you will probably find them useful. Check here: https://gmatclub.com/reviews/location/wa ... -345345383

AbeFroman · Answer

Hi, Thank you for the response. I had already read these reviews (10 for Anthony and a handful for Marcus.) I guess I should have led with that when I came here seeking more information on them.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Hi Abe,

I have been teaching with Manhattan since before the acquisition, and I can assure you that we operate entirely independently. In terms of quality, you're looking at 4 main elements: books, class curriculum, instructors, and support. Let's take a look:

Books--These are still the top of the industry. Our approach hasn't changed drastically, but we continue to improve our approach, and we've added titles such as Advanced GMAT Quant and The GMAT Roadmap.
Class Curriculum--We've always had a great curriculum centered around real GMAT problems that relate to the topics you work on in our books. This curriculum has only gotten better with time, as we've built on our experience with students around the world.
Instructors--We still only hire the best and brightest. All of our instructors have 99th percentile scores (760 or higher) and 2+ years' teaching experience, and that's just the beginning. I worked on the hiring team for a while, and it's amazing how many people who met those qualifications still didn't make the cut! We hire fewer than 5% of the candidates who meet our requirements, and then we subject them to intensive training. The goal is to find not just charismatic test geeks, but true professionals with a talent for teaching. That's why we pay $100/hour. We want to attract brilliant, talented people and hang on to them, and that's just what we've continued to do over the five years I've been with the company. Marcus Hedahl in particular is a great example of this--the guy's a physicist and a philosophy professor, but he's extremely down-to-earth and relatable. He could pretty much rule the world (and he still may), but in the meantime he's teaching for us year after year.
Support--Our Student Services team is still our own, and if you call, you will talk to a real person who can help you with just about anything you need. (They won't take the test for you, though . . . ). We also offer an increasing range of online resources such as IR Interact, with more coming in all the time.

So . . . we're doing great; thanks for asking!

Sorry if I sound like a marketing guy (I'm not), but we're pretty awesome, and sometimes I just have to say so!

AbeFroman · Answer

Hi Dmitry,

Thanks for the response. I guess I keep going back and forth in regards to prestige (Manhattan) vs. Instructor (Veritas Instructor has more searchable reviews than Marcus). I've signed up for the free Manhattan GMAT course taught by Marcus tonight, and hoping to either leave it loving the class or hating the class. I feel like thats the only way I'll truly know which one to choose. Unfortunately, Veritas' free class coincides with the 2nd Manhattan GMAT Class, so I don't think I'll be able to try that one as well before I'll need to make a decision. Any tips for the first class, especially as someone who isn't enrolled in it yet?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

The first class is going to cover some basics about the test and the course itself--these parts will not be terribly representative of the rest of the course, in that Marcus will just be telling you stuff. However, you'll also get introductory lessons in Data Sufficiency and Sentence Correction, so you'll get a sense of his teaching style and our approach to strategy.

There's nothing much you need to do for the first day--just bring pencil and paper. If you had more time, you could also start brushing up on your math with our Foundations of Math book, but it looks like the class is tonight, so I'll just wish you good luck!

AbeFroman · Answer

Hi Dmitry,

Thanks again for the response. I was hoping you and Karishma could expand on the thoughts behind why Manhattan has 1 three hour class a week for 9 weeks and why Veritas has 2 three hour classes (or one 6 hour class) a week for 6 weeks.

Thanks!

KarishmaB · Answer

Hey Abe,

Every test prep company has its own methodology. We prefer 2 three hour classes structure for the following reasons:

- Even though GMAT is quite an integrated exam in the sense that you might feel that some CR questions test your analytical ability and some Quant sections test your language skills too, it is best to segregate the two sections while teaching fundamentals. Our brains function best if we compartmentalize knowledge initially and then bring it all together once we understand the individual components thoroughly. Hence we keep one Quant and one Verbal class every week.

- We advice our students to work on both Verbal and Quant simultaneously. Even if one is relatively good in one section and not-so-good in another, one can devote more time to the weaker section but must still devote some time to the stronger section. It is important to stay on top of both sections at all times else it takes a lot of time to get back in the zone. When you take a class, you are expected to complete the HW questions by the next lecture. If you have only a Verbal or a Quant class in a week, you will be tempted to spend whatever time you have on hands that week on just that section. To encourage you to work on both sections, we have both classes every week.

- You still get a whole week for your HW. Say you have a Monday/Wednesday batch. You might have Verbal class on Monday and Quant on Wednesday. You still have a whole week for your Verbal HW since you will discuss it in class during the next Verbal class i.e. next Monday. Same is the case with Quant - you will get the HW on Wednesday and will discuss it next Wednesday.

- 6 hrs a week format gives you 36 hrs face-to-face with an expert. Not only is that sufficient time to discuss basic and advanced concepts but also to go through difficult HW problems, have meaningful discussions on classroom problems, discuss various strategies and traps etc. It also gives us enough time to discuss not just different topics such as Algebra but also question formats such as DS.

- Most people like to give themselves 2-3 months to prepare for GMAT. Classroom sessions are one aspect of preparation. Practice tests are another. Taking practice tests before completing all topics is not very useful. So after you complete all topics in 6 weeks, you can start taking practice tests, reviewing questions, identifying weaknesses and reviewing those topics etc. You get a good 4-6 weeks of work on practice tests (while receiving complete support from us) before you take the actual GMAT.

This structure has worked wonders for our students and that is why we like it very much.

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