My issue with the Manhattan Prep online course

Question

I listened to a free Manhattan GMAT online trial class and was very disappointed. There were three moderators. The person who was the marketing rep came through my speakers loud and clear. The other two who were instructors did not. One sounded muffled and the other sounded like she was in a helicopter.

I wrote Manhattan GMAT afterwards and explained how surprised I was that every effort would not be made for the instructors to give their lectures in a quiet room so that we the listeners could concentrate on the course itself and not how badly the audio was. As of yet, there has been no response.

After reading all of the reviews, I was pretty determined that this prep course was the right one for me. After the trial I feel like I just save myself from wasting $1000.

Cclay · Answer

Hi,

Thanks so much for writing a candid review of our Trial class. I just emailed you a similar email to what I am about to write, but I felt that it was important to post this here as well:

We offer the trials precisely because we feel we have such a strong product that students should be able to see it for themselves before they purchase the full course. Unfortunately, with varying internet connections, there is always the potential for online classes to not be perfect. In the past, we have seen that students on public wifi connections sometimes have a little trouble connecting fully to the online classroom, and in such instances they might experience a lower quality of sound. In terms of the instructors themselves, however, we do try to maintain a high standard of sound, but at the end of the day, our primary focus is always going to be our excellence in instruction, and I hope that even with the bad sound quality you experienced, this showed through.

Very seldom do we hear complaints about the quality of our online courses, so it is unfortunate when we do. In order to show that your experience was an anomaly and not a regular occurrence, I would invite you to attend another trial class. In addition, our tech support team is also always available to help you if you have trouble with your internet connection.

Thanks and Best Wishes,
Caitlin Clay

P.S.
Please also be sure to check the email I sent you, as we do like to make sure we do well by our potential students!

Anonymous · Answer

I was not on a public wifi, I was sitting in the comfort of my home without any distractions. I also sent an email directly to your website. I seriously think that you should listen to that trial and you will understand how bad it really was.

And no, I could not concentrate on the instruction at all. That is why I left about 20 minutes after the instructors started. I was extremely disappointed. If I have trouble hearing what the instructors are saying because their voices are muffled or have obnoxious sounds in the background, then the “excellence of instruction” is lost.

roshpat · Answer

I am taking the 9 week class from India, where the speeds are notoriously bad depending on the time you log in.

In our trial class, we did have a lot of students auditing the class (almost 25 extra students), so there was a bit of lag, causing the instructor's voice to sound squeaky at times but at all times audible and comprehensible. Also, this was resolved from the following week.I can vouch that we have had no trouble in the last five weeks.

I had attended a trial class earlier and there were no problems in that.

Sorry, you had a bad experience. It is a good class and I do think you ought to give it another shot before you decide its not for you.

BlueRobin · Answer

I mean comon, Mgmat guys charge 1000$ and they blame on internet connections. Why not invest in better servers and better hosting solutions.

In this regards, Knewton is several times better than Mgmat, their video feeds are clear and do not break, even though the practice content of Knewton is "Copy and Paste" official questions with different nouns.

m990540 · Answer

I just finished the MGMAT online course and was very happy with it. I will say that the first class, which was a trial class with 40+ people, had audio problems too. The instructors were saying that having so many folks in the "classroom" sometimes overloads the system and results in poor sound quality.

From class #2 onward (with a significantly smaller class size), there was no audio issues whatsoever. Basically, don't judge the audio quality by the first class!

From class #2 onward (with a significantly smaller class size), there was no audio issues whatsoever. Basically, don't judge the audio quality by the first class!

mmapplebeck · Answer

Thanks for the kind words! Glad to hear you enjoyed the course.

Best,
Matt Mapplebeck
Student Services Associate
Manhattan GMAT

My issue with the Manhattan Prep online course

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