I would like to share my positive experience with Manhattan Gmat Prep self study kit and a 9 week prep course taught by Noah Teitelbaum. In addition to very interactive and engaging instruction, the material and strategies covered during the preparation helped me improve my score from 570 (Q37, V29) to 740 (Q49, V41). The key to my preparation was blocking out time slots throughout the week to go through the material and follow the syllabus during the course and then focusing on practice and solving the problem from GMAT Official Guide for a few weeks after the course was completed to allow the information to fully sink in, timing per problem to improve and become more consistent. Keeping up the pace throughout the exam and being ready to endure the 3.5hrs exam without loosing focus is also crucial.

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Manhattan Prep is the way to go for GMAT. I bought Manhattan GMAT books after reading their excellent review online; however, I was still lost after reading through all the books. I then signed up for 9 week course online with Manhattan Prep and that was definitely money well spent. The classes are incredibly helpful and both of my instructors, Ryan Jacobs and Paul Fisher, were really knowledgeable and approachable. They teach you so many tricks that you would never learn by just reading the books!

After taking the classes, I found that I was still struggling with CR and certain areas of quant. I then took 4 private lessons with Ryan that essentially helped me to cross the 700 mark.

Ryan is an awesome teacher who genuinely cares for his students and is always available to answer questions, even when he is on vacation. If you are struggling with GMAT in general, I suggest signing up for classes with Manhattan prep. However, if there are specific areas that need work, I would sign up for private lessons (they are expensive, but so worth it). If you can, I would recommend taking a class with Ryan. He will make them fun and really work with you to understand the deficiencies.

A big thank you to Manhattan Prep and Ryan Jacobs!

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I started my gmat preparation with an official test, scored 680 in first attempt. I checked which areas needed improvement and use the Manhattan preparation material for studying those topics. The material helped me clear my doubts and helped me improve in the areas where I struggled with the first test. It easily helped me score 720 in my gmat exam and thus, I will recommend it to everyone. I studied quant word problems which helped me in understanding Statistics, Number System and Geometry. The verbal material was also very detailed and helped me in improving my score in Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction.

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My biggest GMAT mistake was trying to glean insights from all the different test prep companies. I would be on Kaplan, Princeton, MGMAT, Magoosh, amongst others reading and trying new strategies. I'm here to save you a LOT of time. If you are serious about scoring 90th percentile of better (or for that matter 80th or better), you MUST go with Manhattan. No other tests are more accurate or will kick your butt like MGMAT.
The Veritas and Kaplan tests were usually very poor at mimicking the actual test and often inflated my scores (I was scoring 720s easily which was incredibly wrong.)
Manhattan's quant is the gold standard. It will be the toughest and hardest, but if you are serious about improving quant, Manhattan will get you there. Plus the suite of online tools they provide with their classes is second to none.
Additionally, their verbal was best at mimicking the actual GMAT and was strong enough to challenge a high verbal scorer like myself.
Manhattan will give you that test day pop- you will score higher on test day than your practices. Why? Manhattan will challenge and prepare you so well that when you try the actual test, you may find it mildly easier! So do not be discouraged if Manhattan kicks your butt, cause it did the same to me. (I saw a 20 point test day pop which is HUGE.)
Quick comment on my instructors, they were AWESOME and full of energy. But the competitive advantage isn't necessarily the class itself, but the high well organized study strategies and software they provide which give you a clear and crisp study roadmap.
In conclusion, I went from 550 after 6 months of self study, to 700 after the MGMAT class. Disclaimer- you MUST be a self starter and self motivated to get the most from it. But, if you are, do not skimp based on price. During my first round, I tried to go with the cheapest options- big mistake. Go with the gold standard. Manhattan has the best online tools, strategies, and tests in the business hands down! After experiencing both sides, I'm now a believer.

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I opted for this course in order to get the access to the MGMAT guides and officially began my preparation for the test. I think the books did a good job in providing the fundamentals of the course and the IR course on the GMAT interact helped in understanding that section. The OG tracker i.e. the navigator and the access to the 6 MGMAT tests came free with this course and were really helpful in measuring the performance during the preparation. I would recommend you to start your study for the GMAT with these books to develop your foundation and then maybe after some practice tests figure out your weak areas and see if the course can help, in case not you can either upgrade to live/interact or switch to a course that can provide you a online video based learning.

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I signed up for this course with some hesitation for how much this would help me. I was scoring roughly around 650-670 on practice tests before beginning the course, with my goal just to get to 700. But man, did the course exceed my expectations!

The course does a great job of laying out what you should expect for the test, which is great for those with little to no idea what's on the GMAT. It takes you through each of the various question types for each topic, breaking down various strategies to approach each one. This is ideal as not everyone learns the same, so you can find the method best suited to you and your strengths. Even if you are familiar with the GMAT or are scoring pretty high, the various tips and strategies will provide you with opportunities to bump up your score. Beyond just tips and strategies, it also provides the foundation of knowledge you will need to do well.

Stacey was a fantastic teacher who was both engaging and extremely patient. Even though you are part of a class, she makes the time to get to relate to each and every one of you and she is never to busy to help you out. She understands the concepts extremely well and delivers the class in an understandable and concise manner.

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I cannot say enough GREAT things about the Manhattan Prep Course. From the teachers to the content, the course is definitely worth every penny spent (and more). With the GMAT exam being so long and covering a lot of material, Manhattan Prep does a great job of breaking down the sections. The teachers not only know the material inside and out, but they're also always willing to take extra time to help the individual student. As long as you are willing to put in the effort, the Manhattan Prep course will definitely pay off.

There are so many courses out there to take, and although Manhattan Prep doesn't guarantee, I still decided to take the course because of the structure, broken-down syllabus provided, and the availability of the course content after the course is completed. Manhattan Prep thoroughly screens potential instructors, which is comforting going into a course knowing your instructor is one of the best in the markets.

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Within just a month, my GMAT score improved greatly from 660 to 710, with most of the help being from Manhattan Interact courses of Verbal. Following the instructions of the teachers, finishing all the required homework and reading all their materials for twice, I managed to improve my verbal substantially. Of course that does not mean you will definitely going to score higher if you sign up for the courses, but it's the dedication put into the preparation and the interactions with excellent teachers they have, who give you answers whenever you have questions you could not figure out. They are really helpful.

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ManhattanPrep is awesome...i am non-native English speaker and believe me SC and RC were something like nightmares for me. Then i purchased used Manhattanprep book for SC and believe me my score in SC starts improving to a level that now i am ranked in top ten at gmatclub. when i started gmat, i though i wont be able to do it and thus i couldnt score much on my test. but then i bought this book and now i have been scoring 650+. My verbal score has actually put a great impact on my overall score. I, once, wrote to Stacey and she helped me. Moreover, Ron, the guru of gmat, has helped me alot via his free videos (thursday with ron). I will definitely recommend this course to everyone and i am totally confident that this time i can score 700+. Thanks Manhattan

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I purchased the MGMAT study guides after reading reviews on this forum. I have to say that I was not disappointed. My baseline score was a 610 and after going through the guides and attempting the OG problems, I was able to bump it up to a 690 on test day.

I believe the SC, CR, and number properties books are very helpful. For RC, i disagree with the strategy of taking notes. I found that reading the passage slowly and trying to read for meaning was more beneficial.

As far as the quant resources, they are very good to get you to a reasonable score level. However, I do wish I used their advanced quant guide because I did hit a plateau after making my initial score increase.

It is also important to note that the manhattan cats are not the best indicator of your score or ability level. The manhattan cat quant is much harder than the real thing and the verbal questions do not always represent the official ones.

With that said, the study guides are great resources and I was able to increase my score by 80 points with fairly relaxed, but structured studying.

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