Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Reviews

The Manhattan Prep online course I took was taught by Emily Madan. She was very detail-oriented, insightful and all around helpful in my GMAT pursuit. I started the class in August of this year and studied/did homework religiously. My original score was a 610 and quant was my biggest weak point. Emily was great in every class and always challenged us. The format is typically a topic from a combination of verbal/quant/IR and then example questions on that topic. She gave us plenty of strategies to use on test day. I would highly recommend using Emily to anyone wanting to improve their scores. I went from a 610 to a 690. It took me 4 months of hard studying and it definitely paid off. I would recommend Manhattan Prep/Emily to anyone looking to strengthen GMAT scores.

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I worked with Reed at Manhattan Prep NYC from May-August 2019. I came in to tutoring scoring around 560-610 on a few practice GMATs I had taken. In September, I ended up scoring a 710 (45Q, 41V)! Reed's patience, clever strategies/tricks and expertise were a critical part of my GMAT journey. I am by no means a natural test taker, but with persistence and Reed's guidance I was able to exceed my target score. Not only is he fun to work with, but he is great at tailoring each lesson exactly to what you need (sometimes he knew what I needed better than I did) for both Quant and Verbal. I highly recommend working with Reed if you are looking to improve you GMAT score. I can genuinely say that not only did his expertise greatly help my score but also that I looked forward to every session! It's been a pleasure.

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After talking with friends and co-workers and reading reviews online about available GMAT prep courses, I decided to take the Manhattan Prep Online Course. I particularly wanted to take the course with Jamie because of all the great reviews I had read about her. Having completed the course, I believe that those reviews were definitely warranted. Jamie is a great instructor – knowledgeable, friendly, and engaging. Throughout the course she offered very helpful advice on timing and strategies, and her many “Jamie-isms” really helped ingrain the concepts being taught. Jamie was also very responsive outside of class if I had questions or concerns. She provided detailed feedback after each CAT and put together a personalized study plan during the Post-Course Assessment that I think really enabled me to optimize my final phase of studying before I took the GMAT.

In terms of the overall course, I think the classes were very well structured, and I appreciated the wealth of available resources. The course includes access to the Manhattan Prep strategy guides, along with great tools such as Navigator, Interact Videos, and the Manhattan Prep GMAT app. There is a lot of homework before each class, but I appreciated the homework in part because it helped me keep a good study schedule.

If you decide to take this course (which I would highly recommend), one thing you should note is that Manhattan Prep’s CAT exams are generally harder than the actual GMAT, so you shouldn’t be too discouraged when you take them. Since I was used to the CAT exams, I was much more comfortable when I finally took the real GMAT.

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I highly recommend private tutoring with Joshua Braslow. After scoring 650 (Q: 42 / V: 37) on my first attempt I signed up for private tutoring with Joshua and retook the GMAT after three private tutoring sessions (~4 weeks). On my second attempt, I accomplished my goal and scored 710 (Q:46 / V: 41). Joshua helped identify strengths/weaknesses and targeted strategic areas for improvement to help me raise my score in a short amount of time. In the tutoring sessions, Joshua coached me on content as well as strategy and I felt well-prepared during my second GMAT attempt. Could not have achieved the score I was hoping for as quickly as I was able to without Joshua's help. I highly recommend using Joshua regardless of where you stand in your studies. He will help set goals and provide useful insights that will help you accomplish those goals.

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After about 5 years away from school and looking for a career shift, I chose to take the Manhattan Prep 9-class in person course in preparation for the GMAT. After graduating from school in 2014 I took the GMAT as a baseline with the anticipation that I may want to go to business school in the future: I scored a 630. For the next five years I spent zero time thinking about the GMAT, although I did work in a field that is fairly quant heavy. That should give a fair amount of background on where I stood going into the MP course. I chose to take the in person course based on the consideration that a set curriculum and a sense of accountability to show up to class each week would help me study more. I think this was the right choice for me.

The course itself was presented in a manner that made it comprehensible for anyone with even a minimal mathematics background. The structure of the course is such that it builds on itself week by week and homework is meant to introduce concepts that would be expounded upon in the next class. I found the course to be critical to my performance on the exam in such that all concepts for answering questions, strategies, and problem type were discussed at nearly all levels of difficulty in class. The course follows a basic outline: present a concept, work through an easy version of the problem as a class, work on a harder version alone, mix in that concept with others in a problem set. I found this manner of learning to be helpful and allowed time for recalling mathematical processes learned years ago.

As for the homework/workload, it is paced at a fair clip but not breakneck speed. I spent about 10 hours a week on homework and performed one 4 hour practice test every 2-4 weeks. The course uses a MP website to direct tasks, readings, problem sets, etc. This clearly set out study plan helped keep me on track and direct my studying. I found this program to be most useful in that it set foundations and built upon concepts learned earlier in the course. One final product that MP offers is interactice videos that explain different concepts/strategies. This was particularly helpful to review as a refresher after finishing the course and just before sitting for the exam.

Finally, my instructor, Jeff, was phenomenal for a variety of reasons. Principally, his presentation of concepts was articulate and easily understood by all members of the class. It was clear based on the variety of backgrounds of my classmates that we were not all starting at the same level. Jeff understood this and was skilled in presenting the material and answering questions in a manner everyone understood. Jeff was always available to help after class or through email. Many times I emailed Jeff with a problem or concept I was struggling on and would have a video back from him talking through the problem within 24 hours. I would recommend him to anyone.

I ended up taking the exam once and scored a 720 (48Q, 41V). I took this improvement from a 630 years ago in large part to be due to the MP curriculum and the instruction and availability of Jeff.

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I took both the in-person 9 week course as well as a few supplemental in-person tutoring sessions with Dave Mahler (instructor for both).

The course was a great introduction to the proper approach to each section and topic matters as well as best practices. The books are well-written and there is a wide range of basic through advanced material for everyone. Dave did a great job managing students' different levels of comfort with each topic and is a very engaging teacher. He cuts through a lot of the BS and makes sure that his students are focusing their time on the most important topics. Dave was also generous with his time, both before and after class as well as offering to answer one off questions or review practice test scores with all his students via email. My score went from an initial 660 up to 700 following the class when I had to take some time off from studying due to work commitments.

I engaged Dave for some top-up tutoring a few weeks later and he helped me diagnose a few key process areas that were deflating my score as well as teaching me new techniques to help with problematic content areas. He was also great about providing tailored follow-up problems that helped reinforce the areas covered each session for extra practice. Following a few one on one sessions with him I was able to bump my score to 740 and couldn't be happier with my decision to use MGMAT for my prep.

From the instructors to the online portal for tracking assignments and all of the excellent content, Manhattan Prep definitely went the extra mile to help its students succeed.

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The first time that I took the MPrep GMAT course, I made significant progress during the course but was unable to find the time to study after the course ends (it is recommended that you self-study for 2-6 weeks after the course concludes). I took the Manhattan Prep class again roughly a year later and saw even greater benefit from the course given a starting knowledge base. I found there to be great benefit to the in-person course (particularly with my instructor, Jeff Volmer) to pick up small tips and tricks that added small bumps to my score (accumulating 10 points here and there adds up). Jeff was helpful during class, outside of class, and even after the course concluded. The quality of the Manhattan Prep resources was instrumental to helping me achieve my goal GMAT score.

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I've been working with Mark ever since I enrolled in his Advanced Course back in October 2018. At that point, my sister had already taken a regular course with him and suggested that I enroll in the Advanced Course to see if I could raise my score to the 700+ level. I'm not a great test taker and I think timing in the GMAT is especially difficult, but - after his Advanced Course and several private tutoring sessions - Mark really helped me get to the 700+ I was hoping for.

Mark is a GMAT expert (he'll be able to walk you through the best way to solve any problem you throw at him), but he's also excellent at helping you maximize your study time -- he really makes an effort to identify the areas of improvement that will help you achieve the largest score improvement on the test. In particular, I think the private tutoring sessions were especially helpful because Mark and I were able to look into my weak areas much more closely (i.e. advanced absolute value, inequalities, or geometry concepts that I was too shy to ask in class). He was also able to show me quant problem shortcuts that were tailored to my specific weaknesses and create a personalized study plan that allowed me to efficiently tackle low-hanging fruit given my tight timeline. And while the private tutoring sessions are a little pricey, Mark is willing to work with whatever budget you may have. In the end, I'm extremely glad that I decided to work with Mark and I thought the Advanced Course/private tutoring sessions were absolutely worth it.

My GMAT journey was not an easy one for me (scoring a 670, then a 680 in which my verbal and quant scores essentially flipped), but I'm glad I didn't give up. Seeking the right kind of help can really make all the difference and I think Mark was key throughout my whole process.

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Had Jeff Vollmer as my instructor for an in-person Manhattan Prep GMAT class one day a week from 6-9 PM in Arlington, VA.

It was a great experience and I highly recommend having Jeff as an instructor. He was able to keep our post-work, 3 hours long classes interesting and exciting. He was very skilled at breaking down the different methods that could be used to solve each problem, and when each method was applicable. I also enjoyed how Jeff would put myself and other students in pressure situations that helped prepare us for the stress of the actual exam.

For background - I tried to study on my own for some time, but could never quite keep the consistency I needed, and really lacked the understanding of the strategy required for the test (v important!). This class really helped with both of these aspects and led to me gaining a score that I was very satisfied with.

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MGMAT Interact is an impressive product. It took a lot of work and dedication, but I was ultimately able to surpass my goal of a score of 700 (I got a 710 second attempt) through many hours of work and a highly effective Post Exam Assessment (PEA) after not reaching my goal on my first attempt, and having started out at a baseline of 570. I started the Interact course in the beginning of January, 2019. As an active duty member of the U.S. military, I had not exercised many of the academic skills tested in the GMAT in nearly 7 years. MGMAT Interact was a great tool that allowed me to "plug back in" at my own pace. I worked 10-15 hours per week for 3.5 months completing the Interact syllabus, and then left 1.5 months for review and practice before my test date in late May. I think the Interact syllabus could be completed in 2ish months with a less demanding work schedule. Owing to a very demanding work training tempo prior to my first attempt, I did not achieve my goal of 700 and scored 660. MGMAT offers a free, 1 hour Post Exam Assessment (PEA) on videochat with one of its tutors if you do not achieve your goal on attempt 1 and you are taking one of their courses. I had one month between my first and second attempt, but really only 2 weeks of good study time owing to work commitments. The PEA was highly effective. Elaine Loh did a great job of giving me tangible "do this" advice, while still really listening to and giving thoughtful answers to my questions. She helped me tailor essentially a 10-14 day study plan (obviously highly compressed) to give me the best shot of hitting 700. She sent me a ton of helpful drill sets for my weaker areas, and she gave me hard, tangible priorities for what I needed to work on and for roughly how long. She also helped drive home the importance of error logging. Most impressively, she stayed in contact with me for the next couple of weeks and promptly answered my questions via email. Her feedback on a day by day study plan I created helped boost my confidence in the final week before my second test attempt. Her efforts during the PEA and after it really underscored how MGMAT is committed to getting you to where you want to be, even if you don't hit your goal on your first attempt. That being said, Elaine went above and beyond; she was invested in my personal success and really wanted me to achieve my goal, irrespective of reviews, etc. The PEA is a great feature and I attribute much of my rapid score improvement (50 points) to Elaine's effectiveness and sincere efforts as an instructor.

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