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I took the 9 week virtual Manhattan Prep GMAT Course. I knew that I needed the course to hold me accountable to my studying goals while working long hours at my job. The flexibility of a virtual course was also important to me. Mark was a fantastic instructor – he worked through practice problems by not only teaching us the fundamental techniques, but also discussing how the GMAT might distort similar problems. He made the courses very interactive – we never went more than 30 minutes without doing problem sets or other interactive activities during the sessions. We also spent time in every session talking about educated guessing strategies, which I could not have fully understood out of a book. Perhaps most importantly, he spend time clarifying a GMAT correct answer from our second choice answers. The fundamentals can come through practicing with the materials, but the ability to differentiate a “good” answer from the “right” answer comes a lot easier when you have a strong instructor who can help explain the difference. Highly recommend both Mark and Manhattan Prep!
SO many great things to say about Manhattan Prep. First, it's worth noting that I raised my score from 650 to 750 within 30 days after taking the intensive, twice-per-week online class with instructors Reed and Jayson (who are both awesome and hilarious dudes). I don't think that my case should be the expected case, however I also don't think that it is totally unrealistic to target a major boost in your score if you simply stay the path with Manhattan. The first thing we were told is that if you master the subject matter, you can achieve a 650, however to get a 750, you must master the strategies - this couldn't be more true, and this will really only come with practice and diligence. That said, Manhattan delivers a program that focuses on both of these items. I highly highly highly recommend Manhattan Prep for the GMAT.
I found that self study was the most effective use of my time given limited time to study, so I stopped attending the online classes after a few classes. The only reason I purchased online courses was that my employer sponsored the purchase.
However, there are pros and cons to the classes, the pros being especially relevant if you have ample time and financial resources to spend on maximizing your GMAT score.
Pros:
1. You learn different methods of approaching quant problems from peers. Some of the students in the classrooms occasionally had very creative shortcuts to approaching a quant problem, which I would not have otherwise known to take because they were not the approaches Manhattan GMAT taught.
2. You can ask submit questions and get them answered immediately.
3. You are given a set schedule for class and therefore more incentivized to study.
4. It is a virtual classroom, so you can do the dishes or fold laundry on the side if the concept being explained is already familiar to you.
5. The teachers are actually GMAT rockstars.
Cons:
1. Proficiency levels of students in the same virtual classroom are different, so the teacher may spend a lot of time explaining concepts you already know.
2. You are not actually spending the 2 hours (or however long each session is) practicing the GMAT. If each class is 2 hours, you could have finished more than half an entire practice GMAT in the same amount of time.
3. Most if not all of the concepts/strategies taught in the course are already covered in the Manhattan GMAT prep books.
Pros: The instructor did a very good job of focusing on the foundational concepts. Almost as important, he did a nice job instructing students on how to identify shortcuts and common traps, which led to big time savings. The instructor approached teaching in a thoughtful way that made it easier to power through the 3-hour long classes.
Cons: There seemed to only be two types of question during the class - extremely basic or complex. This led to a gap in learning where one second you would feel confident and the next not, but you do not know where the drop off occurred. This could may also be seen as a pro, but the Manhattan practice GMATs were significantly more difficult than the actual test/GMAC practice tests. I saw minimal improvement with the Manhattan tests from the beginning to the end of the class, but saw a huge improvement when I began taking the tests administered by the actual GMAC. The post-course assessment (homework once you're done with the class) was largely pointless, which I believe is a missed opportunity. They assign an overbearing number of questions from the very simple to extremely complex and don't give you mush of a roadmap on what to focus on 1st, 2nd, etc.
Biggest place to improve: It would be nice to have a class with a quant focus and a class with a verbal focus (but both of which cover in less detail the other subject matter).
I paid for both a Kaplan course (2015) and a Manhattan course (2016) to prepare for the GMAT. I ended up not utilizing the Kaplan course in 2015 and it took me a year to choose Manhattan. Part of the reason I never used Kaplan materials is because of the more rigid structure with a time limit of being able to access online resources. I needed flexibility and Manhattan provided just that! With thin, content-driven strategy guide books that I could shove in my computer bag Monday morning before flying to a client and read on the plane or at my hotel room, Manhattan provided a high-quality curriculum based on learning fundamentals. Manhattan also allows you to access online resources for much longer than Kaplan. I do think Manhattan's practice CAT exams are more difficult than the actual GMAT, they helped me prepare for the real test, which I only had to take one time to obtain an excellent score. Jayson and Gerald from Manhattan were also great - they helped me solidify and test what I was learning in the course material throughout the week and humanized the GMAT prep experience with fun stories and great tips. Thanks, Manhattan Prep!
To start, my GMAT journey was a relatively long one. I graduated from college early, summa cum laude, PBK and thought the GMAT would be a walk in the park.. a quick month of study and off to that 700. NOPE.
I took a practice test blind from the official GMAT website and scored a 500. I thought the world ended. I bought the official guide books and started doing my research into prep courses. Another month of self study and i scored a 520. Clearly this wasn't going very well.
After my research, MGMAT came up with the best reviews... for good reason. I decided to do the live online because I worked during the week and didnt want to jump back in the car on the weekends to commute to class.
The course is excellent... For 3 hours, every sunday, Birdwell and a rotating second teacher would literally walk myself and the other students through official guide problems, break them down into their cores, and show not only HOW to tackle every question type but WHAT each question type is really trying to test. All of a sudden, i saw the quant patterns on DS. I saw what CR questions were really asking. Now, match the weekly break down with a good 15 hours of self study a week based on a study guide the MGMAT folks worked up. Plus the 12 guide books which you should read cover to cover as they helped me tackle question types i had been clueless on only weeks earlier.
I only took 2 CATS during my course (which were 560 and 600) so i saw improvement but i was getting really nervous. My goal was always 680.
I started to take the other four CATS, the two official GMAT CATs and repeat all the OG qs and the official GMAC question pack. I set a test date for end of July and my course had ended mid june. So with 6 weeks, I needed to increase 100 points. I was not convinced it was possible. BUT all those tricks MGMAT taught in the course (not to mention how to tackle timing issues, pacing and nerves on test date), ended up becoming muscle memory on the CATS.
With one week to go, I stopped looking at all GMAT related stuff and just cleared my head. I went into the test center and cruised through the test... MGMAT (and their CATs) OVER PREPARED me. The test was certainly hard, but the Quant seemed easy to handle, the verbal seemed very approachable. I held my breath as i hit "see scores" and a 710 popped up.
I will say this, that score would not have been possible without MGMAT!
I would highly recommend the online 9-week Manhattan GMAT Prep Course. First, there were multiple time/day slots to fit my schedule. Second, the classes were extremely well run. It was run by 2 instructors - one was leading the class the other managing the forum and answering questions in the side bar. It was super effective. The class was extremely interactive. I was worried it would not be interactive and I'd get distracted to do other things. However, you couldn't take a break just like a real in-person class - you were engaged in classes, quizzes, etc. Also, I appreciated the focus on strategies and not just content. I tried the picking up a book and studying on my own. But it didn't get me very far. I cracked over 700 with the help of Manhattan GMAT's classes and strategy help.
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My GMAT preparation lasted for a full year. I took both the "Live Online" course, as well as the in-person course. I've never been very talented at taking standardized tests and I tend to get anxiety when I'm in difficult test-taking situations, so the GMAT was a continous struggle for me.
David Chong never gave up on me. David made himself available for help even after my course ended, and he also understood my weaknesses very well and helped me craft a plan to hit the 680 that I wanted.
For me, Manhattan Prep was valuable for two reasons:
1) Incredibly bright instructors who tend to be good at teaching students
2) The course syllabus curriculum
The above two points, in my opinion, are priceless and not easily substituted by Manhattan Prep's competition.
The only issue I had with Manhattan Prep was that I got the feeling that not all the instructors cared about my success at the end of the day. My online instructors, David and Mark, were the exceptions and were fantastic, passionate GMAT instructors. Thank you, David and Mark, for helping me accomplish my goal. However, with others, I remember waiting days to receive e-mail responses (and in rare cases, no response). Additionally, I remember attending a substitute in-person class taught by a guy named Matt. Matt was a fantastic instructor and even offered to send out a list of OG problems that were excellent for practicing the "smart #" strategy at the end of the class session. Why didn't my other instructor(s) offer to do that? The tips and advice varied highly among the instructors that worked with me.
Manhattan Prep is still a solid value, I am only voicing a few frustrations.
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!
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.