Manhattan GMAT Private Tutoring Reviews

I would highly recommend using Chris Gentry as a private tutor for the GMAT!!

I had originally tried taking a structured course but fell behind on homework because of my work schedule and became frustrated / demotivated when my score did not improve.

Chris helped me assess my strengths and weaknesses and re-focus my study strategy in a much more efficient manner. Once we had gone over some of the math basics that I did not fully grasp, he helped me come up with test taking strategies and taught me how to save time on seemingly lengthy questions.

Most importantly, Chris helped me manage my study time and stay enthusiastic during the process. My score dropped after my second practice test which initially concerned me but he reassured me that that often happens when people start learning strategies but aren't experienced enough to apply them yet.

Thanks to Chris's patient coaching I was able to achieve my goal of breaking into the 700s and I'm excited to apply to the schools of my choice next year!

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FULL DISCLOSURE:

I'm writing this article because I'm appalled to see the little reviews that Ron has on this tutor section. He runs an entire segment 'Thursdays with Ron' on Manhattan's website which is completely free. I don't know if the company pays him to do this, but it appears that he has either volunteered or he was hand selected to run the recurring series every week. Regardless, I can tell that he puts a lot of heart and effort into this free public segment so as a big THANK YOU, I am writing this review hoping that he gets a chance to view my appreciation.

Let me just start off by saying that I'm an older candidate (late twenties/early thirties) and when I first started GMAT Prep, I did not remember that a triangle is 180 degrees nor did I remember the definition of a Prime Number. I spent a lot of time reading through the Manhattan GMAT book series, consuming over a month's work as I wasted time learning idioms and technical terms of the English language. Although I must be fair and disclose that English is my first language, I was never a great writer nor was I ever a good standardized test taker. B/A student throughout most of high school and a C student in college.

After spending 1+ month reading through the Manhattan GMAT series, I scored a 560 on the MGMAT diagnostic exam. I then went through all of OG 2015 problems, watched some Veritas & GMAT Pill videos to score a miserable 560 on my first GMAT exam. I then began to realize I was memorizing certain math formulas, idioms, verbal techniques/shortcuts, things to look for throughout SC/CR/RC instead of UNDERSTANDING the actual material. The biggest change in my score happened when I stopped learning shortcuts/patterns that a lot of other prep companies teach, but instead followed Ron's method by doing a full dive into the material, fully grasping the concepts -- what I would call "rolling in the mud."

Well to make a long story even longer, Ron helped me truly understand CR/RC/SC, fundamentals of quant, and how number properties truly work. I think I started GMAT Prep with a high 20 Verbal score and on test day, I ended up scoring a 96% percentile on CR, but RC dragged down my overall score as I'm notorious for making careless mistakes in that arena.

I will fill out a more detailed debrief later on when I retake the GMAT a third time for a more (hopefully) accurate score as I was hitting around 730-760 on the GMAT Prep software. I only had 2 hours of sleep this time around, but still managed to score a 680, which was well over a 200+ improvement from when I first began my studies. Ron, you are THE MAN. Thank you once again for everything you do.

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I had two courses with Manhattan GMAT. The first one was the online course with Stacey Koprince. Before the course, I took the GMAT and scored 550 - I quickly realized that I had been out of school for quite some time! My goal was to learn the basics and get introduced to the GMAT through that course, and it was an excellent introduction for me.
After the course, I studied for a couple of months. At that point, I could score about 600. I knew that I needed a customized classes, so I had about ten sessions with Stacey and eventually scored a 690! I think this score would not have been possible for me without Stacey for a couple of reasons:
1. Expertise - she knows in an out of the world of GMAT. She has seen all sort of questions, and as soon as she looks at one, she knows the common traps.
2. Dedication - the private tutoring is hourly and is expensive. Stacey was beyond generous with her time with me, and I cannot thank her enough for that. She made sure that my questions are answered in each session before we ended our class. Also, she responded to my lengthy emails all the time, and she provided very detailed answers.
3. Flexible teaching style - I enjoyed Stacey's teaching styles because I think that she is very flexible to my needs. Her articles are amazing sources of insights about everything related to the GMAT.
She went above and beyond what I had paid to make sure that I have gotten the value out of my classes. She checked upon me between our classes and gave me motivation and positive energy when I was stressed and tired. Overall, an excellent instructor who truly cares about her students' success.

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I highly recommend Manhattan Prep if you're looking for help with the GMAT. I was on a time crunch, and MPrep was extremely helpful and flexible in getting me set up with a tutor really quickly. When timing didn't work out with my initial tutor, the team got me set up with Logan right away.

Logan was an awesome tutor - he really took the time to find out what I was looking for and what my opportunities to improve were. We were able to work on my weaknesses to improve my Quant score by 9 points in a little over a month. Logan's background in mindfulness was super helpful in settling some of my nerves with the test - which I think was the key to hitting the 700 mark.

Most importantly, Logan made studying fun. I always looked forward to our sessions, it never felt like I was forcing myself to study. I think that was key to helping me hit my target score.

If you're looking for one-to-one tutoring - I would definitely recommend Logan!

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I decided to take the GMAT with only 6 weeks to prep. Patrick Tyrell and the entire Manhattan Prep team were lifesavers. I enrolled in the accelerated online course and jumped into one on one tutoring. Patrick had been recommended to be by a former student of his and I was not disappointed! He was patient, incredibly encouraging, and insanely helpful! We met a couple of times/week for 6 weeks and he was consistently available to answer my questions via email too. I hadn't done any math in years and he quickly and effortlessly taught me the basics. He was wonderful about helping me to figure our what I knew, what I needed to know, and how to best spend my short time preparing best. I raised my score 100 points and couldn't have been happier!

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Don't waste time with other companies or Craigslist randoms - choose Manhattan Prep, and for 1:1 I HIGHLY recommend Anisa as a tutor. Having circled through 3-4 tutors/companies thus far, I can confidently say she is by all measures the best tutor I've had. She remains calm, is kind, and never makes me feel self-conscious about asking a dumb question or request for help. She developed a highly personalized study plan to address topics, test taking strategies, and managing stress (e.g. by question type - CR Evaluate the Argument, by approach - using Smart Numbers, and even adding 15 min. mindfulness to my assignments as a way to manage test stress).

The price is reasonable / comparable (and you should NEVER pay >$250/hr ...EVER) and combined with Manhattan's incredible suite of materials - there's just no debate. For example, one of the most helpful sessions was examining all my practice exams + every official guide practice question - the takeaway? I slow down after question 16, and don't quantify my deficit when I'm behind on my timing benchmarks... within a week, my score shot up. You simply can not get those types of insights without Manhattan's materials and practice exams. Or with a smart and thoughtful tutor cheering for you on the way.

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Jamie was a terrific tutor who really tailored her approach. I was having trouble with probabilities but was strong in algebra, and she worked with me to funnel my algebra strength to decode probability. Equally important, she made me confident in my general test-taking strategy so even if I was stumped by one question, I could deploy smart strategies to make an educated guess and move on. I took both the class and some private tutoring with Jamie. Highly recommend private tutoring with Jamie if you can swing it - great results at a faster speed. I got a score in the 700s.

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I got the Manhattan Prep Private Tutoring session because I had heard Manhattan Prep was the best from a friend (books, Interact courses, 6 CATs, and the Navigator question analysis were free with 10 hours of tutoring), and that a shared classroom could sometimes progress slowly (or conversely, move on before one is ready to). While I can't speak to the shared classrooms firsthand, I can say it is hard to imagine a set of resources that would be more conducive to success than the set Manhattan Prep provides. My work schedule made regularity a challenge, but Jayson Beatty (my tutor for 10 hours) was extremely flexible and helpful. Deeply learning the content is ultimately up to yourself, but I could take any questions on hard concepts or test strategy to Jayson to get an expert opinion. He was also excellent at identifying my areas of opportunity, i.e. I was taking too long on trigonometric PS problems, or whatever, and providing a smart person's perspective on how to overcome it.

Ultimately, it was up to me to motivate myself to do the work and make sure I deeply understood all the content and concepts that are tested. Solely knowing how to execute the solving process (how to do prime factoring, combinatorics, etc.) will get you a fine score, but being conceptually fluent--understanding the "why" and "how" to each topic--is what helped me the most, and Manhattan Prep's books, CATs, and tutor gave me the resources most helpful at getting there.

Comparing Manhattan Prep versus the real GMAT and the Official GMAT CATs, Manhattan Prep was more difficult on Quant. This is a good thing. They are great at blending concepts from across the GMAT spectrum into a single problem. I also was always pressed for time during the MGMAT CATs, and finished Quant on the official CATs and the real test ~7 minutes early, giving me extra time to be certain on the last ~1/3 of the test.

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I took the GMAT in January without having ever studied to get an idea of where I would land. First time around, 710. I was happy with this score but decided I wanted to put some time in to improve my score and make myself a more attractive applicant to MBA programs.

Having crossed 700, I called Manhattan Prep on the recommendation of a friend to get some guidance on what might be the best studying option for me, and they told me that based on my current performance, and my goal, private tutoring would be the way to go. So I got matched up with Paul Fisher in Ann Arbor (I was still studying at UM) and we did 10 hours in total of one on one tutoring spread over a few months. He was extremely helpful in identifying my shortfalls and then working through advanced techniques with me to improve in those areas. I would do practice work or exams on my own in between sessions (Manhattan provides an extensive array of materials as part of the tutoring package), and then we would go over my mistakes as well as cover the general curriculum that Manhattan Prep provides as part of the tutoring service.

I took the exam again in March, and was extremely pleased my new result, 770. Thank you Paul and Manhattan Prep!

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My GMAT study experience with Isaac Puglia and the Manhattan Prep Course materials was fantastic. In addition to refreshing myself on long forgotten quantitative and verbal materials, Isaac was able to help me create a test taking strategy that proved to be very beneficial as I achieved my goal score. From my time with Isaac, I learned that reaching your target GMAT score was about more than simply memorizing the materials and method for each style of problem. Instead, you must also strategically work your way through the test in order to properly allocate time and mental resources for challenging problems at the end of each section. I was able to learn tricks that allowed me to speed through average difficulty problems and bank myself more time to finish each section strong. Isaac was very engaging throughout the process and I would highly recommend his services and the Manhattan program as a whole to any potential GMAT test takers.

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