Solid instruction and great materials

I took this class in the spring at their flagship location. My goal with taking the course was to structure my studying and break it up into manageable parts rather than going it alone and not having a sense of what I needed to cover and stagnating.

My effort in studying for the GMAT consisted of two parts. The first, where I attended all 9 sessions and completed all basic and advanced homework. And the second, the end of the course and month afterwards before the exam, where I did additional studying using the Official Guide and Manhattan GMAT practice exams.

In the first segment, I think the course was really key for me in the way I mentioned above - it provided the structure to get me through all the material and broke my studying down into pieces.

Specifically:

-The 9 live classes: For me, this was necessary to move myself along the process.

The instruction was helpful - Steven taught both Manhattan GMAT methods as well as personal tips and insights. The instruction on Quant was very helpful. On Verbal, I found the MGMAT methodologies less useful and I think Steven did as well because he didn't strongly recommend that we use them and his deviation from some of the materials was actually very helpful. I appreciated this flexibility. All in all, I felt, throughout the whole process, that my instructor was an expert and knew the material backwards and forwards.

The materials provided - the subject area books are great - they provide both depth and breadth and achieve the right level of detail and complexity. They served really well as the place to 'learn' the material. Later, when practicing and reinforcing, I primarily used the Official Guide, coming back to the subject area books as needed.

In the second part of my studying, towards the end of the classes and afterwards, I really focused on practicing problems and taking exams. For this, I found the Manhattan GMAT practice exams and the ability to go to their center to take them, especially crucial. For several weeks, I would go to the center every Saturday and take a full exam. Not only are MGMAT's exams very good quality, simulating the actual test day experience is key and was one of the main value adds of the course to me.

If I have any criticisms of the course, I would say that for me personally, I probably could have use a more custom experience. Although historically a stronger quantitative test taker, for the GMAT I found that I put 95% of my effort into Quant and that Verbal came easier. As a result, I probably would have benefited from a Quant focused course. I think that a lot of native/fluent English speakers find themselves in this situation and as such, I think Manhattan GMAT would do well by creating this kind of class. I also found the Quant section on their practice exams to be a little bit too difficult, and not in a way that was beneficial. The practice exams you get from the actual GMAC are more representative.

Overall, however, I am extremely satisfied with my experience and would definitely a. do it the same way if i had to do it again and b. recommend Manhattan GMAT to others. I have not taken any other company's courses but based on what I've heard, I feel comfortable saying this is one of, if not the, best prep companies out there.