I participated in the MPrep 9 week course in Manhattan with instructor Ryan McGorman. I really enjoyed our weekly sessions with Ryan as he was not only smart and funny but a talented teacher. The course was an excellent starting point for me in my GMAT prep. My verbal was naturally higher than my quant, but both needed plenty of refining. Ryan did an excellent job laying the groundwork for me to gain a better understand and ability with the material and really helped me boost my verbal score as well as help me figure out what areas of my quant needed the most work. The improvement on quant came largely from self-study of the Mprep material simply because the number of repetitions I needed to really understand the material would not have been possible in a class setting, but I learned some great tricks and tips. Very worthwhile class and a great instructor.

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I took both the in-person course with Marcus Hedal and the Advanced Live Online course with Daniel Fogel. The in-person course was a great primer to the GMAT and really useful. (I hadn't done much self-study on my own before). Marcus was awesome and I thought the course covered a lot of important information, but I wasn't thrilled with my quant score on the official exam. I used the retake option to enroll in the Advanced Live Online course at a discounted rate.

I was thrilled with the Advanced Course -- I had expected the online course to be harder to interact with, but it was a small group and really engaging. The Advanced Quant textbook itself was really useful too. My quant score went up from a 42 to a 47 in just 6 weeks.

If I could do it again, I'd probably self-study more from the beginning and then enroll only in the Advanced Course, but regardless I'm really happy with my score and grateful that Manhattan Prep had the options that worked for me.

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After struggling to improve my GMAT score on my own, I decided to try private tutoring sessions with Ryan. Ryan helped me make great strides towards hitting my goal score by breaking down problems and material to their core. While I knew nearly all of the content in the Manhattan Prep guidebooks I couldn't seem to apply all of the information to problems until Ryan came along. Ryan has an uncanny ability to make GMAT material, which can often be dry and boring, fun and engaging. He also helped put certain problems into a context that I could more easily understand by drawing relevant analogies or even employing certain voices and characters in problems to more easily illustrate what was going on in a problem. In doing so, Ryan created several eye-opening moments for me. My favorite quality about Ryan is how he challenges you in tutoring sessions. Even if I got a question right, Ryan would force me to explain WHY it was right and other answer choices were wrong. It sounds simple, but being able to articulate why exactly certain answer choices are wrong can be tough but super rewarding. By painfully going through that exercise with Ryan, I started to recognize certain patterns and traps in problems, particularly on CR. In only a few sessions Ryan helped me raise my overall GMAT score by 60 points. Ryan is extremely smart, patient, understanding, entertaining, and can help anybody improve their score on the GMAT. If anybody is considering taking a 9-week M. Prep course or Private Tutoring, I fully endorse Ryan and his teaching abilities. Ryan will do everything in his power to help you reach or surpass your target score and will make the whole process fun and insightful.

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I had a great experience at Manhattan Prep where I took a GMAT prep course with Logan Thompson. His teaching style was very engaging, constantly seeking feedback on where we felt we needed more help and probing to make sure we understood each point. I went into the class feeling pretty apprehensive about the exam and came out feeling confident in the core strategies I learned. My score from the exam was ~50 points higher than when I first took a practice test and was good enough to get into my target schools, so thank you, Logan!! I'm also appreciative for Logan encouraging us to stay in touch after the class and provide his input on our business school application and decision process!

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My knowledge of the subject matter was rusty and I was having trouble concentrating for the 3 hr period. Apart from the content, I found the guidance regarding test-taking and attitude very helpful. It really helped me see this exam in a new light and treat it as a decision making test. I was nervous going into this preparation and my mock test was giving me <700 score.

Mark was very responsive to our questions - both in and outside the class. The class size was small and I was able to get all my questions answered (and I always had a lot!).
The online class gave structure to my preparation and regularity. The advice around timed sets helped with the timing issue. I felt within the short span of 5 weeks, Mark was able to capture the crux of the material that helped me push my score beyond 700.

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I took the 9 class GMAT Prep course with Manhattan Prep in the Spring of 2018. I cannot begin to explain how helpful this course was. I ultimately raised my score over 100 points from the first test I took at the beginning of the course until I took the GMAT.

The course is very rigorous and requires a huge time commitment. I think it is smart to sign up and order the books as soon as possible before you begin the course. It would have been very helpful to have reviewed some of the basic Algebra as well as clean up my grammar before the course began.

My instructor was Jamie Nelson and she was very helpful and was always willing to answer my questions as well as everyone else's in the class. She also helped me develop a strong study plan that ultimately help me achieve my desired score. Jamie is a great teacher and I would highly recommend taking her class.

I would highly recommend this course for anyone who is trying to improve their GMAT score.

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Dear GMATClub community!

I am so excited to share my GMAT experience with you all. I've read countless testimonials (looking for insights or tips) over the past 4 months, anything to help break the 700 point barrier.

If you are searching for a quick fix, or a silver bullet, stop reading right now - I am not that guy. My 730 score came from a lot of smart studying (see below), the Manhattan Prep course, guidance from my instructor Keith Blume (he rocks!) and support from my friends and family. I can give you all some tips that I wish I had taken advantage of much sooner.

First and foremost, if you are in the Chicago area, I highly recommend taking advantage of the 9 week Manhattan Prep course with Keith Blume.

I took my first practice exam and then realized that I needed professional help. I didn't not know the answers to most quant problems, but even more concerning was that I had no clue what was being asked (divisibility, prime factors, evenly-spaced sets - get out here!). To make matters worse, I not only bombed the questions I gave my best efforts, but also ran out of time. I had to hit the pause button many times just to see the remaining questions (btw - hitting the pause button during practice exams is a horrible practice - DON'T DO IT - you'll only cheat yourself from improving your test day strategy).

Manhattan Prep - Hands down, the best thing I can say about the program is that you will not be surprised in any way during your exam. Like most people (even those with 700+ scores), I got close to 50% of the questions wrong, but Manhattan Prep helped with 2 key components.

1. Identify the concepts being tested (the study guides are really well-organized for this)
2. QUICKLY determine a strategy (Work Backwards, Smart Numbers, Algebra approach - Keith was very instrumental in this aspect). Percent change or rate/distance problems, for example, would sometimes take me 4 minutes to solve, until I learned that there were multiple different ways to solve the problems or to eliminate 2 or 3 options.

Ok so a little bit amount the progress during my 4.5 months of prep

GMAT ONLINE PRACTICE EXAM - 580 - Jun 20
M-CAT 1 - 580 40q 30v - Aug 31
M-CAT 2 - 630 45q 32v - Sep 21
M-CAT 3 - 640 44q 34v - Oct 5
M-CAT 4 - 600 43q 31v - Nov 1
M-CAT 5 - 640 40q 37v - Nov 21
GMAT - 730 48q 41v - Nov 27

Biggest takeaways I wish I had started using earlier

I know it's been said before, but it's worth repeating - simply plowing through countless problems won't help improve your understanding of the concepts. Doing a 1000 problems a month is a waste of time. It is much more efficient if you fully understand the problems you face. Understand not only how to get the correct answer, but also understand why the other options were incorrect (especially useful for verbal).

Time yourself - You should become a master at the difference between 90 seconds, 120 seconds and lastly 180 seconds (bail!!!) Keith showed me through assessment reports where my score was negatively impacted by poor time management. The more I learned, the more questions I could correctly answer. The paradox was that my scores were dropping, Keith made it very clear that I should treat every question as if it were an investment. Good investment - ok, put some more time into it. Bad investment - Get out as soon as possible!!!

Error Log (spreadsheet) - During the first week of the course you come across a file to download to keep track of work. I completely dismissed this file (big mistake). I would say it's a waste of valuable time to keep track of every problem you face. Once I start to keep track of the problems that I got wrong or those I took longer than 2.5 minutes (you should time every single problem initially and then maybe blocks of problems later), I felt my confidence go up. The tricky part of the preparation is that you go through each subject individually, but unlike the study guide, the exam changes subjects from question to question. I would catalog the questions I got wrong or took too long to solve and then use the Manhattan Navigator solutions guide to learn how to solve the problem. Then after 2-3 weeks I would have roughly 30 quant and 30 verbal questions. I would try to solve these 60 questions for a second time. Many times, I would still get half of these questions wrong (or over 2.5 minutes). Typically, after 3 or 4 attempts I was able to correctly solve all the questions. Using the error log and writing out, in my own words, the mistakes I was making and also writing down, in my own words, which steps I should take to solve the problem was very helpful. I didn't do the most problems, but every single problem I did, I eventually mastered.

The Manhattan course also has many interactive videos (which are awesome and as entertaining as instructional videos can be). Several videos test your ability to identify concepts / question stems / strategies to be used - I highly recommend getting this down pat

It terms of work-load - I covered all the Manhattan study guides (sentence correction I had to re-read) and the OG (just the problem sets). I did all the problems; the Manhattan navigator tool was great to track which problems were still "new" after I had completed the 9-week course.

My CR scores were lagging and eventually I purchased the CR Bible by Power score. I think it is worth while ($25). The CR Bible strategy is different than the Manhattan strategy and for me it made a big difference. Manhattan teaches to read the question stem, before reading the stimulus - I found that reading the question first biased my approached to the problem. I also think the CR bible helped me learn to more quickly identify the subject being tested. An additional resource to improve sentence correction is a free 4 part Youtube series by Veritas Prep - But I recommend watching the videos only after you've completed the sentence correction study guide. The videos are great complimentary resources, but they are not to be used as your foundation in your preparation. I watched these videos twice, once after my 9 week course and then once again 3 days before my exam.

I didn't spend much time on IR (much easier on real exam than Manhattan Prep) or AWA (google chineseburned and do 3 practice essays)

I'm so happy!!! I threw away all my flash cards; now its time to start working on the rest of my applications.


Good luck to you all - If I could get a 700+, so can you

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When I first started studying for the GMAT, it was clear to me that I would do the same thing that I had done in college and that I had been quite successful with; I sat down in a quiet corner with a GMAT guide and started crunching. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way that that was the wrong way to approach the GMAT. Even after the third try, my highest score was a 660 and the magical 700+ score seemed far from reach.

I decided that I had to radically change the way I studied and prepared for the test. I signed up for the Manhattan Prep 9-Session Online Prep Course with Jamie Nelson and already during the first course I realized that I had had some fundamental misconceptions about the test. Jamie did a great jobs explaining how the test works and what strategies you need to use to successfully master it. Moreover, she did a fantastic job explaining all the different quant and verbal topics and concepts and thanks to her enthusiastic teaching style the classes were fun and engaging. When I entered the test center for the fourth time, I felt much better prepared and I walked out with a 730!

I wish I had known about Manhattan Prep and Jamie's course from the beginning; this would have saved me a lot of time and stress. However, I hope that this review will help others avoid the mistakes I've made. Take a course for the GMAT, it makes a huge difference and is definitely worth the money. In particular Jamie's course!

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I had prepared on my own using the Manhattan Prep Interact (on demand) option for two months. However, I never really found improvement. I constantly got 650s on all of my practice tests and on the actual exam. However, I switched to the live online advanced course (to help those struggling to break the 700 barrier), and it was a tremendous help. My instructor, Mark, was very knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and offered great strategy and advice. It was a lot of fun going to class. At the end of the course, I took the GMAT again and was able to break the 700 barrier. Manhattan Prep is correctly referred to as the gold standard of GMAT Prep. It was such a big help. Definitely upgrade to the live online class

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I took a classroom-style GMAT prep course in Cambridge, MA during the summer of 2018. My teacher, Josh Yardley, was fantastic! I'd recommend him in a heartbeat. He is extremely knowledgeable about all of the question types on the GMAT. He took the time to understand each student's struggles and made sure that each explanation was a learning opportunity. His explanations were clear and succinct. I gained a lot from my self-studies, but my time in the classroom with Josh was invaluable.

Manhattan Prep offered many resources for study material - paper books and eBooks, extra question banks, ability to sort questions by difficulty, video guides, etc. They are a very professional company and I highly recommend them!

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