I started studying for GMAT in June 2015, planning to apply to business school in Fall 2016. I have a Masters degree in engineering, so quant was not a concern for me. English is not my first language. I was looking for Verbal focused course, and landed Manhattan GMAT's website. Since I have plenty of time to prepare, so I didn't want to stress myself out with the intensive course schedule, and decided to go with the interactive route to study at my own pace. I made a study plan at the beginning of each week to help keep myself staying on track. I studied about 1-2 hours per night on week days on average, and 3-4 hours on Saturdays, and didn't affect any of my extracurricular activities. I took a MGMAT CAT in the first week, and scored a 620, took the 2nd CAT a month later: 640, a 3rd CAT a month later: 650, and a 4th one 2 month later: 680. My Verbal went from 31-35, Math from 45 to 48. A week before exam I took a GMAT Prep Exam, and scored 760. So from my experience MGMAT CAT is harder than official questions. I took my exam at the end of October, and scored a 730 (38V+50Q).

The preparation took about 4.5 months, as I mentioned before, I had a pretty relaxed study plan, and still slacked off from time to time, there are weeks I only studied 2-3 days. MGMAT Interactive Verbal was almost the only material I really used. I followed through the course, and completed all the homework. I did all the Math problems on OG, but only got through about 1/3 of OG Verbal questions. MGMAT Interactive has helped my immensely, I credit all my improvement in Verbal (from 31 to 38) to it.

MGMAT Interactive is efficient, effective, flexible, and entertaining. Comparing to online and in classroom sessions, I think I could get more out of the interactive course, since it allows me to study at my own pace, so I don't have to worry about not finishing all the homework.

Bottom line: I highly recommend MGMAT Interactive, especially if you are starting early, and don't want to exhaust yourself over a long period of exam prep.

Read More

Marc is awesome. I worked very closely with Marc Fienberg doing the MGMAT private tutoring and it was a huge help to my score (630 to 700+). If it weren't for Marc, I would not have gotten into my dream MBA program.

Background: I took the typical MGMAT nine-week course, did all of the homework and materials, reviewed everything for a three months after the course ended, but still could not get my score consistently above a 630, primarily due to struggling with Quant. It was very frustrating because I was not seeing an improvement in my scores after a lot of work much work so I turned to private tutoring.

Right away, I felt confident and more efficient when I started working with Marc. We came up with a personalized study plan. Marc is extremely friendly and great to work with, he makes you feel comfortable when learning and that will boost your confidence immediately. We would have sessions once or twice per week over the course a few months and we covered everything from high level strategy, test taking tips, and of course, covering lots and lots of practice problems. The most important thing that Marc was able to teach me was HOW to take the test - time management, strategic skipping (especially on Quant), etc. - these things take time to learn but once you get better at taking the test your score will improve. Marc also gives you lots and lots of little tricks so that you start seeing patterns in certain quant problems - you start recognizing "the tricks" to certain problems so you know how to solve them immediately. These are things you cannot get from just taking the typical class. Once I got good at this after lots of hard work and repetition, my score improved from the 630 level to 700+.

Bottom line: Although it was a lot of additional time and effort, it was well worth the investment. If you are struggling with the GMAT, I guarantee Marc can help you drastically improve your score.

Read More

Based on my experience, Manhattan course is the best GMAT prep course out there. Before I started the Manhattan course, I was using Veritas Prep on demand and did not see huge improvement in my practice test scores.

I enrolled in the Manhattan GMAT 9 week prep course and I am finishing my preparation to enroll in the exam.

I attended all the classes and felt that they were a great supplement to my studying. I cannot recommend Manhattan Prep and instructor Ryan Starr enough. Ryan Starr is a fantastic teacher who genuinely cares about his students' performance. Ryan’s tricks and words of encouragement were incredibly helpful in improving my score.

In addition, the website is amazing - "homework help" hours, the on demand prep, the evaluation of the preparation – its making a huge difference.

I believe that the approach to learning that Manhattan Prep has created is what truly makes the course successful.

I can only think of good things to say about the company and the employees of Manhattan.

Read More

Its True: Manhattan GMAT provides students with the skills and strategies essential for success !

The course is very comprehensive given you the opportunity to improve your skills in each of the section tested on Gmat Exam.

The course is special good for the ones who want to improve the quant score - i notice that the mocks exams on quant section are harder than the real exam.

My improvement on quant section were from Q37 to Q47.

Notice that our score really depends on the work he put into studying plan. With discipline, focus, and a time, he can achieve our dream score.

Read More

Part of my debrief includes my feelings on MGMAT:
http://gmatclub.com/forum/second-try-is-the-charm-710-48-q-38-v-79956.html

In a nut shell, learning as a 20+ something is much more difficult than learning as a 8-20 year old. The older you get, the more set you become in your ways (yes all ways), so if you have subconscious tendencies that are wrong educationally (math, grammar, etc.) it will be VERY difficult to get over those obstacles on your own. MGMAT puts a lot of emphasis to help you understand the "why" aspect of getting answers incorrectly. Obviously, a 1:1 is much more helpful, but the program does cater to this. The instructors are top notch, the material is excellent, but you as a student must invest the time to utilize these resources.

The flip side is self prep is possible, but you really need to invest the time to identify these tendencies and overcome them (the importance of the error log). No matter what you decide, the GMAT is a test that can be overcome, but you must invest in what your needs are (there isn't a one size fits all).

The class is well worth the money.

Read More

Overall, I felt this was really good. I like how it was really organized with the lessons and homework planned out for you each week. I think I focused a little too much on the textbooks, though, whereas focusing on practicing actual GMAT problems was a lot more useful to me in preparing for the exam. The Manhattan questions, especially the verbal questions, were not representative of the actual GMAT questions, so I would recommend practicing with real GMAT questions as well. In terms of the quant, their questions were a lot harder than the actual GMAT questions so I guess it "over-prepares" you in a sense, but still I got thrown off during the actual test because I though I was doing badly when I was getting what I perceived to be "easy" questions (I ended up getting a 47 on quant, so not TOO shabby). Anyways, I ended up supplementing this course with Magoosh and buying real GMAT questions from GMAC, which I think helped me a lot. I also purchased the practice tests from GMAT Club. I ended up with a 690, and I think that was a result of a combination of different things, not just Manhattan.

Read More

This definitely helped me improve my general sense for the GMAT exam not having taken a standardized exam in a while. The ability to work on my own time was definitely what sealed the deal on top of the quality of content in this course. The price for what is given to you can not be matched by many other companies that offer their courses for a higher price. I would consider having the in-person courses, but I feel that many people have many different schedules and this is an answer for everyone's schedules. It might not be perfect for people who tend to have many questions, but it definitely is perfect for me.

Read More

Great course overall. I tried studying for the GMAT on my own with various books and online resources, and did not see my score significantly improve. The key to the GMAT is that it is not about pure knowledge of grammar rules and mathematical theories - it is about understanding the test-maker's mentality, and the strategies required to beat the exam. This course goes into great detail on how to do just that, from shortcuts and alternate solving methods I would have never considered, to guessing strategies that mirror the test-maker's intent. Fantastic class, achieved exactly my target score thanks to Jaimie and the course.

Read More

After taking Manhattan Prep's Course, I took the GMAT and eclipsed my target score with a 720. I hadn't taken any sort of math class since high school, and managed a 47 on the actual test which was well beyond my loftiest expectations, and a 13 point improvement from my first test. Jonathan's presentation of the material was clear and easily understandable, and the environment during class was always relaxed, supportive, and conducive to learning.

Beyond the simple teaching of content, Jonathan's advice on how to handle test anxiety was absolutely crucial to my success. Taking this course was easily the best choice I could have made with regards to this test.

Read More

Before I chose which GMAT course to take, I solicited advice from friends, forums and I also audited several classes around the Toronto area. Each company covers the requisite topics, has roughly the same lesson plans, and provides students with similar video/textbook/practice test packages. What set Manhattan GMAT apart from the pack was Avi Gutman. In the first class alone, Avi blew me away with his test-taking expertise and unique teaching methods.

Avi doesn't waste class time repeating the video lessons or reading from the textbook. Instead, he shows you the underlying concept behind seemingly unrelated problems, and then teaches you simple techniques that can then be applied to the entire problem family. He also shows you multiple approaches for tackling each question, which is critical for deeper understanding.


Before I started this class, I was scoring in the mid 600s range. After Avi's class, I managed to score a 770 on my first try. Even after class ended, Avi would reliably reply to my emails, answering my questions and assuaging my concerns. His commitment to his students is unparalleled, and it was a pleasure being in Avi's class.

Read More