I had the best experience with MGMAT and specifically my tutor Avi Gutman. I took both the prep class and added some private tutoring in lead up to my writing date.

I had written the GMAT once before and scored high 600s - but needed to break 700+. I had a miserable experience studying the first time.

Avi made the process interesting and engaging, and I actually understood the underlying themes and concepts - rather than being tied to formulas and cue cards! It was a great process, from registry to the end. Avi was super invested in each of the students in our prep class - he really made sure that you understood and were able to independently problem solve. He always stayed to answer any questions and responded to emails so patiently. Well worth the time and $.

I wrote recently and got my target score- just as planned! And I was easily the most relaxed kid in the test room. Can't recommend him and MGMAT enough.

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I could not have been happier with my experience with Manhattan GMAT! Not only because of the outcome -- I scored a 740 (49Q/42V) -- but also because of the experience. Manhattan GMAT made studying for the GMAT far less painful than I thought it could be. Definitely worth the price premium. Manhattan GMAT's core strengths are the quality of its instructors, curriculum & content, and resources.

(I) Instructors: Probably Manhattan GMATs greatest asset. I worked with 3 instructors in person (2 taught my course, 1 was my tutor). I also had limited exposure to an additional 4 instructors (online advanced workshops). I can't say enough good things about each and every one of them. The teachers all utilize the same curriculum, of course. But rather than the instructors having to adjust their personality to the course, they can adjust the course to their personality. Perhaps it is because the instructors are encouraged to make the class their own that the classes are so effective and engaging. For example, two of my instructors could not have been more different: one was extremely energetic and informal, encouraging people to shout out answers to his questions; the other was quiet and more formal, asking that we raise our hands with questions/answers. And yet I learned just as much from one as the other! I suspect that, because each instructor was able to stay true to his own personality, each was as effective as possible.
What also struck me about the instructors was their passion - both for teaching and for their students' success. They were willing to go the extra mile for their students. Finally, the typical 'generic' adjectives apply to the instructors - smart, personable, well-spoken, creative, able to think on their feet, etc.

(II) Curriculum and content: they know the ins & outs of the GMAT better than gmac itself! Well, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point. MGMAT's question banks are completely on-target and mimic the real GMAT questions extremely well. Moreover, after completing the course, I was not only prepared to take the GMAT, but I was also a more educated person. (e.g. I now use the words "less" and "fewer" correctly).

(III) Resources: The books themselves are great, and they are only the tip of the iceberg. My favorites: additional question banks. OG Stopwatch (such a simple concept, and yet such a useful tool). I was also extremely impressed with MGMAT's online platform - the virtual workshops were far more engaging than I thought they would be (what's great is that they staff 2 instructors to 1 online session: one teaches while the other answers questions).
I will say, the sheer quantity of resources started to feel overwhelming at times. No matter how much I prepped, there was always more available for me to do. Listen to the instructors - go for quality over quantity.

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*Note that I took Manhattan GMAT's boot camp. The boot camp is the same curriculum as the regular course, but is on a condensed timeline - it meets every weekday for two weeks and has two instructors that tag-team teach it. I chose the boot camp because it was the only option that met the needs of my schedule. After the boot camp, I spent a number of weeks self-studying, with a few supplemental private tutoring sessions.

If you're taking the boot camp, here is what I would recommend:
-Before the class begins, brush up on your fundamentals of math and get familiar with the exam/materials. The class is a whirlwind two-weeks. Spend that time learning the MGMAT material, not re-learning how to do long division or reading about what a computer adaptive test is.
-When you register for the course, you will be scheduled to take practice exams each weekend. Though that's what the instructors recommend, you are not required to take the exams on this schedule - do what's right for you.

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Good luck!

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I've seen the MGMAT books before but I wanted to learn some actual test strategies to hit the 99th percentile. I'm very glad I took the 9-week course under an amazing instructor, Ron Purewal. My score on the GMAT after this course was 760, from an initial mock test score of 670.

Quant: I'm a techie, so I'm used to writing complex equations, doing in-the-air math and spending long hours on tough problems. Unlearning these habits for the GMAT was the most helpful part of this course. After some initial resistance and disastrous mock tests, I understood Ron's emphasis on finding alternate techniques and using common sense in Quant. In every class, once a problem's time was up, Ron would stress stopping work on the problem and actually putting the pen down. This is probably the hardest part for techies - accepting that the problem just beat you. But with Ron enforcing this strategy in every class, I acquired this habit and my quant scores started going up in my mock tests. Ron also teaches several alternatives to algebra to unblock you, these come extremely handy on the actual test.

Verbal: I was terrified of CR questions, I always seemed to get these wrong. Again, Ron's techniques of summarizing the arguments and real-world thinking helped enormously here. After a while, CR became all about common sense and real-world reasoning. Sentence Correction gets easier as you go through the 9 weeks, tougher topics like Modifiers come up later in the course. But it's enough to just practice the topics covered in each class and focus on SC strategy and timing. My only concern was RC, which gets only two classes in the course. While passage-reading techniques, timing and question types were covered, I had to rely on some external resources, like blogs, to recognize the question types and eliminate bad answers.

Mock tests: Very very useful in getting used to the test format. I took 8 MGMAT + 2 GMATPrep tests, one each weekend. The assessment summaries tell you where you're getting better, and where you need to improve. Definitely do the AWA and IR sections to build stamina, the Verbal is a lot tougher then since you're sapped by then (just like the real GMAT).

Takeaways: Rely on Ron to teach you the right techniques for all the problem types, interact as much as you can in his class. Break the bad habits and apply Ron's techniques to practice problems. The strategy guides (especially SC) give you all the necessary content. But the practice is really up to you. Apart from the official OG and guides, I used the MGMAT Question banks, the 494 additional questions from GMATPrep. Also, watch "Thursdays with Ron" for the tough topics. Above all, enjoy the GMAT prep and the test becomes a lot easier.

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MGMAT is fantastic -- lessons and instructors are excellent. I found the online resources (+ Thursdays w/ Ron) to be essential to my prep process.

Most of all, Ron Purewal is simply phenomenal, but you already knew that.

Highly recommend!

edit: wondering why the review form mandates 100 words when business schools seek concise and to-the-point writing, and presumably, writers of these reviews plan to attend business school one day. Feels like I just identified a structural problem in the process. And now I'm going to write a few more words so that I can get to the required minimum word count.

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I took a GMAT review class with Manhattan GMAT's instructor, Ron. First let me say, he is a total genius! Because of that fact, if you're like me, you are likely to feel a little bit inadequate in his classes as he moves through the problems with ease. Don't let this get you down though. You want the best there is, and you've got him. Ron is amazing at providing different avenues for solving tough problems, which ultimately will make all the difference in increasing your confidence level (and your score) come test day. For me personally, I more or less figured out verbal from the beginning, but I really struggled with quant after not doing things like geometry for many years. Ron helped me to realize that the GMAT is like having a really busy but successful day at work - you are stressed, but on top of it. I went into the test remembering that and I walked out with a 740! I actually drove all the way from San Francisco to Santa Clara to take his class on a friend's recommendation, and I have not regretted the travel once. As my friend is starting at a top 10 b-school and I am starting to fill out my applications, I know that Ron gave us both a solid GMAT foundation to start from. Thanks Ron!

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My score improved 80 points with Manhattan GMAT! My instructor, Jonathan Schneider, was clear and thoughtful during every instruction. He spent extra time before, during, and after class helping me with specific questions I had and was always able to give me concrete, actionable take-aways so that what I learned for one problem I was able to easily apply to other problems. I never felt like I was wasting time during class. Jonathan struck the perfect balance between allowing us enough time to figure out problems on our own, giving us direct instruction and tips, and providing us with multiple ways to think about a problem. In this way concepts were always sticky and problems were memorable. The class gave me the necessary tools and strategies to study efficiently and effectively on my own. The homework was organized, purposeful, and manageable. The online explanations and extra resources were also great. I highly and unreservedly recommend this course and instructor!

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When I started studying for the GMAT, one of my friends suggested I get in touch with Manhattan. I have a busy schedule, so the classes were a bit hard for me to fit in, but I ended up working with Faruk as a private tutor (which I did not see an option for under course type).

Manhattan's prep materials helped me realize I should be focusing on the quant section in order to improve my score. Faruk's unfailingly patient instruction helped me take the test "smarter" by ignoring overly time-consuming questions in addition to providing standard frameworks I could apply to "do-able" questions more quickly. In the end, being more tactical and deploying standard problem solving strategies helped me pick up a bunch of points on the quant section and do very well overall (significantly in excess of 700).

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The GMAT was the one thing that was hanging over my head and I had a limited amount of time to study and get it over with in time for first round application due dates which are all approaching in the next 2 months. On top of that, I've never been a fan of standardized tests. I'm not a natural test-taker, and I'm one of those people who has to prepare/study a lot for these things.

I moved to New York on May 4th and then started the course on May 6th. I ended up having to travel a lot in June for work, so I missed 2 classes. I spent all of June trying to catch up/stay on track with the coursework. Balancing work, travel, and preparing for the GMAT was rough, but Manhattan GMAT really makes things easier - specifically because of their high quality content, strategy guides, and instructors.

Manhattan GMAT sets its self apart:

1) Strong quantitative preparation - strategy guides are extensive and detailed.

2) Very thorough verbal - strategy guides re-teach grammar that I don't ever remember learning - very very helpful.

2) Foundations of Math and Verbal books: although it was a pain to start from the very beginning and go through these textbook-like guides, this was a really important part of my preparation. These guides were essential in my journey to a achieving a high score.

3) The course keeps you on track - the teachers are very engaging. Jonathan Schneider is an especially gifted instructor. He has great study techniques that he shared with us in the end. He also has a knack for articulating strategies for both math and verbal - he is an extremely talented and smart teacher who really takes a strong interest in his students. He makes the possibility of a high GMAT score very achievable for everyone who is willing to put in the study hours and work.

4) In my opinion, if you can get through the whole syllabus, and stay intellectually honest with yourself in terms of really reading all the strategy guides/doing the problem sets/practicing/completing practice tests etc - I think Manhattan GMAT over prepares you for the test!

5) The online CAT exams were crucial. Manhattan GMAT really recreates the test experience. They also provide post-practice test metrics and stats that help you figure out where to focus your preparation. You can evaluate your strengths and weak areas in a clear and efficient way. The tests are hard, and really push you to work hard to surpass your previous scores! Between my first couple practice tests and the actual test, I improved my score by 140 points (which I truly thought was impossible before).

With Manhattan GMAT's help, I was able to score in the 99th percentile range for verbal - which greatly boosted my score. I am above a 700 - which is what I originally set out to achieve.

I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT MANHATTAN GMAT.

Enough said.

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It's hard to overstate how well MGMAT does its job. Want to score well on the GMAT? Willing to work hard but looking for the most efficient path to content acquisition? MGMAT is your path. It's not cheap, but what you are paying for is not only top-level 99th percentile instructors (by far the highest paid in the industry) and original curriculum materials drafted and constantly revised by the instructors themselves.

I took the 9-week course, though if you wanted to do it in less time or felt that you could just teach yourself the material I suppose you could just buy the books and online access to the tests. But I do have to say that at least in my class, my teacher (Jen Dziura) gave us specific strategies for some questions that I wouldn't have paid attention to in the curriculum. These strategies for questions in math on rates or in verbal on CR were often ultimately the ones I studied and used in the final test.

I also appreciated the pacing and layout of the content over the 9 weeks. I did the homework every week (which was especially time-consuming at the beginning, as I really needed some work in re-learning my high school math), but just trusted in the schedule and kept going. I made some flashcards and spent some extra time on things that didn't come back as easily, but after the class ended I was impressed by how much of that content stuck as I started doing timed OG problems.

At that point, all I needed to do was tie up loose ends (like memorizing the right triangle rules) and speed it up to get each problem under 2 minutes. I spent 1 month doing OG problems and then took the test, to see a huge improvement on my original score. (From 630 to 770 -- Q50 V46)

The forums are helpful, as are the other online components of the class -- I made use of the "Thursdays with Ron" live online sessions, as well as their online companion to the Official Guide, which allows you to track progress on your OG problems -- giving you not only immediate explanations to questions after you've done them, but also tracking your timing and track record on questions sorted by theme, format, etc.

Also, the practice tests are the best in the business, and in my experience very representative of the actual test. And their systems provide tons of feedback based on your answers to questions to guide your subsequent studying.

MGMAT's method is building content expertise -- no silver bullet, no reliance on "tricks" or "talent." It's a harder path, but the good news is that anyone can learn content, and their materials lay out the best path to do so.

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I enrolled with MGMAT specifically to ensure that I achieved a 99th percentile score on test day, and I am glad that I did!

The course provides you with a comprehensive study syllabus and a zillion extra materials to help you practice. Having our instructor, Abby Berry, structure and review everything each week was a huge help in navigating the slew of material. Abby explained everything patiently and thoroughly and helped us all work towards our personal study goals. In the penultimate session, Abby reviewed my CAT exams and gave me some extra study advice, which I believe is what bumped me from a 720 on practice tests to a 770 on test day!

If you are ready to study and have the time to keep up with the MGMAT 9-week syllabus, I recommend it without blinking an eye. The material is all you need to achieve a coveted 99th percentile score.

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