I had a tough time deciding whether or not to do private tutoring. On the one hand, it's expensive. Hundreds of bucks an hour. On the other hand, I wanted to push my score up from acceptable to above average for my target schools. I bit the bullet.

I took Manhattan GMAT's in-person class and had a great experience with the teacher, Ceilidh. She gave us great advice on when to take the test, how to prepare for it, and study habits (she's written tons of articles on it). She was traveling this summer, so I literally planned my test dates around her available.

We got together for 4.5 hours and really dissected everything, from my GMAT/MGMAT practices exams to specific problems or areas. She helped me use MGMAT's awesome online tool to find, target, and fix any deficiencies I had. She gave me more strategies on test day, including guessing. Who knew, but guessing twice really shot my score up.

With Ceilidh's help, I was better prepared mentally and physically than I would have been otherwise. I can't thank her enough.

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Registering for the Manhattan Review on-line tutoring was an important step in preparing for my GMAT exam. My tutor Emily and I quickly set out a clear plan for me to reach my target GMAT score, and found a balance between reviewing the theory, formulating strategies for solving tough questions, and working through practice questions together. As I am based in Johannesburg and Emily is in Budapest, all our sessions were via webcast, but the quality of our sessions was never adversely affected. Emily also committed to helping me in between our scheduled sessions, and always promptly responded to any queries I emailed her.

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I am writing to express my sincere gratitude and raving appreciation for your teacher and tutor Kimberly Cabot. I took the online Interact Manhattan GMAT course and, after 4 months of studying, was actually seeing my score get lower and lower. Three days before I was supposed to take the GMAT I scheduled a last minute tutoring session (30 mins) and was lucky enough to get Kimberly as my instructor.

In 30 minutes (which she was patient enough to begin 10 minutes late because of technical difficulties on my end) she completely turned around my approach to the GMAT and, as a result, my score. I received a 700 after scoring no higher than a 660 on any practice exam (the last practice exam I did took before the tutoring session gave me a 620). During our session she quickly and effectively pinpointed what I needed to work on, rephrased my approach to and strategy for the questions, gave me a solid game plan to practice in the few remaining days, and even followed up with a summary file of what we had discussed.

In short, Kimberly effectively and completely turned around my GMAT strategy and my score. I would highly recommend her to any prospective business school applicants, and I am so very grateful!

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Marc was an amazing GMAT tutor. I had struggled with this test for months, and had even completed a course only to still be scoring in the middle 600's. Marc gave me the confidence and the skills to know that I could earn a top score. For me, so much of the battle was mental, particularly with the Quant section, and Marc's positive teaching style was perfect to ease my lack of confidence. Marc also worked really hard to understand the root cause of why I was missing certain types of problems, helping me to better identify and tackle them in the future. I only wish I hadn't paid for a course and had studied on my own before spending the bulk of my funds on simply tutoring with Marc -- the extra time with individualized attention could have gotten me an even higher score!

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I had a great experience with Manhattan GMAT. I just did one session with a private tutor (after having used all the Manhattan study materials to get ready for the test via self-study). He was really supportive and gave me great advice for what content areas I should focus on going forward. We only focused on the quant section (as that is the section that was really bringing my score down). Using his study methods, my score went from a 650 to a 760 in just 5 weeks. It was really worth the money. Would definitely recommend using Manhattan GMAT study guides as well as getting a private tutoring session if you want guidance on the best study methods.

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If you really want to beat GMAT, I wholeheartedly recommend you Manhattan GMAT. The company is very serious, their books are fantastic (algebra, geometry, fractions, number properties, etc - all of them are awesome). Very clear and simple to understand, before reading them and solving the problems in each chapter I had many question marks. They really helped me to understand topics that seemed hard up to that point.

Then, if you need a private tutor, I fully recommend you to ask for Sarah Ryan. I know she is very busy, but maybe you will have the luck I had and get some hours with her. She is fantastic: very serious, punctual, responds to all your emails and questions very promptly, she is very professional. She taught me the best strategies that one needs in order to ace the GMAT. Before working with her, I had another private tutor - from another company - and it was a total disaster! He would never reply when I asked for the problem's solutions, he didn't teach me any strategy rgd timing or guessing etc. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of this until someone asked me if my tutor taught me how to guess...Then I realized what happened but it was too late. My first GMAT score reflected this - it was much below the score I aimed at. With Sarah it was different from the first meeting - she shared with me all the important things that one needs for a 700 score: how to look at challenging problems, how to guess, how to prepare to be efficient, what's the psychology of the test. Actually, not only did she teach me so many things, but she also helped me to rebuild my self-confidence that was pretty shaken after my previous tutoring experience. She is very smart, open, it is a real pleasure to talk to her. You really feel you have a professional tutor next to you. She adapts her style to each student and shows you how to solve problems in different ways, which is very helpful. She gives you homework and challenges you. She tells you what you have to improve, helps you with clear explanation and directs you toward the tools needed to do this. She is very good.

I know that private tutoring is pretty expensive, but now, when I receive invitations to the interviews from some of the best schools in the world, I am happy I made this investment. So don't hesitate if it's about money! It pays back!

In conclusion: if you want to prepare for GMAT using a company, go for Manhattan GMAT - don't take the risk with cheaper offers that could disappoint you and finally make you pay more! I am sure MGMAT has the right product for you, so have a look. Furthermore, they have the best customer service ever - you will see.
And if you want a very good private tutor, ask for Sarah Ryan.

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Hi,

As I benefited from other users' reviews, I would like to pay the favour forward and write my own review of the GMAT Prep companies that I used and specifically of Manhattan GMAT.

First, the Manhattan GMAT (MGMAT) Strategy guides are the best resources to study from, regardless of your preparation level and of your knowledge. These books have provided me with the foundations for all of the concepts tested on the GMAT. The material is comprehensive and covers everything. The end of chapter problems in the strategy guides not only allow you to practice what you have learned but also provide you with the confidence that you need in your studies. I went over these guides many times until I understood all of the concepts well.

Second, the MGMAT CATs are the most accurate tests and the most representative of the actual GMAT compared to the other available resources. I have done practice tests from Veritas, Knewton, and GMAT Prep. The Math is harder on the MGMAT CATs than on the actual GMAT. For the Verbal section, I read a lot online that MGMAT CAT Verbal part is easier than the actual GMAT Verbal part. I do not agree with this assessment. The actual GMAT Verbal may seem harder due to the additional stress associated with the actual test experience. I definitely recommend the MGMAT CATs as practice to anyone who is aiming for high 600s or 700s score.

Third, Stacey Koprince at MGMAT is an excellent teacher and a great motivator. When Stacey stresses in online forums and to her personal clients to do ALL parts of the GMAT CAT when practising at home, she is spot on. One of the main things that I changed and that as a result helped me improve my score by 30 points (670 to 700) was the stamina that I built by doing the AWA and IR sections every time I did a practice test. Furthermore, Stacey is excellent at identifying the weaknesses of students. Each one of us knows what his/her weaknesses are but we sometimes attribute greater weight to improving certain weaknesses while completely ignoring other weaknesses. For example, I was always keen on practising Math question in order to improve my Math knowledge. However, to do well on the GMAT is to learn when to skip a question that tests an acknowledged weakness of yours in order to save time and preserve your mental energy for the questions when the GMAT actually tests your stronger areas. Stacey drilled this point in me and she was right in doing so. For example, I am much stronger in Verbal (hitting 90% plus in practice tests) than in Math. On the actual GMAT, I got this crazy combinatorics problem. I remembered Stacey's advice at that point and simply guessed on the question. This in turn helped me focus my mental energy and my time on the remaining Math questions and on the Verbal part.

Finally, my greatest improvement had been in Sentence Correction (SC). I feel like once you have a good grasp on the rules tested, it actually becomes fun to solve SC questions on the GMAT. As is widely agreed on the GMAT online forums, MGMAT SC guide is an amazing tool to use to improve your SC performance. The book organizes the information in a very elegant way and the end of chapter problems are really good practice. However, Knewton's SC lessons are very very good as well. If you study SC from MGMAT and Knewton then you'll for sure be hitting over 90% in Verbal provided that your CR and RC are decent (70% to 80%).

I owe Stacey Koprince and Manhattan GMAT a lot. They were tremendously helpful and really aim on developing personable relationships with their clients. I asked Stacey to call me for a few minutes before I started the GMAT and hearing her confidence-instilling words really helped me focus my attention on doing well in the test.

Thanks Stacey and Thanks Manhattan GMAT!

Good luck to Everyone!

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The first time I took the GMAT, I scored 630(50Q, 25V).
I was scheduled to rewrite the test in 4 weeks. I needed a score of 700+. I contacted Manhattan GMAT.

I worked with Dimitry Farber, my private tutor, for 7 sessions, and we revamped my reading skills for RC, as well as my CR and SC skills. On the exam day I scored a 700(50Q, 35V).

Manhattan GMAT is simply the best study guide. The tutors (specifically Dimitry) are educated and well prepared. Dimitry taught me how to read RC passages, get the big picture, and identify the author's voice. He also taught me to find the answers to CR questions through MOE and to identify premises and their roles with respect to the conclusion, to find a gap in assumption questions, and to find 'a' conclusion for inference questions. Manhattan GMAT SC guide is very thorough and one can never go wrong using it. Dimitry and Manhattan GMAT also taught me about Timing Strategies and Strategic Guessing through out the exam.

A good understanding of verbal really helps with business education. Invest in understanding GMAT via Manhattan GMAT and it will serve you well in the long run.

Cheers :)
Sanaz

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