I went into the course having never taken a practice exam before, and was able to improve over 100 points from my initial assessment to the actual test. I credit my success on the GMAT to materials Manhattan GMAT provided as well as their EXCELLENT instructors. If you utilize all the resources they make available (free weekly "office hour" phone tutoring sessions each week, comprehensive web study materials, fantastic workbooks broken down by topic) and put in the time, Manhattan GMAT will absolutely improve your score.

My instructor, as well as the instructors I interacted with during office hours, were so passionate about making students comfortable with the exam and mastering effective ways to approach each question. I cannot recommend them highly enough! Even the staff at the front desk and on the phone were friendly and helpful when I interacted with them. Overall my experience was wonderful.

The Manhattan GMAT prep course instructor was knowledgeable and interesting, and he kept the classroom engaged. In addition, the printed and online materials were both great ? offering a wide variety of services to all score ranges. After taking the Manhattan GMAT prep course, my score improved over 100 points! I would recommend this course to anyone planning to take the GMAT.

Overall, I've had a wonderful experience with the MGMAT course

- Instructors
I had two fantastic instructors, they have different styles that complement each other, so makes the class flow easily and keeps me engaged. Exceeded my expectations for an online course.
- Resources
MGMAT books had great content, course structure is organized, I like the amount of work and time students are expected to spend on homework and outside of classroom studying. Office hour is a very unique and crucial resource that MGMAT offers, I've used them every single week, tremendously useful.
The online student resources had challenging CATs and very helpful question banks for practice.
- Value
I definitely think the course is worth the money and time investment. I've heard from many people that if you want the best in GMAT prep, then go with Manhattan. If I had to pay the same price for a GMAT prep course, I would definitely choose Manhattan all over again.

Teacher notes:
Whitney Garner is an amazing GMAT tutor. She is incredibly energetic and outgoing and really knows her stuff.

MGMAT resources:
The GMAT is, in my opinion, all about pattern recognition. I think that the way that MGMAT breaks down the different sections (PS, DS, RC, SC, CR) is very intuitive and it makes it easy to understand the different types of problems that one may encounter in each section. The books are easy to read and very applicable (no 'fluff' that will waste your time).
The practice CATs offered by the company are difficult but helpful. They nailed my final score, so at least in my case they were representative of actual performance on the real thing. The problems are written fairly similarly to the actual GMAT, though GMAT Prep is the best place to go for true CATs.

1) Materials: The materials they provide are well written and easy to understand. There are 9 different study guides that are broken up by topic and teach you almost everything you need to know for the test. Additionally, the online resources are incredibly useful. There is an online companion to the Official Guide questions that times your questions and tells you the correct answer, so you don't have to keep flipping to the back of the book to find the answer. It makes it easy to see what areas you need to improve, and see which ones you got wrong and should do over.

2) Teacher: My teacher was brilliant, engaging, and full of great advice. His name is Greg Lachow and you should definitely try to take his class if you are in Manhattan. He knew everyone's name by the second class and made sure to keep everyone involved. Even though it was a three hour class at night, it was never boring or slow. He was not only really good at the GMAT content, he was also a great teacher and would probably be a great teacher no matter what he was teaching.

3) Center: Its a very nice classroom setting and the best part is that you can go there on the weekends to take your practice test. I did this for all of my practice tests and I definitely recommend it. There is free coffee, tea and hot chocolate, and a vending machine if you need a snack during class. The only downside is the very slow elevator in the building, but that is currently being fixed.

Overall, I definitely had a great experience with Manhattan GMAT and think that it is worth the money.

I thought that the course prepared me extremely well for the test. I felt that the approach taken by my teacher was extremely helpful and he explained things in a very easy-to-follow way. I would definitely recommend Manhattan GMAT to anyone.

I get asked a lot if Manhattan GMAT was "worth it". Simply put it is, but a more accurate statement is that if you want to score above 700 you need to take the course. Just like you need to pay to take the test and you need to pay to submit your applications, you need to pay for excellent study materials, excellent practice tests and exceptional teaching.

Honestly, the main benefit I got was from the teacher who sorted out all the contradictory or unclear statements I had read online about the GMAT and about how schools evaluate the GMAT.

The course/materials will make sure you perfect the basics and the moderate material and will give you a firm grasp of the especially difficult problems. My only complaint is that there aren't enough practice questions that are specifically focused on the most difficult material.

After I exhausted my study material I bought more tests from http://gmatclub.com. These tests are much more difficult than the actual GMAT will be, and the questions are often poorly phrased. However, this added challenge ensures that you don't make stupid mistakes.

All-in-all I can't imagine studying without Manhattan though. It seems to have the best material and provides the most efficient, least stressful way of covering so much material.

I believe Manhattan GMAT is the best test prep company. I have experience with Knewton and Kaplan as well. Knewton is much cheaper but only online.

My big issue was test anxiety and I had to deal with that on my own. For any test anxiety cases (like my own), I would suggest this video.
The first time i watched it my heart was pounding and by the 80th time i was totally fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kK-QuuZeuw

Manhattan GMAT was great. I took it on Saturday morning from 10-1 PM, which was a very convenient time since I travel a lot during the week. Obviously it was brutal getting out of bed early on a Saturday, but I actually looked forward to the class because the instructor was phenomenal! He really made the course materials come to life and made the class enjoyable.

The course materials were also really good; they had a framework / approach for every kind of problem. It was a bit overwhelming at first in terms of how many books you had to review, but as you get further into the course, they help you to identify your weaknesses and focus your studies on what will have the most impact. The best way that they do this is through their online diagnostic exams, where they give you a breakdown of the questions you got wrong, categorize them by question type, etc. They also have another great resource that is a companion to the 12th Edition Official Guide that is produced by the GMAC. This companion is an online portal where you can enter in your answers and it provides you recommendations on how to increase your score in certain areas, where to decrease your time, etc. The data that this online companion and the online test provided really helped me to focus my studies during the last few weeks and jump from a 660 to a 700!

SUMMARY: I began the ManhattanGMAT course in December 2010 and completed the course in March 2011 (delayed due to the need to take a couple makeup classes) and then took the GMAT at the beginning of April 2011. I recommend Manhattan GMAT because its materials are far more thorough than the competitors? and the instructors really are top-notch.

RESULTS: I took a diagnostic test before the beginning of the MGMAT class and scored a 680. I then took subsequent MGMAT tests every 3-4 weeks and scored 680, 690 and 690 (in that order). Then, approximately three weeks before my actual test date, I scored a 760 on an actual ManhattanGMAT practice test. I scored a 750 (98% percentile) on the actual GMAT (99% percentile verbal and 82% math) and 5.5 on the essays.

COURSE AND INSTRUCTOR: My course was taught by Jonathan Schneider. I found him to be very thorough and intelligent and I really enjoyed his instruction style. He taught the class to the median student, which I think in our class was probably ~600. My one complaint during the course was that the class didn?t focus as much as I would have liked on 700-800 level questions Looking back however, I think the question mix in class was just right. If you want to achieve a 700+, it?s extremely important to get the 600-700 level questions right and the in-class questions prepare you very well to do that. In order to get the 700-800 level questions right it requires a lot of work on your own (and going to the instructor with specific questions).

MANHATTAN GMAT vs. KAPLAN etc.: My fianc? took a Kaplan class. Her score appreciation from the diagnostic to the actual test was very similar (670 to 740). I think she took 2-3 more practice tests than I did though and took the test twice to achieve her target score (I only took it once). I think MGMAT is generally better for several reasons (1) Better pay = better instructors (2) ManhattanGMAT has their own study materials for each math topic and type of verbal question. There were about 10 books in all. That said and although they are very good, be leery not to rely on these too much at the expense of not doing a sufficient number of OG problems (there?s no substitute for the real thing!) (3) Practice tests and question banks are generally very challenging and I think it helps to study with a program that makes the test seem harder than it?s actually going to be (rather than vice versa) and (4) The analytics on the website related to how long you are taking and how well you are doing on specific question types is extremely valuable and I?m pretty sure it?s not something Kaplan offers (at least they didn?t as recently as one year ago).

MGMAT also has office hours and study labs. I personally didn?t find either of these to be terribly useful. I found the lab instructors to be condescending in their tone and the material to be overly rudimentary. As for the office hours, I used it about 3 times. Once I had a very good instructor who was helpful in addressing my questions, but the other two times I thought that I was going around in circles with the instructor (not sure if that had to do with the communication medium or because they just didn?t understand the material).

ADVICE: I had a great experience with ManhattanGMAT. I thought the materials were very thorough and the instruction was very good. I strongly recommend taking a prep class of some sort for two reasons. First, the ?tips? on how to attack data sufficiency problems, the essays and how to gues strategically et. are very valuable and are not likely to be in the printed materials. Second, the syllabus and associated weekly classes and homework assignments provide a regimen that in my opinion makes it more likely that you will study more and achieve your potential, which relates to my next point. The single biggest variable related to how well you will do is study time (and not which class you take). There is unfortunately no substitute for putting in the requisite study time.

If you are worried about raising your math score, you are going to have to do a significant amount of work. I work in finance and crunch numbers all day and am generally quick with the kinds of calculations seen on the GMAT, but I found the math section very difficult. For the avoidance of doubt, I found the principles relatively elementary and straightforward, but figuring out to apply them in the 2min/question allotted time frame is not simple. I?m not sure what to say about this other than practice makes perfect?.

I really cannot say enough good things about this course.
-The teacher-
-Tony was AMAZING. Super friendly and helped us approach every problem in a way we could relate to. He was also infinitely patient with us in trying to solve tough problems. As others have mentioned, what was also good was he showed us lots of different ways to solve each problem, so we could use the method that best suited our own style.

-Course content-
-This course is taught very much like a university class- the class covers the most important topics but you are expected to do a lot of reading and practice problems on my own. This suited me perfectly. The content in the books was AMAZING- especially all of the math books. I felt like I got the game genie codes to the secret way to success on the GMAT. So awesome.

-Supplemental materials-
-You get 6 practice exams that are made by MGMAT itself. They are all really amazing practice and were very similar to what I saw on the real exam. Great preparation tools!
-Extra practice questions on their site also helped too

If you are looking for success on the GMAT, TAKE MGMAT!!!

I believe that Manhattan's course and web materials are the best.

I was a little worried about the GMAT because English is not my first language, but here they taught me all I needed to get a good score.

I am so overwhelmed with how great my experience with Manhattan GMAT was! I began my GMAT prep in December 2010 with materials from a different company and was less than impressed. As I moved through the books I felt as though I was only learning strategies to back into the right answer, and how to guess with the best chance of getting the question right. After a few weeks of using this material, I felt like I needed a more comprehensive program through which I could actually learn the topics tested on the GMAT.

That is when a colleague of mine suggested Manhattan GMAT. In January 2011 I took my first practice test ? 640. Not bad, but not where I wanted to be since I was looking to at least break the 700 barrier. I dove into the Manhattan GMAT 9 Week course in Philadelphia with Abby, and followed the syllabus exactly. I spent most of my time during the week moving through the Strategy Guides, making sure that I really understood the content before moving on. The In-Action problems at the end of each section are especially helpful because they helped me identify topics that I didn?t really understand after my first read of the chapter. I also stuck pretty close to Abby?s direction not to touch the Quant and Verbal Official Guides (the blue and green books), and used only the Official Guide 12th Edition in my practice.

As the course progressed, I had some disappointing results in my subsequent practice exams (600, 640), but after meeting with Abby, I was able to understand that my performance was due to two factors: 1) My timing. Now that I understood the topics better, and had more tools to solve the quant problems, I was taking too long on really difficult problems, with little pay off. 2) I was burning myself out. Abby helped me understand that this process is a marathon, and not a sprint, and that one could not study for 6+ hours at a time without impairing his or her critical thinking skills. Abby?s advice to relax a little, and find some more balance paid off in a big way. On my final MGMAT CAT I scored a 700, and on my GMAT Prep practice exam I scored a 710.

With a few more weeks of diligent studying, and without over-doing it, I was elated to score a 720 (77th percentile Quant, 95th percentile Verbal, 6.0 AWA) on my actual GMAT. I couldn?t have done it without Manhattan GMAT and Abby. The materials, including the strategy guides, and the online resources (Official Guide Tracker, question banks, CATs, Online Labs, etc.) are arguably the best GMAT prep materials on the market. However, the real difference between Manhattan GMAT and the other test prep programs are the instructors. MGMAT instructors invest a significant amount of time and energy in students? learning, and help tailor the experience to each student?s specific needs. With weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions, and an individualized post-course evaluation, each student is able to address his or her own particular weaknesses and achieve significant score appreciation. Abby, in particular, was a very important factor in my success, and I couldn?t have done it without her guidance.

Thank you Manhattan GMAT!!

I couldn't have done as well as I did on the GMAT without the help of Manhatten GMAT (MGMAT).

MGMAT's course framework provided me with a clear and effective plan to cover all the areas that I needed to revise for the GMAT (in particular, the quant material); this meant that each week I could focus on specific areas in depth, while knowing that I would still cover all the material by the end of the course. Most people doing the MGMAT course are trying to balance work and life, let alone studying for the GMAT, so to be given a set study program was a lifesaver for me. In addition to this study programme, the MGMAT study books are brilliant; they are well written and clearly explain the concepts, so are an invaluable resource outside of the tutorials. The MGMAT diagnostic tools are also excellent for identifying particular weaknesses so that these can then be worked on.

The classroom tutorials are also worth their weight in gold. The tutor I had was brilliant at explaining math concepts that I, and the rest of the class, struggled with. The tutorial numbers are small, which means it's possible for the class to take the extra time on the tough problems or topics, and also allows you to ask questions when you're just not understanding it. Studying with the other classmates definitely helps with the motivation as well.

There's no doubt about it that preparing for the GMAT requires a lot of hours of individual study; what MGMAT did for me was help create a study strategy and provide me with the motivation to achieve my goals. On top of that, MGMAT took me to new heights, enabling me to solve the more difficult GMAT problems, that I could not have achieved studying alone.

Caveat: I got really busy in the second half of my 9-week cycle so I missed 3 of the last 4 live classes. I also haven't taken the GMAT yet.

Pros:
- Teachers are excellent - I couldn't find my instructor's name, but he was very good.
- Hints and different techniques from what is in the MGMAT text books. The best one was to plug in numbers as a primary means of solving algebra problems.

Cons:
- Not enough time devoted to subjects - the course needs to devote at least 50% more time to concepts. If you miss homework or fall behind on concepts, there's very little chance to catch up (although not everything builds on previous concepts).
- Too many students per course - I believe there were 24 in my class. Too many questions and too much noise to make the most of class time.
- Verbal was de-emphasized and overlooked. So much more time was devoted to quant.

Bottomline:
- I'd recommend this course for people who can devote significant time during the week to homework and self-study. I expected much more explanation on major concepts. I had already read through most of the MGMAT books prior to the start of class and also worked through many OG questions - I definitely understand the material better after this class, but no where near the level that I expected. I am currently taking the Master GMAT course which is much better for my schedule. I'll review that when I've completed more (24% through the Verbal material and 10% through the Quant). I don't regret paying for this MGMAT course, but I truly feel like it didn't quite live up to all the hype.

I recently completed Manhattan GMAT's 9 week prep course. I took the GMAT last week and scored 760. A lot of credit for my score goes to Manhattan GMAT and the instructor Chris.

The instructor explained the material well and deconstructed example problems very clearly in class. Additionally, Manhattan GMAT offered a ton of study material and other resources including office hours with instructors. My favorite was an online tool that one could use to complete all the Official Guide problems.

I would highly suggest this course and instructor to anyone aiming to get a 700 on GMAT.

I enrolled in the Live Online 9-Session Prep Course with Manhattan GMAT from Feb 2010 to April 2010. There were many aspects about this course that are very appealing for those who face very rigorous and time-demanding work schedules such as someone who is a full-time active duty military service member interested in taking the GMAT. First, the time/location flexibility requires only a 3-hour block of time commitment/once a week from the convenience of your own home computer. The web-based instruction is a very effective method of communication and instruction. "Homework" or "Recommended" problem sets can be completed on your own time. Second, the method of instruction focuses on "practicing" key concepts that are tested on the GMAT and learning the most time-efficient tips and tricks to solve these concepts, this is particularly helpful on the Data Sufficiency problems and Sentence Correction problems on the GMAT. Those two types of problems were my primary weaknesses when beginning the GMAT process, but Manhattan GMAT helped me turn those weaknesses into strengths. Through consistent and disciplined practice of these problems, I was able to quickly recognize a concept and immediately decide which method to use in solving that particular problem. Another helpful aspect of Manhattan GMAT is the OG Tracker excel document, this document facilitated all of my GMAT studying while on deployment in Afghanistan as I was easily able to assess my strengths and weaknesses in a very portable and expeditious manner. Manhattan GMAT's instructors are extremely competent and qualified; one of my primary instructors, Emily Sledge, was extremely helpful in answering any questions the class may have had and was able to guide us through any particular concept that was difficult to understand. She would often entertain any questions even after our scheduled time-block was over and was always available over e-mail to answer any questions.
I took the GMAT twice, my first test was 2 months after the course ended and unfortunately I was unable to practice as often I wanted to for the GMAT. However, I did score a 670 on that test. My second test came after a 6-month deployment to Afghanistan, where I was able to study on personal time I had (using the OG Tracker and GMAT books), consistently applying the concepts that I had learned from the 9-week course until Manhattan GMAT's methods became almost instinctual. I scored 50 points higher on this last test (720)!
Overall, Manhattan GMAT is an enabler that will definitely help any MBA prospect set conditions for success on the GMAT. But at the end of the day, rolling up your sleeves and putting some good old fashioned elbow grease into studying the concepts that Manhattan GMAT teaches you is still absolutely necessary to achieve the results that you want, but I would not be satisfied with my GMAT without taking the 9-week Live Online Prep Course.

I participated in an accelerated 5-week ManhattanGMAT online class and could not have been happier with it. As with all study programs, the extent to which your score improves is ultimately a function of the student?s effort and discipline. That being said, it is my opinion that if you work diligently with the ManhattanGMAT materials your scores will improve substantially. The study materials include all the information that one needs to score a 700+. I found my instructors to be knowledgeable and professional. They were always easy to get a hold of ? always accommodating office hours to fit your schedule ? and they seemed genuinely interested in you getting the score that matched your potential. What I saw as especially helpful were the techniques ManhattanGMAT employed to approach different styles of problems. To be clear, you can learn to answer any GMAT problem if you master the ManhattanGMAT texts. Towards the end of my studying, however, I learned to more efficiently apply these techniques to the point where you could narrow your answer down to two possible choices, or even one, without even doing the problem. Essentially, it teaches you how the GMAT tries to trick you and makes you more conscience of what ?sucker? answer choices look like. This dramatically improved my accuracy and timing issues.

This was the second online class I have taken and I have to say it is definitely the best. I used a competitor?s product for supplemental help passing my CFA examinations. Compared to that service ManhattanGMAT held a few considerable advantages. Firstly, the class was interactive. Like a live class, online participates could raise their hand to ask questions, be called on at random to answer problems, and even manipulate slides so you can show the work you completed to arrive at your answer choice. None of these qualities were available from ManhattanGMAT?s competitor. Secondly, the online materials in addition to the classes were way more comprehensive. In addition to six algorithmic adaptive practice tests, there were endless question banks, and labs to reinforce the material that was covered in classes, texts, and problem sets.

All in all I couldn?t be more pleased. After taking the 5 week class, I studied for another 5 weeks focusing on the techniques and earned a 700+ score. If you are in search of a product that will include everything from GMAT exam introduction all the way through advanced techniques for 700+ scores you want ManhattanGMAT.

I definitely recommend ManhattanGMAT for anyone looking to get a good score on the GMAT.

Manhattan offers a wealth of options for you to learn and master all topics covered on the exam. From the extensive Manhattan strategy guides to the challenging CAT prep tests, students have access to a variety of different study tools to work on all topics tested on the GMAT.

Equally important, the teachers are knowledgeable, friendly, creative and very approachable. This is very important if you get hung up on a certain topic. The Manhattan teachers are very good at making sure students understand various approaches to problems rather than force-feeding a particular approach that maybe difficult to certain students.

My journey began 8 months back with a tutorial GMAT course at a local institute. My 1st attempt was on September 1, 2010. Scored 580 (Q 45, V 25). But was expecting around 650. So was completely shocked and took to the books again in 20 days. I took MGMAT CATs just 10 days before the 1st attempt and my scores were averaging around 660.

So, sometime during my 2nd stint I contacted MGMAT online forum and requested for guidance and reasons for the variation. They provided me with all the necessary articles but for some reason I stuck to my own study plan and used these articles pretty vaguely. And that reflected on my 2nd attempt. I scored 630 (Q 46, V 31). But this time my scores in preliminary tests (MGMAT CATs) were constant (650) and close to the final score.

So decided to take a final hit at GMAT and this time seriously worked on the basics from various articles that were mentioned earlier. I was just reviewing OG-12 and MGMAT CATs for most of the time and they played a huge role in the improvement. I was expecting somewhere around 670 but was shocked to see the final score. The score was a dream till that day and now I'm living in that dream. I would recommend to whoever looking for help to contact MGMAT and follow their articles vigorously and those articles will definitely fetch you results just as in my case. I took them as a joke till the final attempt but when I decided I need the score the most, I went for it full on. However, I need to mention that I always knew I had the capacity to score 700 but was missing on few things or faltering at the last moment. MGMAT helped in that sense too.

I can go on and on about how MGMAT helped me achieve 710 (Q 49, V 39). But the bottom line is 'MGMAT works'. Give it a try and you'll love it.