what is the BEST in-class program?

[TestPundit Anurag]

I have been teaching GMAT for several years and have taught more than two hundred students for several test prep companies. Over the years, I have heard students talking about the "good" in-class porgrams and the "bad" in-class programs.

I would like to hear from the forum members what their experiences have been like. I will share what I have heard as I get more input from you all.

Just a hint: The really good programs are not necessarily the big brand names.

The reason:

1. The big brand programs are geared towards mediocrity (that's where the biggest market is).

2. The brand comes at a premium. Which means less number of hours in the class. Some offer half of the in-class time offerred by better, smaller programs.

3. The wide reach of the big brand programs comes at the cost of the instructor quality. There just aren't enough of high scoring instructors to teach the large number of big brand locations. So they end up hiring less-than-stellar instructors.

I can think of three or four really good programs that are good value for money, have top instructors, and offer curriculum targeted for high scores. But I would rather let others on the forum come up with the names before I bias the conversation.

DISCLAIMER: I have taught for many test prep companies. I current teach for TESTPUNDIT. However, my advice will stay the same even if I did not teach there.

Discussion welcome.

[SummerSquall]

I think you've already injected your bias, but nonetheless....Princeton Review is great. The instructors really seem to care that you do well, and hang around to help pretty much as much as you want. A friend of mine went through their instructor training as well, and she said it was quite involved. Not everyone passed the final test, the audition, to be able to teach.

The other thing about them that I really like are the course materials...they go deeper than the bookstore ones; they're almost worth the tuition alone.

Yeah, they're a big brand but they don't actually feel that way to me.

[TestPundit Anurag]

Dear SummerSquall

I absolutely agree with you that I have a point of view here (even though it is based on some data, it is still MY point of view).

I also agree that some (though not all) Princeton review materials are good. In particular, I like their grammar refresher. Their computer adptive tests and the number of hours they spend in the class can both use some enhancements. They also do not have, as far as I know, high percentile cutoffs for selecting instructors (some of programs I know off have a cut off of 99 percentile)

Thanks for writing.