Best GMAT Prep Course Poll

[DestroyTheGMAT]

There are many different companies offering GMAT prep. As a new student, instead of spending hours trying to find the best prep course, this thread will help students find what public thought was best one.

Just like the "Best practice tests" thread, this thread is to find what people think is the best company for GMAT prep course.

Thanks everyone for participating.

[pokearound]

business week did a good article a few months ago and compared leading gmat prep companies. you should google it.

clear admit also released a comprehensive gmat prep comparison pdf report with detailed overview of each firm and the evolving history of gmat prep. i read the entire thing from cover and cover! highly recommend it - i think they essentially reviewed 90% of the gmat prep companies out there.

i m sure beatthegmat's poll will be helpful to all of us as well!

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

Here's that business week article.

https://www.businessweek.com/bschools/co ... 272443.htm

[nimma25]

Is it polling in-person classes only?? or online classes too....

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

Veritas prep and its not even close. If anyone wants to talk about why, just PM me.

[MFaulkner]

I completed Kaplan's course (online and in a physical classroom) about a month ago.

Kaplan did a decent job at explaining the fundamentals. However, it did not provide enough instruction for the more difficult GMAT questions that appear in the 700-800 range of questions. I spent several weeks just focusing on the advanced material provided in the Kaplan course, but for my own needs, there just was not enough explanation and examples to become proficient on the subject matter. All in all, with Kaplan's course the best that I could do is score in the mid 600's.

I just recently picked up 4 MGMT books (Sentence Correction, CR, Math Word Translations, and Number Properties). I'm on third book now and am very impressed. They do a substantially better job than Kaplan at explaining and teaching the more complex and difficult quantitative and qualitative material. Their CAT's seem a bit more difficult than Kaplan's (a good thing imo) and their scoring algorithm seems to be much more accurate.

I've also learned over the months I'm better off learning the material on my own opposed to going to a class. So if I were to do it all over again, I would save the money and use the MGMT book series combined with the online CAT tests.

[gmatninja]

I'm sure that my sample size is skewed in some ways, but every year I work with dozens of people who call me after they've already taken a GMAT prep course... and didn't, for one reason or another, get everything they wanted out of the course.

Pretty much everybody has great things to say about Manhattan course--the only complaint I ever hear is that the course is too short. Veritas works wonderfully for some people, but doesn't quite click for others. I have heard many expletives during conversations about Princeton Review courses... though I have a hard time believing that the class could possibly be all that terrible.

So Manhattan seems to be the top of the class from what I've seen, with Veritas running a respectable second.

[GMATMadeEasy]

How is MasterGMAT online course (www.mastergmat.com)? has anyone tried completely?

[gmatpill]

I like MFaulkner's suggestion of just purchasing the relevant books and practice tests to save on costs!

I'm quite surprised the polls show such a stark contrast between MGMAT and the rest. Yes, they have some decent books, but the poll results seem a bit unbalanced. I expected to see a more competitive representation overall.

From the perspective of someone who's seen more than a few disgruntled students from other programs, I can tell you we've heard slightly more "unsatisfied" stories from Kaplan, MGMAT, and ManhattanReview than from Veritas, PR, etc. --which doesn't seem to reflect the poll results--but worth noting. Of course, our sample size is likely skewed.

We actually have not had many students complain about a previous bad experience with Princeton Review. Similar to what gmatninja's heard, we've heard students' somewhat unflattering perception of PR--so it appears not so many students give PR a chance. This could explain why we don't have disgruntled students from PR--they don't take PR's course in the first place!

In general, all course have pros and cons. What's good for one type of student may not be good for another.

Would encourage you all to discuss non-big-name companies here as well! And would encourage you all to keep in mind your learning style so you find something that matches your learning style.

[piyushk]

After reading the Businessweek article and pool results here, it is still quite confusing which course should i go for?


Appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks, Piyush

[saritalr]

business week did a good article a few months ago and compared leading gmat prep companies. you should google it.

clear admit also released a comprehensive gmat prep comparison pdf report with detailed overview of each firm and the evolving history of gmat prep. i read the entire thing from cover and cover! highly recommend it - i think they essentially reviewed 90% of the gmat prep companies out there.

i m sure beatthegmat's poll will be helpful to all of us as well!

Helpful - thanks! Is the clear admit guide a free resource? I haven't had any luck finding it so far.

[saritalr]

It would be great if we could put our heads together for a more detailed breakdown. I wonder if the poll results indicate that the majority of responders took an MGMAT course and were satisfied with it, or whether the responders took an MGMAT course as well as a course from another company, and were more satisfied with the MGMAT course.

Personally as a test taker, I feel fairly confident in my verbal abilities. But my quant definitely needs polishing up (maybe an understatement). So I'm looking for a course that will still cover the basics of test taking, spend a bit of time on verbal (to make sure I'm not missing anything), and most importantly, offer me a solid foundation for tackling the quant section.

My understanding, after reading the Business Week article and a few posts around here, is that some companies might be better suited for a student seeking a 600-700 score than a 700+ score. Personally, I don't need to jump right into the advanced math, but I would like to eventually be armed with the skills to tackle these questions - and end up with a score in the mid-700's.

So what I'm looking for in a class would be very different from what a non-native speaker with a strong quantitative background is going to be looking for. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[piyushk]

It would be great if we could put our heads together for a more detailed breakdown. I wonder if the poll results indicate that the majority of responders took an MGMAT course and were satisfied with it, or whether the responders took an MGMAT course as well as a course from another company, and were more satisfied with the MGMAT course.

Personally as a test taker, I feel fairly confident in my verbal abilities. But my quant definitely needs polishing up (maybe an understatement). So I'm looking for a course that will still cover the basics of test taking, spend a bit of time on verbal (to make sure I'm not missing anything), and most importantly, offer me a solid foundation for tackling the quant section.

My understanding, after reading the Business Week article and a few posts around here, is that some companies might be better suited for a student seeking a 600-700 score than a 700+ score. Personally, I don't need to jump right into the advanced math, but I would like to eventually be armed with the skills to tackle these questions - and end up with a score in the mid-700's.

So what I'm looking for in a class would be very different from what a non-native speaker with a strong quantitative background is going to be looking for. Any thoughts or suggestions?

How did you prepare for ur verbal?

[saritalr]

How did you prepare for ur verbal?

To be honest, I haven't done too much verbal preparation in the official sense. Historically I've tested well on verbal sections of standardized tests, and the GMAT prep tests I've taken so far have confirmed that verbal isn't the area that I need to focus on. If I had to guess, I'd chalk it up to reading a lot as a kid and listening to an obsessive amount of public radio as an adult.

I'm sure the test prep industry has developed some good strategies for approaching the verbal. Currently, my plan is to spend a bit of time reviewing these strategies to make sure I don't make any stupid mistakes in that section. Overconfidence is definitely something I'd like to avoid.

In regards to my original question - I wonder if the test prep courses have reputations for excelling in particular areas. In other words maybe Kaplan would be good for the non-native, quant-smart test taker that I described in one of the posts above. While Princeton Review does a particularly good job at focusing on the quant section (just two names pulled off the top of my head - I have no idea about real reputation).

On the other hand, maybe all of them really do just offer the same (very expensive) product.

[piyushk]

Thanks for responding saritalr.

Yes, some of the test prep centers do have verbal specific courses.

Wish you good luck. I'm on quanta at the moment.