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GMAT Private Tutors

by seekingperfection49 » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:36 am
Hello All,

I am new to the forum and I wanted to check if any one here has attended GMAT prep class of testcrackers in bay area. If so, please share your experience and reviews. I really need some tutoring and I am confused between Manhattan prep and testcrackers.

Please suggest.

Thanks,
Tracy
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by [email protected] » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:51 am
Hi Tracy,

Before you invest money in a tutor, it might help to define your studies so far and your overall goals. As it stands, you might not actually need a tutor.

1) How long have you been studying for the GMAT?
2) What materials have you used?
3) What is your goal score?

4) How have you scored on each your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by seekingperfection49 » Tue Dec 08, 2015 11:07 am
Hello,

Thank you for your reply! I am quite new to GMAT prep and after reading some experiences here, I understand that Self study will not work out well for me. Hence, wanted reviews of Testcrackers to be able to decide on a course to sign up.

For a target score, I am looking at mid 600 to 700. Since I am early in my prep, I have some time to plan to take the GMAT Test.

Thanks,
Tracy
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by [email protected] » Tue Dec 08, 2015 10:13 pm
Hi Tracy,

There are plenty of options when it comes to Courses and Tutors. Since you've defined your score goal, I have a few follow-up questions:

1) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?

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by MartyMurray » Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:54 am
Hi Tracy.

From what you said about tutors and classes, I am not sure whether you want to find out about classroom courses or private, one on one tutoring.

Either way, maybe you will get more specific answers to your question if you write another post and ask in the title of the post for information on TestCrackers or for a comparison of TestCrackers and Manhattan Prep.

Also, to a degree every test prep company has its own style. So beyond finding the answer to the question of which company is "best", you may want to find out about the style of teaching the company tends to use and to consider how each style matches up with the way you tend to work.
Marty Murray
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by Bara » Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:11 am
Tracy,

Each test prep company has their own philosophy, and those will be furthered by their staff teaching. Our Bay Area tutors, and those nationally, have to possess rigorous standards in order to work with us. This includes: track record of tutoring success, high scores in the tests they teach, ability to build rapport (not just scoring high), communication savvy, and ability to adapt teaching to the student, among other things. Since it's the individual teaching you and not the company itself, ultimately who is going to help YOU produce YOUR best score, it's best, among other things, that you:

1) Know what you're scoring NOW
2) What your strengths and weaknesses are,
3) What your timing and timeline are for getting a final score and applying to programs
4) Identify WHO will be teaching, what their track record is - - for many programs there is a one-size-fits-all model which works for many but not all - - Will that be acceptable to you?
5) Assess your needs in terms of points, mindset, strategy, timing/time management etc..

Ultimately, it comes down to what you're scoring now and what you'll need to score, and what is the most effective way for YOU to do this (including learning/study style and the time you're able to learn content/strategy/mindset.

Since I'm local, I'm happy to chat with you over the phone about this.

Best,
Bara Sapir, MA, CHt, CNLP
Founder/CEO City Test Prep
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by brleong990 » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:20 am
Old post, but thought I'd respond to this since I took testcrackers and Manhattan prep courses. Hands down, testcrackers was above and beyond a better course. I took testcracker's Quant course, as there was no Verbal class available at the time. This review will only compare the Quant portions.

Manhattan:
I started out with Manhattan and they provide a great deal of good study materials. Their books are probably the best materials on the market. As for the course itself, I felt like I was not getting what I needed. The in-class sessions were essentially filled with the instructor taking difficult problems and showing tricks on how to do those specific problems. I felt that the course really lacked providing a basic foundation or process for systematically approaching a problem. The class felt very "standardized" and robotic without any variation in the curriculum for what the students wanted to focus on. Also, I felt that I did not get good support from the private tutoring and online classes. The Manhattan practice tests are significantly harder for the Quant section than the actual GMAT/prep tests. My guess is that this is on purpose to make your improvement seem greater than it actually is. I was scoring ~47/48 on Quant on the official tests, but ~43 on the Manhattan tests. When I tried to get support to help me improve, my instructor did not give me anything helpful to help me break past this ceiling I'd hit.

testcrackers:
Based on the lack of support from Manhattan, I'd enrolled in testcrackers with Yuri. Yuri was amazing from the beginning. I really like that testcrackers starts you from the basics and gives you a systematic approach to solving a problem for the GMAT. Each week of the course progresses to different types of problems and takes you from easy problems to 700+ problems within those problem types. Yuri is also willing to explore beyond his standard curriculum if he sees that people are struggling in a certain area and tries to cater towards our needs. As someone that has a good background in Math (engineering background), but is terrible at taking tests, Yuri's program helped me push beyond my raw Quant skills and provided a good system to quickly narrow down the choices, as well as know the typical tricks that the GMAT throws at you and how to progress through them.

Results:

Manhattan -
Going in Quant: ~47 on official GMAT practice test, ~43 on Manhattan test.
After Manhattan Quant: ~47 on official GMAT test, ~43 on Manhattan test.

testcrackers - ~47 on official GMAT practice test
49 and 50 on official GMAT practice test/actual GMAT


Final Conclusion: Based on the results, I would have to recommend testcrackers over Manhattan.
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