Experiences with the princeton review

[MLaManna]

Looking to find out what people thought of the Princeton Review prep course. Geographically it makes sense for me to use this one as it is the closest available. The Manhattan and Veritas would require about an hour of travel for me. I'm debating whether or not it is even worth it to spend $1000+ on a prep course or to self study, so if people didn't like the PR I'll probably opt to study on my own.

[MLaManna]

SOMEONE had to have taken this review course

[4seasoncentre]

I didn't take a review course and scored a 680. I studied for 3 weeks or so before writing.

My goal was to score a 550.

I personally don't think courses are necessary. I understand and accept that there is a market for them, but the cost of them is comparable to an undergraduate credit. I think they are good if you need the structure and motivation, but I feel anyone can do well on the GMAT if they purchase inexpensive books and use beatthegmat.com

Best of luck with whatever you decide!

[cmf1202]

I don't know if you're still deciding, but I can tell you from my experience that the course was great and the strategies helped me a lot. I took it in Manhattan and my teacher was absolutely awesome.

Where do you live?

[canada_sms]

I agree with cmf1202. I was an extremely motivated self-study person but Veritas helped me bump my score about 60 points.

[MLaManna]

I don't know if you're still deciding, but I can tell you from my experience that the course was great and the strategies helped me a lot. I took it in Manhattan and my teacher was absolutely awesome.

Where do you live?

I live in North Jersey, not far from Manhattan, but it's a hassle to get into and out of the city. There's a church about 10 minutes from me that the Princeton Review uses to teach the course.

[canada_sms]

I would say that either Veritas On-Demand or Manhattan Online trumps Princeton Review in-person.

You have to ask yourself whether you want to learn all of the necessary groundwork and fundamentals (VP/MHAT) or whether you just want to become a guessing expert (Kaplan/PR).

If your decision is truly between PR or self-study then I would go with self-study. It's cheaper and you won't have to bother with dumb guessing strategies. The Joe Bloggs approach might get you to about 650 but it won't get you a whole lot more.