Suggestions on GMAT Prep Course Pls.

[LancerReiNi]

hi all,
My apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I had signed up for this forum quite some time ago. I've been primarily lurking around to observe how others have been prepping for the GMAT. I recently took it and did very poorly, I won't go into actual score as I am way too depressed about it to share(It's below the 50th percentile).

I won't go into a rant about my sob story but would love to hear some suggestions on prep courses. I've done the studying alone strategy and while the free flash cards have been greatly helpful. It seems I've gotten no where on my own. I've gone out and purchased stacks of GMAT prep books but because each author provides variations on problem solving techniques I often find myself taking bits and pieces from each book. I'm looking into an extensive course at this point to totally refresh my memory of what I had learned in high school and also learn more advanced short cuts on Quant and handling Verbal.

I live in NY, and I'm wondering with the array of options which course provider I should choose. Obviously everyone has their own prospectives on this but I figured if anyone has actual experience with these courses they might be able to make a suggestion or recommendation. I'll start with the more prominent courses offered. These are the ones that also offer discounts on prep books via this forum's "Discount" page.

1.) Kaplan
2.) Manhattan
3.) Veritas
4.) Princeton Review

If anyone can chime in, it would be much appreciated. Thank you all for your time. By the way, I'm hoping that my target goal isn't unrealistic as I am aiming for somewhere around a 550-600+ range.

[gkaparski]

I just recently took the MGMAT online class and definitely think it helped. The class was very informative but you could probably get the same type of help out of buying the books and doing self study.

I was very discouraged after scoring a low 470 (Q35, V20) back in February, so I signed up for MGMAT and took the test again on May 17 and scored a 600 (Q48, V26). Luckily for me, this is all I need to attend my intended school but I know I could have done better since I was scoring in the low 30s in verbal before the actual test.

The class definitely helped me to be more confident and know the material better. I will say, if you don't have the time to put into the course (15-20 hours a week) then it is not worth the time.

[LancerReiNi]

Thanks for the response gkaparski, when no one replied I assumed that I had crossed a line or violated some policy(or maybe everyone's just rigorously studying right now?). My question has probably already been done to death here on the internet and real world. I'm sure everyone wants to know what the best GMAT prep course is.

I appreciate your recommendation for the MGMAT course, I've taken a lot into consideration including location(I don't want it to be way too far for me to access). I've already got about 3 out of the full set of the MGMAT prep books. And their approach is great! But as I mentioned earlier, studying alone hasn't been very helpful. While I'm sure there are members or people in general out there that can soak up the knowledge via books alone, I've come to the conclusion that I need a more hands-on approach. I've since signed up with Veritas's Full Prep course so hopefully I can report back with a good critique sometime down the road.

Also, I'd like to say congrats to you on accomplishing a 180 percentile boost(Even though there are a lot of members here on the board that have managed to boost their scores by a lot, it's been widely speculated that a re-take won't improve by more than 100). As you mentioned it's enough to get you where you want to go, so more power to you. I'm on a similar boat and am not seeking a 700+ score but something I can walk away from with at least an acceptable score.

[VP_RedSoxFan]

I hope I'm not overstepping any bounds either, but I'd recommend taking a visit to some of the local prep courses and checking out their teachers. I'm convinced that aside from your own work ethic, the primary driver in a successful course is compatibility with the course instructor.

Keep in mind, of the courses you've listed only Veritas Prep and MGMAT only hire instructors that scored in the 99th percentile. If you value that level of expertise in an instructor, keep that in mind.

Good luck, I'm guessing you're in store for some substantial score increases as well.

Hope this helps.

[tmmyc]

I know Manhattan GMAT allows you to sit in on the first class for free, and Veritas Prep may also allow that. I would definitely take advantage of that opportunity and see which course fits your learning style the best.

[gkaparski]

tmmyc brings up a good point about sitting on the first clas for free, but i will give a piece of advice based on my experience with the MGMAT class. In the first class which was free, they don't really get into too much depth of the subjects. It is more of an overview of the GMAT and mostly people asking numerous questions.

In my first class there was about 40 people since there were a lot of people taking advantage of the free class. During the second class, we had a class size of around 20 people. So make sure to take this into consideration while observing the class style and approach of the class because in my experience it extremely changed from the 1st to 2nd class.

Just my thoughts.