Welcome to MBA Podcaster the only broadcast source for cutting edge information and advice on the MBA application process. I’m Janet Nakano. If you’ve decided you want to go to business school you know you’ll likely have to take the GMAT and to be a competitive candidate at the top MBA program you need to score well. At the very top schools GMAT scores can average well above 700 and unless you’re one of those standardized test geniuses you’re probably considering ways to get prepared. On our show today our guests from various test preparation companies will discuss the different type of courses they offer from private tutoring to classes in person and online. Listen and learn what are the best options available to you and what distinguishes each company.

Listeners we’re inviting you to pick the next topic for an upcoming show. Tell us what you’d like to hear and we’ll make it happen. If we choose your idea we’ll also let you pick which schools and guests you’d like to hear from. Send your email suggestions to info@mbapodcaster.com.

Kaplan prides itself on being the founder of test preparation nearly 70 years ago. As one of the largest test prep providers, Kaplan offers hundreds of convenient classroom locations, experience in test preparation and a higher score guaranteed. Jennifer Kedrowski is Assistant Brand Manager for Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions. She explains what Kaplan offers in GMAT prep, “So our most personalized option is actually one-to-one private tutoring. And that’s for students who really want that additional help. It allows the tutor to see exactly what your specific strengths and weaknesses are and tailor your instruction to your particular ability. And the packages for private tutoring options range from 15 to 35 hours. The prices for the package range from 2449 for the 15 hour up to 4649 for the 35 hour packages. The private tutoring students also receive access to our classroom course. So it’s really the most comprehensive and the most thorough option available. In addition to the private tutoring our classroom courses are our most popular option and our classroom courses are taught by high scoring instructors, they provide a really in-depth overview of our GMAT content and you have the interactive setting, you’re there with your peers who are also looking to get into the top MBA programs as well. So provides much more interactive, dynamic environment. The classes are nine sessions long, they are either held once a week for nine weeks or twice a week for half of that time. There is also a lot of make-up opportunities so our GMAT students often have very busy schedules, if they need to make up a session they can sit in on another course or make up the session online as well. Students usually, the reason why my students and I’ve been teaching GMAT students for about six years now in Miami and London and New York City and my students tend to say the reason why they choose a classroom course is they like to have that structure and they like to have a study plan they know they can come every week and be there with their instructor. They get to learn from the other student’s questions as well and they get to ask questions which is really important for the tough exam preparation such as the GMAT, something that you can’t always do if you just purchase books on the side. But it’s our most popular option, the classroom course is and the cost for classroom courses is 1449. One of the specific classroom courses that we offer that many students are very interested in is an advanced course. It’s the same price of 1449 and it’s designed for students who are already scoring at a 600 level or above. So it’s going to focus on the toughest question types and toughest content that you’re going to see on the exam and it really allows you to be in that group of advanced students and test takers who are at the similar ability level as you if you’re in that ability level. It’s offered in most of our larger metropolitan areas and something a lot of students have been showing a great deal of interest in. We also offer online courses for students who are looking for flexibility and convienece. We have a version of our full course online called our Premier Online Option for 1299. We also have smaller online courses for someone who just needs a quick boost. Those range from our quiz bank at 199 to an online course at 599. So there’s really a lot of different flexible options out there.”

Now does Kaplan create their own tests? “In all of our comprehensive options we offer 8 full length, computer adaptive practice tests in addition to those that are put out by GMAC so we create those based upon all of our research on the exam and also based on the GMAC materials that are available and really following that same pattern, that same algorithm and creating questions that are as real as possible. One of our practice tests is something that students find extremely helpful and it’s called our ultimate practice test. And it is an opportunity for our students to go a Pearson Testing Center which is where the actual GMAT is offered and to take a practice exam there. So it’s really the most realistic possible scenario that you can experience when you’re preparing for the GMAT is to going into the Pearson Testing Center, take a practice test, it really removes the unknown from the equation of test day, you’re able to focus on the exam itself when you get to the real thing. You don’t have to worry about what is it going to feel like when you’re sitting in that test center or am I going to be able to find it okay and get there on time and what is the actual testing note board and pen so that’s the most important of all of the practice tests. Then we offer in addition to the ultimate practice test, seven other online practice tests as part of our courses.”

Now could you describe Kaplan’s method of teaching? “So our philosophy really for the GMAT is complete preparation. Kaplan takes a three pronged approach to preparing our students. We’ve really been researching this for years and years and we found that the key to successful preparation comes from focusing on three areas. First area is understanding the content of the exam. And content meaning math, grammar, those sorts of background pieces of information you need on the exam. The second area is skill at critical thinking strategies and the third is familiarity with the test and practicing it in that realistic format.”

Manhattan GMAT is one of the smaller boutique test preparation companies founded in 2001. It offers in person classes in a select number of cities around the country and focuses on those who want to score high. It prides itself on strong instructors who scored in the 99th percentile and a highly selective teacher training program. Chris Ryan is Director of Product and Instructor Development for Manhattan GMAT. “Our Flagship course is a nine week course that meets once a week for three hours and covers both math and verbal. For the majority of students the nine week course is what to go with. And the price for that in a face to face venue ranges from 1090 to 1440 depending on the location. We also offer that same course in a virtual format for 990. It’s also a live class. It’s taught online though, in fact by two instructors through a platform called Illuminate which is a pretty cool platform. We also have some other courses, a Boot camp which is an intensive version in two weeks of the nine week course for those who have the time and the where with all to devote a solid two weeks plus to the GMAT in a concentrated form. And that is 2950 here in New York. We also offer workshops, individual workshops around both advanced and fundamental math and advanced verbal. Those are priced at 245 but for students are in one of our main courses they are much cheaper at 95 a piece. We also have tutoring. Private tutoring packages run on an hourly break ranging from 175 to 250 an hour.”

What about the locations? I know you guys aren’t in every city in the country so which cities do you have classes in? “By our name, Manhattan GMAT we obviously have classes here in New York City in Manhattan. We also have face to face classes in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., L.A., San Francisco, and the Bay Area. And we are also opening up locations in Dallas and looking to expand to other cities as well.”

What’s Manhattan’s GMAT method or teaching or what’s the philosophy behind your company? “The philosophy behind our company is actually rather simple. It’s that we believe that fantastic teaching makes a difference. It’s as simple as that. We compensate our instructors at the highest level in the industry at $100 per hour across the board plus an instructor bonus pool, plus a signing bonus and we know that, that compensation attracts the best teachers. We have developed a fantastic curriculum but we don’t think that it’s simply about learning tips, learning tricks. Those are all great but it’s not sufficient to do well, to do superbly on the GMAT. All of our instructors had to have gotten a 99 percentile on the real GMAT. But in addition they all must have substantial teaching experience in a classroom setting. In addition to that we not only interview them over the phone but we bring them to New York for a rigorous in person audition that lasts for hours in which they must teach numerous problems and also teach not only executives on the company but live students in a class. Our success rate of hiring instructors is actually the thing that caps our growth even though we’re growing very rapidly we refuse to compromise on instructor quality. So in our auditions we have a success rate of hiring about 1 in 5. Those are of people who not only have the 99th percentile, not only have teaching experience but passed a phone interview and proved that they are charismatic and smart, etc. Our teacher bios are all on our website so we have; there is detailed public information on every one of our teachers. We have a variety of teachers. We have teachers with MBAs, teachers who don’t have MBAs, we have PhD students, we have people who have other advanced degrees but the common denominator is that they are all fantastic teachers, they all scored very well on the GMAT, know the GMAT inside and out.”

800score offers self study, online GMAT preparation. For less than $40 clients can take five computer adaptive GMAT tests complete with explanations and 24 hour email support. Sean Selinger is owner of 800score, “We have lots of unique features. If you want to practice essays we have an online essay grading service. We have a course about 600 pages long and it’s just an inexpensive way, a simple, convenient way for anyone to prepare for the GMAT. It is not intended to be as comprehensive as spending 1500 on a prep course. Obviously that’s beyond the scope of what we do because that involves a lot of personal service. So this more of a self guided study program. Our claim to fame at 800score is that our test are extremely good. And I think it is essential that people take as many computer adaptive tests as possible. The reason for this is the GMAT is highly counterintuitive. When you take the practice test you can’t go forward, you can’t go backward; it’s delivering you questions based on your difficulty level. If you get stumped you can’t say oh well I have a mental block, just skip and go back, you have to trudge through it. So the whole experience is very disconcerting and it takes maybe five practice tests to even get a handle on it. So what we’ve done with our tests is that we designed them so that people actually learn from taking the practice tests. We have a test pacer built into the test that teaches you the proper timing and we also have on the explanation page, you can print out all of the questions that you get wrong.”

Okay and your tests, how do they compare to the GMAT as in if you score a 680 on your test does that correlate to what you’ll get on the GMAT? “The GMAT unfortunately is a moving target. It is impossible for us to get an exact beat on it. And they constantly change the score range. It varies up and down. So we try to get in the ball park. Right now our tests are actually harder than the GMAT, particularly in the math section. We have to make them a tad bit easier so it’s a constant game of trying to get feedback from people and trying to see where the actually GMAT exam is at. Because the GMAT has become an increasingly harder test over the last two years, particularly in the math section so we have a MIT PhD who got an 800 on the GMAT helps write our questions. We also have people; there is no other phrase to describe them but GMAT geeks. They live, eat and breathe the GMAT. They’ve been GMAT tutors for years, that’s what they do. Most of our part-time tutors in New York they make 100 to 200 dollars an hour and they have real expertise in the GMAT. And the GMAT if you think about the design that you speak to the people who build the GMAT it is designed to weed out people. The questions are very carefully written so that certain people get them right and certain people get them wrong. To try to replicate that you really need someone who scored over a 780 on the GMAT.”

The Princeton Review like Kaplan is a well-known test prep provider that offers courses in convenient locations all over the world. The Princeton Review prides itself on its small class size and a satisfaction guaranteed. Anthony Russomanno is National Product Manager for the Princeton Review, “For students who want the most personal experience we have private one-to-one tutoring and that is an option for students who want a more customizable program. They basically get an expert tutor then focus on the areas that will give them the highest score improvement. And within that they have actually three options with the private tutoring. We have our premier tutors and those are tutors that have at least five years teaching experience and they basically work around the clock and they’re typically requested and referred too. That is 16 hours and it’s 4800 dollars. We have master tutors and they have a least two years experience, great evaluations because we do midterm and final evaluations so we check those for quality control and that is 16 hours, that’s 3200 dollars. Then we have our standard tutors who are our most gifted classroom instructors and that is also again16 hours, that’s 1600 dollars. So we actually have three levels of tutors within the private tutoring. We also have an option if you want to stay with tutoring and have it small, you can prepare with two other students and a tutor which is called a small group tutoring. That is actually 30 hours and that’s 1500 dollars. Basically students can pick the schedule, pick the location and they can form their own group or if they want they can let us match them with other students who have similar goals and then we just call you up, we set up the schedule and you have your own group. That’s actually been new this year that we’ve done. With the tutoring option they get all of the material, they get all of the online resources, 30-40 hours of online resources, they get the practice exam, they take five full-length practice exams outside of their tutor meetings and then the tutor will go over those with them. So that’s the private tutoring option that we have. Then you can move to a classroom course. If you prefer to be in a group setting. And those classroom courses they last 6 to 8 weeks and those are $1,249 and we usually recommend that you take the course just before you take the GMAT, take a course, finish the course and take the GMAT. Those courses are set up, we actually have the max is eight students per class and we have them pretty much all across the country in all of the major cities, pretty convenient locations. The classes, the tutoring, they also come with a satisfaction guarantee and money back. They also give a subscription to Wall Street Journal. They have, what we really like because of the small classes, we give them free extra help with your instructor within the classes. So that’s the classroom model. Then we also have online courses and if you prefer independent study, you want a flexible schedule you can do one of our online courses. We have what we call GMAT Live Online. We also have GMAT Online. We also have an online private tutoring session. We also have an express online. So we have four actually different options to customize your experience. And all of this you can find on our website at PrincetonReview.com.”

Maybe we can talk about your teachers? How do you go about finding your teachers and who do you hire? “The most people come to us just through word of mouth. We have an instructor, they know someone and through that. So word of mouth we get a lot of instructors. At business schools we’ve had previous students who move on but they really enjoyed the class and then they come back and they start teaching for us. We’ve had other teachers who teach our LSAT program who then move into the GMAT and they are great test takers and they’ve done, they scored in the top percentile in pretty much all of these exams and then they come back and they teach another test type for us.”

Finally, could you describe what is unique about Princeton Review compared to your competitors? “Probably the number one thing is the classroom and the class size. We have a max of students, of eight students per class. We think that is, is just a personalized learning environment. We’re committed to that. If we have ten students who want a certain, specific schedule we’re going to split that into two classes of five. If the student likes that type of classroom environment with a small class size, where it’s personal, where you’re going to be called on. Your teacher is going to know your name; you’d really like our class. Another thing that sets it apart is when we split those classes into two classes of five we also do something called ability grouping. Other companies aren’t able to do that because they have larger class sizes. So we put students in their learning style to reach the maximum of scoring potential. So for example if a student has a starting score of 600 or higher, they’re looking to get into the 700 range well we wouldn’t put someone that is scoring 450 in that same class when we’re splitting the classes. So they might have, they have different needs so what it does is it allows teachers to go at the right pace for their class and give the students the needs that they want to get the improvement that they want.”

Veritas Prep is a boutique test prep company that focuses on test takers who aim to score high. With instructors scoring in the 99th percentile, Veritas offers courses in 50 cities around the world and prides itself on offering the most classroom hours than anywhere else. Chad Troutwine is Co-Founder of Veritas Prep, “Back in 2001 when we originally conceived the idea for this company we put together a list of everything that we thought would comprise the ideal GMAT program. Then we set out to create it. And the standards are really pretty simple. One: the highest instructor standards anywhere and we define that by insisting that all of our instructors have scored in the 99th percentile on an actual GMAT, that we would recruit and retain the most engaging and talented instructors by paying more than anyone else in the industry. We also developed what we believe was certainly the most advance and has proven to be the most successful of GMAT curriculum. We offer the most classroom hours, we offer the most practice tests, and we offer unparalleled email and phone support. And then last but of critical importance, the varied course offerings and settings and prices of our program. I think our goal was to offer maximum flexibility and in the first couple of years that was difficult. We simply didn’t have the critical mass to offer as many different course types in as many different locations as we wanted. But that has certainly changed. So now we offer study program really that meet anyone’s needs. Our base course, our renowned 42 hours full course is monstrously popular. It meets two week day evenings for seven consecutive weeks, we offer that program in more than 40 cities here in the United States and another 30 in several countries around the world. That course price like all of our 42 hour courses is 1500 dollars. We also offer weekend courses in a couple of different formats in either seven consecutive Saturdays or an all-day Saturday, all-day Sunday event for two consecutive weekends. That has proven to be very popular whose schedules won’t allow them to attend our regular evening classes. It also allows us to offer a verbal or quant focus. The first weekend is devoted exclusively to the verbal material on the GMAT. The second weekend is devoted exclusively to the math or quantitative section of the test. So it allows students who already mastered one section or the other to choose the one that fits their needs. That is also unique to the industry. We also offer corporate courses in select investment banks, management consultancies and other fortune 500 companies. We encourage anyone who is interested in such a program to contact us at our offices. We offer similar programs at some universities as well. Our Intensive course is a 42 hour program compressed into a single week. We only offer that in a few cities, it is ideal for people who live in particular remote areas but prefer live and in person classes. We also offer private tutoring of course. One-on-one for anyone who needs to work on a specific topic area or just prefers that type of teaching style. We now offer Virtual Veritas which are which are live but conducted online and we also offer Veritas on-demand, a prerecorded version of our course which is also done online with a former instructor of the year complete with dynamic and interactive features. As you can imagine that has proven to be very popular as well. To kind of wrap it up we believe that we offer not only the best courses but even the best value. Our 42 hour courses at 1500 dollars compared to the roughly 1400 dollars that our competitors charge. So on a per hour basis we’re far less expensive. Our weekend courses are 1200, Virtual Veritas is 1100, our Verbal or Quant courses are $700 each and Veritas On-Demand, our online product is $600. Private GMAT tutoring starts at $160 with package discounts and discounts for our existing students of course.”

And what about your teachers? How do you find your teachers and what is the hiring process? “We have a wide variety of teachers. I know this by rout because I created it and put it up on our website. But I know we have teachers who are former Harvard and MIT professors, Rock musicians, high school teachers, division one athletes, debate stars, professional climbers, yoga instructors, we’ve got a professional comedian, a former jet fighter pilot. These are exceptional people who are engaging and love to help other people duplicate their success.”

Manhattan Review is one of the smaller GMAT companies; it offers courses in a select few cities in the US and more then 25 countries worldwide. It prides itself on its time and cost effective courses and high scoring instructors. Timothy Reardon is Academic Program Manager for Manhattan Review, “We offer a range of in person and online courses in addition to private tutoring packages. One of the classes that we offer is a two day, in person weekend crash course, it is 16 hours long and it is 8 hours each day. We also offer an in person intensive course which is a 20 hour course, 4 hours each day for seven days in a row. Another course that we offer is a long course, it is in person and it is either 6 or 8 sessions long and it ranges from 4 to 8 weeks. It totals 28 hours and it is designed on weekend afternoons and weekend evenings to accommodate the working professional. We also offer an online course which is 9 sessions long and each session is usually typically 3 hours and it is about 28 hours in total. We have various private tutoring packages that can be tailored to student’s individual needs. They can be accommodated in person and online. And those tutoring range from 105-125 US dollars per hour. Our courses range from 850 to 1500 US dollars per hour depending on location and course type and we offer our courses globally.”

And can you tell me where you offer your courses? “We are located worldwide. You can access our course from any location online. We have in person classes in cities such as London, Frankfurt, Munich, New York, Boston, L.A., Miami, Hong Kong, Singapore and other destinations that you can visit our website to find out more about them.”

Okay and what about your professors? Who teaches your course and can you talk about how you find and hire your teachers? “We have two types of teachers; the first is top school PhD graduates particularly with majors in Math, Physics, or Literature and who have substantial college level teaching experience. Another type of teacher we have is a MBA grad with substantial work and teaching experience and who have scored in the top 99th percentile on the GMAT test. How we hire our teachers is the majority of our instructors have a long tenure with us. New teachers are based mostly on referrals; new teachers also go through a rigorous interview process. All new teachers start as tutors and gradually take on more assignments as they prove themselves based on student course feedback.”

So what’s unique about your test prep courses? “With all of our courses and services we strive for cost effectiveness and time effectiveness. In order to achieve this we focus on essential concepts and test taking strategies so the students can maximize their learning within a compressed period of time. We also advocate a combination of classroom learning and one-on-one learning. Once a student has demonstrated an area of weakness we advise the student to develop a targeted learning plan.

Listeners we’re inviting you to pick the next topic for an upcoming show, tell us what you’d like to hear and we’ll make it happen. If we choose your idea we’ll also let you pick what schools and guests you’d like to hear from. Send your email suggestions to info@mbapodcater.com.

For more information, advice and to register for your weekly MBA podcast visit mbapodcaster.com. I’m Janet Nakano for MBA Podcaster, thanks for joining us and listen next time for another topic to help you in your MBA application process and life beyond.

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