GMAT prep company
Misrepresentations and non-disclosures you should know about
VERITAS PREP GMAT
Veritas Prep makes several claims about its GMAT prep course. Know the facts about Veritas Prep, and you will not choose Veritas Prep GMAT course. Here goes the list: - Veritas prep's newest claim is that some of its tutors are "ex-Harvard and MIT professors and scientists". MLIC has sought clarification from Veritas LLC
, and it refused to provide the names of its tutors who were ex-Harvard and M.I.T. professors and "scientists". Secondly, Veritas prep claims that its new instructors have to serve as assistants to veteran tutors before becoming tutors themselves. Again, MLIC asked for substantiation of this feature, and Veritas refused to comply. Strange, huh! Because of logistical issues, Veritas Prephires its tutors through phone interviews and skype auditions. The recruits are merely required to watch videos before becoming eligible to be your GMAT tutor. You be the judge as to the value of training you will receive if you choose Veritas Prep GMAT courses.
- Veritas prep has stopped posting the names of its tutors along with their GMAT Scores for reasons best known to it. In the past, Veritas Prep has run ads in Craigslist stating that it 'prefers but not requires' teaching experience of its instructors. It had also stated that it would accept an applicant who has scored in the 99th percentile in either Verbal or Math sections of the GMAT.
- Veritas recruits its instructors by continuously running classifed ads in Craigslist.com or Vault.com, and sends them out to teach after SKYPE auditions and after phone interviews. The attendees are required to evaluate the instructor hired by Veritas prep -- it would use you as a guinea pig after taking your $1,600.
- Veritas prep buys nearly 11 to 12 (by its own admission) of the 15 prep tests from companies such as Arco, 800score.com, Cambridge, etc. and will not disclose this fact. Veritas Prepis so vociferous in claiming that it supplies you with 15 tests versus 4 or 5 by other GMAT prepcompanies that it conveniently fails to disclose that at least 10 of the 15 tests are bought from other companies that you can buy from directly as well. (Of “Veritas’s” practice tests, 2 are available for free from GMAC at www.mba.com, 5 are available for $45.00 at CATprep.com, 5 are available for $39.95 at 800score.com, and 3 are available as a CD-ROM accompaniment to a book called Master the GMAT that’s available for about $28. This information is according to Manhattan GMAT blog. By Veritas Prep's own admission, only 4-5 of the 15 tests are created exclusively for Veritas Prep. Therefore, Veritas Prep does not reallyoffer you more GMAT practice tests than other GMAT prep companies do), David Newland, a garden-variety instructor for Veritas Prep, recently PM'd a beatthegmat junkie who asked him about the boatload of errors in Veritas Tests as follows: 1) "We did not write these, we purchased them and they are being edited now. No way to explain them."
2) "The diagnostic quizzes are in need of editing. The full CATs are generally better. The GMATLife and the "Simulator" are good. The question you have cited is not good. I disagree with the "official" answer."
Know the facts about Veritas Prep courses
before you choose your prep course. If you do due diligence, you will not pick Veritas Prep GMAT course.
- MLIC GMAT prep courses are taught by instructors who provide comprehensive training and pay meticulous attention to details. Read more about how Chad Troutwine admits to using language that was likely to be misunderstood in Veritas Prep's website, and states that he 'admires' MLIC's attention to detail.
- Because Veritas Prep hires its tutors long distance and through phone interviews (and Skype auditions) from its location in Malibu, CA, it cannot have any control over the teaching ability of its GMAT tutors. Instead, it shifts the burden to you to evaluate its GMAT instructors. If you happened to be stuck with a bad one, too bad and tough luck.
- Veritas Prep's new strange math is 4 = 400+.Veritas Prep's press release that is posted on Wikipedia claims that Veritas Prep has 400+ employees. By last count, Veritas LLc that runs Veritas Prep has 4 emplyees, including Chad Troutwine and Markus Moberg. All its tutors are hourly-wages paid contractors, not employees. It is inexplicable why Veritas Prep would claim to have 400+ employees when it has only 4. You do the math on this one.
- The bottomline is, do due diligence in choosing your GMAT prep course: do not pick Veritas prep for your GMAT training
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MANHATTAN GMAT
Manhattan GMAT is all soda, no whiskeyoutfit, and has merged with Kaplan GMAT recently. So, you have two bad companies merging into one.. - Manhattan GMAT, like other GMAT prep companies, lies about instructor qualifications and its hiring methods. Many of its tutors have not taken the GMAT or been to Business Schools. Does it make sense to think that a "99th percentile" tutor has his or her day job as dog-sitter or as a waiter at the tables while waiting for their breaks in Broadway or whatever?
- Manhattan GMAT is the only company on the block that does not offer any type of guarantee about its useless GMAT course. MGMAT knows that its training methodologies do not work and does not want to offer any guarantee. Of course, MGMAT cares about your money more than about your GMAT readiness, and has no qualms about wanting you to fork out your hard-earned $1,500.
- Manhattan GMAT frequently cancels its classes and switches you to its ONLINE course if it does not receive at least 4 registrations. There are several reports that MGMAT refuses to give refunds for canceled classes.
- Manhattan GMAT advertises 27 hours of prepping but if you factor in the early dismissals and breaks, you will be at the MGMAT classes for a total of barely 20 hours.
- Manhattan GMAT prep course relies solely on Official Guide (it admits to this fact on its website), which contains retired questions and explanations. Why would you need an unqualified dog-sitter turned MGMAT tutor to explain a few explained problems to you. MGMAT does not teach concepts and has a bizarre schedule for its sessions (veritable skim-and-scam operation). The trainer will start with critical reasoning and then jump to math and go to Sentence correction before dismissing the class 20 minutes ahead of scheduled time. Check the Schedule posted on MGMAT website and see for yourself
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- In short, MGMAT is a dog-and-pony show that cares about your money more than about your future. If you are smart, you will avoid Manhattan GMAT.
KAPLAN GMAT (KAPTEST)
Kaplan prep for GMAT is a tricks and gimmicks based tutorials taught by student instructors who get paid about $8 an hour. Nearly all of the tutors employed by Kaplan have not taken the GMAT or been to Business schools. Kaplan administers its own practice test to familiarize the student tutor with the test, arms them with talking points and sends them out to while away your time. - Kaplan offers the least in-class hours: 18 hours and relies on strategies that might have worked in the 70's but do not work in the new computer adaptive format of the GMAT.
- Kaplan creates its own training materials that do not represent the language or the specific nature of GMAT problems and questions. As a result, your training will be useless when you take the actual GMAT test. Lately, Kaplan has started offering Official Guide to GMAT review that you can purchase on Amazon.com for about $20.
- Kaplan's score improvement or money back guarantee is a joke. In order to get your money back, you should not have opened the books it sent you. Its score improvement is predicated usually on its own diagnostic test, that is graded rather stingily so that any score will be better than your first diagnostic test score.
- In short, Kaptest is a clueless operator that has not kept pace with the changes on the computer adaptive format of the GMAT. In fact, Kaplan prep course can actually harm your chances for doing well on the GMAT CAT exam.
PRINCETON REVIEW
Princeton Review GMAT prep is just as bad as Kaplan and Manhattan GMAT in that Princeton Review features about 18-21 hours of in-class sessions, at least 6 hours of which are spent in practice tests, and uses training methods that are not relevant to the Computer adaptive format of the GMAT-CAT. - Princeton Review uses student instructors who are made to take its own GMAT and score whatever in order to be eligible to teach. It arms them with talking points and have them say, if you ask them a serious question, that the company policy does not allow them to discuss the problem during the class. You will then be asked to send an email to the company and wait for an answer 48-72 hours later. (Kaplan does the same shady thing.) How cool is that?
- Princeton Review creates its own test questions that do not represent the realities of the GMAT. So, you will be trained with questions that are unrepresentative of the actual GMAT-CAT.
- Its satisfaction guarantee is a joke. If you read the fine print, it is nearly impossible to be satisfied with Princeton Review.
GMAT ZONE
GMAT Zonerun by Collins and Kumarasinghe has no experience in GMAT test preparation
and provides mediocre seminars, using substandard GMAT prep materials
and retired questions from the Official Guide for GMAT Review
that you can buy for $20. The GMAT Official Guide
uses retired questions from past GMAT's and contains explanations and answer key. Why would you need GMAT Zone to explain the explanations to you?
Do not trust any company such as GMAT Zone or Manhattan GMAT that simply offers you OG-based tutorials because you will not receive the most relevant GMAT training
in GMAT assessment areas that only MLIC provides.
ICON+ & Manhattan Review
Manhattan Reviewhas no standards with regard to instructor qualifications or to course materials. It uses awful, untrained, unqualified humans to waste your time and insult your intelligence.
The upstart Icon-Plususes a guy called Andrew who allegedly scored 720 on the GMAT the only time he took it. Like GMAT Zone, Manhattan GMAT, and Manhattan Review, Icon+ does not offer any guarantee to back up its OG-based seminars and broad overview sessions. Do not trust any GMAT prep company that is not willing to offer any guarantee. A company offering no guarantee cares more about your prep dollars than about your GMAT success or your future. MLIC GMAT is the best GMAT preparation course because it is backed by industry-leading and one-of-a-kind 80th percentile score guarantee and because MLIC delivers results.
Shawn Berry's GMAT
Shawn Berry, the self-professed exemplar of perfection, dumps the old, retired GMAT tests, makes you take them before showing up at his basement in Half-moon bay home in California, and will show you how he would do those tests. Then, he believes that you can be a monkey and imitate what he did by simply watching him show you how he would do the problems you missed. For this great privilege, he wants you to pony up $10,000 per 10 sessions (strictly cash, please). Shawn Berry believes that if you are a monkey, then you can easily see and do what monkeys do: act irrationally. If you believe that Shawn Berry can help you perfect the GMAT, you need to see a shrink first.
It appears that California is the Noah's ark of questionable actors: There is Veritas Prep (Veritas LLC) operating from Southern California and here is Shawn Berry who owns the corner in Northern California. Know the facts and you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and money. Be wise: Choose the ONLY goal-driven and skill-enhancing GMAT prep course offered by MLIC.