Manhattan Prep GMAT Review

Manhattan Prep

• Self-Paced or Live Classes
• Includes Prep Ebooks
• Money-Back guarantee

• Self-Paced or Live Classes
• Includes Prep Ebooks
• Money-Back guarantee

Our Score

9.7

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See our full review process

Pros

• Video lessons efficiently deliver everything you need to know
• Six mock exams with official questions from past exams
• Detailed prep books that help you effectively prep
• Organized course structure that is intuitive and easy to follow
• Foundations of Math pre-course for those weak in quant
• In-depth explanations for every practice problem

Cons

• Qbank interface is clunky in places
• No pre-written explanations for official practice tests

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Table of Contents

• Video: Is Manhattan Prep GMAT Good?
• How The Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Works & Our Thoughts
• Manhattan Prep Course Cost & Prep Options
  
• How Manhattan Prep compares to Kaplan’s GMAT course
• Verdict: Is The Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Worth It?

As this is a lengthy review article, please feel free to use the jump-to link above to navigate this post.

Video: Is Manhattan Prep GMAT Good?

In the video above, John from the Test Prep Insight team covers everything you need to know about the GMAT prep courses from Manhattan Prep.

How The Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Works & Our Thoughts

Structurally the Manhattan prep GMAT course is largely driven by your online study plan.

You’re given a very organized, task-based agenda, and the program is structured to be completed over 12 weeks. There are 9 weeks of lessons and homework, followed by a 3-week period of review and practice before exam day.

Manhattan Prep rolled out several improvements in fall 2025 that streamlined the course. The curriculum now breaks things into shorter bite-sized lessons and practice sets, which means more frequent check-ins to keep you engaged. There’s also a dynamic calendar that automatically adjusts your weekly study plan based on what you actually completed, though you can manually tweak it if needed. And they’ve integrated an AI tool that’s been trained on all their materials, so you can ask it questions about any problem in real time.

However, that 12- week timeline assumes you don’t need extra help with math. When you sign up with Manhattan, one of the very first tasks that they ask you to do is to take a basic math diagnostic.

It is only 16 problems, but is meant to assess your current math skills. Then based on how you perform, they may recommend you take their free Foundations of Math course before diving in.

There are two ways to approach the Foundations of Math course. You can tackle it upfront before the main program, or layer it in over the first four weeks.

Here’s what I’d recommend. If you struggle with most of the diagnostic problems and haven’t taken any math classes in the last few years, stop and do the Foundations course upfront. I know it’s a pain, as it takes an extra 4 weeks (extending the program to 16 weeks total), but it’s worth it if you’re weak in math. For the GMAT, you have to master quant. There’s no way around it.

If you do so-so on the diagnostic and feel good about some problems but not others, layer it in over the first four weeks. You’ll keep moving through the main course and finish in under 12 weeks.

And if you’re already solid at math, skip it entirely and jump right in. It’s not necessary if you have a strong starting point.

Whether you do the Foundations of Math course upfront, layered in, or not at all, there are two different ways to take the Manhattan course. There is a on demand (self-paced) version of the course or a version with live classes.

What you learn and the order in which you learn it is the same. But the on demand version is optimized for working on your own. The video lessons are broken down into bite-sized modules that have you watching, reading, and practicing in tighter cycles to keep your momentum going.  

Or perhaps you need the commitment and accountability that comes with a regular live class schedule — that would be another reason to go with the live version of the program. The live classes meet once a week for three hours, and that can be a big deal to some people, as it can help to keep them on track and disciplined. And you do get recordings of the lessons in case you miss class.

In the end, it somewhat comes down to whether the cost difference is worth the value of those live classes. For an extra $900 (more on program cost below), it may or may not be worth it. It will just depend on your individual situation.

I will say though that I thought the live classes were very good. The Manhattan Prep instructors are probably the best we’ve seen in the GMAT space.

They have incredibly strong communication skills, effective approaches to tackling different problem types, and a really good grasp of the subject matter. They’re just incredible GMAT teachers.

However, you also get these same instructors in the pre-recorded video lectures in the on demand package, so it’s a really hard call whether to spring for the live classes. Either way, I suppose the point I’m making is that the Manhattan team of instructors is very good.

Circling back to the syllabus, whether you take the live class version of the course or the on demand package, you’re looking at about 8 to 15 hours of homework each week. That’s what we found.

As noted above, the program is organized around a week-by-week schedule, and each week you’ll cover Quant, Data Insights, and Verbal.

In a live course, you’ll begin with your class session and then receive assigned readings from the course texts, along with videos and practice problem sets. These materials are designed to reinforce what you learned in the previous class and help you prepare for the next one.

In the on demand program, you’ll be bopping back and forth regularly between videos, readings, and practice problems. You can skip around among lesson modules as you like, though it’s probably a good idea to stick with the suggested order most of the time.

When you enroll in a Manhattan Prep course, you receive three main prep books plus two supplemental ebooks (Foundations of Math and Advanced Math). The ebook versions are included in the course cost, and you can purchase print copies of the three main books for an additional fee. It comes down to personal preference, but for me, I prefer the print versions.

The eBooks now run through digital platform VitalSource, which is solid. You can highlight, take notes, and when you’re assigned a reading, you just click and it takes you right to the page. It’s pretty seamless and a big improvement over their old software.

Manhattan Prep uses official problems from GMAC, the makers of the exam, which is great news because you’re practicing on problems from actual past exams. There’s no better form of practice material than that. And Manhattan Prep writes their own explanations for those Official Guide problems, so you get guidance built right on top of the real thing.

For a while, their quiz generator couldn’t pull in those official GMAT questions directly, which was frustrating. But they updated this in 2025, and now the quiz generator integrates the more than 1,100 official questions from the Official Guide right into the platform.

The solutions that Manhattan Prep has crafted to go along with each problem are very good and best I’ve seen. They’re detailed and well-explained, and honestly better than GMAC’s own explanations in many cases.

Manhattan Prep also has a second quiz generator with more than 1,200 problems written by their instructors, ranging from foundational level to advanced. The platform includes an AI Explainer tutor that was trained on all of Manhattan Prep’s books, lessons, and solutions. I like that it can see whatever you’re looking at on screen, answer questions, and direct you to more resources.

One other aspect of the Manhattan Prep practice work that they are relentless about tracking your progress, especially when it comes to practice tests. But here’s the thing — it’s partly a manual process.

Every time you take an exam, they expect you to spend a big chunk of time afterwards going problem-by-problem and categorizing whether you guessed, what your mistake was, and a few other filters. Basically, Manhattan Prep wants you to spend some time thinking about each question and learning from your mistakes.

The problem tracking is detailed and can feel tedious, especially after a full practice exam. Manhattan Prep has a focus on this because their data shows students who commit to the full analysis see better outcomes. But let’s be real, it’s manual work and not everyone loves spending that much time categorizing mistakes. They do offer a lighter version of the tracker for your first couple exams, but they push you toward the full version because that’s what correlates with score improvements.

Anyway, that is how it goes with the Manhattan Prep syllabus. For the first 9 weeks, you attend your weekly class (or do your self-paced video lessons), do your assigned reading, work your practice problems, and review the solutions.

During those 9 weeks, there are four assigned mock exams, and then two more during the last couple weeks before test day (you can take each one twice). One drawback: Manhattan Prep doesn’t have their own explanations for these practice exams yet, but you can talk to your instructor or post on the forums when you have questions. Also, around those mock exams during the last couple weeks, they have you focus on mindset, they reiterate strategy, and generally try to have you learn from your mistakes.

Manhattan Prep also offers a mobile app with a bunch of practice questions and full explanations. It’s a solid option for studying on the go, though I found that some of the question formats are easier to view on a tablet than a phone.

Around all of this, there are a few more small features, like a digital whiteboard and student forum to ask questions and connect with other students, but that’s Manhattan Prep in a nutshell.

Manhattan Prep Course Cost & Prep Options

Manhattan Prep has restructured their pricing to be more flexible. The on demand course pricing depends on how long you need access. You can get 1 month for around $300 (a new option that’s great for crammers), 6 months for around $900, or 12 months for around $1,200. The live online course is more expensive and runs around $1,800.

Manhattan Prep offers two kinds of money-back guarantee, depending on the program you choose. The on demand program guarantees that your official score will be higher than your first practice test score.

Manhattan Prep’s new 655+ course guarantees either a 655+ score (90th percentile) or 70-point improvement. And if you want more structure or personalized attention, they also offer bootcamp and tutoring packages at higher price points.

That being said, note that Manhattan Prep is very aggressive with sales and special promos, and you’ll rarely pay full price, which could change your thoughts on which package to opt for.

Compared to other major GMAT prep providers, like Princeton Review, these prices are not outrageous. Manhattan offers a premium prep option, and they are in line with other more premium prep providers.

👉 Check our Manhattan Prep promo codes page for live GMAT offers

How Manhattan Prep compares to Kaplan’s GMAT course

Students familiar with Kaplan GMAT prep often want to know how the old Kaplan course compares to the new Manhattan Prep GMAT course. In practical terms, Kaplan’s GMAT course now lives inside the Manhattan platform, so you are getting Kaplan’s long standing experience plus Manhattan Prep’s more modern lesson design.

If you used Kaplan GMAT practice tests or worked through the Kaplan GMAT question bank in the past, the biggest difference is how everything is now organized into Manhattan Prep’s 12 week study plan, with clearer video lessons and homework blocks. You still get plenty of computer adaptive GMAT practice, but the overall flow and teaching style feels more structured. From our point of view, this Manhattan Prep GMAT course is a better fit if you want a more rigorous, instructor led experience.

So if you are asking if Kaplan is good for GMAT, the short answer is yes, but only through this Manhattan Prep GMAT course, which now carries the Kaplan content and support.

Verdict: Is The Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Worth It?

Honestly, I think this course is one of the best in the space. It is such a well-designed approach to teaching that it just feels more robust and comprehensive than all of the other courses I’ve taken and reviewed. The instructors are fantastic; the practice problems are official questions from past exams; the accompanying explanations are insightful and actionable; and the 12-week syllabus is a perfect length and structure. I am just a huge fan. If you are still comparing the best GMAT prep courses and looking for the best GMAT practice tests, Manhattan Prep is our top pick.

To be clear, practice exams without pre-made explanations gets old, the Qbank interface is clunky in places, and the higher tiers are pricey (though the one-month option helps). But overall, I really like this GMAT prep program. I don’t think you can go wrong with Manhattan Prep.

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