GMAT Preparation in London: Interview

Hoping to get some inside information on GMAT preparation courses in London, TopMBA Career Guide interviewed Manhattan Review's Academic Director Joern Meissner. Manhattan Review is a small company dedicated to highly efficient preparation and teaching excellence.

Joern, what is your own background?

Currently, I am a doctoral candidate at Columbia Business School, dividing my time between London and New York. I have more than 12 years of graduate-level teaching experience in quantitative decision-making in business. After my review sessions at Columbia proved to be highly popular, some MBAs asked me to assist their friends with their GMAT preparation. I started private tutoring and, from there, conceived of the idea of a full GMAT preparation course.

What is unique about Manhattan Review's GMAT prep classes?

The idea behind Manhattan Review's preparation is to bring part of the Business School experience to the test preparation classroom. We require that our teachers have already succeeded in a business education environment before hiring them, so they can share their expertise with our students and provide a compact and efficient review of GMAT concepts. We found that MBA candidates connect best with people that come from a Business School environment.

Your most popular offering is a weekend course. Why do you think this format is so beneficial for students?

Two major factors make our classes so successful. First, we are able to fly in the best teachers: educators who are superior to those locally available. Second, our focused curriculum enables us to prepare our students well in a very short amount of time. It is worth noting that preparation continues with us after our participants complete the weekend course. We provide extensive material that participants work through after the class. We also track their progress through tests that they need to submit back to us, so we can further assist them with recommendations and suggestions for studying.

Where do most of your students in London come from, and where do they want to apply?

In London, quite a few of our participants fly in from other countries because they could not find quality GMAT preparation in their own countries. They take advantage of the good connection to London from most places in Europe. Regarding our participants' goals, this is nearly unlimited, but most want to go to a Top 10 US or UK business school. Many others prefer to stay in London to study.

Do you have any statistics about the success of your students?

On average, participants who have taken the test before taking our course show an improvement of over 90 points. Of course, we must base these numbers on the reports of those students who inform us of their exam scores. We admit that this number may have a slight bias since those with higher scores are more apt to report their result. Otherwise, it is hard to benchmark our students' improvement due to the lack of hard data, but it is safe to say that a substantial percentage of our course participants score over 700 points.

Do you have a special tip for people starting their preparation?

We have a lot of useful information about the GMAT on our website, so my recommendation is to visit us on the net. You can also take a complete practice test for free! That's a great way to practice and receive some feedback from our GMAT experts. Joern, thank you very much for your time! Information about Manhattan Review's GMAT prep classes and the free practice test can be accessed on the internet at https://www.manhattanreview.co.uk/ or by phone at +44 (0) 870 458 2197.