I wrapped up my first week of GMAT preparation with Manhattan GMAT on Sunday. With the assigned readings, online labs, practice problems, and retired GMAT problems the program requires about 3 hours of study a day outside of class. MGMAT includes a really helpful excel spreadsheet homework tracker that lets you sort by day, week, assignment type, priority, etc using pivot tables. One annoying point about this process is apparently the homework tracker was organized using an older version of the study guides, so assigned problems don’t correlate and more importantly, I didn’t discover there are additional “advanced” chapters in the back of the book that are not factored into the homework timeline. The argument for this is the additional chapters are for students who wish to delve into the topics in greater detail. But if you’re going to pony up and study 20 hours per week after coming home from work I suspect you’re doing it to get the best possible score on the GMAT. So you probably want to do the advanced curriculum as well. It would be nice if the chapters were included in the assigned homework in a logical fashion, even if they were assigned lower priority.

Barring that minor complaint though, both of my instructors are extremely good at breaking down ideas or arguments and explaining them in simple clear terms. I initially hesitated to enroll in an online class because I doubted the ability of the format to communicate the material as well as a live class. But the format of online interaction includes a chat window to the side of the explanation board, and ways for students to raise their hand to speak, as well as the ability to poll answer results and then try to take arguments from each answer to prove/disprove that choice. It seems to be an extremely well adapted format to the medium, and because there is no video component you can sit in class in your boxers. There is also the added bonus of not having to arrive 30 minutes early to find parking and possibly have it validated.

Overall I think the class is most likely a very good investment in my preparation to apply to school. I don’t intend to do a weekly review, but if anything in the class stands out as worth mentioning I will bring it up. Now back to studying before I have to leave for work.

I’ve picked up a couple of admissions guide books recently. How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs by Richard Montauk and The Best Business Schools’ Admissions Secrets by Chioma Isiadinso. I’m a couple hundred pages into Montauk’s book and would definitely recommend every applicant picks up a copy. It is on just about every bookstore bookshelf in America and easily worth the $30 bucks.

I’ll be hopping on a plane tomorrow and plan to read through most of Isiainso’s book over the next week. I will be posting a review of both books here shortly, though Montauk’s book may take another couple of weeks since it is about as long as the King James Bible I got for 6th grade confirmation.

Yesterday I received my course package from Manhattan GMAT. The course materials arrive in a small square box loaded to the brim. In the box I received a library of GMAT resources and a few extra goodies. Here’s the breakdown.

• 8 topic based review books authored by Manhattan GMAT, 5 on quantitative subjects and 3 on verbal.
• 3 Official GMAT books, the review guide, quantitative review, and verbal review
• An application strategy guide from MBA Mission consultants
• Headset with microphone for participating in the online course
• Stopwatch for timing problem sets
• Replica dry erase test simulation booklet (no paper is allowed in the GMAT)

They also have a significant amount of the course online including 6 practice exams, topic specific question banks, archived challenge problems, labs for each online class, free access to GMAT Write software for essay preparation, available weekly office hours, and a number of downloads including a really helpful pivot table for tracking your progress through the Official GMAT Review books.

It is really an overwhelming amount of material, but counting 3 hours for class every week I am anticipating anywhere from 12 to 20 hours of work per week for 9 weeks plus a personal review at the end. That could mean upwards of 200 hours of preparation! I have self diagnosed some really specific issues I need to address, like sentence correction, along with a general review of material so this course should be a big help.

The first GMAT practice exam, which I took cold, I scored a 610. The homework on arrival to my first Manhattan GMAT class is to have taken the first of their provided practice tests. So the two scores combined should give me a pretty solid baseline of my abilities at the start. I would like to see a final score hovering around 720, probably in part because I am being cocky, but also because it puts me over the hump of average GMAT scores for every school I am considering.

I will be discussing my own preparation as well as my experience with Manhattan GMAT as the course progresses. In the mean time, good luck to anyone out there undertaking their own preparation.

I have been intensively researching Business Schools and the MBA application process for about a month now and have found several resources that have helped get me pointed in the right direction.

1. MBA Podcaster
MBA Podcaster has built up a wealth of interviews, discussions, and guidance on every aspect of the MBA admissions process. It has helped me generate heuristics for part time vs full time, evaluating MBA ROI and performing self evaluations for getting into top schools along with a wealth of information. Each podcast tends to run between 15 to 25 minutes which is great for my commute. I just load them up on my Blackberry and listen to them on the way to work.

2. Clear Admit Blog
Clear Admit is an MBA Admissions Consultancy, but they have also compiled one of the most thorough resources on the web for information on top programs. Each time I begin to research a new school I read the full summaries and any available articles on the Clear Admit blog.

3. Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog
Stacy Blackman is another admissions consultancy, and their corresponding blog has a few great tools. Most notably there is an extensive section on essay tips for current essay questions from most top MBA programs.

4. Business Week MBA Insider
Most of the major financial publications have rankings and information on top business schools and MBA programs, but Business week does a great job getting info on specific school admissions and student profiles to help you narrow your search as well as determine your chances of getting in.