Manhattan Review GMAT Tutoring Review

Manhattan Review GMAT tutoring carries no price. Not an hourly rate, not a package, not a starting-from figure: the product page ends in a consultation form. Four of the six providers in GMAT tutoring we track publish what they charge, and Manhattan Review is not one of them. The single number Manhattan Review does commit to is a threshold, and it is worth knowing before the call: packages of 12 hours or more get a discount on the overall hourly rate plus a bundle of supplemental study materials.

That bundle is the other thing to check. Manhattan Review lists five items in it, and two of them are written for sections of the GMAT that no longer exist.

Summary Table

The GMAT private tutor page. Source: manhattanreview.com (captured September 2026).

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Manhattan Review GMAT Tutoring Overview

Manhattan Review is a test prep company founded in 1999 and started at Columbia Business School. It is not Manhattan Prep. The names are close enough that students buy the wrong one, and the two companies compete directly in the same category: we review Manhattan Prep GMAT tutoring separately, and it is the more expensive and more transparent of the two.

Tutoring here is sold as a custom engagement rather than a product with a price. What you buy is hours with a tutor, either on their own or bolted onto one of Manhattan Review's group courses. What the page describes:

• Private 1-on-1 sessions, online or in person, with homework assigned between them
• A free consultation with an academic advisor who takes your background, timeline and goals
• Tutor pairing by that advisor, followed by a free introductory meeting with the proposed tutor
• A diagnostic first session. The provider says its instructors "devote the initial tutoring session with a student to assessing strengths and weaknesses and outlining a customized lesson plan"
• A bundle of study materials at 12 hours or more, including five full-length practice tests
• No guarantee of any kind, on any of its GMAT tutoring pages

The sales process is a two-step funnel and both steps are free. You speak to an advisor, the advisor pairs you with a tutor, and you meet that tutor before committing. If the match is wrong you can ask for someone else. Manhattan Review is explicit that "speaking with an academic advisor and meeting with a potential tutor are introductory sessions that are completely free of charge". That is a real advantage over buying a package blind, which is what the two largest branded competitors ask you to do.

One wrinkle worth naming, because the pages disagree with each other. The private tutor page opens by saying "Students are offered a choice of tutors to determine who best fits their individual needs and learning style". Further down the same page, and again on the GMAT tutor detail page, the mechanism is the advisor pairing you with someone. Treat it as advisor-assigned with a veto, not a roster you browse.

Manhattan Review GMAT Tutoring Review For 2026

Two of the five bundled guides are written for a GMAT that no longer exists

Manhattan Review says students who buy 12 hours or more "receive a generous discount in the overall hourly rate, as well as a bonus selection of supplemental study materials". Five items are listed. Two of them name sections GMAC removed from the exam.

One is "a strategy guide for the AWA Section of the GMAT", which the page says breaks down more than 30 real argument topics with sample solutions ranging from flawed to excellent. The other is "a workbook for the Integrated Reasoning section of the GMAT", with more than 50 representative IR practice questions.

GMAC's own exam structure page says the GMAT is three sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights. It runs 2 hours 15 minutes and 64 questions. There is no Analytical Writing Assessment and no Integrated Reasoning section. Two screens above the materials list, the same Manhattan Review page says "We stay on top of every change made to the GMAT, and with the release of the GMAT Focus Edition, our tutors have updated our curriculum."

Two of the five bundled guides name sections that are gone. Source: Manhattan Review tutoring page and GMAC exam content, read September 2026.

The two are not equally dead, and it is worth being precise. The AWA guide is dead weight: the GMAT has no writing section, so 30 argument topics with model essays prepare you for nothing on test day. The IR workbook is different. GMAC's exam content page lists five Data Insights question types, and four of them are the old Integrated Reasoning types: Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation and Two-Part Analysis. So an IR workbook still drills four fifths of the section. What it will not cover is Data Sufficiency, the fifth type, which moved into Data Insights from Quant and is the type most students find hardest.

The tutor screen is the part you cannot check

Tutoring is the tutor, and this is where Manhattan Review is hardest to assess. The company describes a selective hiring process, a "full 360-degree evaluation", and a preference for teaching ability over raw scores. Its wording is unusually candid: it prefers candidates "who have potentially scored a few points below perfection but possess the skill and passion for conveying the necessary information".

That is a defensible philosophy. Teaching and test-taking are different skills, and a 99th-percentile scorer who cannot explain anything is a bad hour. The problem is that it leaves you with nothing to verify. Manhattan Prep publishes a 99th-percentile screen and names GMAT scores on its tutor profiles. Manhattan Review publishes no score threshold, no tutor profiles and no percentile claim for its GMAT tutors.

This is what the free introductory meeting is actually for, so use it as an interview rather than a formality. Ask the proposed tutor for their own GMAT Focus score and date, how many students they have taken through the Focus Edition, and what they would do in your first three sessions. An advisor cannot answer those questions and a tutor can.

What is included is thinner than the price ladder suggests

Strip out the bundled guides and the five practice tests are the substantive extra, and they are Manhattan Review's own, not GMAC's. Nothing in the package includes official retired questions. That is normal for third-party prep, and it is the same limitation we noted in our Manhattan Review GMAT books review, but it matters more when you are paying tutoring rates: the GMAT Official Guide is a separate purchase on top.

There is also no guarantee. Manhattan Review offers nothing equivalent to Manhattan Prep's 655 or +70 point promise or the score guarantees attached to several courses we review. For some buyers that is fine, since guarantee terms are usually a study plan in disguise with conditions most students fail to meet. It is still a difference worth pricing when you are comparing quotes.

Pricing

There is nothing to tabulate, which is itself the finding. Manhattan Review publishes no hourly rate, no package prices and no starting-from figure on its GMAT private tutor page, its tutor detail page, or any of the regional tutoring pages that fill most of the first page of Google for this product. Pricing is quoted after a free consultation.

The only published commitment is the threshold: packages of 12 hours or more get a discount on the overall hourly rate plus the materials bundle. If you intend to buy tutoring here, that is the number to negotiate around, and the first question on the call should be what the per-hour rate is below 12 hours and above it.

For context, here is what the rest of the category publishes, all read within the past week for our own reviews:

A student comparing the four priced providers can do the arithmetic in ten minutes. Manhattan Review and Varsity Tutors both require a phone call instead, and the call happens after an advisor has your timeline and your target score. That asymmetry is the real cost of the model, and it is why this review scores where it does. Before you make that call, work out how many hours you actually need: our GMAT study plan generator maps the weeks you have left, and the GMAT score calculator shows where your practice scores currently sit.

Who Manhattan Review GMAT Tutoring Is Best For

• Students who want to meet the tutor before paying. The advisor consultation and the introductory meeting are both free, and neither Manhattan Prep nor Target Test Prep lets you meet your tutor before you buy hours
• People outside the big US metros. The online pool draws tutors from any time zone, and in-person is offered in cities where Manhattan Review staffs tutors
• Anyone who wants in-person sessions at all. Most of this category is online only now, and Manhattan Review still schedules face-to-face meetings at a mutually convenient location
• Students who already own the Turbocharge Your Prep books. Tutoring here runs on the same proprietary curriculum, so the materials line up rather than duplicating
• Buyers willing to negotiate. No published rate card cuts both ways, and the 12-hour threshold gives you a stated discount line to push against

When You Might Look Elsewhere

• You want to compare prices before you talk to anyone. Target Test Prep GMAT tutoring publishes four packages from $1,750 for 5 hours, the smallest package in branded GMAT tutoring, and you can buy it without a call
• You want a score guarantee. Manhattan Prep backs a 655 score or 70 extra points with a refund or a free re-enrolment, at $3,499 for 10 hours. Read the conditions, but the promise is written down
• You want the cheapest hour you can get. Wyzant is a marketplace with a $110 median hourly rate among its featured GMAT tutors, where you pick the person and see the price before booking
• You want a published volume discount. Princeton Review starts at $2,200 for 10 hours and falls to $180 an hour on its largest package, with every tier listed
• You are not sure tutoring is the gap at all. Work through how to study for the GMAT first, and see how we weigh price, guarantees and evidence across everything on the GMAT hub

Final Verdict

The practical advice: treat the free introductory meeting as the product demo it is. Go in with your target score, your test date and three questions about the tutor's own Focus Edition record, and ask for the per-hour rate above and below the 12-hour line before anyone talks about packages. If the quote comes back near $350 an hour, you are paying Manhattan Prep money for a tutor whose credentials you cannot check and no guarantee, and the comparison table above is the argument to make.

Manhattan Review GMAT Tutoring FAQs

How much does Manhattan Review GMAT tutoring cost?

Manhattan Review does not publish a price. There is no hourly rate, no package list and no starting-from figure on its GMAT tutoring pages, and quotes come after a free consultation with an academic advisor. The only published number is a threshold: packages of 12 hours or more receive a discount on the overall hourly rate plus a bundle of study materials. For comparison, Target Test Prep starts at $1,750 for 5 hours and Manhattan Prep at $3,499 for 10.

Is Manhattan Review the same as Manhattan Prep?

No. They are separate companies with similar names, and students do confuse them. Manhattan Review was founded in 1999 and started at Columbia Business School. Manhattan Prep is branded "Manhattan Prep powered by Kaplan" and sells through kaptest.com, at published prices with a score guarantee.

What study materials come with Manhattan Review GMAT tutoring?

At 12 hours or more, the bundle is electronic Turbocharge Your Prep math and verbal primers, an AWA strategy guide, an Integrated Reasoning workbook and five full-length practice tests described as computer-adaptive. Two of those are labelled for sections the current GMAT does not have. The AWA guide has no exam section left at all, while the IR workbook still covers four of the five Data Insights question types but not Data Sufficiency. No official GMAC questions are included.

Does Manhattan Review offer a GMAT score guarantee?

No. There is no score guarantee, refund promise or free repeat on any of Manhattan Review's GMAT tutoring pages. Among the branded GMAT tutoring we track, Manhattan Prep and Princeton Review both attach written guarantees to their packages, with conditions.

Can I choose my own Manhattan Review tutor?

Partly. An academic advisor pairs you with a tutor based on your consultation, then arranges a free introductory meeting with that person. If you are not comfortable after meeting them, you can ask to speak with an alternative. It is advisor-assigned with a veto rather than a roster you pick from, and both introductory steps are free.

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