I’ve had 3 different tutors, so I think I can offer a unique perspective because I’ve seen what others have to offer. I know that many people have already said great things about Ron and I agree with them so I won’t repeat what’s already been said. What I will talk about is what makes Ron so good.

He knows his material, and not just his material but theories, ideas, and methods that go far beyond the material.

Besides having excellent credentials, he’s been teaching standardized testing for years, and I’m talking over a decade or more. He takes a holistic approach to studying. I don’t know of any other teachers who can talk about the Stanislavsky method and the biological effects of stress and how all of it can be related to GMAT studying.

He makes even the complex simple by offering easy-to-grasp analogies and explanations

If you want a good example of this, you can check out his Thursdays with Ron video where he explains factors. He gives a good story to help understand the concept by using the story of two robbers.

He simplifies and streamlines

If there’s a more effective way than formulas and textbook methods, he’ll show you. At the same time, he won’t dismiss other methods. He’s not trying to replace tools in your tool box. He’s trying to give you a wider variety.

He’ll tell you directly if you’re wasting your time on a certain method or theory

I memorized a lot of formulas and Ron would tell me whether it was useful or simply a waste of time. If you look on a lot of the forums, you’ll find that many times people are using overly complex theories to solve problems, and if you’re doing this, Ron will tell you.

He focuses on the essentials

If you’re spending time learning something that isn’t going to help you on the test, he’ll tell you.

He has a philosophy

He has a method and an overall set of ideas that guide him and if anyone’s ever taught professionally, they’ll understand how important this is and how the best teachers have this.

He'll refocus your attention

There are many times where one may be doing a problem and wonder, “Is this a 700 level problem?” Ron will tell you that it's not the level, but what you take away or learn from a problem that's important.

He’s responsive and explains everything until it’s understood

Anytime I had a question, he always responded in a timely manner with an excellent detailed response.

The first two hours with Ron was worth more than all the time I spent with 3 different tutors. That’s no exaggeration.

You can get a good idea of his teaching style if you see some of the Thursdays with Ron videos on MGMAT, but I will say that you should bear in mind that he’s working in a small time frame with a high number of students so if he moves a little quick, realize that in a tutoring session, this won’t happen. He always gives good explanations and is extremely responsive even when you email him. I think his active role and thorough answers in other forums such as Beatthegmat.com should demonstrate his dedication and interest in helping people. I’ve never seen Ron give a short, general explanation to a specific question. You’ll know what I mean if you look at his posts.

Even if you don’t have the $1,000 to spend on tutoring, I’d say that if you want to self-study, you should definitely try to find $430 to invest in a two hour session with Ron. I know that $430 is almost the cost of enrollment for some prep companies, but Ron can easily save you time and wasted effort by telling you exactly what you should and shouldn’t be focusing on. There are a lot of excellent forums and websites that offer study tips and information, but it can be difficult to navigate the massive amount of info floating around. By learning from Ron, you’re gaining so much more than quant or verbal knowledge – you’re gaining an overall understanding of the GMAT and the best methods to effectively study for it.

last wednesday, i retook the gmat and scored 750 (v: 39/87%, q: 51/98%). i messaged ron and got his reply: " i told you that you'd score that high. see, you should have listened to me :)"

see, ron is always right :)

i know tons of students have already said so many great things about Ron, but i just want to use my own experience to let you know how great Ron is. he is the best teacher i've met so far.

I'm a Chinese, non-native speaker, started to speak English 4 months ago.

i took the GMAT two years ago when i worked in Singapore.
score: 710 (v: 34/68%, q: 50/94%)
studying hours: 18 days, 160 hours
material: og11, verbal supplement, math supplement

retook on 2010/09/29 3:15pm ETD
studying hours: 5 sessions with Ron (10hrs) + 5 days (< 60hrs) , <70 hours in total
material: og11, og12 (only verbal)

BUT, every time i learned so much from Ron, not only specific problem solving skills and TAKEAWAY philosophy but also psychological parts.

2008/11
two years ago, after eight-day self-study, i thought i knew what the GMAT was and what the GMAC wanted to test, so i did the first prep but only scored 660, which made me so frustrated because i couldn't prepare the GMAT for months, as the others usually do. i surfed bunches of websites, Chinese, Indian, and English. every thread just remaindered me that i couldn't nail it down in such a short time. one day, i opened beatthegmat by chance, and read a thread, an explanation for a math problem. math has been my strongest part since i was a kid, but one explanation still impressed me so much. it was so simple, so beautiful, so understandable, but so powerful that you can take it away and use it in other situations. to be honest, i was a little bit jealous because it was unusual that other's explanation for math problem was even better than mine:). i kept the user name "lunarpower" in my mind, searched all his posts except math, saved, printed out (88 pages), and read again and again till i could recall any post in 2 seconds, even analogy. they were so vivid that i wouldn't forget. i saw the light of the end of tunnel.
ron's posts let me know i made the right decision--squeeze og as much as i can. i tried to mock ron's steps and use his method, i forced myself to think in the same way as he did. i applied TAKEAWAY and used OPEN DRILL. then i got 710 in 8 days. i wanted to write some on beatthegmat to appreciate ron's valuable posts, even i didn't know him and of course he didn't know me. but probably because 710 is not a decent score, finally i didn't write any words.

2010/09
this summer, i was supposed to intern in nyc, but at last minute changed mind and went to Cali. when i drove on 101, saw "santa rosa" blinking in the dusk, a name suddenly jumped out, ron purewal.
i was planning to land a job instead of applying. but one day in aug, during lunch break, i searched this name again, only one second, i decided to retake the GMAT and apply for the Fall 2011 if ron would be my private tutor. fortunately, only two days after i registered, ron wrote me an email, and asked so many detailed questions. i knew i made a right decision again. ron is the one I can trust. and if there is only one I can trust, ron is that person.
i was crazy busy, and still couldn't find any time to read og before the first session with ron. but during the first two hours, ron let me know that his work was so priceless that if i had to spend $4300 for his two hours, i would pay it without any hesitation.
there is a chinese proverb by Lao-Tzu, "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
ron not only gives me fish which can fill my stomach immediately, but also teaches me how to fish which will ensure that i can catch as much as i want.

specific improvement
ron never told me how to solve a specific problem, and never offered me strategy to solve problem at the beginning. he always asked me to do a problem, observed how i solved the problem, and then analyzed why i made mistake. it's amazing. he knew exactly what i thought for that problem. finally he would give me some suggestions which fit my skill so well that i didn't need to abandon all mine but just make some adjustments.
sc is my weakest part. for parallelism, modifier, and pronoun, ron offered me such a unique perspective and many powerful weapons that i could use it efficiently without any mistake.
as for rc, more than 80% mistakes were main idea. ron explained it for more than 30 minutes, finally i caught up his point. after that i did rc problems from both og11 and og12, the accuracy rate was 90% and no mistake for main idea. when i did GMATPrep, i got all rc questions right.
as for cr, ron listed 5 different types, and gave different strategy for each type. these strategies helped me pick out the right answer in such a short time, normally less than 30 seconds.
ron also found that my pace was too fast, so he wrote down 3 lines "SLOW DOWN". when i was taking exam, these three lines were dancing in front of my eyes ;) really helpful.
btw, during the first session, ron spent more than 30 minutes to explain the difference between doing problem and reviewing problem, and taught me how to review question and how to make my self-study more efficient.

psychological part
i only had 5 days to utilize these strategies, and the last session was on Tuesday early morning, only one day before my test. i was so stressful and couldn't sleep. ron analyzed my situation, listed the reasons that i didn't need to worry about the score, and told me that i would get a high score with high possibility. he even used some statistics data to let me believe i wasn't such a dumb**s.
on Wednesday i was doing the first GMATPrep till 12:30pm and only scored 730 because i made so many silly mistakes in math part. but when i remembered what ron said, i calmed down, went home, had a lunch, took a nap, and then went to test center. i just used my instincts developed from hundreds of similar situations to guide me through the current situation smoothly.

all of these will benefit me for a lifetime.

ron, you are such a great tutor!

hey even i would like to enroll for this course....can tell me where i can enroll for the online course...???

thanks for the feedback, everyone -- i appreciate it.

@ vivinkarkera:


i don't teach the online 9-session course -- i have my hands full with live courses in the san francisco / san jose area -- but that course is taught by many of our other instructors, all of whom have been hand-picked for their impressive teaching ability.
(also, the online course costs substantially less; the $1400 figure is the approximate cost of the live course. the online course costs a few hundred dollars less.)

the only things that i currently teach online are these "study halls" every other thursday:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

Glad to report that I wrote my GMAT recently and scored a 770(Q51, V42). I must have gone through over 150 SC explanations and several CR explanations by Ron on Manhattan GMAT forum. I also saw some recordings from "Thursdays with Ron". Every explanation and lecture by Ron is simply amazing. His style of first empathizing with the student and then explaining the problem by giving small and relevant examples is superb. Of over 100 teachers who have taught me, he is undoubtedly one of the the best I have ever come across.

Many many thanks, Ron.

Hi there. I've completed classes with Ron couple weeks ago. My first test 3 months ago was 610, and I needed something more than 700. So, I put the money. And got lucky to have classes with Ron. I can only confirm all said above. In addition I can testify that his attention to every working student worth best words. My problem is "English as a second language". Not only I was able to understand well Ron's very articulate and clear-English explanations, not only Ron was patient enough to decipher my questions at times, he was kind to take a second to correct me and explain my linguistic mistakes!

I would really recommend to follow Ron's notes and advices, it seems he sees very well your problems, very thoughtfully handles them and as result precisely nails your "diagnosis" and comes up with the best advises. Manhattan materials are very good, but attending classes was definitely what made it work for me.

The week my classes ended I took test and scored 710.

I used Ron Purewal for a few math tutoring sessions and found him to be tremendously helpful. He is great about explaining the concepts, very patient, and I saw a significant jump in my quantitative score after spending time with Ron and using his strategies. Having had a few different GMAT tutors, I found Ron to be the most effective. I wish I had known about him sooner and been able to spend more of my time studying with Ron. The detailed notes that he types up for students are far beyond what other tutors had done. After each session, he sends an email that night with notes and specific strategies tailored to your learning style. He is great about extracting strategies from different OG problems so that even if the problem you see on the test is different, you can find a way to implement one of his strategies to help you get the answer.

first, I really really respect Ron. Now, I have a problem, I see many people can directly contact with Ron or other mentor by using PM(sorry, I just know, but do not know what it is?) en, I will have exam in next two weeks, so I really hope Ron can reply me .
yes , my post address "http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the-state-has-proposed-new-rules-that-would-set-t5934.html"

also, I am the last poster in such post, people can directly go to the second page, and help me, please. ha

saintjingjing, there is no private messaging on this forum; perhaps you are confusing it with another forum.
also, we reply to posts strictly in the order in which they are posted, oldest to newest.

I've heard great reviews about MGMAT, but I didn't know much about Ron before I enrolled in the 9-week live session. I really got lucky to get Ron as my instructor.

I agree with everyone's statements about Ron's knowledge about the materials in the GMAT and explanations for each problem. What really struck me is how much he cares about his student. If you ask for feedback, Ron will ask you more to get to the bottom of what you are really asking or need. The amount of feedback that I get from Ron is really beyond what most teachers I've known would give (perhaps the most). And you know what? His feedbacks were quite accurate because when I apply his feedback, my performance improved.

Ron also goes beyond the content of the GMAT. He also goes over psychological and physiological aspect of the test, and how you should prepare for such factors during the test. In addition, early on, Ron debunks the myths that I used to believe about the GMAT.

Another method that I find really useful is his tough love approach to teach his student (e.g. forcing yourself to guess or dump questions). It's almost like "scolding" a child, but you know what? It works because that shows in my performance improvement during the prep.

Last but not least, his "Thursdays with Ron" are really great content. You really get a preview of how he teaches by watching these videos.

What other proof do I have that Ron's a great instructor? Thanks to his coaching, I've joined the above 700 club.

A short advice to everyone taking classes with Ron: When Ron speaks, listen to him! :)

Thanks Ron!