Does anyone have any information on Shawn Berry? He has a website perfectgmat.com and I was wondering if anyone has used his service and whether he is worth the very high tuition fee.

Thanks.

Hi,
I would look into what Manhattan GMAT has to offer before I would even consider paying Shawn Berry $10, 000. That is an astronomical price to pay someone to prepare for the GMAT. If you are really interested in doing that, does he offer any kind of guarantee that you would get your money back if you didn't get the score that you wanted?

It is true that I have not used his GMAT prep service, but I did talk to him several years ago about what he had to offer.
Even then, he was charging much more money than what I wanted to pay. Once again, I would contact him to see what he could do for you with your GMAT preparation process. I did get a feel for what he had to offer, but what he wanted to charge me was just too much money.

I think that Manhattan GMAT classes offer a well developed, structured study plan. In addition, they do offer private instruction. You can look up all of the options that they offer on this website. I don't wantt to sound bias, but I think that Manhattan GMAT also has top notched instructors who do private instruction as well. That would be my choice if I were in your shoes. And, anything from Manhattan GMAT won't cost you even close to $10, 000 for their services, either.

Greg

If Shawn Berry's website is any indication I would run the other way as fast as I can. The website - which I think is Berry's only principle contact with the outside world!!, looks like a fifth-grade HTML project.

Berry also trumpets statistics about his student's final GMAT scores, but, he doesn't say anything about where they started. It's great that X amount of his students finished above 650, but, how do we know that they didn't start at 640 to begin with?

He seems sketchy.

I was doing some research and found that Mr. Berry has somewhat interesting teaching techniques. I also can't find any info on his credentials at the University of Miami or Duke which he claims on his site. The site consist of a large number of graphics and bar charts but no concrete proof of base line starting GMAT scores. The way I calculate the pricing is that a total four weeks of 3 cycles per week X 2.5 hours = $333.00 per hour. Not including accomodations and food for a month. Does he have a class setting or offices that have a classrom? It is either a scam or he thinks he passed the BAR exam. Any thoughts? Need help.

[Edited by Stacey. Removed text describing this instructor based on what other people wrote elsewhere on the web. Personal, firsthand experiences and opinions are fine. Hearsay / repeating what other unknown people have said is not. Also, it's unclear to me that a casual person would be able to verify degree information - I'm fairly certain the University of Michigan doesn't maintain anything online or easily accessible to the public to allow people to verify my degree. You'd probably have to call them to order a transcript or other verification and pay money for the privilege. Just a thought.]

In regards to Shawn Berry..........."RUN FORREST RUN"

Scanning the internet I found that one of Shawn Berry's clients sued him for breach of contract. Look under open access San Mateo County, California. He has quite a few items in that county. I was doing a search on GMAT prep for my daughter. I would encourage anyone to check this guy out. Do your homework before you jump.

[Edited by Stacey. Just want to clarify our policy re: discussing competitors. This post is fine - I haven't removed anything - because the first part is stating a piece of research data that anyone can verify, followed by this poster's opinion. An earlier post repeated opinions from an unknown person posted on a blog somewhere - that stuff was removed because it was not posted by the person who held the opinions. If the blog writer were to come and post his / her own opinions here, that text would not be removed.]

[Edited by Stacey. Originally posted by Shawn Berry. Removed because we have a policy not to host content from our competitors. I'll suggest what I always suggest when someone asks me about a competitor: do the research on any companies / tutors in whom you're interested, try to meet in person or attend a free event, and then decide which program would be the best fit for you, based on your learning style, scoring needs, and financial constraints.]

How do I find the lawsuits in San Mateo County?

He has no system or strategy. No materials. I even doubt whether he's ever scored an 800. I think he's got a carbon copy of the GMAT test results and he might have touched it up a little...who knows; it's easy to do these days.

When he was selling the service to me, he must have heard somewhere that "the best sales technique is to sell yourself". And he took that literally. He presented his powerpoint using a laptop, presenting all about his hobbies and interests. He actually used microsoft office graphic arts to draw hobbies that he likes...for example, working out, etc.

During one of his class sessions, I had a little trouble with one of the Reading Comprehension and he got frustrated that I couldn't answer one of the questions. This is what he said sarcastically, "...ever read much?~"

Then, I called him one afternoon to check with him on my progress. "Am I making any progress? Because I don't feel it, I don't get it, and I see no improvement." I wanted him to give me a progress report based on the results of my homeworks and self-practice tests that I was doing for his sessions. Since I've paid him thousands of dollars, I thought I deserved at least that.

But, he forgot who I was. Then he said, "...Oh yeah, that's right! You're so and so...Did you use the algebra book I let you borrow?"

He never gave me an algebra book...He got me confused with someone else.

After another session, I asked him again over a phone call and asked for a progress report. "which areas of Quant am I really weak in? Verbal?..."

He tells me that "I'm too busy right now, we'll talk in the next class, I charge for my time to give you that kind of report...Plus, I'm so busy that I didn't even get to work out today. I'm so upset about not working out. You know I'm very into working out and it's very important to me. You can imagine how busy I am to even miss my workout. I don't have time for this conversation. Talk to me in the next class session"

He charges me $800+ per 2.5 hours and he tells me to discuss this in class. What kinda bull is that?

I pushed a little more in that conversation, courteously, asking about my progress. He tells me the following:

"You are weak in all areas! You're too slow!... Look, I have no time for this! So, are you gonna be in the next class or NOT!?" Angrily, raising his voice at me.

So I told him, "...listen, I spent a lot of money so far, I deserve to know the basic progress I'm making and I hired you to do just that: find my weaknesses and help me to improve them..."

He said, "You don't know anything about the GMAT, but I do. Don't tell me what I should give you. If money is an issue, you can't afford me. I've scored a perfect score and I can tell you that you don't even know what you're doing."

"...So, are you going to be in the next class or not? I've got many people on the waiting list to pay for my services..."

I told him "no more", courteously. He was still yelling at me for cancelling his class. I had to calm him down like you would with a cry baby and tell him that "...hey, it's ok; it's not the end of the world. Like you said, I'm sure you have a waitlist"

***By the way, everyone I know at the gym that he works out at hates him ; he almost got kicked out permanently for being extremely rude to everyone. The management at the gym gave him a final warning. He is a nut and a half...perhaps even tempermentally volatile.

I'm going to report his business to the Better Business Bureau and complain about his services.