Best GRE Prep Courses (2021 Guide)
Table of Contents
When you’re preparing for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), you want to have the best resources available to help you study and get the grade you deserve. You’ve worked hard through college and need to have this reflected in a great GRE score to apply to graduate school or business school.
Completing the GRE is an essential step in your application for graduate school, law school, or business school. The GRE is a multiple-choice, standardized computer exam that you will need to complete as part of the application process to the schools you’d like to consider.
GRE Prep Course Reviews & Exclusive Discounts
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Ranking | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 |
Rating | Most comprehensive | Best Value | ||||
Standard Price | $179 | $499 - $1499 | $499 - $999 | $399 - $2000 | $99 - $499 | $520 - $1000 |
Discount | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming |
Free Trial | 7 days | 7 days | 1 practive test | Free Resources Package |  | 7 days |
Guarantee | 5+ points increase | 1+ points increase | 1+ points increase | | 1+ points increase | 70 points |
Course Length | 6 months | 4 months | 6 months | 6 months | 1 - 6 months | 6 months |
Practice Questions | 1,200 questions | 3,500 questions | 5,000 questions | 2,000 questions | 3,000 questions | 1,500 questions |
Practice Exams | 2 tests | 8 full length tests | 7 full length tests | 6 full length tests | | 4 tests |
Delivery Options | Online | In Person, Online | Online | In Person, Online | Online | Online |
Videos | Video Lessons | 24 hours online lessons | 180 hours online instruction | 24 hours live instruction | 500 videos | 24 video lessons |
Study Plan |  | | | | | |
Physical Resources | | | | | | |
Essay Feedback | | | | | | |
Elite Program | | | | | | |
Mobile App | |  | | | | |
Support Options | Email | Tutoring Available | Tutoring Available | Tutoring | Email | Email |
Full Review | ||||||
GET STARTED |
Then, when you’re applying to these schools or graduate programs, you can include your GRE score to boost and back up the grades on your application. Schools use this grade to assess if you’re ready to study at this Graduate level and if you can handle the demands of business school.
The GRE covers three key skill areas, which you’ll need to study and regularly practice at completing, over and over again. These are Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning, and Quantitative Reasoning. The GRE is not a knowledge test, and so study materials from different companies will differ slightly in their content, delivery, practice methods, and presentation.
A great GRE score will help you to get into your desired school, and you’re unlikely to get a place without it. To get a great GRE score, you need excellent study materials that are comprehensive, easy to use, and affordable for GRE preparation.
So let’s breakdown the best GRE prep courses available and consider their pros and cons, as well as which might be best for you. These courses range in price, but also in the resources offered – including practice tests, full-length practice exams, video lessons, on-demand videos, and online GRE learning sessions.
Best GRE Prep Courses
Top Choice – Magoosh
Magoosh GRE is a popular learning platform thanks to its reasonable prices and a good offering of learning resources. If your budget is less than $200, then Magoosh could be a good option, but it has it’s downfalls too and is only available online.
Price – The price for six months of access to Magoosh GRE prep for six months is less than $200 and even less with extra discount, so it’s great value for money. However, Magoosh is a little vague on the learning resources provided, including the style and length of online GRE learning videos on this GRE prep course.
Interface and App – The Magoosh GRE interface is easy to use, intuitive, and can be accessed from your PC, tablet, or phone with the mobile app. All the learning material is online, including practice questions and video lessons. A mobile app is rare for GRE test prep courses, so consider if this is an important factor for you as you will be able to complete GRE prep on the go.
Self Guided – GRE prep with Magoosh is flexible for your schedule with a range of study plans to guide you. If you’re self-motivated, organized, and determined, this style of planning could work well for you. You can study at any time, and any place with this prep course as all the materials are available online and on-demand. Make sure to review your study plan regularly to stay on track and hold yourself accountable for your GRE prep progress.
Customer Service and Guarantee – Magoosh GRE guarantees that you will add 5 points to your previous GRE score, and give you a refund if this is not achieved. They really want you to succeed. They have a great reputation for responding to students and helping with questions and advice through email.
Practice Questions and Tests – Magoosh GRE offers 1,200 practice questions, but any practice tests that you want to take are from this pot of practice questions, which is around 90 questions per test. So this reduces the number of questions you have to practice with. Magoosh does not offer a full-length GRE test simulation, as some other courses do, which can give you the feel of a real GRE test.
Free Trial – A 5-day free trial is available, which is an awesome opportunity to review the materials before you sign up and decide if this GRE test prep course could be best for you. The trial will give you access to online GRE resources, including some videos and practice questions. You’ll get a taste for the format of this GRE prep course.
Most Comprehensive – The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review offers the whole package and really comprehensive resources at a reasonable price. With years of experience and live classroom learning across the US, this is a course you need to consider in your top three.
Price Packages – The Princeton Review offers three packages with different levels of resources. Self Paced has access to all their online materials, including 24 hours of video instruction and 3,500 practice questions, priced at $499. But with our discount codes, this cost comes down. The Ultimate program is available online and in-person, with live face to face lessons; this is priced at $1,199, which is great value for lessons from expert teachers.
The Princeton Review Elite Quant 162+ program is priced at $1,499 and focuses on excelling at Math and improving your overall score. This is a program for high scorers and those willing to put in lots of time and effort.
Practice Questions and Practice Exams – The Princeton Review offer a whopping 3,500 practice questions and eight full-length practice exams for you to complete in this GRE prep course. This is a great resource that will help you to identify strengths and weaknesses. You’ll continue to develop throughout the course and calm those exam nerves. Completing full-length exams gives you a sense of what the GRE will be like, and having eight online opportunities for this experience will help to boost your score.
Video and Live Lessons – If you want to get the classroom experience, The Princeton Review offers 24 hours of expert-led live instruction that covers strategy and test content. These valuable sessions are scheduled, and when you enroll, you can select dates and times that work for you. These sessions are available in person or through live online sessions, and this GRE prep course requires a time commitment and dedicated effort. You’ll also benefit from classmates and can work together to review homework and understand the exam.
Physical Resources – The Princeton Review understands that not everyone completes prep for GRE in the same way, so they also send you several GRE Official Study Guides for you to expand your learning. These textbooks are great if you like to make notes and complete reading alongside online learning. They are GRE official guides and so will be in a different format and language to Princeton Review online GRE practice.
Tutoring Available – On top of the video lessons, practice questions, physical resources, and support with your study plan, you can also book tutoring at an additional cost. The teachers at The Princeton Review are experienced in education and the GRE. They can support you with specific areas of the GRE and answer strategies. Using a tutor is one of the most effective ways to boost the learning from your GRE prep course and solidify your high score.
We recommend The Princeton Review as the most comprehensive of GRE prep courses, offering excellent online courses and live classroom sessions; it’s an ideal way to study for the GRE exam.
Best Value – Kaplan
Kaplan GRE is an online platform that has a really comprehensive package at great prices. Kaplan is the big brother of online learning, with a better offering than Magoosh at similar prices. Kaplan is an educational institution that helps people across the globe with a wide range of qualifications and tests.
Price Packages – Kaplan GRE offers two great course packages – Self Paced at $449 for six months of online access to all the video lessons, practice questions, and tests. They also offer Live Online Lectures GRE prep course for $999, which is a series of scheduled lessons hosted online by experts teaching you and a group of classmates.
Video Lesson – Kaplan has over 180 hours of video lessons available, which can either be accessed online or through scheduled Live Online sessions. Both are led by expert teachers that have experience in the GRE and supporting students.
Practice Tests – Kaplan offers seven full-length practice tests for you to complete, giving you the ultimate test prep. Kaplan GRE also organizes a test day experience in a certified test center before you take your exam. This is a great opportunity if you’re anxious about the test and want to take a full practice test to understand the whole experience.
Physical Resources – In a tri factor move, Kaplan GRE supports your learning with on-demand online videos, live lecture sessions, and physical GRE prep guides delivered to your door. GRE prep guides are great for adding extra materials, explanations, and test questions to your study. You also get a different perspective on the exam.
Tutoring – If you’re looking for additional tutoring to accompany your study, Kaplan GRE has tutor sessions available at an extra cost with their experienced teaching staff. Additional tutoring is great if you’re the type of student that needs challenging or additional explanation to understand a complex concept.
Best In-Person – Manhattan Prep
Manhattan Prep have been providing prep courses for GRE, SAT, and GMAT for many years and are a well known and trusted brand. When we assessed their GRE prep courses, we found that they have the best offering for In-Person and Live-Online learning.
Price Packages – The GRE Complete Course comes in at $1199 and covers all aspects of the GRE. This Manhattan Prep course is comprehensive and can be completed online with eight sessions of live video stream online classes, or in-person classes at GRE centers. There is also a Self-Led Package (Manhattan Prep Interact), which is $339 for six months. It gives you access to all the online resources, including videos and practice questions.
In-Person Learning – With small and personalized class sizes, you can learn directly from an expert Manhattan Prep teacher that has years of experience and a great GRE score. You’ll be part of 8 learning sessions, with a total of 24 hours of learning. You’ll also have regular challenges and homework from your tutor and be able to connect with classmates online.
Expert Teachers – The teachers at Manhattan Prep have all scored in the highest 1% on the GRE and have been part of a rigorous hiring process. Tutors have previous experience in teaching and have helped thousands of students to get the GRE score that they desired through the highly respected GRE prep courses.
Practice Questions and Tests – With this GRE prep course, Manhattan Prep has over 100,000 practice problems and 66 interactive video lessons with detailed written and video explanations. These cover all aspects of the GRE and give you a comprehensive experience. Manhattan Prep also offers several GRE practice exams for you to complete GRE practice and build on your answering techniques.
We recommend Manhattan Prep as the ideal GRE test prep course if you’re looking for in-person or teacher-led sessions. At a little extra cost than other GRE prepare courses, it’s an investment in your future and one of the best ways to learn.
Target Test Prep – Quant
Target Test Prep are specialists in the Quant section of the GRE and GMAT exams, and their learning solutions focus solely on these aspects. If you’re competent in the other areas of the GRE exam or are studying with another GRE prep course, then you might want to consider Target Test Prep for your Quant needs.
Price Packages – Target Test Prep offers the same packages with three different time lengths. It’s cheaper to sign up for six months of access, but this will depend on how much time you have before you take the GRE test. These packages range from $66 to $99 per month.
Quantitative Experts – Target Test Prep focus all their learning resources on the Quantitative section, which have been created by teaching experts in Physics, Maths, and Engineering fields. This GRE test prep course will have you as a math wizard in no time!
Practice Exams – while Target Test Prep offers over 3000 GRE Math practice questions, their test prep courses do not include any practice exams. This is mostly because their course focuses only on the Quant section, and would not be able to give detailed marks for the other written sections.
examPAL
examPAL are unique in their approach to GRE test prep as their focus is on creating great online learning software to help you succeed in the GRE.
Price Packages – There are three options with examPAL, all of which come with GRE test prep materials that cover the GRE exam. The Genius Package is priced at $599 and comes with additional resources – six essay reviews, three tutoring sessions 1-to-1, and an hour with an admissions consultant. These extra features help to balance the quality of their learning resources, compared to other companies.
PALgorithm – The examPAL team has created a set of strategies to help you answer each GRE question in the best way possible. PAL stands for Precise, Alternative, Logic, and equips you with three methods for solving questions. Instead of bombarding you with options and possibilities, they have you to save time in the exam by arming you with these three strategies.
Free Trial – examPAL offers a free trial so that you can review some of their resources before starting on the course. This is a great way to see a different type of GRE prep course and practice exams, and figure out if this type of GRE practice is right for you.
If you’ve completed the GRE before, or find that your thinking doesn’t align with traditional learning techniques, then examPAL could be a great way for you to complete a course focused on GRE prep, with a difference. The course teaches you how to quickly and accurately answer GRE prep questions so that in the exam you’ll have a range of tools to use, instead of being confused and wasting time.
Your Learning Style
When committing to enrolling in a GRE online course or set of study materials, you first need to think about what kind of learning works best for you, so that you can choose the right package for your way of thinking.
Over the last few years, you may have gotten an idea of how you like to learn at High School and College, which can generally be broken down into three key ways.
Visual Learners – Visual learners absorb information best from visual sources, which can range from books, posters, infographics, drawings, or mind maps. Visual learners like to produce notes and materials to help them learn, and can often be seen doodling or sketching an idea to understand it fully.
Audio Learners – Audio learners learn by hearing and listening to information. This is great for absorbing information from recorded lectures, podcasts, listening in class, or even reading aloud to themselves. Audio learners are happy to talk through an idea to have a good understanding of it.
Kinaesthetic Learners – Kinaesthetic learners absorb information best when they are physically doing something, like moving their bodies as they learn. This could be through small actions like fiddling with a toy in lectures, throwing a ball, or making large mind maps and physically writing notes.
You may fit easily into one of these groups, or you could be a combination of these learning elements. Think about how you best like to learn and what you want to get from your GRE test prep courses. Many courses have a range of teaching methods, including presentations, audio, and video lessons, live online sessions, practice tests and practice questions, interactive group chats, and more.
What is the GRE?
The GRE (Graduate Record Examination) is used as part of the admissions for a wide range of graduate school programs, including Law, Engineering and Psychology programs, as well as Business School.
It has been created and is managed by the ETS (Educational Testing Service), which makes sure that the GRE content is up to date, meets the Educational Testing Service ETS standards and is testing students at a high level. The ETS also use the GRE exam to test new questions and complete research on students’ abilities and answering techniques, to inform future tests.
The GRE test is designed to assess students’ ability to complete math problems, form logical arguments, express these in good written English, and to evaluate logical thinking and integrated reasoning skills.
All of these skills will be required at graduate school programs, which is why the GRE is used as a benchmark assessment tool. It also helps to evaluate if the student is capable of working under pressure and preparing well to get a good score, which they’ll be expected to do throughout the graduate program.
This article looks at the GRE General Exam, which the majority of students will take. There are also GRE specific exams for Biology, Mathematics, and Psychology, which your program may require.
The structure of the GRE is split into three main test areas:
- Analytical Writing Section- 1 hour – 2 writing tasks
- Verbal Reasoning – 1 hour – 2 sections of 20 questions
- Quantitive Reasoning – 1 hour 10 minutes – 2 sections of 20 questions
Should I complete GRE prep?
Yes! If you’re going to take the GRE and want to apply for a graduate scheme, it’s essential that you take the time to study, prepare, and practice for this test. Complete G R E preparation and use this opportunity to prove to your desired school that you are intelligent, capable, and have analytical skills.
They also use it to assess if you are ready for the pressure and time dedication that studying at this level requires. Most people that take the exam have already been studying hard to get their degree, and completing a graduate program in your field is a great way to further your education and start your career.
When considering how to prepare for the GRE, you need to make sure that you choose the best GRE prep course available to have the best chance at succeeding and getting into the school of your dreams. We’ve reviewed several of the best GRE prep courses in this article to help make this an easy decision.
You should start preparing for the GRE at least six months before your application deadline so that you have enough time to grasp how the test works and sharpen your analytical skills. Think about your lifestyle and how much time you’ll be able to dedicate to completing a GRE prep course. You may just need a small amount of study if you got a high score in the SAT exam when applying for college or have completed the GMAT with a high score.
What GRE score should I aim for?
Everyone is different, and students that take the GRE will have different ambitions of getting into graduate schools, so set yourself a target score and aim to achieve this. Take a look at the expectations of grad schools and programs, and use this as a benchmark to compare GRE scores. Also, look at the maximum scores available and the average scores provided by the ETS. That will help you to identify your target GRE score.
The verbal and quantitative sections are both marked out of 170 points, so we can say that a good GRE score is in the score range of 150 to 160 points. A high GRE score is in the score range of 160 to 170 and is the highest score achieved by those test-takers who work hard and prep for the GRE.
The writing tasks are marked out of 6 and in half-point increments. A good score for this section would be 4 to 5, and a great score would be 5 to 6. Across all test takers, the ETS provides a report with average test takers scores from 2015 – 2018.
The mean average scores for the GRE’s Verbal section is 150 points and 153 points for the Quantitative sections. The mean score for the GRE’s Analytical Writing section is 3.55 points.
