Magoosh vs Manhattan Prep GRE
Table of Contents
When you’re looking for the ultimate GRE course, it’s great to compare two choices side by side. In this article, we’ve reviewed Magoosh vs Manhattan Prep GRE courses to help make this an easy decision, and give you all the information you need on each learning platform.
Magoosh is an online platform that provides learning materials for a wide range of exams, including GMAT, GRE, SAT, LSAT, and IELTS. Magoosh was founded in 2009 and brought together education experts to create test prep materials for students. Magoosh supports students worldwide with learning for standardized tests, from its small staff based in San Francisco.
Manhattan Prep has been providing test prep courses for 20 years and has helped over 1 million students with their test prep courses, which cover the GMAT, GRE, SAT, and ACT. These days, Manhattan Prep pride themselves on only hiring the best and top percentile GRE scorers that also have experience as teachers.
This ensures that their students have expert lessons and experienced support staff to lean on. Besides, Manhattan Prep offers admissions consulting for students hoping to get into the best colleges and business or graduate school.
Key Differences
Several significant differences stand out when we put these two courses side by side and review Magoosh vs Manhattan Prep GRE courses. These make it clear that Manhattan Prep is in a different league to Magoosh for GRE test prep.
In-Person Teacher Sessions – Manhattan Prep offers in-person lessons and live online lessons from experienced teachers within the course timetable. Magoosh does not provide any direct from teacher support.
Quality of Resources – Manhattan Prep has a very high performing staff base that has all achieved the GRE’s top 1% score. This means the quality of resources and teaching is significantly higher than Magoosh.
Practice Questions – Manhattan Prep offers over 100,000 practice questions, whereas Magoosh offers 1,200 practice questions.
Practice Tests – Manhattan Prep offers six full-length practice tests. Magoosh does not offer even one full-length practice test.
Physical Resources – Manhattan Prep provides you with three GRE prep books that cover Verbal and Math, and a big book of GRE practice problems and questions. Magoosh sends out no prep books.
Course Options
Instructor-led
The Manhattan Prep instructor-led course prep is the GRE Complete Course, which contains study resources for all aspects of the test, including GRE Math and Verbal sections. This course is taught through regular sessions that are either delivered online or through in-person sessions.
The course cost starts at $1199 and has eight sessions of live video stream online classes, or in-person classes at GRE centers, covering 24 hours of learning.
When you enroll, choose a timetable that you can easily fit into your schedule. Manhattan Prep is one of the only courses to offer in-person sessions, and this is a great price for the service.
Magoosh does not offer any instructor-led courses or live virtual sessions run by teachers.
Self Paced
Magoosh offers its main package as a self-paced course, where students navigate through online material and complete a range of practice problems, practice GRE questions, and informative videos. You’ll have access to the course and resources for 6 months and follow a range of study plans ranging from one week to six months.
Manhattan Prep offers 6 months of access to their Interact Platform, which has a wide range of materials including 100,000 practice questions, hours of video lessons, and 6 practice exams too. Manhattan Prep has crafted this self-led package to meet students’ needs and ensure that they improve their GRE score.
Price
Manhattan Prep’s self-guided course is well priced at just $339 for 6 months of access to the Interact platform. This gives access to all the online materials, practice GRE questions, and allows you to complete the 6 practice exams too – a brilliantly comprehensive package for a great price. This is a competitive price, especially for the number of resources included in the package.
The Manhattan Prep GRE Complete Course is a series of lessons taught either in person or online and has 24 hours of lessons split across 8 sessions. The course cost starts at $1199 and is built on the Interact Platform and has all the self-guided programs’ resources. You can also have private tutoring for an additional cost.
The listed pricing for the Magoosh GRE plan is $894 for six months, but they very often have discounts available on their site or through our discount codes. The cost is usually lowered to between $180 – $250 for six months after a discount, so it is great value for money.
Magoosh is popular with students thanks to its low cost and 6 months of access. It’s not worth paying full price for this Magoosh course, so make sure you wait a few weeks until the next offer comes along to save yourself $600.
Quality of Resources
Manhattan Prep has a good reputation for course material, both in the detail and range of topics covered, unlike other online platforms like Magoosh. The quality of Manhattan’s resources lies in both the original creation and quality of teaching. Manhattan Prep is known to have a fantastic teaching staff, as they only hire teachers with the top 1% of GRE scores.
Manhattan Prep sends you physical resources to accompany your online study. Manhattan Prep produces its own textbooks – GRE Math Strategies, GRE Verbal Strategies, and Book of GRE Practice Problems and Questions (2,000 practice test questions with explanations).
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. They use phrases like ‘comprehensive coverage’ and ‘helpful video lessons,’ rather than the more specific details that other learning platforms use. It’s, therefore, difficult to assess the quality of their learning materials.
All of their resources are available online, and Magoosh does not offer any live online sessions or in-person sessions. This means that you will not be in contact with a tutor or expert throughout your course, unlike some other learning providers. If you’re the type of student who can self-motivate and follow a set study plan, this course could be ideal for you.
When comparing the quality and the price of Magoosh vs Manhattan prep, it’s a no brainer. Magoosh offers 6 months of access for around $250, and the materials are okay, but not excellent. For another hundred dollars, you can enroll with Manhattan Prep and access some of the best GRE materials for $339 for six months. If your budget can stretch to $350, we recommend choosing Manhattan Prep.
Practice Questions and Tests
Manhattan Prep offers over 100,000 practice problems and questions and 66 interactive video lessons with detailed written and video explanations. The practice questions cover all aspects of the GRE prep, including sentence equivalence, geometry, and text completion.
Many practice questions give you a comprehensive experience and will ensure that you don’t see the same practice question twice. Manhattan Prep also offers a brilliant 6 GRE practice exams to complete with your GRE practice and build on your answering techniques. Full-length computer-based practice tests are a great way to understand the GRE test format and your strengths and weaknesses.
Magoosh GRE offers 1,200 practice questions, which is a good amount, but it comes with a catch. Magoosh recommends that you take 3 practice tests throughout your study, but any practice exams that you want to take are using questions from this pot of practice problems.
The practice tests are around 90 questions per test, reducing the number of questions you have in the pot by 20% and putting a cap on your GRE test prep. Magoosh is one of the only platforms to limit their practice questions and cut into student resources.
Furthermore, even when you have set aside 230 practice questions to use in your test, they won’t appear in a GRE Test format. Magoosh does not offer a full-length GRE test simulation, as many courses do, giving you the feel of a real GRE test. This is an important factor for students to consider, especially if you have not taken a standardized test like the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT before.
Teaching Quality
When comparing Magoosh vs Manhattan Prep, there is a significant difference between the resources Magoosh offers and the resources included in Manhattan Prep’s courses, which is also impacted by the teacher’s and experts’ quality that created the GRE prep material.
At Manhattan Prep, the teachers hired have all scored in the highest 1% on the GRE and have been part of a rigorous hiring process. These experts have designed the course material, and the tutors have previous experience in teaching and helping students get their best GRE score.
Manhattan Prep offers additional analytical writing feedback and private tutoring at a cost and is a great way to boost your score and put your learning to the test.
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. If you’re curious about the quality of Magoosh materials, try their free trial for 5 days. If you enroll in a GRE course with Magoosh, remember that it is self-guided, and you will not have any direct contact with a student or teacher.
Additional Features
It’s worth noting that Magoosh does offer some small additional features to consider. The key feature is the Magoosh mobile app, which enables you to practice on the go, any time, any place. You can answer practice questions, work through problems, or keep up with your progress and the time remaining on your course. Magoosh is one of the only learning platforms that offer a mobile app, which is a great feature.
Summary
Overall, there is no comparison between Manhattan Prep and Magoosh GRE courses, as they are on two very different levels of quality. Furthermore, the self-guided courses’ cost is quite similar, so if your budget can stretch to afford Manhattan Prep, we strongly advise this enrolling in this course and using your study time wisely.
If you’re looking for a higher quality of learning that will help you achieve the top GRE scores, consider a course with Manhattan Prep, especially the teacher-led course. Compared to Magoosh, the courses are enhanced in every way, with more questions, textbooks, practice tests, and the best teachers across the US.
The teaching staff makes GRE prep better, with feedback on your analytical writing and practice tests, guidance through your GRE prep, and support through live sessions. Manhattan Prep is perfect for students wanting to push themselves to get those top GRE scores.
