Magoosh GRE Prep

The Bottom Line: The Magoosh GRE Prep Course offers the best value for money in the industry, packing a diverse set of learning materials, tools, and performance tracking into a very affordable price. (Last update: April–2024)

Magoosh GRE Prep Review

When it comes to improving your GRE exams, there are a number of different programs all vying for your attention. Each one promises the world and it can be difficult sometimes to separate the wheat from the chaff. In this review, we are going to go through one of the more popular options out there – the Magoosh GRE Prep Course – to see what it’s all about and whether it’s a good choice for your GRE efforts.

Program Structure

The Magoosh GRE program includes a vast library of curriculum materials including a range of different video lessons, over 1,400 questions to try, and a number of full-length tests to put you through your paces. Each piece of material has been carefully curated and they’re consistently updating and improving things based on the feedback and data they’re getting from their students. It’s organized in a library format which means you can choose your own adventure, but for those who would prefer a guided experience, they also have 11 different study schedules that can accommodate different skill levels and time commitments.

It’s become standard in the industry at this point, but it’s worth noting that the program can be accessed across any device, desktop or mobile so you can always get to the material. Their mobile apps are on both iOS and Android and offer great experiences all round. In fact, we think that their mobile apps are some of the best in the industry – they are really well designed and even though you don’t get the full breadth of the desktop experience, they are still great options for brushing up on-the-go.

Everything is online and self-paced, so you can tackle things however you want.  There are no live lessons, and no physical books of any kind.  All you need is an internet connection and a device and you’re ready to go.

Study Materials

What you’ll notice right away is that the production value of the video lessons and the presentation of the material in general is not as sleek as some of the other alternatives, but it actually gives the program a bit of charm. It’s not trying to be anything that it’s not. It just gets the job done, without any fuss. If you look past the aesthetic, the quality of the instruction and the materials is actually really good.

Every video has a transcript and is tied directly to additional practice material so you can skip through parts you understand and delve deeper into those you don’t – really taking control of your entire studying process. This is crucially important because of the way they’ve set out their materials library – as you’ll need to be quite strategic as to how you go about your learning, unless you’re blindly following one of their pre-determined paths.

The one downside of Magoosh is that the number of questions you have access to is significantly lower than some other players in the market. This can be limiting if you are a power user and would like to know that the question pool is near infinite – but most people still won’t hit the upper limit here, unless you are really diving into one specific topic again and again.

Pricing

The most attractive thing about the Magoosh program is its value for money. When compared to other alternatives, you get an awful lot for what you pay and that’s what makes this option stand out in our opinion. You can get 1 month of access for $149, or you can get 6 months of access for only $179. This is less than half of what you’ll pay for some of their other competitors like Princeton, Kaplan, Manhattan, or the Economist.

Regardless of the package you choose, you’ll have access to all the features including the video lessons, practice questions, study schedules, and all the other tracking features that make this a joy to use.

User Experience

We mentioned it earlier but the whole setup is very simple and to-the-point, which we like. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that some other platforms have, and instead just encourages you to get back to work – rather than playing around with the interface itself. Every tool they’ve included has a specific purpose and it comes with some useful visualizations to track progress and to measure performance.

Some of the value-adding components that put the cherry on the top include study plans, flashcards, a vocabulary. Builder, and a score predictor to help you keep yourself honest as you study. The overall experience is stellar.

Support

Magoosh doesn’t provide any sort of tutoring services on a regular basis, but they do have quite a good email support channel where you can have questions answered by a team of GRE wizards. This support line actually performs pretty well and is a great backup if you need some individualized support on an ad-hoc basis. If you’re looking for more regular one-on-one help though, then you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Student Performance

As always, it’s hard to judge how successful these sorts of courses are going to be for you because it really depends on the individual and how much effort you’re willing to put in along the way. That being said, Magoosh guarantees a full refund if your score doesn’t improve by at least 5 points – so that says something about the confidence they have in their platform.

Conclusion

All in all, we think that the Magoosh GRE Prep course is a great option because of how much you get for such a low price. If it’s value for money that you’re after, then there’s nothing else on the market that can compete. It’s a simple platform, packed with good content, and delivered in every way you could imagine. All that remains now is for you to get stuck in and smash those GRE examinations!

Good luck!

What you get:

• Most budget-friendly and easy to use. 
• Flexible and self-paced study schedules (ranging from 1 month study plans to 6 month plans).
• Great customer service and email assistance with any questions about the study material.
• Offered completely online.
• Has additional free resources to help with learning vocabulary and more.
• Can be accessed through smartphone, computer, tablet, etc. without extra charge.  
• Offers over 250 lessons, and 1200 practice questions ranging in difficulty level from easy to hard. 
• 5-point total score improvement guarantee.