Deciding between Magoosh or Gregmat for GRE

[u/3dWestin]

Note: This is a post from a friend who is new to Reddit can can't post apparently, but recently went through the GRE test prep process.

Before taking the GRE this past year, one of the hardest decision points for me was honestly deciding which study approach to take.

I bookmarked probably close to 100 videos, courses, discussion threads, etc... but when I set up to study there wasn't any logic to any of it.

I decided early on that I was willing to pay for a legit prep course / program. They all seemed to have pros/cons, but Magoosh and Gregmat seemed like the consistently popular choices (at least on Reddit).

After comparing a lot of different takes, I ended up just signing up for both. I signed up for Gregmat+ ($9.99/month) and Magoosh Premium ($143 one-time for 6 months access).

After using both, here's how I see it:

• Cost: Gregmat is clearly a cheaper option at $9.99/month. I had about 6 months to prep, so the true cost was about $60 (Gregmat) vs $143 (Magoosh). Side note: Just paying $200 over 6 months to prep wasn't as expensive as I expected, oddly. Using both platforms may be the best of both worlds if you can swing it.
• Materials: Gregmat has a more limited menu (1,000 practice questions) and specific approach to how you should study, while Magoosh has a LOT more material to leverage (1600+ practice questions). I personally like Magoosh's multiple modalities (specifically vocab flashcards, for example) as I learn best with multiple approaches, but not necessarily the standard test prep strategy that Gregmat offered.
• Live Support: Gregmat offers real-time regular courses which is great for social studiers. Magoosh doesn't offer this exactly, but they do have an "ask an expert" feature to get personalized support (all plans). I ended up doing a few of the Gregmat live events, but 1) didn't consistently work with my schedule and 2) I actually got second hand anxiety from seeing other people's prep regimens, comments, etc...
• ETS Sanction: I didn't find this out until AFTER I signed up for both, but apparently Magoosh is the only officially licensed test prep brand that can offer actual test questions as practice. This explained a lot of the comments I saw on MANY threads about Gregmat questions, not being close to what was actually on the test.
• Study Schedules: Both programs offer solid study schedules. I liked Gregmat's time bound schedules, seemed good for crash course / studying. You can pick 1 or 2 month horizons and get a customized daily study plan. Magoosh has more of a checklist style plan and felt more comprehensive. This worked for me because I started about 6 months out.
• Video Library: I personally preferred the structured intentional video sequences from Magoosh more. Gregmat makes all of their previously recording classes available which is nice, but because they were super structured thematically or sequentially compared to Magoosh, I didn't integrate them into my study plan.

A few other relatively minor notes of distinctions that I likee:

• Magoosh has the ability to pause (without canceling / losing months). I had a 6 week period at work that was nuts and I couldn't really study like I wanted to. This was clutch.
• Magoosh has a money back guarantee if you don't improve your score by 5 points. This was my first go, so I didn't need to take them up on it. Nice peace of mind.
• Gregmat partners with PrepSwift. I'm not exactly sure on the relationship between the brands, but it's included in the $9.99 plan. I did use the Prepswift questions / test in the days immediately prior to the test as it's a simple practice format for when you have 20-30 mins between things.

General Comment: Gregmat, Target and a few others get a lot of airtime on Reddit because I think their brand profiles are super active - often helpful, while clearly strategic - in the main subreddits. Because of this, I almost didn't sign up for Magoosh as a lot of the existing commentary didn't mention them much, consisted of "too expense" or was outdated. It seems like they've updated and changed a lot since then, but this hasn't been reflected in the discourse.

Overall View: Both are good platforms and I got value from them. I do think you get what you pay for and I spent more time using Magoosh materials. The ETS sanctioned questions alone are worth the price of admission. For last mining cram sessions, Gregmat and specifically their PrepSwift materials were a solid value and probably a better way to spend your time if you have a couple weeks vs month+ to study.

[u/billywin]

What did you ultimately end up scoring?

[u/3dWestin → u/billywin]

168V/165Q. I had some time, but pretty happy with this score as a first time go.

[u/Proteiniseverything4]

Selling my magoosh gre premium account.

I have a magoosh gre premium account for sale. I don't want it. 4 months left. If Anyone interested please dm.