Experience with Magoosh for GRE

[Imhotep]

I'm curious to know what kind of experiences other people have had with Magoosh. I bought the GRE math review package and am extremely dissatisfied. The explanations are generally not very helpful and the question types seem only vaguely similar to what is found on ETS material.

[morningdew]

I really like Magoosh. I really liked that each problem comes with explanation video that gives you step by step guidance to the answer. I kind of didn't liked the math video person though, he sounded very robotic. However, the verbal explanation person (I think his name is Chris) is so awesome. He is funny and friendly when he explained the answer. Another thing I liked about Magoosh is the lessons. There are math and verbal lessons where they teach you fundamentals. Hm... What else did I liked... Oh yea! In your "Dashboard", it gives you approximate GRE score and pie chart on how many you got wrong/right depending on practice problems that you did. Magoosh is not expensive compare to other GRE prep, so I think you should try it. I have to warn you though that my GRE score didn't increase after a month of doing Magoosh, but I still learned a lot. Hope this helps!

[pemdas]

yea, these boys nowadays know the tastes and the motivations of us, test takers when it comes to all kind of sorting stuff and presenting materials for buying

[pemdas]

BTW their dashboard lied two times I took test both in verbal and quant

[chaetzli]

I love Magoosh. It's the best prep I used. However, the dashboard does not seem to be accurate. As I have already taken the test I know my actual scores before practicing (V161, Q 159). The range Magoosh indicates AFTER practicing is V 153-158, Q 156-161.

[pemdas]

as I said earlier either in urch or somewhere else - may be on Magoosh web-blog space - the foundations matter up to 160 after that no resource is much effective. One needs to approach test strategically

[Willows]

I think their quant section is unrealistically hard. That could be a negative or positive, depending on how you look at it. The verbal is great on Magoosh, but bringing up your verbal score requires a lot more time than bringing up your quant score, IMHO.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Willows

[pemdas]

Well, I don't think magoosh has that hard stuff put for math. Their math questions are testing concepts which are easily solved by using brutal methods. That may become a major weakness of magoosh aspirants prepping for the test. They should have included a few questions with the devious answer choices and tricky content to stimulate the test takers for looking after various kinds of substitution, plugging in and back-solving ways. I don't find math of magoosh tricky at all, if you have a strong foundation in the GRE curriculum math.

[ameydhar]

I had taken the Magoosh Verbal-only section and absolutely loved their material. It was one of the best Verbal prep material for me and the course helped me achieve my target score. The questions were very similar to what I encountered on the actual exam. Additionally, I found the video explanations to each question absolutely fantastic. It helped me understand how to get to the answer and learn important strategies required for the exam.

[Imhotep]

I've just spent a while longer using Magoosh and Kaplan and the PowerPrep software and I am even more dissatisfied with Magoosh's math. Magoosh math questions are much trickier than the real GRE questions. I say "trickier" and not "more difficult" because the Magoosh questions rely on some non-intuitive strategy they teach in the videos. The questions are quite easy if you remember their strange strategy but almost impossible if you do not. Magoosh estimates my quant score to be in the 152-157 range whereas I just took a PowerPrep practice test and simulated real test conditions and scored a 163 on quant.

Magoosh is too expensive and not very helpful. The 16 dollar Kaplan book I purchased and free PowerPrep software are far better.

[jmbrown88]

Magoosh is amazing. It's harder than what you'll encounter on the actual test so come test day your even more prepared then you thought you'd be. I highly recommend it.

[shockwave]

Magoosh is amazing. It's harder than what you'll encounter on the actual test so come test day your even more prepared then you thought you'd be. I highly recommend it.

jmbrown88, is this your experience? I see that the questions also seem a bit more difficult than the actual test. Not difficult but actually more tricky, where the slightest subtle difference in a definition will be the correct answer Magoosh suggests.

I think it is good practice though I have a few qualms. As others have mentioned, the math section is incredibly difficult to udnerstand and goes through ridiculously roundabout ways to find simple concepts. Find 50% of 40. Rather than just plugging in 40 * .5 to the calculator it took me on a path that did nothing but confuse my incredibly unmathematical mind. The verbal section is often very ticky as I mention above. I caught it on sale for $100 (right after a pay check), so I don't mind this, plus its for a year. I definitely wouldn't pick this up at the actual retail price or anything more than $100.

I was wondering if anyone who has used Magoosh seen an increase in their scores? I will be a test of this next month when I retake it, but what have others thought?

[Imhotep]

Compare Magoosh with Barron's online practice: http://barronstestprep.com/gre/pricing.php

With Barron's you get 4 full length practice tests, many more practice questions, video explanations, and iPad/iPhone support. I wish I had seen this earlier.

[hitchhiker]

Magoosh has been great for verbal.

[Arezoo]

I'm weak at the quantitative section. which one should i choose: Barron's or magoosh?

[hom]

I'm surprised by where people are focusing their criticism of Magoosh's math tutoring, that the questions are 'tricky', too difficult, etc. What distinguishes Magoosh from other services, in my mind, is that it best explains how to approach the questions in a methodical, systematic way. This service is about test preparation, and Magoosh tries to give you the best strategies for tackling the GRE, not just the best imitations of the questions it expects you to encounter.

Though I also found the math practice questions difficult, this doesn't factor in heavily in my evaluation of Magoosh as a whole. You should be taking practice tests from various services anyway, which Princeton, ETS, Manhattan, etc all offer for free.

[shockwave]

Another thing I have some qualms with regards Mcgoosh is that while the reading comp questions are helpful, they are not in the identical format to that of the GRE. For example, on the actual test I got about one long passage (80 lines), a medium passage (50-60 lines), and the rest smaler ( < 30 lines). On Mcgoosh I've probably only gotten 1-2 long passages out of 200 or so RC questions. Also some of the problems are in formats I've never seen in any book or on the exam. For example:

Person A: Statement

Person B: Statement

Question on Mcgoosh: "What is the argument of Person B in relation to Person A"

Perhaps this is actually better preperation, but I was really hoping for more similar practice problems to that of the test.

[Imhotep]

I'm weak at the quantitative section. which one should i choose: Barron's or magoosh?

I would recommend Barron's. You can get free preview accounts for both services though.

[Karoku_valentine]

I just retook the GRE. My former scores were 157 for the Math and Verbal section. Since I had not studied before, I was very confident that i was going to get a slight increase in the Math section (I only bought the Math section and I only care about it). I studied, not everyday, but I did study a lot and practiced a lot. Mostly  I am a good student of Math, I took many classes at the Math department; somehow, I did the GRE today and I got 157 at Math and 159 at verbal. I did the verbal part so fast because I did not want to waste time on it, and somehow managed to increase my score and to have the same exact score for Math.

 

I feel terrible now, you might expect. I thought Magoosh had prepared me a little better for the Math section. I looked the logic, the exercises, and I even found the Math part to be easy at the moment of the exam (though I was so tired at the end). I was expecting maybe a 160, that would have been acceptable. Actually any increase would have made me feel better, but to get the same exact score after months and tons of practice seems just ridiculous.

 

I would not say I hate Magoosh, I still it is a great site, but I just do not have any personal evidence to back it up.

[SportPsych30]

I enjoyed my experiences with Magoosh. Off and On all summer, pretty much the only thing I used. I also used Kaplan flash cards. I got a 162V and 157Q, which I was very happy with. I know I wouldn't have done as well without Magoosh. All of my Q scores were higher in practice, and all of my V scores were lower in practice. If I retook, I would not be surprised to see my scores just switch, but being a Psych student, the V is more important so I am happy


I've also heard that Magoosh does a great job getting you into the 155-160 range, but is not much help in getting you past that hump and into those phenomenal scores.

[Amstlight]

I just retook the GRE. My former scores were 157 for the Math and Verbal section. Since I had not studied before, I was very confident that i was going to get a slight increase in the Math section (I only bought the Math section and I only care about it). I studied, not everyday, but I did study a lot and practiced a lot. Mostly  I am a good student of Math, I took many classes at the Math department; somehow, I did the GRE today and I got 157 at Math and 159 at verbal. I did the verbal part so fast because I did not want to waste time on it, and somehow managed to increase my score and to have the same exact score for Math.

 

I feel terrible now, you might expect. I thought Magoosh had prepared me a little better for the Math section. I looked the logic, the exercises, and I even found the Math part to be easy at the moment of the exam (though I was so tired at the end). I was expecting maybe a 160, that would have been acceptable. Actually any increase would have made me feel better, but to get the same exact score after months and tons of practice seems just ridiculous.

 

I would not say I hate Magoosh, I still it is a great site, but I just do not have any personal evidence to back it up.

I totally agree with this post. In fact, my story is somewhat more tragic than yours. I have so far taken the GRE twice - first time I took it with a total of 10 days of preparation and a full-time job (40+ hours a week). I used to wake up @4 am to study before heading to work @ 8am. I was actually sure I would score really badly. My scores were 158Q and 156V. I thought, wow, if I could manage these scores with 10 days of studying, a few months will do wonders. So I signed up for a premium service with Magoosh and solved all their 500+ quant problems. Got the hang of it quickly and I felt much better prepared than I was before my first exam. Their practice tests gave me an average of 163 and I was certain this was going to be a smooth ride. Took the test again, this time the scores were 156Q and 155V. I never studied for the verbal because it did not really matter so much to me. That I was terribly shocked and depressed would be an understatement to say the least.

 

I do not regret purchasing Magoosh but I do not think it prepared me to face the actual test. The questions in the actual exam turned out to be far trickier than anything I had experienced on Magoosh website. Moreover, some of the questions I received were pretty new to me - ironically Magoosh say on their website that parabolas rarely if ever come up, well, I got 2 hard questions on parabolas. I was ill-prepared to answer them.

 

I have read that Magoosh has helped lots of people raise their scores, it's good to hear that. Sadly I am one of those people who cannot rave about it.

[cafeconleche]

Re: people who took GRE with Magoosh and their scores were unaffected

 

Damn, that really sucks to hear. What did you find to be different? What did you find difficult on the real exam based on what you learned via Magoosh? What were other questions or topics that you hadn't seen on Magoosh?

 

This worries me. I've been using only Magoosh for the past 3 weeks and my test is this upcoming Monday. My predictor range for Math is 152-157, but I've only done a little over 200 questions. When I took a diagnostic super cold with no prior prep a 4 weeks back, I got a 147 on my math part. I really want at 160, but I know it ain't gonna be easy.

 

With that said, I sure as heck hope my math improves in the exam on Monday. I only care abou the math part, because I need to show schools I'm not a doofus at quantitative reasoning.

 

I also have a exam 3 weeks after Monday. I wonder if I should stick with Magoosh or really tap into the Official Guide and Manhattan Prep 5 lbs book I bought recently.

 

Thoughts?

 

#stupidstandardizedtests

[Amstlight]

Re: people who took GRE with Magoosh and their scores were unaffected

 

Damn, that really sucks to hear. What did you find to be different? What did you find difficult on the real exam based on what you learned via Magoosh? What were other questions or topics that you hadn't seen on Magoosh?

 

This worries me. I've been using only Magoosh for the past 3 weeks and my test is this upcoming Monday. My predictor range for Math is 152-157, but I've only done a little over 200 questions. When I took a diagnostic super cold with no prior prep a 4 weeks back, I got a 147 on my math part. I really want at 160, but I know it ain't gonna be easy.

 

With that said, I sure as heck hope my math improves in the exam on Monday. I only care abou the math part, because I need to show schools I'm not a doofus at quantitative reasoning.

 

I also have a exam 3 weeks after Monday. I wonder if I should stick with Magoosh or really tap into the Official Guide and Manhattan Prep 5 lbs book I bought recently.

 

Thoughts?

 

#stupidstandardizedtests

Hi

 

here are some thoughts although it's all a bit late for your first deadline

 

- I took my first test (not sure you read my previous posts) with just days of preparation and a hectic full time job. I was using Manhattan, Barrons and ETS to prepare. I did not know about Magoosh then. Scores 158Q, 156V, 5 AWA. No prep for verbal and AWA at all due to lack of time. I am not an English native speaker and was quite satisfied with my verbal score; I usually find the verbal sections more difficult.

 

- For my second exam, I took a break of several months to prepare - this time I had a part-time job and thus more time to study. I signed up for Magoosh, did all their questions; same with ETS. Magoosh gave me an average estimate of 163Q. I was very confident I would make it over 160 and perhaps even around 165. Alas, that was far from what transpired on the day - 156Q, 155V, 4.5 AWA. It was disappointing especially after putting in countless hours for Quant. Ironically I felt I knew so much more about approaching different types of problems, however, it failed to reflect in the results.

 

- In my opinion, luck plays a major role in this exam, it sounds silly, I know, but on an "unlucky" day most of the questions you see will be very tricky and that tends to eat away your time like crazy. I found myself going far too slowly through the Quant section because of that. I then ran out of time and had to make guesses for the last 3-4 questions. This did not occur to me in my practice tests.

 

- several questions involved material that I was not well prepared for - like parabolas, some statistics from what I remember. Here I found all material sources to be lacking... Also watch out the way ETS formulates questions; this differs from Manhattan, Magoosh or any other sources you might have used. During the actual exam it often happens that even familiar material can appear tricky or you see a question you think you know but in reality there's a trick in there that can easily lead to mistakes.

 

- finally, if you can relax throughout the test, then you will make less mistakes as you move along. I admit that this was not my case. Early on in the first section I was given a question I had never seen before and even though I managed to solve it correctly, it slightly threw me off track for the rest of the section. This might have ruined my overall scores. It's all in your mind, so if you can manage the situation calmly, you will be fine.

 

good luck!

do return and share your experience

[SportPsych30]

Sometimes on the quant section, I think it may be the case that slightly more knowledge can hurt you. Imagine on the first time you take the gre, you just guess right away on questions you are unfamiliar with. After studying more, you see questions and think "oooh I vaguely know how to do this, if I keep working at it, I could nail it" but then you waste all of your time on one or two question and have to guess later on for questions you probably vould have solved.

Just a thought

[makingmoves]

Hi

 

here are some thoughts although it's all a bit late for your first deadline

 

- I took my first test (not sure you read my previous posts) with just days of preparation and a hectic full time job. I was using Manhattan, Barrons and ETS to prepare. I did not know about Magoosh then. Scores 158Q, 156V, 5 AWA. No prep for verbal and AWA at all due to lack of time. I am not an English native speaker and was quite satisfied with my verbal score; I usually find the verbal sections more difficult.

 

- For my second exam, I took a break of several months to prepare - this time I had a part-time job and thus more time to study. I signed up for Magoosh, did all their questions; same with ETS. Magoosh gave me an average estimate of 163Q. I was very confident I would make it over 160 and perhaps even around 165. Alas, that was far from what transpired on the day - 156Q, 155V, 4.5 AWA. It was disappointing especially after putting in countless hours for Quant. Ironically I felt I knew so much more about approaching different types of problems, however, it failed to reflect in the results.

 

- In my opinion, luck plays a major role in this exam, it sounds silly, I know, but on an "unlucky" day most of the questions you see will be very tricky and that tends to eat away your time like crazy. I found myself going far too slowly through the Quant section because of that. I then ran out of time and had to make guesses for the last 3-4 questions. This did not occur to me in my practice tests.

 

- several questions involved material that I was not well prepared for - like parabolas, some statistics from what I remember. Here I found all material sources to be lacking... Also watch out the way ETS formulates questions; this differs from Manhattan, Magoosh or any other sources you might have used. During the actual exam it often happens that even familiar material can appear tricky or you see a question you think you know but in reality there's a trick in there that can easily lead to mistakes.

 

- finally, if you can relax throughout the test, then you will make less mistakes as you move along. I admit that this was not my case. Early on in the first section I was given a question I had never seen before and even though I managed to solve it correctly, it slightly threw me off track for the rest of the section. This might have ruined my overall scores. It's all in your mind, so if you can manage the situation calmly, you will be fine.

 

good luck!

do return and share your experience

 

Agreed... 

 

I posted on my study and first GRE test experiences here: 

 

I prepped hard with Magoosh for 2 months and was getting decent scores on theirs and Manhattan practice tests (158-160V, 157Q) and had around that average on the Magoosh dashboard... then on test day saw completely different math questions... I got a 157V, 146Q on test day.

 

I rescheduled a test for Dec 10th and am just going to use ETS books and practice tests for review... but I'm honestly not going to study as much... just review the basics again and not put too much weight on the 2nd exam. (More weight = more worry = more mistakes).

 

I'll let you know how I do on round 2.