GRE General Test preparation, live online
The shortened GRE runs just under two hours and has one Analytical Writing task instead of two. Less time also means fewer questions carrying more weight each, so the margin for a slow start is smaller than the old format allowed. The test adapts between sections rather than within them, which makes the first scored section the one to protect.
Exam format
What the GRE actually looks like
The structure, the timing and the scoring, stated plainly — before anything about a course.
- Length
- Just under two hours
- Questions
- Five sections: one writing task, two Verbal, two Quantitative
- Scored
- Verbal 130–170, Quantitative 130–170, Analytical Writing 0–6
- Adaptivity
- Section-level: your second section in each subject depends on the first
Analytical Writing — one task
A single Analyze an Issue essay, where the older exam had two tasks. You take a position on a claim and defend it. The marking rewards a clear line held consistently and supported with specific examples far more than it rewards balance or elegance.
Verbal Reasoning — two sections
Reading comprehension, text completion and sentence equivalence. Vocabulary matters, but almost always in context: the questions are built so that knowing a word roughly is not enough and knowing the sentence's logic often is.
Quantitative Reasoning — two sections
Arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis, plus quantitative comparison — a question type that exists nowhere else and asks which of two quantities is larger, or whether that can be determined at all.
- An on-screen calculator is available in the Quantitative sections. It is basic on purpose; questions that look like they need it usually have a shorter route.
- The test adapts between sections rather than within them, so the first scored section in each subject decides the difficulty — and the ceiling — of the second.
- You can mark questions and return to them within a section, which makes a first pass for the questions you can answer quickly a viable strategy.
Before you start
Is GRE preparation right for you?
Who it suits. Graduate applicants preparing for the GRE General Test, including students returning to mathematics after a gap.
When to check another option. A GRE Subject Test request. The General Test coverage on this page should not be mistaken for a subject-specific syllabus.
Why it matters
What a GRE score is for
The GRE is the most broadly accepted graduate admissions test there is: master's and doctoral programmes across the sciences, humanities and social sciences read it, and most business schools now accept it alongside the GMAT. That breadth is the point for an applicant still deciding between fields — one test keeps several doors open. Many programmes also set a floor on the Quantitative score specifically, which makes it the section where a few points can decide eligibility rather than impression.
Coverage
What the preparation covers
The ground a course goes over. A group course takes it in its published order; for one-to-one lessons, how much of it you need and in what order is what the diagnostic decides.
- Verbal Reasoning: reading comprehension, text completion, sentence equivalence
- Quantitative Reasoning: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, data analysis, quantitative comparison
- Analytical Writing: the single Analyze an Issue task, and what the scoring actually rewards
- The on-screen calculator, the mark-and-review tool, and section-level adaptivity
- Full-length practice tests under real timing, then a written review of each section
Where marks go
Where candidates lose marks on the GRE
Not a list of study tips. These are the specific ways this particular test takes marks off people who know the material.
A slow start in the first scored section
Because the test adapts between sections, the first Verbal and the first Quantitative decide what the second can be worth. There is less room here than on a within-section adaptive test to recover from a bad opening ten minutes.
Learning vocabulary as a list
Text completion and sentence equivalence both put a word back into a sentence rather than asking for a definition, and every wrong option is built to satisfy someone working from a rough gloss. A word met on a flashcard rarely survives that; a word met inside three sentences usually does.
Solving quantitative comparison questions
The question asks which quantity is larger, not what either equals. Computing both is often possible and almost always slower, and on the questions where the answer is that it cannot be determined, computing is a trap rather than a detour.
Writing a balanced essay
Analyze an Issue rewards a position argued well. Surveying both sides evenly reads as indecision to a marker working from the scoring guide, and it costs the essay the thing it is being marked on.
Reaching for the calculator
It is there and it is basic. Questions that appear to need it usually have a route that does not, and the time spent typing is time not spent on the question after.
Ignoring the mark-and-return tool
Within a section you can skip and come back. Working strictly in order means the four hard questions in the middle eat the time that six easy ones at the end needed.
Lesson format
Group course, or one-to-one
Group · 72 hours
Seventy-two one-hour lessons over sixteen weeks: 31 in Quantitative Reasoning and 31 in Verbal Reasoning, three of them on the Analyze an Issue essay, then 10 working through practice tests together. Classes hold at most six, and vocabulary is taught inside text completion and sentence equivalence rather than handed over as a list to memorise.
One-to-one
One-to-one lessons for a specific target — a quant score a programme sets a floor on, or an essay that needs structure more than it needs ideas.
Group course
How the GRE group course runs
A fixed timetable, in Türkiye time (UTC+3). The dates and lessons below are the ones the classes are actually taught to.
- Lessons
- 60 minutes each
- Days and times
- Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 13:00–16:30
- Length
- 16 weeks · 72 hours
- Class size
- Up to 24 students per group, taught by level in classes of at most 6
Week by week
- Weeks 1–10: Saturday and Sunday, 13:00–16:30. Saturday has two Verbal Reasoning lessons and one Quantitative Reasoning; Sunday has two Quantitative Reasoning and one Verbal Reasoning or Analytical Writing.
- Week 11: Saturday, one Verbal Reasoning and one Quantitative Reasoning lesson.
- Weeks 12–16: Sunday afternoons, practice-test review — Verbal Reasoning at 13:00, Quantitative Reasoning at 14:15.
What the lessons cover
- Quantitative Reasoning · 31 lessons
- Verbal Reasoning · 28 lessons — Reading Comprehension 14, Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence 14
- Analytical Writing · 3 lessons — the Analyze an Issue task, the test's only essay
- Practice-test review · 10 lessons — 5 Verbal Reasoning, 5 Quantitative Reasoning
Start dates open for enrolment
Starts Sat 14 November 2026
Last lesson 28 February 2027 · enrol by 11 November 2026
Starts Sat 9 January 2027
Last lesson 25 April 2027 · enrol by 6 January 2027
Starts Sat 13 February 2027
Last lesson 30 May 2027 · enrol by 10 February 2027
What the course includes
- 20 full-length GRE practice tests
- The GRE question bank, full access
- TestPrep AI Tutor, which talks you through the mistakes in your practice tests — your first 2 are free
- Every lesson recorded, to rewatch for 14 days
- A study plan written for you by TestPrep
- Homework, with your progress tracked from lesson to lesson
- Questions answered within 24 hours
- Regular progress reports for parents
- All course materials, at no extra cost
The question bank opens on your account once the first week of the course is over, and the practice tests on the day of the last topic lesson.
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay. A group place is confirmed by e-mail once the payment goes through, and what the course includes opens on the account registered here with the student's e-mail address.
How it runs
How the teaching works
A diagnostic before one-to-one lessons are planned
One-to-one lessons start by finding out where the marks are actually going. That is not a formality: on most of these tests the gap a student describes and the gap the diagnostic shows are different, and hours spent on the described one are hours wasted. A group course starts on its published first lesson instead. If you want a baseline of your own first, the free GRE diagnostic test is there for that.
Teaching in the order your deadline allows
A group course works through the syllabus in a fixed order because a class has to. One-to-one starts with whatever is costing you most and works outwards, which is why it suits a retake or a short runway better.
Timed work from early, not saved for the end
Untimed accuracy is a poor predictor of a timed score, and finding that out three weeks before the test is too late. Timed sections start in the first fortnight, short at first.
Review and progress checks
Review looks beyond the mark: which errors recur, whether the reasoning is clearer and how accuracy holds under time pressure. Bring earlier attempts to the discussion so the next practice has a specific purpose.
All of it runs in the browser, live, with a teacher on the other end. There are no recordings sold as a course and no premises to travel to.
Timeline
How long GRE preparation takes
A rough shape rather than a promise. People arrive at different starting points and the plan is built around yours, but this is what a full run usually looks like.
- 1
Ten to sixteen weeks out — diagnostic
A full-length timed test before teaching. For the GRE in particular this establishes something specific: how your accuracy holds through a first scored section, which is what the adaptive step turns on.
- 2
Weeks 2–8 — Verbal and Quantitative together
Both subjects every week rather than in blocks, because the sections alternate on test day and the skill of switching between them is real. Vocabulary is taught inside text completion and sentence equivalence, never as a list.
- 3
Weeks 8–12 — essay and full-length tests
The Analyze an Issue task worked to the scoring guide, with written feedback on your own essays, alongside a full-length test every week or so.
- 4
Final two weeks — pacing and the first-section problem
Timed first sections, repeatedly, because that is where this test is decided. No new content.
Practice
Practising between lessons
Lessons are where something gets explained; the marks move in the hours between them. The GRE group course includes both: the question bank opens once its first week is over, and the practice tests on the day of the last topic lesson. Of the one-to-one packages, only the 50-lesson Ultimate package includes them; both are also sold on their own.
Full-length practice tests
The real section timing, the on-screen tools the test gives you, and the real adaptive behaviour. A score from an untimed paper printout tells you much less than it appears to.
Question bank
Filter to one section and one difficulty band and work a narrow skill until the pattern in your wrong answers is obvious. Solved questions are remembered, so a session does not hand back what you already got right.
TestPrep AI Tutor talks you through the questions you got wrong
When your GRE practice test ends, pick a mistake on your results page and the lesson starts. The tutor won't just read out the answer: it asks you, writes the steps on the board and lets you find where you went wrong.
On the GRE it works through Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning questions. Your Analytical Writing (Analyze an Issue) text is coached against ETS's published scoring guide.
Your first 2 mistakes are free (up to 10 minutes)
No card needed to try it, just your account.
Then 30-minute blocks at $4. Unused minutes stay on your account for your next practice tests.
FAQ
GRE questions we get asked
- How is the shortened GRE different from the old one?
- It runs just under two hours instead of nearly four, and Analytical Writing is one task rather than two. Fewer questions carry more weight each, so a slow start costs more than it used to.
- GRE or GMAT?
- For a graduate programme outside business, the GRE, usually without a real choice. For business school, most now take either — pick by which format suits you rather than by which you think looks better, because they do not read it that way.
- How good does the Quantitative score need to be?
- It depends entirely on the programme, and many publish a floor rather than an average. Find the floors for your actual shortlist before deciding how to divide your preparation; that number should shape the plan more than any general target.
- Does the essay matter?
- Less than the two scored sections at most programmes, and more than nothing at all of them — particularly where the department cares about written work. It is also the cheapest part to improve, because the scoring guide is published and the structure is learnable.
- How long should I prepare?
- Ten to sixteen weeks is typical for a full run. A retake aimed at one section is usually shorter, and worth doing only when you can name what went wrong.
- Is there a group course for the GRE?
- Yes: seventy-two one-hour lessons over sixteen weeks across Verbal, Quantitative and the essay, in classes of at most six, with twenty practice tests and the question bank included. One-to-one suits a retake or a programme-specific Quantitative floor better.
Pricing
What GRE preparation costs
Shown in US dollars. Charged in US dollars — there is no conversion at checkout to be surprised by.
One-to-one lessons
One-to-one lessons for a specific target — a quant score a programme sets a floor on, or an essay that needs structure more than it needs ideas.
Single lesson
One 90-minute lesson, to see how it goes.
$100Book10 lessons
Prepaid, usable across subjects where the exam has them.
20 lessons
The usual choice for a full preparation run.
50 lessons, the Ultimate package
75 hours of lessons, with 20 GRE practice tests and four months of the GRE question bank included; both open when you pay.
Group course · 72 hours
Seventy-two one-hour lessons over sixteen weeks: 31 in Quantitative Reasoning and 31 in Verbal Reasoning, three of them on the Analyze an Issue essay, then 10 working through practice tests together. Classes hold at most six, and vocabulary is taught inside text completion and sentence equivalence rather than handed over as a list to memorise.
Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 13:00–16:30, Türkiye time. Next class starts Sat 14 November 2026. Timetable and start dates
Paid in full
The whole course, one payment.
In instalments
Per instalment: 2 monthly payments, the first when you enrol.
First private lesson, or first week of a group course: if it is not what you wanted, you get your money back.
Three or more of you preparing together? We can open a private group at the group course price, with the lesson days and times agreed with the group.
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay. A group place is confirmed by e-mail once the payment goes through, and what the course includes opens on the account registered here with the student's e-mail address.