For close to four decades, Princeton Review has been a one of top choice for students preparing for their GRE. It is known for the proprietary algorithm in its coursework that gives students exactly what they will find in their GRE. So, are you preparing to take the GRE? Is Princeton Review the best for you? Do you want to know the features, pros, and cons of the Princeton Review?
This review article will give you a close and thorough look at the Princeton Review. The goal of enrolling for the Princeton GRE prep course is to get a good grasp of what lies ahead in the actual GRE test. Thus, it is a good idea to know everything about it before delving into it.
Contents
Princeton Review GRE Prep
The price of the course is always a deciding factor when enrolling for courses like this. For many students, it is the most important factor. However, students take solace in the fact that Princeton GRE Course’s price is competitive with its competitors’ prices.
The Self-paced courses which hold online typically cost around $500 and could cost even lesser (around $400) with a promo. Princeton’s Fundamentals course costs around $1200, while the GRE 162+ package can be gotten for around $2300. Although these cannot exactly be tagged low prices, they are, however, still fair considering the amount of resources that students get from Princeton Review.
Princeton Review  Deal: Save $250 with Gre 162+ Plan and $100 with Self Study Plan 9
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Pros
User Experience and Dashboard
Princeton Review has taken it upon itself to make sure every student has the best experience navigating its platform. Using the online content is easy, and the setup is quite professional for anyone to benefit from. From well-structured content to easy-to-spot tabs highlighting resources, practice tests, schedule, coursework, and dashboard, students are likely to enjoy using the Princeton Review platform.
Full-length Practice Tests
When it comes to simulated practice for the GRE, The Princeton Review is miles ahead. It offers eight (8) full-length computer practice tests that are section-adaptive. When students take each of these tests, they get detailed personalized feedback that highlights their strengths and weaknesses, so they can work on them.
The section-adaptive style of these tests increases the difficulty level based on the student’s performance. The test feels very much like the real GRE and will do a lot of good to students who are new to the GRE. Exposing them to this type of test setup goes a long way in making students more comfortable during the real test.
DrillSmart Technology
The DrillSmart technology is the feature that determines students’ questions based on their performance. For each drill session, you start with a calibration question, which sets the tone for how difficult the drill is going to be. This feature works exactly the same way the ever-changing nature of the GRE itself works.
Available and Customizable Tutors and Instructors
The Ultimate course gives students access to instructors outside class hours either by email, phone, or in person. The private tutoring option allows you to customize the price based on the tutor’s experience and expertise.
Private Tutoring Options 1). For Private Level Tutors: They usually have more than 40 hours of extensive instruction and intensive training time.2). For Master Level Tutors: They usually have over 500 hours of tutoring experience or relevant and have helped many students achieve impressive scores. 3). For Premier Level Tutors: They usually have a minimum of 1000 hours of tutoring or relevant work experience with outstanding results to sh66ow for it. |
The tutor/instructor feature is useful as many students have improved their performances because they had access to proven tutors and instructors.
Private tutoring is by far the most expensive option for many prep courses, and students getting the option of choosing the right tutor for them puts the power in their hands as they choose both the tutor that suits them but also the tutor they can afford.
Option for Semi-Private Small Group
Not every student can afford a private tutor, and for that reason, Princeton Review has created the Semi-Private Course, which takes a maximum of four students. This gives the students the chance to learn personally from an instructor through online or in-person lessons. The course takes place over a total of 24 hours of in-class lessons, and it comes with online lesson materials.
Essay Assistance
Out of many self-paced GRE courses available, the Princeton Review is one of the few ones that offer essay feedback. Students submit their essays through the LiveGrader tool, and one of their experts will score the essay and give feedback on areas that need to be improved to write the perfect essay for the exam.
This makes all the difference in the preparations leading to the exam. Bad writing habits are hard to get rid of; thus, getting regular personalized feedback and grading is important for reinforcing those corrections and positive writing habits.
Guaranteed Satisfaction
If there is anything that Princeton Review does well, it is how it keeps its clients satisfied. It offers every client three types of guarantees – Readiness Guarantee, Satisfaction Guarantee, and Money-back Guarantee. Princeton allows students to take a course again or take a refresher course if they are not ready to take the GRE test at the end of their course.
The Satisfaction Guarantee and Money-back guarantee kicks into play if a student is not satisfied with their result. Such a student can continue working with The Princeton Review for a year in a bid to improve their score. If the student’s score does not improve after completing their course, they are entitled to ask for a tuition refund. More information on this is available here.
Cons
Absence of Quiz Bank
Many GRE Prep courses have question banks that students can visit to select questions and create quizzes. These question banks allow them to filter questions, but The Princeton Review does not have this. Instead, it only offers many full-length exams (and one free practice test) and more than 3,500 practice questions.
Minimal Support for Mobile Use
The Princeton Review does not have a mobile app; therefore, students who may want to quickly get some study time on their smartphones or tablets may have a hard time doing so. Although, there are custom-designed flashcards if that’s any consolation.
Shorter Access
Out of the top GRE prep courses, the Princeton Review has the shortest time, which means students have only a short time to access and use the online materials. This may not sound too good for students who want to study for much longer than The Princeton Review offers.
Final Verdict
One thing that cannot be taken away from the Princeton Review its unassailable presence for more than three decades and taking credit for many students’ success in the GRE tests. The courses that Princeton Review offers are delivered in the most interactive and engaging formats. Students will find the video lessons interesting, thorough and helpful.
To further drive home the lessons, there are adaptive drills that students can take, which have difficulty levels that automatically adjust, just like the actual GRE test. Even though we found the dashboard not so perfect, we found the course worth it and complete. For any student looking for a GRE prep course that has the most practice tests, Princeton Review, is a good recommended option.
Conclusion
We hope this detailed look at what The Princeton Review’s GRE prep courses offer has informed you better about the course. In the course of this review, we discovered that students can enjoy some personalized options. There are different levels of tutor expertise for students to pick from. Whether it is the flexible self-paced option or the small-group option, students have different affordable options to choose from.
Also, the eight full-length practice exams give students an added advantage because no other GRE prep course offers the practice exams that the Princeton Review offers. Also, the exams are computer-adaptive, which is good for students to proceed based on their performance abilities.
The online materials also come with the Princeton Review College Planner, which helps students track down the school and program that matches their strengths. One thing that many students do not like about The Princeton GRE Review is the absence of a mobile app. It also does not have a free trial. So, if you want to take the course, you have to pay right away.
F.A.Q
The cost of Princeton Review GRE courses ranges between $500 and $2,300 with discounts depending on the level of resources and the format of the test course that the student chooses.
Yes. Princeton Review is all about helping its students achieve their desired GRE scores. If a student does not get their desired score, Princeton Review gives them back their tuition fees.
Princeton Review offers over 180 hours of lessons, resources, and drills.