Choosing the right Graduate Management Admission Test prep course is a very important decision—make the right choice, and it could help you score higher on the test and get into the business school of your dreams.
You’ll be studying A LOT, so it’s crucial to find the best GMAT study materials that fit both your learning style and your timeframe.
There is a good bit of pressure involved in this decision-making process, but here’s the GOOD NEWS—we’ve personally researched and reviewed every major GMAT prep course on the market to make things easier for you! The comparison chart below compares all the top GMAT courses to help you figure out which GMAT prep class will be the best option for you.
Please note that several of the links included below are affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, we may earn a referral commission if you use one of the courses below. Only use the links if you have been helped by our review!
Compare the Best GMAT Prep Courses and Study Materials Below
1. Varsity Tutors Best GMAT Prep Course
OVERALL RATING:
Ready to Crush the GMAT? Wanting to raise your GMAT score? Varsity Tutors can help get you there. Because they offer hybrid courses and membership programs that marry traditional, expert-led classes with an online learning environment, Varsity Tutors is paving the way for a new kind of test preparation.
Although tutoring is a part of their name, Varsity Tutors offers much. For example, their 10-week GMAT Prep Class is designed to prepare students to take the GMAT by equipping them with skills and test-taking strategies to improve their scores.
- 10 Weeks of Live Virtual Classes
- 20 hr total class time
- Dozens of GMAT Practice Tests
- Thousands of Test Bank Questions
- Combo GRE tutoring & live online class options
Feel like you need less or more than 10 weeks of learning? Varsity Tutors has a plan for you. The same is true for those who want to do more than just practice for the GMAT. Instead of spending $599 to $649 for one class, you can now have access to multiple classes. From coding to photography to science and more, Varsity Tutors offers it all plus tutoring hours. It’s truly a unique offering.
- Personalized Instruction: Student-to-teacher ratios for Varsity Tutor’s 10-Week GMAT Prep Class are very low, with only 6-9 students in each group. It includes 20 hours of live instruction and allows students to receive personalized tutoring and assistance. Because this is an actual prep class, students also have the opportunity to collaborate and engage in discussion. At just $599, this class is ranked as one of the most affordable Live GMAT courses available.
- Certified GMAT Tutors: With degrees from Yale, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and other highly ranked business programs, Varsity Tutoring experts are the best of the best. When working with a GMAT tutor through Varsity Tutors, you’ll not only improve your overall skills, but you’ll also focus on the content areas that matter most to you. For example, if you are feeling strong in Quantitive Reasoning but struggle with Verbal skills, you and your expert will be able to hone in on where you need the most help.
- Great For International Students: Varsity Tutors GMAT Courses aren’t only for native English speakers. In fact, International students rank Varsity prep offerings very high when compared to other programs. As Carlo explains in the video below, Varsity Tutors helped him prepare for and gave him the confidence to take the GMAT exam.
- Free Consultation: Not sure how to get started? No problem! Varsity Tutors offers a free GMAT consultation with an expert who can help you explore your options.
Bottom Line: Varsity Tutors has one of the best live courses available for GMAT test-takers. Their roster of top-notch tutoring experts, along with their 10-Week Prep Course, all but guarantees GMAT success.
How do you rate Varsity Tutors GMAT Prep Courses?
2. Manhattan Prep GMAT Course Online
OVERALL RATING:
- Comprehensive Course: Manhattan Prep’s course gives students a number of in-depth materials to study for each area of the exam. Access to more than 27 hours of video lessons, strategy guidebooks for each area of the exam, the Official Guide to the GMAT book, and 6 practice exams make this a well-rounded course with an impressive amount of practice material.
- Downloadable Video Lessons: With Manhattan Prep GMAT, users have the ability to study virtually anywhere. Their on-demand video lectures can be streamed live or downloaded to your computer or iPad so that you can study on the go, even if you are in an area without internet access. The high-definition videos are easy to follow and taught by expert instructors.
- Quality Practice Tests: In addition to in-depth lessons and study material, Manhattan provides 6 quality practice tests. Their tests are difficult, and some students report that the practice tests are more challenging than the actual test. Each practice test includes a detailed score report.
- Qualified Instructors: Manhattan Prep is meticulous in selecting their instructors, who are knowledgeable in all areas of the GMAT.
- Guarantees: Manhattan Prep clearly states on their website that all payments are nonrefundable and the company does not provide refunds to students for any reason. Most of the GMAT online prep courses on our list do offer a higher score guarantee, even though they aren’t used all that often; if a guarantee is essential for you, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Bottom Line: Manhattan Prep provides a comprehensive GMAT prep course that covers all the bases for you to score high. We don’t find it as efficient of a process as Princeton Review or Kaplan, but if you want a large amount of practice problems, Manhattan Prep is a great option.
3. Kaplan GMAT Test Prep Course
OVERALL RATING:
- Practice Material: Kaplan offers a lot of practice material, which can help you better recognize GMAT question types and improve your test-taking ability. Their quiz bank of more than 5,000 GMAT practice questions allows you to take customized quizzes and filter which GMAT areas you want to focus and improve on, and their 9 full-length practice exams give you ample opportunity to practice strategies and prepare yourself for the exam.
- Higher Score Guarantee: Kaplan is confident in their products, so they provide students with an opportunity to retake the course or get a refund if their score doesn’t improve after going through their GMAT course. Make sure you are aware of the conditions of the guarantee, one of which is establishing a baseline GMAT score before beginning the course.
- Official Test Day Experience: Unique to Kaplan is the ability to take a practice GMAT test in an actual Prometric testing facility. The GMAT test day can be a daunting experience for any test-taker, so developing familiarity with the test-taking environment may give you just the edge you need to succeed.
- Most Expensive: Kaplan is extremely proud of their GMAT product, which translates to premium price points. Their courses start at $599, and their top courses are $1249. Beyond that, their GMAT tutoring packages cost thousands more.
Bottom Line: Kaplan provides a comprehensive course offering and unique features like their official test day experience, but they’re still the most expensive option on the market; if money isn’t an issue, they’re a solid option after The Princeton Review.
4. Target Test Prep GMAT Course Reviews
OVERALL RATING:
- Personalized Study Plans: Target Test Prep’s GMAT course adapts to your skill level and score goal, using detailed analytics and customizable tests to zero in on your weak areas. A step-by-step, personalized study plan guides you through 20 chapters organized into 500 easy-to-digest lessons, and 4,000+ realistic quant problems help prepare you for the rigors of the GMAT.
- NEW Verbal Course Access: When Target Test Prep began their GMAT course, they only offered instruction for the Quantitative sections of the exam. Now, Target Test Prep offers complimentary access to their brand new GMAT Verbal Course for the same price as their original package! Even without Verbal section material, Target Test Prep had a top GMAT course, but this new material makes it that much better.
- Video Solutions by Expert Instructors: You will watch and learn from the masters when you sign up for this course. With more than 800 comprehensive HD video solutions to quant problems, led by expert GMAT instructors, you can easily pinpoint why (and where) you got a question wrong, and get valuable strategies for solving problems more efficiently.
- $1 Full-Access Trial and Score Guarantee: You can’t go wrong with a risk-free, full-access trial for only $1, and Target Test Prep offers both a 5-day trial with no auto-billing and a guaranteed score increase if you stick with the course. If your GMAT quant score doesn’t go up after you complete Target Test Prep’s course, you can request a full refund.
Bottom Line: Target Test Prep’s new Verbal curriculum makes their GMAT course one of the best comprehensive courses on the market. We recommend their 4- or 6-month plans as the best bang-for-buck options, though their monthly subscription option (the Flexible plan) allows you to enroll in their course for the exact amount of time that you need.
5. Magoosh GMAT Best GMAT Prep
OVERALL RATING:
- Intuitive Interface: Magoosh has a very user-friendly online platform. From the Magoosh GMAT dashboard, students can quickly view progress charts, recommended lessons based on completed practice questions, and gain quick access to key course features. The course structure is easy to follow, too; you can watch video lessons, take customizable practice quizzes, and review GMAT course material with ease while using their well-designed interface, one of the best in the business.
- Price: The Magoosh GMAT program is one of the best options if you’re looking for affordable GMAT prep. For just $219, students get 1 year of access to more than 175 lessons with video tutorials, 720 practice questions, and study schedules. Their Premium offering is only $30 more ($249), and ups the offering to 340 video lessons, 1,300 practice questions, 2 diagnostic tests, and a +50 score guarantee. With competitors charging hundreds or even thousands of dollars more than Magoosh, their course is definitely a bargain!
- Quality Instruction: Their test prep experts have extensive backgrounds in tutoring and GMAT subject matter. For each practice problem, the Magoosh staff provides both written and video explanations to ensure the concepts are fully and clearly explained.
- Customer Support: Magoosh has a reputation for being prompt and thorough in all responses to students’ questions. A built-in help tab appears whenever students are logged in, making it easy to submit questions immediately as soon as they come up, rather than having to stop what you’re doing and go to a different part of the site to send an email or a message.
Bottom Line: Magoosh’s GMAT prep course provides quality instruction material at a budget-friendly price, all through a seamless online platform. With this combination of accessibility and depth, Magoosh GMAT has the best overall value of any GMAT course.
6. PrepScholar Online GMAT Course Review
OVERALL RATING:
- Most Affordable: PrepScholar’s GMAT packages include a $69 quiz bank for those who want to study completely on their own, though this isn’t a comprehensive class. You might assume that their standard GMAT course would be vastly more expensive, but luckily, their self-guided online course comes in at only $139, easily the cheapest GMAT online course on our list.
- Adaptive Curriculum: Like many of the courses on our list, PrepScholar’s GMAT prep course continually adapts to your strengths and weaknesses. The importance of this feature can’t be understated since the GMAT itself is a computer-adaptive test—with PrepScholar, your study plan, progress tracking, and skill levels actively respond to your best and worst subjects throughout the course.
- Top 1% Instructors: PrepScholar boasts a 99th percentile staff of instructors, meaning that the people who recorded your video explanations and designed your GMAT curriculum each scored in the top 1% of test-takers on the GMAT. So, it’s safe to say that the PrepScholar team knows their way around the GMAT exam and can show you how to navigate it, too.
- 60+ Point Improvement Guarantee: Many of the best GMAT prep online courses feature a higher score guarantee, but PrepScholar is one of the few who add a specific number to that promise—60 points. Scoring 60 points higher on the GMAT can be the difference between being in the top 45% of test-takers and the top 25% of test-takers; a guarantee like this can really put you ahead of the pack.
- No Mobile App: Though PrepScholar is an entirely online prep course, they haven’t optimized their material for mobile use. For many students, this isn’t the end of the world, but for those who spend a lot of time on the go and who have really busy schedules, a mobile-friendly prep course may be essential.
Bottom Line: Other courses may offer a bit more accessibility, but PrepScholar’s top-notch score improvement guarantee, expert instructor roster and low price make it an online GMAT prep course that every prospective student should look into.
Manhattan Prep vs. Kaplan Online GMAT Prep Courses
While other online GMAT prep courses aim to be budget-friendly and accessible, Kaplan and Manhattan Prep position themselves as more prestigious and expensive packages. These companies have such similar philosophies that they’ve even partnered up to provide students with high-quality in-person classes. Though their courses are expensive, they come with additional features that every GMAT student should consider, so don’t let the dollar signs scare you away, and take a look at the individual offerings of both companies to determine which will help you make the most out of your GMAT preparation.
Course Options and Price
Both companies offer their most budget-friendly course, a self-paced online course, in the $500-$600 price range. Every other GMAT course from Manhattan Prep or Kaplan will cost at least $1200, and at most, $2600. On the whole, Kaplan’s GMAT courses are less expensive than Manhattan Prep’s, coming in at $1249 for their live online course and $2450 for their tutoring package. To compare, Manhattan Prep GMAT courses cost $1399 for their live online option and $2450 for their tutoring package.
Even though Manhattan Prep’s courses are more expensive, they are the only company on our top GMAT course list that doesn’t include a score improvement guarantee with their services. Kaplan, on the other hand, includes a standard higher score guarantee, so if you score worse on the GMAT after taking Kaplan than you did on a previous test attempt, you can get your money back.
Overall
Both companies stand out from the rest for offering self-paced, live online, and private tutoring course options for those studying for the GMAT—this variety is a big plus for those that believe a standard self-paced course won’t be the best for them. While Manhattan Prep has a variety of books and guides, we don’t believe their materials are that much better than those provided by Kaplan, who has some of the best GMAT study materials in the business. On top of that, Kaplan’s services come in at less than their competitors, so we believe that overall, Kaplan’s GMAT prep will provide more value for students over Manhattan Prep’s.
Best GMAT Prep Apps
#1 Magoosh GMAT App
Magoosh takes the cake when it comes to GMAT apps, combining its natural affinity for mobile platforms with all of the resources of Magoosh’s prep course. With either a premium membership or your existing Magoosh login, you can gain access to over 1,300 practice questions, 340 video lessons, tutor assistance, progress tracking, and much more. This makes the Magoosh app a perfect companion to your existing Magoosh prep course and makes Magoosh the best app for GMAT preparation.
#2 Manhattan GMAT Prep App
Although Manhattan Prep sank down on our list of the top courses overall, the Manhattan Prep GMAT app is one of the program’s saving graces. With this app, students get access to over 15 quizzes, 1500+ GMAT vocabulary flashcards, immediate feedback and progress tracking, and coverage of all four sections of the GMAT. Although they might rank higher overall, the truth is that the Princeton Review GMAT app and Kaplan GMAT app don’t quite measure up to Manhattan Prep. Condensing all of Manhattan Prep’s resources into a slick and useful mobile setting is useful for those who need a streamlined on-the-go study option.
#3 Kaplan GMAT Prep App
What makes the Kaplan GMAT Prep app stand out is its ability to squeeze the full array of course features into mobile form. Including access to the Kaplan Qbank app, all Kaplan mobile apps come complete with access to the video lessons, practice questions, and other resources that you’ll find in your main self-paced or live prep course. If you thrive on traditional teaching materials, but your schedule forces you to be on the move, the Kaplan GMAT Prep app might be a good choice for you.
Best GMAT Course Flashcards
#1 Magoosh GMAT Flashcards
Magoosh offers students 400 free GMAT flashcards that cover both the verbal and math sections. The verbal section drills you on the tricky idioms that you’ll find on the GMAT, and the math cards teach concepts like algebra, statistics, and geometry. The fact that these cards are not only free but plentiful makes them the best GMAT flashcards of the choices on our list. Magoosh flashcards are not only offered on the web, but can also be accessed on a downloadable mobile app.
#2 Kaplan GMAT Flashcards
Kaplan brings up second place with a package including 260 math, 190 verbal reasoning, and 50 extra cards to help with analytical writing, integrated reasoning, and general test-taking strategies. 500 cards is the most you’ll find of the courses on our list, but it’s hard to compete with Magoosh’s missing price tag. Kaplan’s cards are available for $17 and are a great supplement to one of their study packages. You can use the cards online and in-hand.
Best GMAT Prep Courses FAQ
What’s the Best GMAT Prep Course?
There are several top-quality options for those studying for the GMAT, including Magoosh, Varsity Tutors, and Target Test Prep, to name some of our top picks. But determining which one is best depends on factors such as your budget, your learning style, and your timeframe. We believe that Magoosh GMAT prep will provide the best bang for your buck for most students, but other courses—even more expensive ones like Kaplan or Manhattan Prep’s—may be exactly what you need as an individual. To learn more about the top GMAT prep courses, take a look at our GMAT course rankings and reviews: they’ll help you find the right course FOR YOU!
Magoosh GMAT Review
Varsity Tutors GMAT Review
Target Test Prep GMAT Review
Kaplan GMAT Review
PrepScholar GMAT Review
Manhattan Prep GMAT Full Review
What’s the most affordable GMAT prep course?
GMAT prep courses come in at a variety of price ranges—some of the ones featured on our top 7 GMAT course list cost as low as $99, but don’t actually cover all sections of the GMAT exam. If you want a GMAT course that is as thorough as possible and gives you ample time to study for the test, we’d recommend taking a look at a course like Magoosh’s Premium plan, which provides 1 whole year of access to quality, easy-to-use GMAT preparation materials for $249. If that price-tag seems a bit much, there are still options for you. You can check out PrepScholar’s Self-Guided Online GMAT Prep course, which comes in at a low $139, but provides only 3 months of access.
These courses are the cheapest comprehensive courses available, but if you’re only interested in reviewing the numbers-heavy sections of the GMAT—the Quantitative Reasoning and Integrated Reasoning sections—there are even cheaper options out there. PrepScholar’s Quant Package costs only $69 and provides 4 months of access, while Target Test Prep (who currently provides GMAT Quant prep courses exclusively) has a Flexible plan that costs $99 per month.
Though they offer different amounts of material, these are the most affordable GMAT prep courses online; to find out which will best fit your specific budgetary and academic needs, check out our in-depth reviews of the best GMAT prep courses, such as our Magoosh GMAT review.
What are the best GMAT study materials?
Each of the courses on our list provides quality GMAT preparation materials, but some of them offer materials in a wider variety of formats. For students that really appreciate learning with physical guides and books, this variety can be a lifesaver.
If you’re looking for the best GMAT prep books, we’d recommend you look at Kaplan GMAT prep, which provides 2 books and an MBA admissions guide with even their cheapest prep course. These materials come on top of the online quizzes, question banks, and practice tests that they provide, making their materials really well-rounded. Manhattan Prep also provides printed materials—and a unique online workbook—with their GMAT prep courses, so if you’re willing to shell out their more premium prices, you’ll be sure to get quality texts through them as well.
What’s the best GMAT prep course near me?
Nowadays, many companies in the test prep and education industry are moving their focus to online learning, but there are still plenty of GMAT prep services that teach in classroom settings for students that prefer it. The best in-person GMAT prep courses you’ll find are those from Kaplan and Manhattan Prep. These two companies have actually partnered to provide their in-person GMAT class, which is hosted at institutions across the country.
With the Kaplan + Manhattan Prep in-person course, students will receive instruction from a top 1% instructor, someone who scored in the 99th percentile on the test themselves. The course includes 27 hours of class time over 9 sessions, plus 1-on-1 sessions with an instructor to make sure you’re getting the individualized support you need. For students who believe a self-paced GMAT course won’t work, this in-person option is your best bet.
Bryce Welker is an active speaker, blogger, and regular contributor to Forbes, Inc.com, and Business.com where he shares his knowledge to help others boost their careers. Bryce is the founder of more than 20 test prep websites that help students and professionals pass their certification exams.
