Udemy is the biggest online-course platform in the world, with over 100,000 courses and 35 million users. If there is anything that can be taught, you are sure to find a course on Udemy. It is marveling what this website had achieved since its inception only a decade ago. The popularity of the website is in part due to the affordability of the courses and the plethora of free courses from a variety of disciplines. Moreover, there are no subscription fees or other hidden charges. All courses are offered for one-time payment upfront, and you own the course indefinitely.
However, if we look at it from a GRE test taker’s perspective, are the GRE courses on the platform worth it? Are they better than those offered by test-prep companies like Kaplan, Magoosh, PrepScholar, and Manhattan, etc.?
In this article, I will go over some of the top-rated GRE courses on Udemy and discuss whether they match up to the more well-known GRE courses offered by prep-companies.
In this Article
Top Three GRE Courses on Udemy
Currently, the three most popular GRE courses on Udemy are the following:
- Premium GRE Prep Course: Improve Your GRE Score
- GRE Math Prep Course by Olu Sanya
- GRE 44 Hours Math Prep Target GRE 330+
Premium GRE Prep Course by TutorMe
Let’s start with “Premium GRE Prep Course: Improve Your GRE Score“. This course seems pretty basic; it covers all the essential topics of GRE, both Verbal and Quant. However, the lessons make up only 5 hours of material.
Right of the bat, this is concerning because no matter how good an instructor is, they cannot cover GRE topics comprehensively in only 5 hours.
Moreover, it is essential to understand that Udemy is not explicitly set up to offer test-prep courses. This prevents Udemy’s GRE courses from the additional functionality that a test-prep course provides. The most important of which are practice questions and full-length practice tests.
Udemy allows instructors to upload videos, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, audio, and ZIP files. It does not enable web-based interactive tools for practice questions, vocabulary tools, quizzes, diagnostic tests, adaptive algorithms, etc.
This is a significant drawback since practice tools make up half of the equation for good GRE prep.
However, I will admit that this TutorMe course is a fun way to learn about the essentials of GRE. All their lessons are animated and do an excellent job of explaining key concepts in all three sections.
GRE Math Prep Course by Olu Sanya
Unlike the previous course, this is quant only; however, the course offers many video lessons as far as quant is concerned. The course provides 240 video lessons, and each video explores a specific math topic. The video quality is good, and the instructor offers additional features like a free math formula sheet.
However, we run into the same problem as the last course. There are no independent practice questions or tests. You will need to buy Barron’s 6 GRE practice tests textbook as a requirement to attend the course.
Moreover, again, there are no practice exercises crucial to forming a solid understanding of the topics.
As far as the video lessons are concerned, they are helpful, and the instructions are detailed and easy to follow. Every topic is taught from a basic level and is perfect for beginners as well as intermediate students.
GRE 44 Hours Math Prep by Jackson Kailath
Similar to the previous course, this too is a math-only GRE course. It is a comprehensive quant course with hundreds of video lessons exploring every GRE math topic. Again, the classes are suitable, and you will learn a lot, but all the video lessons feature the instructor solving practice questions for you and explaining them step-by-step.
This approach is not wrong in itself; even the most expensive courses like Manhattan and Economist do this. However, ideally, students should have access to practice material themselves to apply what they have learned.
The course does provide 20 quiz questions after every math topic, but these are to be downloaded as pdfs and are not nearly enough for good practice.
How Do These Courses Match Up to Test-Prep Courses?
Structure and Over-all Quality
Yes, the three courses mentioned above offer suitable video lessons, but what else? If we compare these courses’ structure and overall quality to something like Magoosh or PrepScholar, Udemy GRE courses don’t even come close.
Firstly, dedicated GRE test-prep courses have their web-interface. Everything is better organized, and the navigation is generally straightforward and intuitive. Moreover, the video lessons are carefully crafted by GRE instructors generally of higher quality.
The whole experience of a dedicated GRE prep course is vastly different from anything you can find on Udemy. Some of the more premium courses like Manhattan have well-rehearsed interactive video lessons that feel like live classes.
Furthermore, Udemy courses don’t typically offer 1-on-1 tutoring, and even if they do, it is for an hour or two at most. On the other hand, Magoosh has a whole system for private tutoring, but of course, you do have to pay quite a bit for it.
Practice Questions and Full-length Tests
This is what matters the most to me out of all the things I have discussed so far. The most significant advantage test-prep courses have is that they offer thousands of practice questions and multiple full-length tests. Moreover, a crucial aspect of GRE practice questions is how closely they resemble the actual GRE. This is not an easy thing to replicate because GRE questions are quite distinct in their formatting.
This is why reputable test-prep companies utilize many resources to make high-quality practice questions and tests so that students can get an accurate idea of what they will encounter on test day.
Take the GRE Quant course by Olu Sanya as an example; the course requires Barron’s GRE book for full-length tests when Barron’s is not even known for high-quality GRE practice material. Something like the official PowerPack by ETS would have made more sense.
Vocabulary and other GRE Tools
You will not find vocabulary tools or any other useful tools on a Udemy GRE Course. The website is primarily designed for video lessons. This is where standalone GRE courses shine; they provide various prep tools that make learning more effective.
AI Features and Adaptive Learning
A key component of test-prep courses such as Magoosh, Manhattan, The Economist, etc., is implementing AI and machine learning to adapt their courses to your needs and abilities. Many such courses have Adaptive features that personalize the course’s pace and the difficulty of the questions to your skill level. You will not find anything like this in a Udemy GRE course.
What are Udemy GRE Courses suitable for?
They are suitable for a lot of things. I don’t mean to take away from the fact that the courses I reviewed above are great resources. They offer excellent video lessons, are comprehensive and easy-to-follow. However, the most significant advantage of Udemy GRE courses is undoubtedly the cost. All the three courses I mentioned above have a one-time fee of only 10 dollars. This is a fraction of the cost of courses like Manhattan, Magoosh, and The Economist.
Hence, I will be the first one to recommend you these courses if you don’t have the money to spend on a premium test-prep course. You will get an incredible bang for your buck for the 10 dollars you spend on any of these courses.
However, I would strongly recommend that you don’t rely on these courses for your practicing needs. Instead, spend a little more and purchase reputable practice books like the ETS PowerPack or Kaplan’s Math Workbook.