BestMyTest vs Magoosh TOEFL: Which Course is Better? 

Magoosh TOEFL and BestMyTest TOEFL are two popular prep course providers students consider when preparing for the TOEFL iBT exam. We've purchased and spent weeks thoroughly reviewing each prep course to help you decide which of these TOEFL prep courses is ideal for you. 

From our first-hand experience with the TOEFL, our experts fully understand the struggles of students preparing for this 3-hour long exam. So, we've taken on the difficult task of reviewing many TOEFL prep resources to ensure that we recommend only the best resources that can get you a high TOEFL score.

After reading this article, you will be very confident in making a choice between Magoosh TOEFL and BestMyTest TOEFL. Sound good? Let's go!!

Do you just want a summary of our BestMyTest vs Magoosh TOEFL comparison? Then skip to our final recommendation on this page.

BestMyTest vs Magoosh TOEFL Overview

The TOEFL prep course from Magoosh comes in two packages: the 1 Month Premium and the 6 Month Premium, which could be accessed for 1 month and 6 months, respectively. These packages have slightly different levels of student support provided.

While BestMyTest's self-paced TOEFL prep packages include: the Custom plan (with 1 - 6 months access), Premium plan (with12 months access), and Last Minute plan (with 7-day access). These three packages vary significantly in the level of student support provided, with the Premium plan having the highest amount.

Who Should Buy Magoosh TOEFL?

• Students who are audio/visual learners will love Magoosh's highly engaging video lessons
• Students who are satisfied with a decent amount of high-quality TOEFL practice material

Who Should Buy BestMyTest TOEFL?

• Students looking to take several full-length practice tests during their TOEFL prep
• Students who want to receive in-depth feedback on the speaking and writing sections

BestMyTest vs Magoosh TOEFL: Similarities and Differences

Let's highlight the main similarities and differences between Magoosh TOEFL and BestMyTest TOEFL.

Main Similarities

• Magoosh and BestMyTest offer entirely online self-paced TOEFL courses.
• There are no options for a live online TOEFL classes or TOEFL tutoring.
• Both providers do not provide any prep books as a companion to their online course material.
• Both course platforms offer graded essays as part of their student support feature.

Main Differences

• The TOEFL lessons on Magoosh are 100% video-based, while those on BestMyTest are primarily text-based and are designed like a series of mobile chat messages between two people.
• BestMyTest has a vast pool of TOEFL questions from which users can generate up to 16 full-length practice tests, while Magoosh has enough for just 6 full-length practice tests.
• BestMyTest provides graded speaking feedback, while Magoosh does not provide any speaking feedback.
• Magoosh offers a score increase guarantee of +4 points, while BestMyTest offers a score increase guarantee starting at +7 points.

BestMyTest vs Magoosh TOEFL: Performance Comparison

Now let's take a deep dive, describing how both courses performed, based on our personal experience studying with each course for several months. We will be evaluating each course in several vital areas below. These different performance areas are critical to your success on the TOEFL and your overall satisfaction as a prep course buyer.

TOEFL Lessons

When you sign up for both BestMyTest and Magoosh TOEFL, you will be given immediate access to their entire library of lessons. The lessons found in both courses cover similar topics on TOEFL strategies, English grammar, and vocabulary building.

While the TOEFL curriculum for both courses is quite comprehensive, there is a striking difference in how these lessons are presented on both platforms, which is worth emphasizing.

In the case of Magoosh TOEFL, the TOEFL lessons are entirely video-based, where each video is typically under 10 minutes long. The videos consist of a presentation slide on the topic and a voice-over from a TOEFL expert (not shown).

As the video lessons play back, the instructors continuously add notes on the presentation slides, making the learning experience very engaging. You will also find closed captions of the instructor's voice, which will be helpful to those students who prefer to read, or those who have slight difficulty understanding American accents.

On the contrary, the lessons on the BestMyTest platform are mostly text-based. But instead of presenting this information as a study guide or E-book, BestMyTest presents the information as a series of bite-sized conversations, similar to a mobile chat between two people.

This unique style of presenting information might not be ideal for students who prefer to read paragraphs or blocks of text and is not suitable for students who like to watch video lessons in a prep course.

Overall, in terms of the quality of the TOEFL lessons found on both course platforms, Magoosh has a clear edge.

Learn more about our review of the quality of lessons found on the Magoosh TOEFL course.

TOEFL Practice Material

The importance of practicing with quality practice questions during your TOEFL prep can not be overemphasized. The last thing you want to see on the day of your TOEFL iBT exam are questions that seem much more difficult than those you used in your TOEFL prep.

Comparing the difficulty level of TOEFL practice questions found on both course platforms, we found them very similar to those found on the Official TOEFL iBT exam. So, you should be just fine whether you choose to go with BestMyTest or Magoosh.

We should point out that given BestMyTest's larger bank of TOEFL practice questions, students who want to complete many full-length practice tests during their TOEFL prep should consider purchasing BestMyTest. With up to 16 full-length practice tests and an additional set of 4 simulated practice tests, you would have more than enough practice questions in your prep. 

While Magoosh has a smaller bank of practice questions, they do a better job of providing comprehensive answer explanations for all practice questions than BestMyTest.

Each practice question on the Magoosh platform has detailed text-based answer explanations and video-based explanations that reveal the traps in the answer choices—making it very easy for students to learn from their mistakes.

Given the sheer quality and quantity of practice questions, the practice material on BestMyTest beats that of Magoosh.

Learn more about our review of the practice material on BestMyTest TOEFL.

Student Support

Given that the speaking and writing sections of the TOEFL are scored subjectively, it's important to get unbiased feedback in these sections during your TOEFL prep. Unfortunately, this type of feedback is missing from even the best TOEFL prep books.

While you could grade your speaking and writing responses using a grading rubric, it's best to follow the assessment of an unbiased and experienced TOEFL instructor. This is where studying with a high-quality TOEFL prep course can make a big difference. A good TOEFL course will provide several support features such as graded speaking/writing assessments, grammar corrections, and on-demand access to an instructor for help answering questions. 

In the area of support, Magoosh beats BestMyTest in the quality of their Ask-an-Expert/Instructor feature. On both platform, you can use this feature on numerous occasions to contact a TOEFL instructor for help with the course material.

Both BestMyTest and Magoosh do a good job of responding to your questions within 24 - 48 hours, but we found the responses from Magoosh to be very detailed while those from BestMyTest were quite shallow.

BestMyTest beats Magoosh in the quality and quantity of graded feedback for the TOEFL speaking and writing sections. The feedback we received from BestMyTest on our verbal and written responses was very detailed. In contrast, Magoosh's assessment of our writing was relatively shallow, and Magoosh offers no TOEFL speaking assessments.

Considering that the pros of BestMyTest outweigh those of Magoosh in student support, BestMyTest has the edge in this area.

Pricing

The Magoosh TOEFL course is priced at $109 for 1 month and $129 for 6 months of access. While BestMyTest TOEFL begins at $39 for the Last Minute plan (with 7 days of access), $69 - $129 for the Custom plan (with access from 1 to 6 months), and $219 for the Premium plan (with 12 months of access).

Another difference in the pricing of both courses is that Magoosh offers payment plans for its Premium TOEFL course, while BestMyTest does not offer any payment plans on its platform.

Furthermore, Magoosh occasionally offers discounts on their TOEFL course packages, unlike BestMyTest.

Considering that BestMyTest has a customized period of access that includes more support features than Magoosh, BestMyTest is more affordable for shorter periods of access. But is priced comparable to Magoosh for longer periods of access. 

Customer Policies

Both BestMyTest TOEFL and Magoosh TOEFL provide 7-day free trials that don't require any payment information to unlock. However, this free trial does not include any access to the graded speaking or writing feedback on both platforms.

Paid customers of any Magoosh TOEFL course who are not satisfied with the course can receive a 100% refund if they cancel the course within 7 days from payment. On the contrary, BestMyTest does not offer such a money-back refund policy. 

While BestMyTest beats Magoosh with a score improvement guarantee starting at +7 points, the requirements to receive a refund is more stringent than those of Magoosh. In addition, BestMyTest limits the amount of money it can refund to $100, while Magoosh does not have any limits in the score guarantee policy.

Based on their liberal customer policies, Magoosh has the advantage over BestMyTest.

Final Recommendation

Based on all the factors considered, we found Magoosh to be the better choice for a wider demographic of students preparing for the TOEFL iBT than BestMyTest TOEFL. This is one of the main reasons why Magoosh is our favorite of the best TOEFL prep courses on the market. 

In our opinion, BestMyTest's large bank of quality practice questions mainly benefits students who are looking to complete several full-length TOEFL practice tests before their exams. So, if completing several practice tests and receiving quality feedback after each test is a crucial strategy in your TOEFL prep, BestMyTest will be the ideal choice for that. 

Otherwise, it would be best to choose Magoosh TOEFL for its higher quality and engaging TOEFL lessons.

Our Review Process

At Sojourning Scholar, our experts have all attained scores on the TOEFL iBT exam in the 100+ range. With our collective experience on the TOEFL exam, we can objectively identify the pros and cons of any TOEFL prep resource after a thorough evaluation.

For our comparison of the TOEFL courses from Magoosh and BestMyTest, our team studied using the paid courses from Magoosh TOEFL and BestMyTest TOEFL over several weeks, ensuring we used every support feature provided by each course provider.

Each course was scored on a scale of 1 - 5 based on how the course performed in the areas of TOEFL coursework quality, quality of student support, customer policies, and user experience. We then assigned each course an overall score using our proprietary rating method.

This complete and unbiased review process means that every course we recommend to our readers is genuinely the best in its class.

FAQs

Which is better for TOEFL preparation, Magoosh or  BestMyTest?

From our in-depth review of both TOEFL courses, Magoosh is better than BestMyTest, as the course material appeals to the learning style of a wider population of students preparing for the TOEFL iBT.

Is BestMyTest TOEFL free?

No. BestMyTest does not have any free TOEFL prep course, but they offer a free 7-day trial with limited access to their course material. If you're looking for a free TOEFL resource, you can check out the edX TOEFL course or helpful TOEFL YouTube channels.

Do Magoosh and BestMyTest have TOEFL tutoring?

Both BestMyTest and Magoosh are 100% online self-paced courses with no option for TOEFL tutoring from an instructor. If you're looking for a TOEFL prep course with private online TOEFL tutoring, check out E2Language TOEFL.

Summary