Princeton Review GRE Prep Course Review (2025) 

The GRE is daunting for many, but by employing proven strategies found in a high quality GRE prep course, students can adequately prepare and raise their GRE scores by several points. 

In our previous article, we reviewed the best GRE prep courses of 2025, and now we're going to take a deep dive into the best of the best.

This in-depth review covers the options offered by The Princeton Review, our choice for the best overall GRE prep course on the market. 

In this article, you will learn everything you need to know to choose the right GRE prep course from the test prep giant The Princeton Review! 

Keep in mind that this review is based on our first-hand experience purchasing and using this course over several weeks, which other review websites never do. 

Princeton Review GRE Prep Course Options

This section covers the main GRE prep course options offered by The Princeton Review (TPR). 

We’ll go over what’s included in each of these plans, the inside scoop on how to make the most of your Princeton Review GRE prep course, and the type of student each option is best for.

If you're looking for a behind the scenes peek into all of The Princeton Review's GRE prep courses, this video below is a must watch!

Option 1: GRE 10 points+ 

The 10+ point guarantee course offered by The Princeton Review is normally $899. This prep course offers different learning paths that students can choose to follow based on a 30, 60, or 90-day syllabus.

Students must complete 30+ hours of video lessons, 470+ drills, and five practice tests to qualify for the score guarantee. 

The course is offered online and includes a total of 8 practice tests, along with live math support.

Some of the cool features included in the GRE 10 points+ course are videos that have interactive questions baked into the lessons, adaptive drills that will adjust to your skill level, and interactive score reports.

The standard learning path for this course is 8 weeks, and before you even sign up, you can check out the syllabus on the Princeton Review website.

It goes over the content week by week, including how many practice tests are scheduled as well as specific math and verbal goals.

One thing to note is that there are specific requirements to meet the score guarantee, which is summarized below:

"The Princeton Review compares your score on the official test after you completed your program with us for the same test to your baseline starting score on the same test, which can be either the most recent official test score before the start of your test prep program or the score of the first practice test in the GRE test prep program."

If a student’s score does not improve based on the guarantee, tuition for the course is refunded.

The ideal student for this course is someone who wants access to materials and some structured learning paths, but the freedom to go at their own pace.

This is probably best for those students who are starting out at about the average score but are motivated to put in the time to guarantee their score improves.

Option 2: GRE Fundamentals

This course is offered online for $1,199  in the form of 8 structured 3-hour classes - for a total of 24 hours of structured live learning.

You can choose your schedule before signing up, either completing the course over 8.5 weeks - if you choose a weekly cadence - or 5.5 weeks if you choose a biweekly cadence.

During the course of the program, there will be a total of 5 test days, where students are required to complete 5 GRE practice tests. 

All of the 8 adaptive practice tests are offered online, along with similar tools from the 10 points + plan.

One difference is that the GRE Fundamentals course includes more basic math live sessions.

There is a total of 180+ hours of online tools and thousands of practice questions.

The GRE Fundamentals course includes a score improvement guarantee, but unlike the 10 points + plan, this doesn’t specify how much you will improve. 

The policy states that if your score isn’t higher after taking the course and meeting all requirements of the course, TPR will refund your tuition for the program.

The ideal student for this course is someone who is starting out below average.

If a student is scoring pretty low on their initial practice tests and they need to catch up on the basics, this is the course for them. 

It could also be best for those students who don’t need to get a specific score or aren’t aiming for competitive schools. 

Alternatively, a student might take this course and then decide they want to pursue 1:1 tutoring or another learning path that will guarantee a higher score if they are doing well.

Option 3: Guaranteed 162+ Score

We consider this program a step above the 10+ point guarantee course, with 45 hours of live instruction (25 Quantitative, 20 Verbal) and 20 additional hours of supplementary sessions.

The schedule on the GRE 162+ course consists of 18 classes, each lasting 2.5 hours, that is spread over 9 weeks where students meet twice a week.

Similar to the GRE Fundamentals live course, students are also required to complete 5 GRE practice tests over the duration of the program. 

There are also over 4,400 drills and practice questions, along with the standard 8 full-length online adaptive practice tests.

The Guaranteed 162+ Score GRE prep course offered by The Princeton Review has a base cost of $2,399. 

One thing that really stood out to us about this option was that students are provided with physical GRE prep books from The Princeton Review, specifically The Princeton Review Quant 162+ Manual and The Princeton Review Verbal 162+ Manual.

The ideal student for this course is highly motivated and willing to commit to a lot of live classes.

The upside of this commitment is that you can take advantage of the 162+ GRE score promise that The Princeton Review backs this course by.

To be exact, The Princeton Review promises a 162+ on both the Quant and Verbal, for a starting score of 156+ on both the Quant and Verbal. 

And if your starting scores are lower than 156 on both measures, they promise you at least a +6 point boost on both measures.

This money-backed score increase guarantee is the highest and the best score increase promise of any GRE prep course on the market!

Option 4: Guaranteed 165+ Tutoring

The GRE 165+ is their most exclusive GRE prep package from The Princeton Review, as the lessons are designed closely to meet your needs by an expert GRE tutor.

At the time of this review, this course can be completed both online or in person - subject to your location of course. 

The course builds upon everything in the self-paced GRE course with up to 32 hours of personalized 1-on-1 tutoring from one of The Princeton Review’s top GRE instructors.

After reviewing all the details of the 1:1 GRE tutoring, we’ve determined that this option may not be worth the price for the majority of GRE test takers.

Especially when you consider that the score increase guarantee works in such a way that if you don’t score at least a 159 on each section to start, the guarantee will not be 165, instead it only guarantees a +5 point increase per section. 

Furthermore, at $156/hour and another requirement of at least 32 hours of tutoring for the score guarantee, you’re going to be paying over $4,000 for this prep option. 

If you're a high-achiever and you're already scoring around 160 per section, then this might be worth it to you.

Otherwise, you should consider opting for The Princeton Review 162+ Score course to get the most bang for your buck!

Option 5: Self-Paced Course

The Princeton Review online self-paced course is normally $499. This course includes the standard 8 practice tests that are included in all TPR prep courses. 

However, the self-paced course doesn't include live lessons like the other courses we covered. In addition, the "guarantee" is different and states:

"If you are not happy with your score on the actual GRE, you are welcome to repeat the course at no charge."

This course option is ideal for the self-motivated student. Specifically, someone who prefers to study in a flexible environment.

With on-the-go access to the interactive video lessons and drills, this self-paced GRE course is great for someone very busy.

For example, a student who might be juggling work, school, and extracurricular activities.

Pros and Cons of Princeton Review GRE Prep

Pros of Princeton Review's GRE Courses

Variety of structure: While the GRE fundamentals course offers 8 structured 3-hour classes some of the other courses are self-paced.

In addition, if a student wants to work mostly on their own, but they’d like the support of an expert weekly, then the 1:1 provides the right structure for them.

14-day Free Trial: When researching TPR GRE prep course options, I signed up for the 14-day free trial. This does not require a credit card - you only need to create a free account.

You will receive an email minutes after signing up with your confirmation link to all of the resources you are entitled to for 14 days. This includes one full-length practice test and "plugging in" math drills. 

However, relative to other free trials like those of Magoosh GRE, the volume of free content here is much thinner.  

Best-in-class diagnostic report: There is a well-designed diagnostic report generated after completing a full-length GRE practice test which highlights your performance on all sections of the test you completed.

This includes your performance on the unidentified experimental section, which is not common in the diagnostic reports of many other GRE prep courses.

In my opinion, this is hands down the best practice test diagnostic report I came across in our review of almost a dozen GRE prep courses!

Score guarantees: TPR guarantees that students will improve their scores on the GRE after completing the course.

While each guarantee has its own set of requirements, they all ensure that students will get their money back if the course is ineffective. 

As pointed out earlier, the score guarantee provided on the GRE 162+ course is the highest and best score increase guarantee on the market.

Range of difficulty levels: Starting with the fundamentals and going up to a 165+ guarantee for private tutoring, The Princeton Review offers options for every difficulty level.

Whether you're starting at the bottom, or striving to reach the very top, you'll find the right course for you.

Cons of Princeton Review's GRE Courses

Self-paced courses don’t include a hard copy of GRE prep books: This might be ok for some people, but if you’re a person who wants to have the paperback book to remind them to study, then you might have a problem with The Princeton Review's policy of online-only practice tests.

If you're looking for physical prep books, you will have to upgrade to one of The Princeton Review's instructor-led GRE prep curses. 

More personalized packages are very expensive: The prices range extensively for these courses.

The entirely self-paced program comes in at only $399, while the 1:1 tutoring is $156/hour, which can end up costing upwards of $4,000 to meet the 32+ hours of tutoring score guarantee.

Should You Buy a Princeton Review GRE Prep Course? 

After purchasing and studying with The Princeton Review's GRE courses for several weeks, we’ve determined that The Princeton Review GRE Prep courses are well worth the money.

Additionally, we’ve found there are occasional discounts and promo codes offered by The Princeton Review, where you can save up to 30% off.   

The only option we do not highly recommend is the GRE 165+ course with1:1 tutoring.

The main reason for this is because the score guarantee - while very catchy - has a lot of stipulations, one of which being at least 32 hours of tutoring, which will bring your cost up to over $4,000.

FAQ’s  

Is the Princeton Review Good for GRE?

After reviewing all of The Princeton Reviews GRE prep offerings, we find both the self-paced and live online course offerings to be an excellent choice for GRE prep.

How much does the Princeton Review GRE prep cost?

Prices can range from $499 for a self-paced course, to upwards of $4,000 for at least 32 hours of 1:1 tutoring to achieve the 165+ score guarantee.

How does the Princeton Review GRE score guarantee work?

The score guarantee is different for each course, but for the most part, students must complete all required materials and put in the appropriate amount of hours to be guaranteed a score increase. 

In addition, if a student does not have a previous official GRE score, they will need to be sure to take their first practice test very soon after enrolling in their course, otherwise, they won't meet the requirements. 

Finally, one thing we really didn't like was that the 165+ tutoring guarantee only applied if a student scored at least 159 on each section. If they scored below 159 on math or verbal, the guarantee was only +6 points.