Magoosh vs Real GMAT

How Magoosh’s Practice Problems Compare to the Real GMAT

At the risk of sounding arrogant, as someone who has taken the GMAT multiple times, worked extensively with official materials from GMAC (the makers of the exam) for years, and reviewed close to 15 different GMAT prep courses as a tutor and contributor to this site, I have a firm grasp of what real GMAT problems look and feel like.

I have probably worked close to 10,000 problems myself and tutored students through thousands more. As such, I feel that I have a good idea of how test prep companies create their own questions, and whether they’re any good.

Now, when it comes to Magoosh (whose program I have reviewed on three separate occasions), I believe their practice problems are better than most other GMAT prep providers’ questions.

GMAT problems can be a tricky thing to replicate. To be accurate, you have to closely match a number of factors in every problem, including style, voice, difficulty, content, length, and format, among other things.

It’s a lot to get right in every question. Some companies do it well, others don’t. Generally, the bigger companies like Manhattan Prep and Princeton Review do a good job because they use software to reverse engineer official materials from GMAC for the factors described above. And Magoosh is no exception from these other major prep providers.

In my opinion, the Magoosh practice materials, created in-house by their team of GMAT pros, are spot on. In my experience, they do a solid job of mimicking the real GMAT in terms of the aforementioned criteria, for quant, verbal, and data insights.

I don’t have any data to point to for mathematical accuracy here—this is purely anecdotal. But again, I’ve seen a lot of problems and I feel that I have a good grasp of GMAT material at this point.

Additionally, this sentiment is echoed by a lot of the students I tutor who use Magoosh as well. Compared to other test prep companies, where the practice questions can be noticeably easier or much harder than the real thing, Magoosh’s questions mostly hit the right balance.

To be sure, if practice questions are too easy, they can give you a false sense of confidence and leave you unprepared for test day. On the other hand, overly difficult questions can overwhelm you, making your prep more stressful than necessary.

Magoosh tends to get this balance right. Some of their questions may be slightly easier or harder than the real GMAT, but for the most part, they’re largely a close match. In fact, I’d have a tough time telling the difference between many of Magoosh’s questions and the actual GMAT ones.

The one issue with Magoosh’s practice material though, is that it is weak on quantity. Magoosh only provides you with 800 problems and 2 full-length practice tests. That’s not very much—especially compared to Manhattan Prep and Princeton Review.

To mitigate this, however, you can always purchase additional official materials from GMAC to practice on. That’s an easy way to add several hundred additional practice problems and a few mock exams to your study plan.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re already using Magoosh and curious about how their practice questions measure up, or you’re considering their program and doing some research, I’ve found Magoosh’s practice materials to be a pretty reliable reflection of the real GMAT. Unlike some other prep providers (whose questions can be hit or miss), Magoosh gets it largely right. Frankly, I think their program offers excellent value for anyone preparing for the exam.