One of the most common complaints I hear from GRE test takers is that ETS has not shared enough official practice questions or tests. On the contrary, GMAT, which is very similar to GRE, shares hundreds of practice problems (some free, but mostly paid) for prospective test-takers. Well, things have now changed slightly for GRE. If you are planning to take the GRE now or onwards, the good news is that ETS is offering THREE additional full-length online practice tests. They call them GRE POWERPREP PLUS Online Practice Test 1, GRE POWERPREP PLUS Online Practice Test 2, and GRE POWERPREP PLUS Online Practice Test 3.
Each test costs $39.95. So by any means, they are not cheap. These three tests are new and separate from the two free full-length POWERPREP Online Tests.
For years ETS never updated it’s two free GRE POWERPREP tests. These tests were made available in 2011, and over the years, ETS never updated them – not even a single question. This meant that with each passing year as GRE became trickier, POWERPREP tests became obsolete. As a result, students started to see a lot of variations between their actual scores and their POWERPREP scores. Many complained that the questions in POWERPREP were far more straightforward than what they saw on their real tests, especially on the quantitative section.
Even worse, ETS rarely updated its GRE official guides (containing hundreds of official practice questions). Moreover, those updates were mostly aesthetic, and ETS did not add many new questions.
Given the history of lack of updates and fresh content from ETS, these three GRE POWERPREP PLUS tests are a huge PLUS.
BUT, the critical question is, should you buy these?
Let’s first analyze what’s new and different and what’s good and bad in these paid exams.
In this Article
The Good
New & Fresh Questions
The best part of these three tests is that they are all the retired GRE questions. It means that you have tons of new questions that mimic the style of the actual exam. These questions are so close to the real GRE that you won’t feel any different on the test day.
Explanations
The two ETS free tests do not have and never had any detailed explanations with every question. So, this is another welcome addition since now students can easily understand any question that eludes them. Although the descriptions are not very thorough in most cases, they are sufficient.
Better Interface
GRE has wholly revamped its User Interface by designing a more modern, colorful & lively graphical interface. The old tests had a very outdated and dull interface.
Basic Analytics
The two free tests do not give the difficulty level of any question. But the THREE GRE POWERPREP PLUS Online tests show the difficulty level of each question and the topic (subject area) that it belongs to. This will allow performance analysis as you will know the exact difficulty level of questions you answered, and identify your weak and strong areas.
Sample Essays with Commentary
ETS POWERPREP PLUS provides scored sample responses and commentary for the essays. You can use that to self-evaluate your essay writeups. However, you will NOT be able to have your essays graded – you will only be able to view sample responses on those topics.
Pause & Exit
You can pause the GRE POWERPREP PLUS tests at any point during the exam, unlike the previous free POWERPREP tests. You can even quit your test by saving your progress and continue at the same spot later on. This may not be wise to do since one should always take full-length practice tests in one sitting.
The Bad
Few Hard Quant Questions
One area where ETS has always lacked is a HIGH number of DIFFICULT (level 5) quantitative questions. On the actual GRE, you can encounter several tricky problems but these exams lack in that respect. The verbal, on the contrary, is right on the spot.
Lack of thorough Explanations
While GRE has done an excellent job by adding explanations to their PLUS tests, the comments are not that thorough. Especially in the verbal section, you would not find proper reasons for eliminating specific answer choices. So you will have to spend a lot of time understanding the options on your own. Quant explanations, on the other hand, are better and self-explanatory.
No Experimental Section
GRE POWERPREP PLUS Tests do not have an experimental section, another area that still leaves something to be desired. It is always helpful to have full-length tests that are a 100% reflection of the actual test. You may get inflated scores without an experimental section since it would require lesser time to finish. And we all know, the longer the exam, the harder it is to concentrate for prolonged periods.
Can be Used Only Once
Once you purchase the GRE POWERPREP PLUS Tests, you can take a test once. Now this means that you should ONLY consider these tests once you feel that you have adequately prepared for the exam. Do these tests only at the end, preferably a few days before your GRE test date.
If you waste your test due to lack of preparation, you will have to purchase them again. Also, retaking the same test is not an accurate indicator of your actual performance.
Valid for 90 Days
The GRE POWERPREP PLUS tests and its results are accessible only for 90 days after you have accessed them.
Final Verdict
Buy them if you have the money. They are worth every penny.
But spending another $120 on three additional tests may not be suitable for everyone. Hence, if you are looking to buy only one of these three tests, then my suggestion is that buy the POWERPREP PLUS Test 3. It is the latest exam and has the most recent questions.
And if you are short on budget and only looking for quantity over quality, then buy the Manhattan’s 6 online tests. Manhattan tests are much cheaper; you can get six tests for half the price and far better explanations.
But then again, it is your choice. ETS is simply quality, whereas all other publishers are not.
In the end, I love the premium content in these exams. You can definitely spend you hard earned money on them. But use them wisely as they are expensive and only three in total.