Magoosh Test Prep Review: SAT, GRE, And Grad School Prep Help

Magoosh offers self-paced online prep for nine standardized tests, and a full year of its SAT course costs about what two hours with a private tutor does. That savings is the entire pitch. Where the average cost of tutoring runs $15 to $80 an hour and climbs from there, a year of Magoosh SAT prep lists at $129.

The company has been offering test prep since 2009 and reports more than 10 million students across 185 countries, with 550 million practice questions answered on the platform. It is not the most feature-rich option on the market, and it is not trying to be. Magoosh competes on price and on breadth, which makes it a reasonable first stop for families who have already looked at what SAT prep actually costs and flinched.

Here is what Magoosh covers, what each plan costs, and where it falls short.

What Is Magoosh Test Prep?

Magoosh is a self-paced online test prep company. Every course is built the same way: recorded video lessons, a large bank of practice questions with written and video explanations, full-length practice tests, a suggested study schedule, and email access to tutors. There are no live classes in the standard plans, which is the single biggest difference between Magoosh and the programs listed in our best SAT test prep courses roundup.

The platform runs on desktop and through iOS and Android apps. Students can pause a subscription, which matters more than it sounds — test dates move, and a paused plan means a student who defers from a fall to a spring test date does not pay twice.

The newest change is AI tutoring. Magoosh advertises instant scoring, step-by-step walkthroughs of missed questions, and targeted feedback from an AI tutor, and the feature is listed on the ACT, TOEFL, and IELTS plans, with the IELTS course using it to grade spoken and written responses. It is not spelled out on every course page, so check the plan you are buying rather than assuming it is there. Anyone comparing Magoosh to the free Khan Academy SAT prep platform should weigh this carefully, because AI-driven personalization is the main thing Khan Academy also does well.

Which Tests Does Magoosh Cover?

Magoosh offers prep for nine exams, spanning college admissions, graduate admissions, professional school, English proficiency, and teacher certification. This is the detail most reviews get wrong, since Magoosh started as a GRE company and is still filed that way in a lot of readers' heads.

Students still deciding between exams should sort that out before buying anything. Our breakdowns of the SAT versus the ACT versus the CLT and of the GMAT versus the GRE both cover which schools accept what, and a wrong guess here costs a full subscription.

Magoosh Pricing By Test

All prices below are list prices. Magoosh discounts often (a 30% code and a 50% code were both live across different exams when we checked in September 2026) so treat these as the most you'd likely pay:

Two pricing quirks are worth calling out. The LSAT plan carries a separate one-time $124 LawHub Advantage charge on top of the subscription, because the official question bank comes from LSAC — that makes the real entry price $323, not $199, and most reviews skip it. And the MCAT one-month plan at $379 costs only $20 less than the twelve-month plan at $399, which makes the short plan close to pointless.

Every course offers a 7-day free trial and a 7-day money-back window on the Magoosh subscription. The LSAT's $124 LawHub charge is the exception, since that money goes to LSAC and is not refundable. Using the trial before paying is the obvious move given how many students buy prep and never open it — and it matters more once you have seen how fast costs stack up for medical school or graduate school applicants already spending on applications and score reports.

Score Guarantees, And Their Fine Print

Magoosh attaches a score-increase guarantee to most of its courses, refunding the purchase if a student completes the program and does not hit the stated improvement. The restrictions are heavier than the marketing suggests, and the biggest one applies to every test: each guarantee is measured against a prior official score report, so a student sitting for an exam for the first time is not eligible for any of them.

The GMAT terms deserve a second look, because "up to 70 points" is doing real work in that sentence. The full 70 applies only to students who scored 575 or below, and the promise shrinks at every step up the scale until it disappears entirely above 655.

Read "completing the program" literally as well. These guarantees require finishing the coursework, and a student who watches half the videos has no claim. On the $499 LSAT class tier, the score guarantee refunds only the $200 software portion rather than the full purchase. Students weighing whether the whole exercise is worth it may want to read our take on graduate school admissions first, since a stronger application is rarely just a test score.

What You Get: SAT And ACT

The ACT course is the stronger of the two on raw volume: more than 4,800 practice questions, over 250 video lessons, and up to 20 full-length official practice tests. Students working through it alongside our best ACT test prep courses comparison will find Magoosh sits at the bottom of the price range and near the top on question count.

The SAT course is built for the digital format and includes more than 2,500 practice questions, over 200 video lessons, and up to 3 full-length practice tests. Three practice tests is thin, and it is the clearest weakness in the SAT product — students should plan on supplementing with the free official tests. Anyone unfamiliar with the adaptive format should read how the digital SAT works before starting, because the section-adaptive scoring changes how you should pace practice.

Both tests offer a $399 tier that adds recorded classes taught by a 99th-percentile instructor — 18 hours for the SAT, 16 hours for the ACT — with homework after each session. At that price the comparison shifts to tutoring platforms like Varsity Tutors, where the instruction is live and personalized rather than recorded.

One note before buying either class tier: Magoosh's LSAT score-guarantee terms reference live classes and attendance requirements, while its plan pages describe on-demand recordings only. The company's own pages disagree, so confirm what you are getting before paying the higher price.

What You Get: GRE, GMAT, LSAT And MCAT

The GRE course remains Magoosh's flagship and includes eight sections of licensed official GRE questions, 290+ video lessons, more than 1,600 practice questions, and up to 6 practice tests across math, verbal, and analytical writing. Retakers with one weak area can buy a math-only or a verbal-and-writing-only plan instead, though Magoosh does not publish prices for those and they exclude practice tests and the score predictor. Our explainer on what the GRE is and how scoring works covers the 260–340 scale those guarantees are measured against.

The GMAT course is built for the GMAT Focus edition and covers math, verbal, and data insights across 200+ video lessons and more than 800 practice questions. Anyone holding an active GMAT Premium plan can switch to the GRE course at no cost, which is a genuinely good policy for applicants still deciding — our GMAT scoring explainer and MBA admissions breakdown cover which programs care about which.

Law school applicants get the most official material in the lineup: more than 6,000 official LSAT questions, 80+ video strategy lessons, and 1,000+ explanations, which is what the separate LawHub fee pays for. The MCAT course runs 380+ content review videos and 740+ practice questions with up to 3 full-length tests — respectable volume, though the three-test limit is light for an exam this long. Applicants at this stage should already be modeling the borrowing side, since Grad PLUS loans are phasing out and the new graduate loan limits change what professional school costs out of pocket.

What You Get: TOEFL, IELTS And Praxis

The TOEFL and IELTS courses are the best value in the lineup at $129 for six months. TOEFL includes 2,000+ practice questions, 100+ video lessons, up to 10 official full-length tests, official ETS grading on writing and speaking, and a discount voucher toward TOEFL registration. That last item alone offsets a chunk of the subscription for international applicants already tracking financial aid options for international graduate students.

IELTS covers speaking, listening, reading, and writing with 850 practice questions, 120+ video lessons, and up to 10 mock tests, plus AI grading on speaking and writing. Magoosh's plan page calls that grading unlimited while its guarantee terms refer to assessment credits, so treat the allotment as finite until support confirms otherwise. International students should note that prep is the cheap part of this process — federal aid is unavailable to them, which is why international student loan lenders tend to dominate the funding conversation.

Praxis is the outlier. At $79 for Core Math only or $99 for Core Math, Reading, and Writing, it is the cheapest thing Magoosh sells, and it comes with 175+ video lessons and 350+ practice questions at the Premium tier. There is no score guarantee. For aspiring teachers weighing the total cost of certification, the TEACH Grant and teacher loan forgiveness programs are worth understanding before the first exam fee.

Graduate School Admissions Support

The GRE and GMAT bundles add a 12-month admissions product on top of the test prep. Students get an application tracker, step-by-step essay walkthroughs, 50+ recorded workshops, and 40+ annotated personal statement samples. The GRE bundle pairs those 12 months of admissions access with 6 months of GRE Premium; the GMAT bundle pairs it with 12 months of GMAT Premium.

For $40 over the standalone GRE plan, the admissions add-on is priced well below what a college admissions consultant costs, where the average package runs $4,000 to $6,700 and can reach $10,000. It is not equivalent to one-on-one consulting and should not be sold as such — it is structured self-service material rather than someone reading your file.

Applicants should pair it with the funding search rather than treating it as the whole job. Our breakdowns of grad school fellowships versus assistantships and how to find graduate scholarships cover the money that does not have to be repaid, which beats optimizing a personal statement by a wide margin.

How To Sign Up

Sign-up here on the course site for the specific exam. Pick the plan or start the trial, create an account with an email and password, enter payment details, and access opens right away. Magoosh takes major credit cards and PayPal, and several courses offer four-installment payment plans.

Check for a promo code before paying. Magoosh runs discounts frequently enough that paying full list price is worth a second look.

How Do I Contact Magoosh Test Prep?

If you need to get in touch with the company, you can email [email protected]. You can also reach out over Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter).

The company boasts a 4.3 out of 5 star rating on Trustpilot, which means you should expect a relatively positive experience with the company. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Magoosh worth the money?

For self-directed students, yes. At $79 to $499 depending on the exam and tier, it costs less than a few hours of private tutoring, and the question banks are large. Students who need accountability get less out of it.

Does Magoosh offer live classes?

The standard plans are self-paced with no instruction attached. The SAT, ACT, and LSAT offer higher tiers that add classes — described as on-demand recordings on the plan pages, though Magoosh's LSAT guarantee terms reference live attendance. Ask before paying for that tier.

Is there a free version of Magoosh?

There is a 7-day free trial on every course, and some products require no credit card to start it. There is no permanently free tier. For a free full course, see our Khan Academy SAT prep review.

Does the score guarantee actually pay out?

It requires completing the program as Magoosh defines it, and every guarantee is measured against a prior official score report — so first-time test takers are not eligible for any of them. Several also cap out at a prior score: 1350 on the SAT, 30 on the ACT, 320 on the GRE, and 655 on the GMAT. Read the terms for your exam before relying on it.

Can I switch tests after buying?

Students with an active GMAT Premium plan can switch to the GRE course at no cost. Other switches are not offered.

Is It Worth It?

Magoosh is the budget option that is actually good, and the nine-exam lineup means a family can use the same platform for a sophomore taking the SAT and a parent taking the Praxis. The AI tutoring narrows the gap between self-paced video and personalized feedback on the courses that have it, and a 4.8 Trustpilot score across 621 reviews suggests students are getting what they paid for.

What keeps it from a higher score is thin practice-test counts on two of the biggest exams, score guarantees written narrowly enough that first-time test takers and strong scorers are both shut out, and the absence of anything resembling accountability. Buy it if the student will use it. Spend the money on live tutoring if they will not.

Check out Magoosh here >>