Let's say I have a leaky sink. Plumbers are expensive, so I try to fix it myself. If I'm lucky, all will go well, but I am an inexpert handyman. There is a chance I'll fail and have to call a plumber. Even if I do fix it myself, I probably spent quite a bit of time researching the problem, procuring the right tools, and making sure I did a good job. Time isn't free, and the older I get, the more I realize its value. So best case I burn a bunch of time; worst case I burn time AND I still have to hire the plumber.

It doesn't always pay to be cheap, especially when the stakes are high (like getting into graduate, business, or law school)

"Well that's rich," you might be thinking (pun intended): "a wealthy American telling me that I should be willing to spend more money!" Ok, I get it. Not everyone has money to spend. But if you're reading this, you can at least afford Gregmat. Let's think about some other ways you can profitably invest money on GRE prep and where you might not need to.

1. Study planning. This is probably the very best investment you can make. Even though they are very good, it's unlikely that the study plans on Gregmat are perfectly tailored to you, your timeframe, and your abilities. 

If you follow me on Reddit (r/GRE), you've probably seen me urge people to watch Gregmat videos like the "So You Wanna 340" series and the "Quant and Verbal Progression" videos. Understanding the premises of raising your score will be explained by these videos. But if you want to optimize your study plan, I highly recommend hiring a tutor to help - not with tutoring, but with study planning. This might just take one session. Customizing your plan can make all the difference; how you study is where your GRE battle will be won or lost before you actually take the test.

2. Official Materials. People are always asking about where to get free practice materials, mock tests, and so on. "Free" doesn't mean "good". In fact, many free things suck. Third-party verbal material, for example, has a decent chance of actually lowering your verbal score, since it will make you think the GRE follows certain rules and patterns that it in fact does not follow. 

It's well-worth investing in the ETS books (the most recent edition of the "Super Power Pack") and the ETS Powerprep Plus tests, which are by far the most accurate mock tests. Don't just burn through these materials, though: use them when you know what you're doing, and analyze them carefully.

3. Classes, courses, ongoing tutoring.... hold on; time for a sidebar.

"You get what you pay for." Right? Not always. Let's say I want to get a manicure. It is highly likely that the most expensive manicurist in my city will do a good job. Why? Because it's immediately obvious when you get a manicure if it's good or not. You play zero role - the manicurist does everything, and the evidence of the quality of their work is instantly apparent. If they did a crappy job, they'd go out of business pretty quickly.

But GRE prep is a different story. If you are a tutor, an online GRE prep course creator, or a GRE class teacher, your students will not have enough experience nor expertise to tell if your product or service is good compared to other options (unless you truly are incompetent). And if they don't do well on the GRE, they know perfectly well they are the ones taking the test, not you. They won't know whether to blame you or themselves. 

They might not spread the word about your business if that happens, but they won't write bad reviews either. This is why there are many companies, courses, and tutors out there in the test prep world who aren't very good. Often, these companies will have plenty of good reviews - but it can be hard to tell if the students who did well did so because of or in spite of the company. As we often see, it's quite possible for smart people to crush the GRE with sporadic or casual prep.

Furthermore, many GRE prep companies with strong brand name recognition can coast on their brand names for decades, hiring new tutors every year and charging several times what they pay those teachers.

...ok, where were we? Right. Do you get what you pay for if you take a GRE course or class, or hire a tutor? Maybe. So if you are going to invest money in one of these options, caveat emptor. Do your research. Good reviews are not enough - you want overwhelming evidence that the person who will be working with you has devoted a large part of their professional life to GRE prep specifically, and that they have the qualities that make a good tutor.

Would spending a lot more money on a course than you did on Gregmat+ have provided a lot more value? Strangely enough, probably not. Again, the quality of a GRE course is only very loosely correlated to its price. Same thing with a class. Same thing with a tutor - but, all things being equal, it's more likely an expensive tutor will be better than a cheap one - just like an expensive lawyer, accountant, or therapist is probably better than a cheap one -- but "buyer beware", like I said before.

4. Take the test more than once. Yeah, the GRE is expensive. But graduate school is REALLY expensive. Since a higher score might mean serious scholarship money (and, of course, a better program with a better cohort and better job prospects after graduation), it makes a lot of sense to invest in taking the test a few times. The GRE is a short test, and scores can swing more easily as a result. Since luck is a factor, taking the test more than once gives you more chances to get lucky. You only need one good test - no one will ever know how many times you took it, since you can choose which test date's scores to send to programs.

The Bottom Line

Don't go into GRE prep assuming it has to be expensive to work, but also don't assume you can easily do it well for free. Spending money judiciously can have an outsized return on your investment both in terms of your GRE score and the potential that you'll get into a better program and earn more scholarship money.