It’s hard data. It’s standardized. And it’s the best initial measure of your profile against all the other applicants looking to take your place.
Standardized testing isn’t going to hold your application hostage.
You’ve achieved something you and everyone who supports you can be proud of.
Even the “reach” programs, because you now have quantifiable proof of your ability to perform at the highest level.
I had a ‘good score,’ but I was pushing for that superb score. Once I got it, the energy extended into the rest of my application—from that point on, everything else started to fall into place.
Jacob
Admitted to HBS, Wharton, Columbia,Why would you be relieved to have a strong score? Because:
There’s a reason that any honest response to the question “what are my chances?” starts with another question:
While other components of your profile will matter—GPA, academic & career achievements, and personal essays—there’s a more immediate problem. That is, admissions officers are buried in paper, and they need an efficient way to assess the mountain of applications on their desks.
You already possess the knowledge and study skills needed to out-perform the average and score well on the GRE.
Combined with the sheer volume of GRE material and online resources available, you could get pretty far by putting your head down and working through what’s out there, completely on your own.
This approach might be good for the first 300 points or so. But it’s the last 20, 25, and 30+ points that are so elusive.
That’s how it was for Camilla, who had plenty of GRE study material:
“I was using everything that I could find. I went through Princeton Review. I had the official GRE books. I had Kaplan. I had Magoosh. I was just doing a bunch of practice exams. I would say the best way to describe it was kind of a ‘spray and pray’ strategy.”
Camilla
And for Sidney, who had an advanced degree:
“I have an engineering degree from Stanford. I’ve done a ton of math—math knowledge is not the problem. But I found that when I was doing the practice tests, I was not finishing in time. And my score would tank.”
Sidney
And for Skyler, who had put in plenty of work:
“I had studied for about eight to ten weeks, hard. And I did about 250 hours that I had logged. And when I took the GRE, I scored… well, let’s say it wasn’t the score that I needed.”
Skyler
So what’s the problem here? Why did all these smart and capable students struggle to translate their knowledge, dedication, and effort into high scores?
The problem is:
“I was logging my errors, but I didn’t have the best analysis of them. I didn’t know how to determine exactly what question types I was messing up. Basically, I wasn’t able to find weaknesses that I didn’t even realize I had.”
Kamran
These comments are instructive, and they reveal the limitations of self-study:
Ironically, this is even more pronounced for test takers who are already excellent students.
Test-takers who lack content knowledge can self-diagnose their problems fairly quickly: they don’t read or write at a high enough level, they don’t know the math, or they don’t have the vocabulary.
For these students, it really is a matter of memorizing and drilling: the more questions they do, the more books they read, the more hours they study, the better.
But for Camilla, Sidney, Skyler, and Kamran—for students like you—there’s a limit to what you can accomplish without the external guidance of a GRE tutor.
You don’t need more study.
At Menlo Coaching, we’ve seen hundreds of tutoring students in your position.
The underlying skills and knowledge are there. But you’re not performing at your full potential, and the stakes are too high to settle for anything less than your best.
For some students, it’s a problem with time management. On the GRE, time is a resource, and the test writers want you to think carefully about how you are spending every minute. For others, it’s related to ineffective GRE prep, like an over-emphasis on content while neglecting strategy.
Still for others, it’s a matter of fine-tuning: micro-adjustments are needed across every section or knowledge gaps need to be filled on a single question type. Whatever the problem is, we can find it, and we can help.
When you start working with one of Menlo Coaching’s GRE tutors, you’ll go through a brief diagnostic evaluation to understand exactly what’s holding back your performance.
Using POWERPREP practice tests, official score reports, and other tools, your expert GRE tutor will quickly identify the topics you need to master and the weaknesses you need to overcome.
This phase happens fast—usually just one session—and from here, you’ll move on to targeted assignments from
our GRE curriculum.
Where other test prep companies create their own questions and drills that seem difficult, they usually fail to mirror the challenge of real GRE material.
Developed and curated by David Baird, a full-time GRE tutor with 20+ years of experience, Menlo Coaching’s curriculum takes a different approach:
This phase happens in lock step with your instructor and can evolve as you progress through your GRE Coaching Sessions
There are plenty of GRE tutors out there who think their high scores, as measured by GRE percentile rankings, qualify them to teach the GRE. But just because you’ve earned a high score—even a perfect score—doesn’t mean you’re capable of helping others.
For that reason, we only hire GRE tutors with a proven track record of success with students. This teaching experience makes all the difference in your sessions.
That’s because you won’t just be reviewing content—instead, you’ll learn to develop effective strategies for the question types you struggle with the most.
You’ll learn time management best-practices, ensuring you are completing the exam as efficiently as possible.
And you’ll cultivate the right mindset for the test, learning to approach every problem as a test-writer (one of the most challenging aspects of top-level GRE study).
“My GRE tutor really tailored a plan for me based on my strengths and weaknesses. That started by looking at my test results and seeing that I needed to improve on quant, specifically combinatorics. I never understood it, even in high school. But working with David, I finally learned to grasp the concept for the first time. And within a month of tutoring and targeted work, I boosted my score to where I needed it to be.”
Camilla
“Every GRE tutoring session, he would come with sheets and sheets of solutions and suggestions for the problems I had gotten wrong or had questions about. And from that he would show me very tangible strategies and solutions to the glaring issues that I faced. I could take those into the next week of studying and really see a great improvement in my skills, my abilities, and my score.”
Sidney
“The curriculum and targeted homework are really all so efficient, because they focus-in on the medium and high-level questions. These are the questions that smart people are missing, and they are the questions you can’t miss if you want a top score. And that’s another thing: they assume you’re a smart person. That’s what I really like about the Menlo Coaching method. They assume that you can do this. And so there’s no reason why you can’t.”
Skyler
“What we did was this: regardless of the question type, my GRE tutor helped me look at the problem structurally, analyze the logic within it, and not let my biases get introduced. We took notes of questions where I had made errors, and discussed how to avoid making that error in the future. Eventually, I learned to see the tricks that the GRE test writers were using to make me select an incorrect choice.”
Kamran
We offer private GRE tutoring services in three packages.
10 Hours
Laser-focused on addressing your weaknesses and optimizing your strengths
14 Hours
Broad coverage for multiple exam sections, plus test-taking strategy and time management
20 Hours
Build a strong foundation for every question type, with extended 1:1 practice and support
Although every student is unique, in general we recommend at least ten hours of tutoring.
For a customized recommendation tailored to your specific needs and goals, we encourage you to schedule a consultation with our Head of Tutoring, who can provide expert guidance on the optimal number of GRE tutoring hours, based on your study history.
*no commitment required
