Reviews

Achievable GRE Review

By Rachel Shapiro Updated February 01, 2021
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If you’re looking for a flexible GRE prep course, Achievable GRE is a good choice for you. This course is completely online, and it has an easy-to-navigate platform. In this review, we’ll go through what you can expect from Achievable to help you decide if this course is right for you.

Achievable GRE at a glance

Criteria
Rating
Ease of use
Value for money
Popularity

Achievable’s GRE course features an online platform that offers a completely personalized study schedule. There are some negatives to the course, such as a lack of in-person classes and no video explanations for their questions. But overall, Achievable’s course is a good, budget-friendly choice.

Recommended for...

Achievable’s self-directed GRE course is great for students who like working through material at their own pace. They also have unlimited quantitative reasoning questions, making this course perfect for students who want to work on their math skills.

What we love

We love Achievable’s personalized quiz questions and study schedule. Their online textbook is also chock full of useful information. Plus, we love the way Achievable teaches vocabulary through semantic clusters, and we like their limitless math questions. We also like that they provide one full year of access.

Keep in mind

Achievable only has one course format: an online textbook with practice questions. They don’t offer any in-person courses or one-on-one tutoring, which can be difficult for some learners. They also have fewer verbal reasoning questions than other competitors. Plus, they don’t have any video explanations for their questions.

Plans and pricing

Value for money: 8/10

Achievable’s GRE course costs $299 for one full year of access. Achievable accepts most major credit cards, and all their payments are processed securely through Stripe. If you start the Achievable GRE course and find that it isn’t right for you, they have a seven-day, no questions asked money-back guarantee.

Achievable costs much less than many other major courses, and with your year of access, you’ll get ample time to study for the GRE. Because of this, Achievable is good value for your money.

Ease of use

Ease of use: 9/10

One of Achievable’s biggest selling points is their online platform. The platform is uncluttered and simple to navigate. When you log in, you’ll see a dashboard with your progress charts. On the left-hand side of the page, you’ll find tabs that will take you to the practice exams and online textbook. There’s also an ‘exam overview’ page that offers summaries and links to each of the textbook chapters. There are also tabs that will take you to the community forum, and there’s a ‘feedback’ tab where you can email Achievable’s team.

Achievable works just as well on mobile as it does on a computer. When you log in to Achievable on your phone, you’ll see the same layout and the same tabs as you do on your computer. This makes it seamless to move from working on your laptop to your smartphone.

One of the main downsides of Achievable’s course is that they don’t have any in-person classes, textbooks, or workbooks. But if you’re okay with working entirely online, you’ll find Achievable easy to use.

What students think

Popularity: 9/10

Achievable has mostly positive reviews from students. Many students like Achievable’s insights into how to strategically attack the GRE. Plus, many students say the course helped improve their scores. There are also positive reviews for the course’s endless quantitative questions and their modern platform.

Most negative reviews of the course are focused on the lack of video lessons or tutorials. There are also some negative reviews about the fact that the course is self-directed. Overall, though, there are far more positive reviews than negatives.

Our experience

We found Achievable GRE’s platform to be easy to understand and full of useful data, including progress charts that will help you decide what to study next. The online textbook is broken into short chapters that only take a few minutes to read. This makes it easy to study a chapter or two whenever you have a bit of free time. The semantic clusters of vocabulary words are also a great way to learn lots of new words quickly.

The practice exams are also useful, and with the unlimited quantitative questions, you don’t have to worry about running out of practice questions. However, one of the downsides of the course is the fact that there are only text explanations for questions. For some of the more challenging questions, you may have to read through the explanations a few times to completely get the concepts. The self-directed nature of the course also takes a little getting used to. Overall, Achievable’s platform is simple to navigate and helps you feel prepared for test day.

Why take the Achievable GRE prep course

Personalized Algorithm

One of Achievable’s most unique aspects is their personalized algorithm that features adaptive learning technology. This algorithm uses psychological research into memory loss to create personalized quizzes. Achievable’s algorithm monitors your responses to questions and uses that information to decide the best times for you to learn different concepts.

The learning engine monitors your study progress and continually adjusts your quiz questions. Every student who uses Achievable gets their own personalized quizzes based on their memorization needs. This will help you retain as much information as possible for test day.

Progress Charts

Achievable also offers easy-to-understand progress charts that do a great job of showing what you’ve learned. There are two charts: a ‘content progress’ chart and a ‘memory progress’ chart. As you complete chapters of the online textbook, the ‘content progress’ chart will fill in. And as you do quizzes, the ‘memory progress’ chart will fill in. These charts make it simple to see what you’ve learned and what you still have to master.

Online Textbook

Achievable also has an online textbook that’s packed with useful information. The textbook was written by a GRE expert who has over 15 years of experience. There are over 80 sections, and they cover a wide variety of quantitative reasoning questions and verbal reasoning questions. There are also sections featuring semantic clusters of vocabulary words. The textbook is also mobile-friendly so you can study on-the-go.

Unlimited Quantitative Reasoning Practice Quizzes

Another one of Achievable’s unique selling points is their quantitative reasoning quizzes. Achievable’s quant reasoning questions are computer-generated, and because of that, they offer virtually limitless questions.

The questions are generated from over 120 GRE quantitative question templates. This helps ensure that you’re learning a wide variety of core concepts. Plus, after you answer a question, you’ll see a step-by-step walkthrough of the math and logic involved in solving the question. If you feel that math is your weak spot on the GRE, Achievable’s quant reasoning quizzes are sure to help you.

Verbal Reasoning Questions and Cluster-Based Vocabulary Review System

While Achievable doesn’t provide unlimited verbal reasoning questions, they do have over 200 questions available. These questions are all hand-crafted by Achievable’s GRE experts, and they include text completion, sentence equivalence, and reading comprehension.

If you want to work on your vocabulary skills, Achievable has a cluster-based vocabulary review system. Achievable groups their 1,500 vocabulary words into clusters with similar meanings. For example, there’s a cluster with “normal” that features “conventional,” “customary,” “habitual,” “sanctioned,” and “typic.” After you study each cluster, you can then take a quiz on it to test your skills.

Free Online Study Materials

Before you pay for Achievable, you can access some free study materials. This includes a portion of their online textbook. After signing up with your email, you’ll be able to read through about five pages for free. You can also read through the textbook’s introductory materials, and you can see summaries of all the chapters in the book. This will give you a good sense of what you can expect from the course.

You can also try out some review questions and vocab quizzes for free. You won’t be able to take any full-length practice tests until you pay for the course, but these quizzes will give you a sense of what the course is like before you pay.

Modern Mobile-Friendly Platform

Achievable’s platform is clean and modern. The platform is both desktop and mobile-friendly, allowing you to study when you’re out and about. To use Achievable on your smartphone, simply go to their website and sign-in. Then, you’ll be able to use the website just like you would on your computer. While Achievable doesn’t have a mobile app, their mobile-friendly website is a great substitute.

10 Practice Tests

Achievable does their practice exams differently than many other GRE prep courses. On your dashboard, click on the ‘exam’ tab. Here, you’ll see options to take timed quantitative reasoning, verbal reasoning, and analytical writing exams. While they don’t have any full-length timed tests, you can mimic the feeling of test day by doing two verbal reasoning sections, two quantitative sections, and two essays. With their 200 verbal questions and 10 essays, there are enough questions for about 10 full length practice tests.

Instant Essay Grading

Achievable GRE provides 10 practice essays—five issue essays and five argument essays. You’re given 30 minutes to complete these essays. Afterward, your essay will be scored by Achievable’s GRE essay grading system. This system uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to instantly score your essay. It features a similar scoring mechanism to the one used by ETS.

One Year of Access

After you pay for Achievable, you’ll get one full year of access. This will give you plenty of time to study for the GRE, and it will prevent you from feeling like you have to cram in your studying in the weeks before test day.

Seven-Point Score Guarantee

Achievable offers a seven-point score guarantee. If your GRE score doesn’t go up by seven points after doing their course, you’ll get your money back.

To use this feature, you need to have taken the GRE at least once before. You also have to submit your ‘before’ scores to Achievable within seven days of signing up for their course. To submit your scores, email hello@achievable.me with the subject line "GRE score guarantee - Before scores." Include a scan or screenshot of your official score report.

If you take the GRE after using Achievable and your score doesn’t go up more than seven points, email hello@achievable.me again with the subject line "GRE score guarantee - After scores." Include a screenshot or scan of your official score report, and Achievable will send you a full refund.

Discussion Boards

If you want to talk about what you’ve learned with your peers, Achievable has online discussion boards to check out. Here, students can discuss any questions they have about Achievable’s course and the GRE in general.

Responsive to Feedback

On your dashboard, you’ll see a ‘Feedback’ tab. Here, you can email or text any questions you have to the Achievable team. They’ll typically get back to you within 24 hours or less.

Keep in mind

No Physical Textbooks or Workbooks

Achievable’s GRE course is 100% online. There are no physical textbooks to read through and no workbooks to use. This can be difficult if you’re someone who likes using physical materials to study.

No Live Classes

Achievable’s course is self-guided, and they don’t have any in-person classes, live online classes, or one-on-one tutoring. They only have one course format available: their online textbook. If you like a more directed approach to learning, this could be a bit difficult for you.

While Achievable doesn’t offer their own tutoring services, they do provide a discount for tutoring services with the GRE expert who wrote their textbook. To find this discount, go to the ‘tutoring’ tab on your dashboard.

No Video Explanations

Achievable doesn’t have any video explanations for their questions. They only have written explanations available. This means you’ll be doing a lot of reading as you go through their online textbook. For some of the more challenging questions, you may have to read through the solutions a few times to nail down the concepts.

Fewer Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions

While Achievable provides unlimited quant questions, they offer far fewer verbal reasoning questions than many other GRE prep courses. They have 200 questions in all. If verbal reasoning is one of the sections you want to work on the most, you may find this section to be a bit lacking.

The final grade

Overall: 3.5/5

Achievable GRE offers a modern platform, an informative online textbook, and tons of useful practice questions. The course is particularly helpful for learning math skills and vocabulary. However, their offerings are a bit limited—they only have one course format, and they don’t have as many verbal reasoning questions as many other courses. Overall, though, if you’re looking for an online course that features an innovative platform and a personalized study schedule, Achievable GRE is a good choice for you.

Frequently asked questions

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