TestMasters GMAT Prep Courses and Tutoring

TestMasters has taught prep courses since 1991. Every TestMasters GMAT course carries a written 100-point score increase guarantee, and every course teaches the same syllabus whether you take it in a classroom, live online, on demand, or one-on-one. This page covers the GMAT as it exists today, the Focus Edition, what each course includes and costs, and how to choose between them. We make you the master of the test, and we put that promise in writing.

The GMAT in 2026: the Focus Edition

The GMAT Focus Edition, from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), is the only GMAT now given; the classic four-section GMAT was retired in early 2024. Most advice still circulating online describes the old test. Here is the current one.

Format

Two hours and 15 minutes, three sections of 45 minutes each, in any order you choose, with one optional 10-minute break and no essay:

• Quantitative Reasoning, 21 questions: problem solving in arithmetic and algebra. No geometry, and no data sufficiency here any longer.
• Verbal Reasoning, 23 questions: Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. Sentence Correction is gone.
• Data Insights, 20 questions: Data Sufficiency, Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation and Two-Part Analysis, with an on-screen calculator.

Each section is computer adaptive question by question, so steady accuracy from the first question matters. You may bookmark questions and change up to three answers per section before time runs out, which is a skill in itself and one the course trains.

Scoring

The total score runs from 205 to 805 in 10-point steps, and each section from 60 to 90. All three sections, including Data Insights, count equally, which is the biggest change from the classic test: the data section is no longer a sideshow. Focus Edition scores are on a different scale from classic 200-800 scores and cannot be compared directly.

Registration, cost and retakes

The GMAT is offered year-round at test centers and online through mba.com. The fee is $275 at a test center or $300 online. You may take it up to five times in a rolling 12 months and eight times in a lifetime, with at least 16 days between attempts, and you choose which scores schools see.

TestMasters GMAT course options

One syllabus, one set of materials, one guarantee. Only the delivery changes.

GMAT Classroom Course

Twelve live classes of three to four hours, 36 hours of instruction, taught in person in Houston by instructors who each teach the section they know best. The classroom course is $899 with early registration in Houston and $1,099 outside Houston, all materials included, with group discounts of up to $200 per person.

GMAT Live Online Course

The same twelve classes taught live over Zoom, with the same instructors and the chance to ask questions as they come up. $899 per student.

GMAT Online Course

The complete course recorded in high-definition video for students who prepare on their own schedule: watch, pause and replay every lesson. The online course is $899 and starts the day you enroll.

GMAT Private 1-on-1 Course

The full course taught to one student, live online, at our Southwest Houston office, or at your home in the Houston area. The private course is $2,999; a half course covering only the quantitative or only the verbal side is $1,799.

GMAT Tutoring by the hour

Two-hour sessions, seven days a week, in person or online, for a student who has already prepared and is losing points in one place. See GMAT tutoring.

GMAT Custom Group Course

Companies, business-school pipelines and groups of friends can arrange a custom course at their own office or online, on their own calendar, with group pricing.

What every TestMasters GMAT course includes

• A 100-point score increase guarantee, in writing.
• More than 1,200 pages of course materials built on real, released GMAT questions and rebuilt for the Focus Edition.
• Four full-length GMAT practice exams with computer-scored feedback.
• Instructors who specialize in one section and teach it repeatedly, and who take the GMAT themselves.
• Flexible make-ups for missed classroom sessions.

The TestMasters 100-point guarantee

Attend every class, complete every assignment, and your GMAT score rises by at least 100 points between the first day of the course and the official test. If it does not, the next GMAT course we run is yours at no charge. On the 205-805 scale, 100 points is the difference between the middle of the applicant pool and the top quarter at most programs.

How TestMasters teaches the Focus Edition

Quantitative Reasoning

Twenty-one problem-solving questions in 45 minutes, all arithmetic and algebra. The course rebuilds the arithmetic most adults have not used since school, then drills the number properties, ratios, rates, and word-problem setups that the test returns to again and again, with a method for each.

Verbal Reasoning

Critical Reasoning is the heart of the section: assumptions, strengthen and weaken, inference, boldface structure. The course teaches the argument patterns the writers reuse and how the wrong answers are built to tempt you. Reading Comprehension is taught as reading for structure and viewpoint, not detail.

Data Insights

The section that decides who prepared for the current test. Data Sufficiency now lives here, alongside tables, graphs, multi-source reasoning and two-part analysis. The course teaches the sufficiency logic first, then the reading habits that let you take a table apart in the time allowed.

Pacing and the review-and-edit feature

You will take four full-length adaptive practice exams, learn where your time goes, and learn how to use the three answer changes per section without running the clock out.

When to start

Plan on eight to twelve weeks of preparation and take the GMAT at least a month before your earliest application round, which leaves room for a retake; the 16-day minimum between attempts makes that practical. Round-one deadlines at most business schools fall in September and early October, round two in early January.

GMAT preparation in Houston

The classroom course meets in Southwest Houston, near the Southwest Freeway and Beltway 8, with private courses at the office or at your home anywhere in the Houston area and hourly tutoring seven days a week. See GMAT course options in Houston for current schedules, or choose your state on the map above.

Frequently asked questions

GMAT or GRE?

Nearly every business school accepts both. Take the GMAT if you are applying only to business programs and your strengths are quantitative and data reasoning; take the GRE if you may also apply to other graduate programs or your strength is vocabulary and reading. Neither test is easier; they are different.

Are classic GMAT scores still accepted?

Yes, for five years from the test date, and GMAC publishes a concordance so schools can compare them with Focus Edition scores.

What is a good GMAT score?

It depends entirely on the schools on your list; each publishes the median score of its entering class. The course sets your target from that list on day one.

More questions are answered on the GMAT FAQ page.

How do I register for a GMAT prep course?

Students can register for TestMasters GMAT courses online or call (281) 276-7777. For private GMAT courses, register online or call the same number.