Dominate Test Prep

What Dominate Test Prep is

Dominate Test Prep, LLC is an online test preparation company for students heading to college or graduate school. Its About page says it was founded in 2010 and builds online courses for the GMAT, GRE, Executive Assessment, LSAT and SAT; the site menu also lists the ACT, and a CASPer course is marked "coming soon." It is the parent company of two exam brands, Dominate the GMAT and Dominate the GRE, which the About page says "have helped thousands of happy clients from around the world boost their scores." The home page goes further, saying the company has helped "tens of thousands of students," and heads its introduction with the claim "We were the first in Online Test Prep," adding that it still leads more than a decade later. Both are the company's own claims.

The format is a self-paced video course built and taught mostly by one instructor, with tutoring, live office hours and a forum for students who want more contact. The company is also an Associate Member of AIGAC, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, according to the About page.

The instructors

Brett Ethridge, the founder and lead instructor, teaches the GMAT, GRE, Executive Assessment and SAT courses. The About page traces his path: a Public Policy degree from Duke University, two years of community health education in Madagascar with the U.S. Peace Corps, a PR and marketing firm in Washington, D.C., and an MA in International Finance and Economic Development from the University of Denver. The GRE page promises students "a direct line to a 98th percentile instructor who will answer your questions."

The LSAT side belongs to Dave Hall, described as the resident LSAT expert, with "three perfect LSAT scores and thousands of teaching hours under his belt." The About page says his former students have been admitted to schools including Yale, Harvard, Stanford and NYU after significant score improvements.

Inside the GRE course

The GRE course is the most fully described product, and its plan page shows how the courses work. Every plan includes complete Quant and Verbal course access on demand, a comprehensive GRE Math Review, AWA instruction, 50+ hours of video, practice worksheets with detailed solutions covering 150+ questions, a 400-word "high-yield" vocabulary list, a detailed syllabus with a step-by-step study plan and personalized forum support. All videos, worksheets and resources open the moment a student enrolls.

The teaching is organized around what the course calls the GRE Success Triad of content, strategy and practice. The page lists what students should come away with: recognizing a question type the moment it appears and applying the most efficient strategy, approaching problems "in non-traditional ways" when that gets more right answers, reasoning through hard questions without memorizing unnecessary formulas, and focusing study time on the highest-yield topics. Students can work through the course entirely on their own or choose a package with live office hours, getting "as much or as little support" as they want. A mobile app gives access to the course from any smartphone or tablet with an internet connection.

GRE plans and prices

The GRE page prints three plans:

• GRE Monthly costs $67 per month as a subscription and includes 3 full-length practice tests.
• GRE Accelerated, marked "most popular," costs $197 for 4 months of access and includes 4 full-length practice tests.
• GRE All Access costs $297 for 12 months of access and includes 5 full-length practice tests.

Apart from the number of practice tests and the access period, the three plans list the same course content. The page's pitch on price is "High quality instruction at a fraction of the price of our competitors," which is the company's own comparison. On results, it states "an average score increase of over 11 points" across "thousands of satisfied students." The GRE is the exam with plan prices on this page; for the GMAT, Executive Assessment, LSAT, SAT and ACT the site routes students through its Courses and Pricing menu.

Tutoring and free resources

Beyond the courses, the site offers tutoring for the Executive Assessment, GMAT and SAT, a free session, practice tests, a podcast and a blog. The SAT is sold as "tutoring + courses." The free resources are specific to each exam: a 6-question Executive Assessment quiz with solution videos for each question, a set of videos on LSAT conditional logic with bonus solutions for 5 official LSAT PrepTests, a free GMAT report on the "4 Things You Must Know Before Taking the GMAT," and a guide for GRE takers over 30 who have been out of school for a while. The podcast covers test-day advice, the application process and getting into a target school.

What students say

The testimonials are detailed and come from several exams. Tom Fanikos of Boston writes: "I increased my score by 150 points! This course works!" Joe Hadley writes: "I was able to raise my GMAT score 130 points from the first time I took it." Christie Apodaca of Davis, California, "crammed eight weeks of sessions into two weeks and got accepted into the MBA program of my choice." Owen H. writes: "Your EA course helped me get into the University of Oxford - and with a scholarship!" On the GRE, Kiana Bowen writes, three weeks into the full course, "I've raised my scores by 8 and 9 points [on Quant and Verbal] respectively!", and Marshaé Scott of St. Petersburg, Florida, writes: "I was able to increase my GRE math score in just two weeks all while managing a full time work schedule." William Taylor of Boston credits the self-paced videos with making it possible to work full time and take the classes at night, and writes that he was "looking forward to starting my Masters at Harvard's Kennedy School." International students are represented too: Natalia Ocampo Diaz of Bogota writes: "As an international test taker, at the beginning, I thought of the GRE as an impossible mission", and Mariem Fekih Zguir of Qatar describes a high quant score after 5 days of intensive preparation.

Who it suits

Dominate Test Prep suits a self-motivated test taker who learns well from video and wants a clear, strategy-first course at a moderate price. Working professionals are the most common voice in the testimonials, and the on-demand videos, mobile app and step-by-step syllabus fit evening and weekend study. The GRE plans make the trade-off simple: a monthly subscription for a short sprint, or 4 or 12 months of access with more practice tests for a longer plan. Students who want a person in the loop can add live office hours, forum questions or one-on-one tutoring.

The caveats follow from the model. The courses lean heavily on one instructor's teaching style, so a student who does not click with Brett Ethridge's approach has fewer alternatives inside the product. Students who want scheduled live classes with a cohort will find the format thin on that front, since live contact comes through office hours and tutoring rather than a class timetable.