Coronavirus GRE Updates
Update: ETS will allow stay-at-home official testing.
At Manhattan Prep, we’ve been closely monitoring the effects of COVID-19 in our communities. This is an immensely difficult time and our thoughts are with all those who are impacted. Our top commitment is to the health and safety of our employees, our students, and our partners.
We know that COVID-19 is deeply disrupting your life right now, and it has the potential to delay your long-term goals for your career and education. You can still study effectively, though, and it’s also fine to delay your studies if needed—the GRE isn’t going anywhere and neither are we.
To that end, we want you to know that we’re here for you. Here are ways we’re working to help you continue to achieve your goals, even in these tough circumstances:
- We’re Still Teaching Live (Online): Our services, including live teacher instruction, are still available, however our in-person classes and tutoring will be meeting online for now. You can try any of our classes for free (no credit card needed) to see whether it’s the right fit for you. Our online classes are small in size, have our expert 99th-percentile instructors, and cover the same rigorous curriculum as our in-person offerings.
- For 2020 Students, We’re Extending Online Resource Access Length: For our Complete Course students whose online resource access expired on Jan 1, 2020 or later: We’re offering up to two free 3-month access extensions. We know many of you haven’t been able to or won’t be able to take the exam when you originally planned, and we don’t want you to have to worry about how long you have your resources. If your access expired on Jan 1, 2020 or later, just contact us by email or phone at 800-576-4628 to extend your access.
- We’re Keeping You Up To Date: As updates come from grad schools and ETS/Prometric, we’ll keep you in the loop. Below are some resources we recommend for staying in the know, study and work from home advice, plus some additional stress-relief.
We appreciate having you in our community and we’ve got your back. While this is an uncertain time, our team is leaning in every day to support you, and together we’re going to get through it.
Thanks and stay healthy,
The Manhattan Prep Team
Study Advice & Recommended Resources
GRE & STUDYING:
- UPDATE: The ETS has announced they will temporarily allow students to take the test at home in selected areas. As of March 23 this is open to residents of the U.S., Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, and Macau. Click here for full details on eligibility, environment requirements, and FAQs.
- The centers in the U.S. and Canada will be closed effectively immediately through at least April 16. Stay informed about Prometric, who run the test centers that administer the GRE, here.
- Stay informed about GRE news from ETS.
If you were planning to take the test in the next few weeks:
If you think you need only a few more weeks to be ready, then we’re going to need to stretch that out over a longer period. If you feel a little burned out, take a break for a few days—you’re not going to forget everything in half a week or even a week and your brain could use the rest. And you don’t need to maintain a 12-15 hour weekly study schedule; aim for ~8-ish hours instead (still enough to give you forward momentum). Take about 2 weeks to do what you’d planned to do in 1 week. If, on the other hand, you’re not burned out and want to study more intensively, go for it.
If you are planning to take the test in later April or May:
You’re also likely going to need to stretch out your studies a bit more than you’d planned. Assume you’re not going to take it until May at the earliest. In addition, once testing resumes, there will be increased demand, so it may be harder to schedule—if you have the flexibility, you may want to wait until June / the summer. See the advice in the prior section for how to stretch out your studies.
If you are planning to take the test in June or later:
At the moment, you don’t need to do anything differently—keep following your plan. We’ll see later whether an adjustment is needed.
WORK/STUDY/PLAY-FROM HOME:
- Harvard Business Review has both an article and a video on how to work from home efficiently.
- Mindfulness is something MPrep recommends in everyday life, and especially now, it can be useful if you’re feeling anxious or need some techniques for self-care. Here’s a free 15 minute audio mindfulness meditation and also a 30 second video version. Or browse through this collection of free mindfulness resources.
- The Museum Computer Network nonprofit has an extensive list of virtual museum tours, e-learning, and online collections. Check it out here.
- MIT has virtually all of their course content available online for free at this site.
- The Metropolitan Opera has free live audio streams of their operas here.
- Broadway Plays and Musicals have live streams available here.
- Here’s 43 recipes for cooking with whatever’s in your pantry.
- And here are some penguins visiting other animals in their aquarium. Because penguins!
RELATED: