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Private Online GRE Prep
In San Diego, near you, & online

Vince Kotchian
Vince Kotchian

Table of Contents

  1. Tutor bios
  2. GRE tutoring FAQ
  3. GRE tutoring reviews

Testimonial

"Vince was a great resource and support for my GRE prep, helping me get to a 165 on the GRE Quant. We met several times via Zoom, where he patiently broke down specific quant concepts and walked through several high yield verbal strategies with me. I really appreciated his weekly study plan emails, which provided structure to my test prep, and willingness to send thoughtful and quick email responses to questions as they came up. I would definitely recommend Vince for anyone looking to improve their GRE score." - Emma Goodman (read this review on Google Maps)

Meet GRE tutor Vince Kotchian

Expert guidance. Higher scores.

GRE prep is literally all I do.

I grew up in Connecticut and completed the honors program at Boston College. I moved to San Diego in 2007, and I’ve been working full-time as a test-prep tutor ever since. I've scored a perfect 170 in verbal and a 167 in quant on the GRE.

I've co-authored GRE prep books and created GRE courses and apps, but I spend most of my days working with people one-on-one. I enjoy tutoring since it's a conversation, and discussion is actually what makes the process so valuable. It lets me follow what you're thinking and focus on what you need most, whether that's content (like understanding math concepts), strategy (like figuring out if a reading comprehension answer choice is right or wrong), timing, or even something like study skills, test anxiety, or test-taking skills. Plus, I can give you support and reassurance during what can be a stressful process.

Between tutoring sessions, we'll be communicating via email - to make sure your study plan is optimized - and via my private Discord, where we can discuss specific GRE questions.

My specialty is helping MBA and JD applicants get their scores above the 320 mark. If you're applying to a competitive program and want to give yourself every possible chance to score well, I'm your guy. Of course, I am happy to work with anyone as well.

Vince is a true GRE specialist - he's one of the very few tutors out there who ONLY teaches GRE prep. His publications include Barron's 6 GRE Practice Tests, LinkedIn's GRE prep course, and the apps "GRE Math Knight" and "GRE Vocab Cartoons". He also teaches for GregMAT+ and is a moderator of the GRE subreddit.

Rates: You can either pay for tutoring with Vince hourly at $295 per hour, or pay a flat fee of $2900 for his flexible tutoring package:

  • In the flexible tutoring package, you can schedule 1 hour of tutoring each week for six months.
  • Tutoring appointments are Monday through Friday as early as 9:30 a.m and ending no later than 6 p.m. Pacific time.
  • The $2900 can be paid all at once or in four payments of $725.
  • Hourly tutoring or personalized study plan clients can convert to the flexible package and subtract what you've already paid from the $2900. 
  • Not sure it's right for you? After our first meeting (but before our second), you can get a complete, no-questions-asked refund.
  • My 15% active duty military discount does apply to my hourly tutoring rate, but it does not apply to the flexible plan.

The package also includes a free hour of personal statement tutoring with Lauren Hammond, our graduate admissions essay expert! 

If you're interested in working with Vince for private GRE tutoring via Zoom, please contact us with a description of your situation, and we'll set up a free 15-minute consultation.

"Vince is a true difference maker, and a gentleman. I was struggling with my GRE studies for a long time, and it wasn't until I discovered Vince's service that my scores drastically improved. He was extremely effective in developing my critical thinking skills, and getting me to understand the nuances of the exam. Suffice to say, I am grateful to Vince for helping me secure a seat in a top 10 MBA program." - Junaid Lughmani

Contact Vince

Blake Jensen
Blake Jensen

Meet GRE tutor Blake Jensen

Blake: I’m a native San Diegan, father, and an aficionado of basketball, vintage video games, pitchy karaoke, and lecturing my son on how much better Star Wars was "back in the day." I played college basketball at St. Mary’s College and Whittier College, where I earned my B.A. in Psychology in 2002.

Having been a full-time test prep coach for over 15 years, I have seen just about every type of student and tutoring situation. This allows me to give my students exactly what they need to reach their goals.

My years of experience have also led me to coach my students a little differently than most. A lot of test prep revolves around how to answer a question. While that is a necessary component, identifying what is needed to answer a question is at least as important, especially for timed tests like the GRE. I show my students how to look at the test the way I do, to the patterns and tendencies of the test to make them faster and more accurate.

GRE tutoring with Blake is $275 / hour (or $247.50 / hour for 15 or more hours).

He meets clients in his Del Mar Heights office or online via Zoom.

"Having used another tutoring service prior, I can definitely say that Blake's explanations were much clearer and his methods much more effective. He didn't just show me how to solve individual problems, but instead taught me the broader concepts and tools that would allow me to tackle a variety of problems. He has in-depth familiarity with all of the GRE material as well, which was really beneficial when it came to crafting a study plan. After studying with Blake, I was able to increase my quant score to above a 160 and get the score I wanted for my programs. Definitely recommend!" - Hina Malik

Contact Blake

Video: How GRE Prep is like the Pizza Industry

GRE Tutoring FAQ

The most important question to ask, we think, is this: "Who will be the person actually tutoring me?"

Blake and Vince are the most expensive GRE tutors in San Diego. Why? In stark contrast to our competitors who employ a rotating cast of 23-year-olds, We both have 15 years of experience. If you're smart and ambitious, you're probably in the right place.

One-on-one tutoring, with us, is completely customized to your learning style, personality, and needs.

In our GRE tutoring sessions, talking through the nuances of practice questions not only allows us to explain, in detail, the strategies that work, but those conversations also allow us to see what you're thinking and adjust our instruction minute-by-minute - something you can't easily get from a big class and that you certainly can't get from a GRE video course.

Conversation is what makes private tutoring so valuable. It allows us to see the best way to help you, whether the problem is content, strategy, timing, test anxiety, motivation, or even your personal approach to studying and test-taking.

You may also want to check out our GRE tutoring pages for LD/ADHD students and older / non-traditional students. Also, we offer a 15% discount for active duty military.

Normally, we work on the entire GRE with people, but if you'd like, we can just focus on the verbal or math section. P.S. We also help people write their graduate school admissions essays and statements of purpose!

Here are some of the benefits:

  • A study plan and schedule tailored to your specific situation and adjusted as you go
  • Talking through questions with someone with several years of experience with the GRE and its many quirks
  • We get straight to what YOU need to improve your score as efficiently as possible
  • Math explained in plain English
  • Feedback on your essays
  • Accountability and encouragement :)

We usually recommend about 10 hours of tutoring. That's enough time for us to talk through the strategies for each type of question and go over a few practice tests with you. Of course, some people need fewer or more than 10 hours. Given that tutoring is pretty expensive, we'll customize everything based on your situation to give you the most bang for your buck.

Most of our clients spend between $2250 and $2800 on GRE tutoring with us. If you're active duty military, we offer a 15% discount on any purchases, as well.

Since tutoring is a significant investment for most people, we want to do everything in our power to make sure it works! We work to make sure our clients always have a clear picture of what it takes to improve and what they should be working on between tutoring sessions, and we'll always be straight with you in terms of whether your goals and timeframe are realistic.

Most people, given a typical tutoring plan and a couple of months to study, increase their GRE scores about 10 points. Some people improve way more -- or way less -- than that. A lot depends on how much study time OUTSIDE of tutoring the person has, and how effectively they use that time. Also, score increases tend to vary for people who haven't studied at all yet and have lower scores vs. someone who has already studied for a couple of months and has a higher score. The latter person typically has less potential for a gigantic point increase, since they've already realized some of their potential improvement.

When you hear about a huge score increase, it's often because the person had a strong verbal and math knowledge base and just needed to figure out how the GRE worked... and/or because they truly worked their ass off! The converse is also often true: people with below average reading ability and who never learned the math concepts the GRE tests will generally have a much tougher time and need a longer-term study plan.

You can count on us to be honest about your potential given your situation, goals, and progress with the material, and to give you every resource we know of to help you improve, including a completely personalized homework / study plan.

GRE Tutoring Reviews

  • Brady Worthington

    "Vince was fantastic in helping me build skills for the verbal text completion and reading comprehension sections of the GRE. He is an amazing tutor — always patient and encouraging.It is incredibly helpful to have someone as a tutor that really cares about your goals and is dedicated to helping you work through specific struggles. Vince certainly embodies that. I really appreciated the time he spent providing specific lessons that helped me build skills in areas where I thought I could most improve. In particular, I spent a lot of time practicing reading comprehension, and in working with Vince, I really improved in this area and ultimately excelled on test day. Many thanks, Vince!"

  • Tina Shekari

    "This was the best tutoring program that I could have gotten for the GRE. I got the basic plan and 1 one on one tutoring session. Vince made sure I was on track every week, and honestly the basic plan made it seem like i had a private tutor. I sent him weekly updates and he would give me a detailed study plan based on how I was doing the previous week and it worked perfectly to get my target score. I am a pretty anxious test taker and he scheduled a call with me two days before my exam to calm my nerves. I honestly couldn’t think of a better test prep program!!!"

  • General Atiks

    "Did a session with Blake Jensen. He was very helpful in breaking down techniques for approaching specific problems that had been creating challenges. Would recommend him for guidance on navigating the GRE math section."

  • Shyam Mukund

    "Vince's guidance during my preparation directly led to my score increasing a lot over the few months I spent preparing for the GRE. The GRE has a lot of material that I had not looked at since high school. Using Vince's study plan reinforced these concepts for me. On top of this Vince was able to walk me through testing strategies, that I believe maximized my score on the exam!"

  • Abigail Quirk

    "My experience working with Vince was extremely positive, he is a fantastic tutor and I'd recommend him to people of all ages/levels. I used Vince as a GRE tutor and was blown away by how helpful he was throughout our 3-4 months working together.He is very organized, gives clear guidance, and provides the perfect amount of structure within his study plans / follow-ups. Vince's focus on fundamentals/content first and test strategy second worked really well for me, I felt very prepared taking the test. He also helped me stay positive and remain confident in myself when practice test scores were wavering. Lastly, I appreciated his test-taking tips and mental strategies as I would probably have overlooked these details on my own. I achieved my target score on the first test I took after working with Vince and he played a big role in this! Highly recommend using him."

  • Guilherme Baratho

    "My first foray with the GRE was four years ago, but I decided to re-take the exam this past year to apply for PhD programs and hopefully, score higher to strengthen my application. Knowing I had little capacity to organize a self-directed study, I contacted Vince. We had a great initial conversation and from there, Vince created a personalized plan for me. For the next 3 months, we would meet and work on problems and troubleshoot, targeting the areas I needed to strengthen. When I would fail to adhere to that week’s plan, Vince would graciously adapt the plan so that I could catch up and correct course. If you ask me what distinguishes a good teacher from a great one, I would point to Vince Kotchian as the example. Vince is an active listener, adaptable, patient, extremely prepared and engaged. He has everything you would want and need in a great tutor. The result was that I got the ambitious score I had set out to achieve (a significant improvement from my score four years ago!!) and was admitted to my dream PhD program. If you're hesitating to work with Vince, don't!"

  • D.W.

    "We enlisted Vince's services for our son's GRE prep . Since he already came from a strong mathematical background, Vince mainly focused on the Verbal part and some on the Writing section. But we appreciated that although Vince did not work on the quant part, he still recommended resources to help him acclimate to the type of questions he would face in the quant section. Vince was definitely a professional, and gave out very structured homework and personalized lesson plan. He had a lot of resources, information, and strategies to help in the verbal section. He was patient and cared about our son's progress. All in all, we were pleased with his scores and happy to have worked with Vince."

  • Matt McPoyle

    "Vince is an unbelievable resource for GRE prep. He was plenty of resources to ensure you have a good foundation. I used Vince after using Magoosh for 3-months and scoring below my goal on the GRE. After 6-weeks and only 6 hrs of 1-on-1 time, Vince was able to help me raise my score by 6 points (3 in each section)."

  • Hank Hay

    "I can speak to Vince's value add in regards to the GRE. After 12-weeks of self-study on a popular GRE program, I felt that I was not going to reach my goal score of 330. I decided to give myself the edge and the multi-point bump I would need; I required one on one tutoring and a customized study plan. Over five weeks, I worked with Vince for 4 or 5 tutoring sessions and did 2-3 hours of a customized study plan every day. I took my first official GRE (at-home) at the end of the fifth week with Vince, expecting to have to retake it at least once. I got a 169V, 164Q and 5.5 AWA, blowing my goal out of the water. I give great credit to my work with Vince for this and could not be happier that I am done with this beast of a test. Highly, highly recommend Vince's test prep!"

  • Caitlin McHugh

    "When I came to Vince, I had already taken the GRE twice after self-studying and leveraging gregmat. My score was not where I wanted it to be, but I felt I could still improve it with a different way of studying. With the help of the customized study plan, discord discussions, and having someone else invested in my success, I was able to raise my score 8 points in 2 months. I don't have people in my network to discuss/study with, so I really took advantage of Vince's willingness to discuss on the discord channel. It was invaluable to work with someone in this way without having to pay the high costs of private tutoring."

  • Shilpa G.

    "I went to Vince after several months of GRE preparation. My score had plateaued and I was having a hard time with RC passages. I would often find myself completely lost in some of the harder passages and not know how to quickly and confidently eliminate answer choices. I remember blowing through a couple of passages and guessing wildly. But Vince showed me how to figure out the main idea and efficiently eliminate answers. We discussed several strategies over the course of our private tutoring sessions and each time he was extremely patient with me even when I had no clue how to approach the problem. He encouraged me to attack the passage using different strategies and even when I was frustrated he didn't give up on me. He's great at identifying and zeroing in on your weakness and helping you see some ETS traps. Thanks to him, I scored a 165 in Verbal! Vince really knows his stuff, don't hesitate to reach out to him if you're struggling. Talking through RC questions at length with Vince always helps clarify your thinking and solidify your concepts."

  • Jack Butler

    Bumped my GRE scores from the ~160 range to the >165 range. Vince was invested in my success and taught me in such a way that did not feel in any way patronizing, contrary to some of my other test prep experiences. I would strongly recommend that anyone looking to take the GRE (and probably any other test, for that matter) work with Vince.

  • Emmanuel Carrasco

    I am from a Mexican small city, so the idea of standarized tests was very new to me. My first mock I remember I scored 142V in the verbal section. Which is 17th percentile (very low to any university). Then, doing my research I found Vince's method. He has a very logical and simple approach for the test. For vocab, I used his super friendly mnemonic's app along with his instagram page with daily quizes. Then, I suscribed to his verbal precision course which has a vast array of very easy to manage techniques and tools for the verbal section. Yesterday I received my official scores and now I am in 79th percentile and I scored very decent in my AWA 4, which is sufficient for getting me to grad school. My grammar is not perfect, my logical thinking is not perfect either but Vince's prep was definitely perfect for me. Thank you Vince!

  • Jessica Samuels

    Vince was very helpful throughout the entire GRE studying process! In our first meeting, we discussed my short timeline and my score goals. Within the day he formed a detailed outline of my tasks for the week. We then met weekly to follow up on the tasks and go over specific questions. After each meeting I had a list of tasks to do for the following week. In the end I was very happy with my score! Update: I applied to JD / MPH programs for the 2021-2022 cycle. I was accepted to Columbia MPH, Johns Hopkins MPH, BU JD / MPH, and Harvard JD. I have decided to attend Harvard Law and will apply to the MPH with the same GRE score that I worked with Vince towards!

  • Hina Malik

    I opted for 1:1 tutoring and had a consultation with Vince who suggested Blake Jensen as the best tutor for my goal, which was to increase my quant score. I really wanted someone who could help me identify my weaknesses and mitigate them. I had taken the GRE twice before but my quant score had plateaued, despite studying and working with another tutor (who was not from VKTP). Having used another tutoring service prior, I can definitely say that Blake's explanations were much clearer and his methods much more effective. He didn't just show me how to solve individual problems, but instead taught me the broader concepts and tools that would allow me to tackle a variety of problems. He has in-depth familiarity with all of the test prep material as well, which was really beneficial when it came to crafting a study plan. After studying with Blake, I was able to increase my quant score to above a 160 and get the score I wanted for my programs. Definitely recommend!