Target Test Prep Free GRE Diagnostic Test Review

Target Test Prep gives away a 40-question GRE diagnostic covering Quant and Verbal, and it is worth taking in the first week of your prep for one reason: it hands back a per-topic breakdown of what you got wrong instead of a number. It will not tell you your GRE score, it does not touch Analytical Writing, and it costs nothing beyond an email address.

We opened the product page and the signup form on 22 September 2026 and recorded what the test asks for before question one, what the results screen returns afterwards, and how the 40 questions compare with the 54 scored questions on the real exam. That is what this review is built from.

Summary table

The free diagnostic page on gre.targettestprep.com, captured September 2026. The laptop shows the results dashboard you land on when the test ends.

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Pros

• 4,000+ practice questions with 2,000+ video explanations
• Strong analytics, error tracking, and custom test builder
• 320+ GRE score guarantee framework

Cons

• Verbal depth can feel secondary to quant

Target Test Prep GRE diagnostic overview

This is a short assessment, not a practice exam. TTP's own subtitle sets the goal plainly: assess your strengths and weaknesses with a 40-question GRE diagnostic. You take it once, at the start, to find out which topics you are losing points on, and then you go and study those topics.

It is free in the way that matters. There is no credit card field, no trial enrollment, and taking it does not sign you up for the paid course. TTP is obviously using it to introduce you to its platform, and the sales pitch for the full GRE course is one click away throughout. That is the trade, and it is a reasonable one.

What the test includes:

• 40 questions drawn from Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning
• Your choice of which measure comes first
• A post-test analytics report broken down by topic
• Timing data for each measure, split by correct and incorrect answers
• Results on screen and a copy emailed to you
• Follow-up guidance from TTP on how to improve the result

One thing it does not include is Analytical Writing. The GRE opens with an Analyze an Issue essay, so a third of the test's measures go untested here. If writing is your weak point, this diagnostic will not find it.

Target Test Prep GRE diagnostic review for 2026

What it asks before question one

The signup form is more interesting than most free tests. Alongside your name and email, it asks two questions before the test starts.

The first is your target GRE score range, offered as five bands: Good, up to 300. Very Good, 301 to 309. Advanced, 310 to 321. Expert, 322 to 331. Expert+, 332 or higher. Pick the band you actually want, not the one that sounds modest, because it is the frame the report is presented against.

Those band labels deserve a second look, and this is where the marketing shows. ETS interpretive data for everyone who tested between July 2022 and June 2025 puts the average at about 151 Verbal and 158 Quant, a 309 combined. So TTP's "Very Good" band tops out exactly at the average GRE score, and its "Good" band sits below it. Our GRE score percentiles guide has the score-by-score tables, and the percentile calculator converts a section score in one step.

The second question is question order: Quant and then Verbal, or Verbal and then Quant. On the real exam you do not get that choice, so use it to mirror whatever you expect on test day rather than to play to your strength.

What the report gives back, and what it does not

What you get instead is a dashboard, and the sample on the product page shows its shape: overall test accuracy as a percentage, the question count, total test time, then Quant and Verbal panels with accuracy broken out by question type, average time per question split into correct and incorrect answers, and an Initial Level of Preparedness rating on a low to high scale.

That split of time by correct and incorrect is the most useful thing on the screen. Two students with the same accuracy can have completely different problems, and the one who is burning two minutes on the questions they get wrong needs a different study plan from the one who is rushing.

Worth knowing before you read too much into the example: the sample results image on TTP's GRE page is taken from its GMAT course, not its GRE one. It refers to a desired GMAT score goal and carries a 2021 date. The layout is the layout you will see, but the numbers in it are not GRE numbers.

Forty questions against a 54-question exam

The current GRE, since September 2023, is one Analyze an Issue task, two Verbal sections of 12 and 15 questions, and two Quant sections of 12 and 15 questions, running about 1 hour 58 minutes in total. That is 54 scored Quant and Verbal questions. At 40 questions across both measures, this diagnostic is roughly three quarters of the real thing by question count, and much less by time once the essay is included.

The bigger difference is adaptation. ETS makes Verbal and Quant section-level adaptive: the second section of each measure gets harder or easier depending on how you did on the first, and your score depends on that difficulty as well as your raw count. A flat 40-question set cannot reproduce that, which is the structural reason no scaled score is on offer here rather than a shortcoming TTP chose.

The questions are also TTP's own, not retired official ones. For finding out that you are shaky on exponents or on sentence equivalence, that is fine. For predicting a score, it is not, and no amount of question quality would fix the format.

Pricing

The diagnostic is free, with no card and no trial signup. The interesting pricing question is what the alternatives cost, because a free GRE baseline is not scarce and each option gives back something different.

What each free or cheap GRE starting test returns. Source: ETS POWERPREP and GRE test structure pages, and Target Test Prep, read September 2026.

ETS gives away two POWERPREP Online tests. Test 1 is untimed and returns correct answers but no Verbal or Quant scores, precisely because it is untimed. Test 2 is timed and does return them. Both are full length and both include a scored sample essay with rater commentary. POWERPREP PLUS Online costs $44.95 per test. ETS also publishes a free 10-question mini quiz if all you want is a look at the question types.

That is the case for taking TTP's diagnostic first. Your two free official tests are the most accurate score signal you will ever get without paying, and spending one of them in week one, before you have studied anything, wastes it. Take the free 40-question diagnostic to find your weak topics, study for a month, then spend PowerPrep 2 when a realistic score actually means something.

If the diagnostic sells you on the platform, TTP's paid GRE plans were $179 per month, $449 for four months, $499 for six months, and $1,299 for six months with 40 hours of live classes when we checked on 22 September 2026, each discounted from a higher list price in a sale running to September 27. Every plan carries the Quant, Verbal and AWA courses, 4,000 practice questions and a 320+ score guarantee. There is also a separate 5-day trial of the full course at no charge, and TTP's own FAQ answers the obvious worry with one word: asked whether you are billed automatically when it ends, it says never.

Who the Target Test Prep GRE diagnostic is best for

It is best for the student who has decided to take the GRE and has not started studying. You need a topic list before you need a score, and 40 questions in one sitting produces that list faster than a two-hour full length does.

It suits budget prep especially well. Paired with the free tools on our GRE hub, it lets you build a study plan without spending anything, and it keeps both official practice tests in reserve.

It is a poor fit if you are inside a month of test day. At that point you need timing pressure, an essay, and a score you can trust, and this test provides none of the three. It is also the wrong tool if you already know your weak areas, since the report will tell you what you could have written down yourself.

When you might look elsewhere

• You want a score, not a topic map. The official ETS practice tests are the only ones that produce a real 130 to 170 result on each measure, and the free timed one is the closest thing to a free score estimate that exists.
• You want structured free prep afterwards. GregMat costs a few dollars a month and is what most self-studying students on a budget end up using, and the Manhattan Prep practice tests are the usual paid alternative for realistic mocks.
• You want to see the rest of the field first. Everything we have assessed in this category sits on our GRE diagnostic tests page, and how we test each one is on our review methodology page.

Final verdict

Take it in week one, write down the three weakest topics on the report, and go and fix those. Then let PowerPrep tell you your score once it is worth knowing. If you want to start now, the test opens from TTP's diagnostic page.

Target Test Prep GRE diagnostic FAQs

Is the Target Test Prep GRE diagnostic really free?

Yes. The form asks for your first name, last name and email, then a target score band and whether you want Quant or Verbal first. There is no credit card field and taking it does not enroll you in the 5-day course trial, which is a separate offer. Expect marketing emails afterwards, since the email address is what TTP gets out of the deal.

Does the TTP GRE diagnostic give you a GRE score?

No. It returns accuracy by topic, timing data and a preparedness rating rather than a 130 to 170 section score or a 260 to 340 total. That is a consequence of the format: the real GRE is section-level adaptive and this is a flat 40-question set, so a scaled score could not be calculated from it honestly.

How long does the TTP GRE diagnostic take?

There is no published time limit, and at 40 questions it is well short of the roughly two hours the real exam runs. Budget an hour and sit it in one go, because the timing data in the report is only meaningful if you take it the way you would take the real thing.

Should I take this or an official PowerPrep test first?

Take this one first. ETS gives you two free PowerPrep tests and only the timed one returns scaled scores, so they are worth saving until you have studied enough for the number to mean something. A free topic-level diagnostic in week one costs you nothing you cannot get back.

Does the diagnostic cover Analytical Writing?

No, it is Quant and Verbal only. The GRE opens with one Analyze an Issue essay, and if you want feedback on that before test day, the free PowerPrep tests include a scored sample essay with rater commentary and this does not.

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