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Prep Expert

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6.4

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LAST UPDATED: February 9th, 2024

Prep Expert was founded by Dr. Shaan Patel in 2011, who grew up attending an inner-city public school and developed study habits that improved his SAT score from average to perfect. Patel went on to found 2400 Expert to help other students prepare for college entrance exams. While the company was successful, bringing in about $1 million in sales a year, it was Patel’s appearance on Shark Tank in 2016 that rocketed the company into the public eye with Mark Cuban as a partner. One big change that came from its partnership with Cuban was its name change to Prep Expert. 

The company aims to help students change their lives by improving their scores on the SAT, ACT, AP Exams, and GMAT. Additionally, Prep Expert offers one-on-one private tutoring sessions and college admissions consulting. The company offers three-week, six-week, weekend review, and self-paced courses online and six-week in-person courses in Princeton, New Jersey and Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Online classes are taught in a virtual classroom program that is live online. Students view a lesson that is identical to a regular classroom with the teacher front and center. Students can use the chat box to interact with the instructor and other students. In addition, the entire class is recorded for future viewing if students cannot attend a session or need additional review.

SAT and ACT Classes

SAT and ACT classes are offered in three-week, six-week, self-paced, and weekend review formats. Prep Expert’s 6-Week Flagship Course meets for six hours of class twice per week, with a four-hour exam each week for a total of 60 course hours. Its four-hour exams are intended to help students build testing stamina needed for the actual exam. Homework is assigned throughout the course for students to complete between classes. The Prep Expert 6-Week Flagship Course typically starts at $999. 

AP Exams

Prep Expert offers AP exam test review classes taught by perfect-score AP Exam instructors via videos that can be watched at your child's convenience. Classes cover all high-yield AP exam content and are three hours long per exam. 

It offers a full AP Complete Exam Review for students who want to brush up on all AP curriculum, and AP Math, AP Science, and AP History Reviews for students interested in specific course subjects. A complete AP Review costs $199 and a one-day review (AP Math, AP Science, and AP History) costs $99. 

GMAT

Its GMAT Video Course is self-paced and teaches students over 100 strategies developed and taught by MD/MBA student and Prep Expert Founder Dr. Shaan Patel. The course offers 30 hours of video content of Patel teaching hundreds of strategies and practice problems to show students how to ace the GMAT. Students have access to the course for up to one year after purchase. The course costs $499. 

Private Tutoring

For those looking for a one-on-one learning experience, Prep Expert offers private tutoring for over one hundred K-12 academic subjects and tests. Each tutoring session is two hours long and scheduled around a time most convenient for the student. Prep Expert tutors primarily work with students via its online tutoring platform, but can meet students in-person in certain areas of the country based on their geographic location. Students will also be asked to take practice tests on their own at home — which is absolutely essential for large score improvements. Private tutoring sessions start at $29 per hour.

Admissions Counseling

In addition to its typical tutoring and test prep courses, Prep Expert offers admissions counseling for a hefty price tag. Its admissions counselors advise students and their families on how to get admitted to top colleges and win scholarships. In 2018 and 2019, 97 percent of its students were admitted to at least one top-three choice college and won millions of dollars of merit-scholarships. Admissions counseling packages include planning, application strategy, essay edits and review, school selection advising, and more. Admissions counseling packages start at $6,999. 

Prep Expert has dynamic prices and they may rise due to demand and start date. The sooner a student enrolls typically the better price. The company also regularly offers discount codes.

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The Good

  • Course Options
  • Money-Back Guarantee
  • Free Classes
  • High Standards for Instructor Selection

Course Options

Prep Expert offers several course options for SAT and ACT and GMAT preparation. Customers can purchase a self-paced video course, which includes 30 hours of videos, ebooks, and practice exams. The company also offers three-week and six-week online courses where students participate in a scheduled live virtual classroom; these courses also include ebooks and practice exams. In addition, Prep Expert offers in-person courses in several cities across the United States. 

Customers who want a one-on-one experience can sign up for private tutoring. Tutoring sessions are two hours long. These sessions are taught by the same instructors who teach in-person courses. Customers can purchase 4, 8, 16, 24, 36 and 48-hour packages. In addition to ACT and SAT tutoring, students can also receive tutoring for AP exams. 

Money-Back Guarantee

Prep Expert offers a variety of money-back guarantees on the majority of its course offerings. While the industry’s leading competitor also offers a money-back guarantee, it is based only on a student scoring higher than their baseline test score, even if it is one point higher. 

Prep Expert’s six-week live online and in-person SAT courses offer an industry-leading 200 point score improvement guarantee if your starting score is 1250 or less. For those students whose scores are 1260 and above, Prep Expert guarantees an increase up to 1450. For the three-week live online and in-person SAT courses, it offers a 100 point score improvement guarantee if your starting score is 1350 or less. For those students whose scores are 1360 and above, Prep Expert guarantees an increase up to 1450. 

ACT courses offer a similar guarantee. Students who have a 28 or less as their starting score are guaranteed to increase four points and those with starting scores of 29 or above are guaranteed to increase to a 32. Its three-week live online and in-person ACT courses come with a two point score improvement guarantee if your starting score is 30 or less. For those students whose scores are 31 and above, Prep Expert guarantees an increase up to a 32.

Other courses also come with money-back guarantees, including even the self-paced video courses for the SAT, ACT, and GMAT. 

Free Class

Prep Expert gives interested customers access to several free webinars presented by Dr. Shaan Patel and other experts on its site. These classes discuss how to raise scores, receive scholarships, and offer advice for applying to college.

High Standards for Instructor Selection

Prep Expert says it only hires the best instructors who truly care about the success of every student. Not only has every Prep Expert tutor scored in the top 1 percent of the standardized test that they teach, but each has also demonstrated an exceptional ability to convey material in a fun, personalized, and results-driven way.

With the exception of certain TAs, all instructors must verify their 99th percentile score on the SAT, ACT, or GMAT, whichever they are selected to instruct. Prep Expert “auditions” instructors by asking them to teach a lesson, so that it can verify their talent in communicating difficult material. Accolades of its instructor group include having degrees from Harvard, Yale, and MIT, achieving perfect SAT scores, and having advanced graduate degrees (PhDs, MDs, MBAs, etc.).

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The Bad

  • High Prices
  • Limited Availability of On-Site Classes
  • Limited Courses Offered

High Prices

Though Prep Expert guarantees results, its prices are much higher than some competitors:

  • Private tutoring — starting at $699 for 4 hours
  • Self-paced — $699
  • 6-week online — $999
  • 6-week in-person — $1,299
  • Review camp — $499

Limited Availability of On-Site Classes

Prep Expert’s on-site classes are only currently available in two locations. Customers who do not live near these locations must rely on online courses. On-site classes are available in Las Vegas, Nevada and Princeton, New Jersey 

Private tutoring sessions are available online for students who do not live near one of these locations. Many competitors have large networks of in-person course offerings throughout the country.

Limited Courses Offered

Prep Expert only offers courses in ACT, SAT, AP Exams, and GMAT preparation. This specialization may make it desirable for customers seeking courses for these tests; however, customers who are preparing for any other test will have to seek other companies with more course offerings. It does offer a variety of course types, such as live online, in person, tutoring and college admissions consulting.

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The Bottom Line

Prep Expert offers a variety of choices for high school students seeking to achieve high scores on the ACT or SAT. It offers an industry standout score guarantee, which should come as a relief to repeat test-takers. Customers have a variety of options to meet their specific learning needs; however, their prices are much higher than some competitors. Customers interested in self-paced courses can find many less expensive options. We recommend looking at other companies before purchasing Prep Expert’s self-paced courses.

That being said, Prep Expert’s private tutoring and in-person sessions may be worth the price to customers who are serious about improving their ACT or SAT score. Before considering in-person classes, make sure they are available in your area. Customers seeking preparation courses for tests other than the SAT, ACT, or GMAT will need to look at other companies. 

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Amanda George IL

I used prep expert back in 2018 to help me study for my classes I was taking at the community college. I had it set up with two different people, paid for it, and they never showed up. When I reached out to the company about a refund they kept telling me it would take 9 days to process it back. I waited 14 days and called back and they tried to lie and say they gave it back but they didn't. I ended up having to file an appeal or whatever it's called to get it back. The site is easy to use, the people that offer their tutor services just won't show up.

8 months ago

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Reply from Prep Expert

Hi Amanda. Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback about your experience. I'm very sorry you had to jump through hoops to get your money back and ultimately did not receive the help you needed. If possible, can you provide me with either your order number or the email address you used to enroll? I would love to look into this matter more.

Thanks!

Ryan

Jul. 17th, 2023

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Anonymous West Nyack, NY

SAVE YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY, as well as your child’s precious time and significant aggravation. Before you commit, realize there is a ton of fine print associated with this product and regardless of the huge number of terms, they will still find a loophole if you are one of the students, who’s SAT/ACT score does not go up. They guarantee your money back if your students score does not go up 100-200 points. Know the only guarantee they are going to give you is a guarantee that they will find a loophole to NOT give a refund. “Good faith effort” … that is one of their many platforms for not giving a refund. Essays MUST be done to their subjective standards and submitted. They will tell you they gave your student feedback and your student chose not to take advantage of re-submitting when offered the opportunity. Important to note, they do not read your essay until after the deadline for submitting, hence, not giving the opportunity to resubmit … loophole. They also claim that “97% of customers do not ask for refunds”. How can 97% of their customers go up in their scores, when the college board has revealed that 55% percent of juniors taking the SAT test improved as seniors, 35% had scores drop and 10% had no change. This statement is completely fraudulent. Common sense would dictate that there is NO WAY 97% of their customers scores go up … totally unrealistic. I am so sorry I got sucked in by a fraudulent advertisement. I only wish more dissatisfied customers took the time to write a review or I would not have spent $1000 unnecessarily. That money would have been better spent on private tutors. My daughter was enrolled in the 3-week comprehensive course, completed every test, every homework assignment, responded to every online poll and actively participated in the class. Her overall SAT score did not go up 1 point. Prep Expert was not even willing to meet the refund half way. I am only happy I could provide some useful feedback so that you think twice about spending your money on something that may or may not work and if it doesn’t work, rest assured, there is a “NO money back guarantee”! I implore other dissatisfied customers to please write a review highlighting your own experience so that the reviews of PrepExpert accurately reflect actual experiences. I think the low percentage of negative reviews are a result of people becoming so aggravated with customer service and just wanting to lick their financial wounds and forget the entire experience. Please note, If Prep Expert responds saying this is a fabricated review … rest assured it is not, it is completely accurate!

4 years ago

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Reply from Prep Expert

Hello!

Thank you for taking the time to provide us feedback about your experience and I'm sorry we were unable help your student improve their scores. Our goals is to help every student improve their scores to get into the college of their dreams, which is why we offered you an additional course for free. If you would like to take advantage of that offer, please reach out to .

Hope to hear from you soon!

-The Prep Expert Customer Support Team

Oct. 31st, 2019

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jen Ames, IA

Poor communication. I signed up with a specific teacher and it was switched. They failed to reach out and inform me of the change and did not refund even before the second class started. Prep Expert is underdeveloped and unprofessional. If you contact Prep Expert by phone call, you can hear the disorganization in the background. I only gave PrepExpert a try because of overall good reviews on this certain teacher that I was not able to receive. Ultimately, I was better off self-studying. I did attend a few classes since I was not refunded, and I am disappointed at the amount of wasted time in the class session. The class is 3 hours long and twice a week for this certain SAT prep class. Within the 3 hours, 1 hour is a slideshow with vocabulary words and their definitions. Another hour and a half is spent reviewing the easiest questions which the tutor takes a long time to answer. If you are a student, you don't have 3 hours to spare for slow lectures! Prep Expert is truly time wasted.

5 years ago

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Wendy Muskego, WI

Customer Service was the worst I have ever dealt with. I would never deal with this company again, even if they offered the services for free. For a company that is highly publicized, I am very unhappy. Upon asking questions, I feel I was talked down upon, and then when I finally had enough, I was told they would only refund 1/2 of my payment. I definitely would not buy into the hype of this company. It will be a very costly mistake!!!

6 years ago

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Katy

My daughter spent hours and hours doing the online class and her score went from a 1320-1370. I was denied my refund because she did not complete the essays. We were never interested in the essay portion of the test. The essay does not affect the standardized score! It is a totally separate measurement. This company is a scam. There is always a loophole in the "money back guarantee". DONT TAKE THIS COURSE!!!! IT IS A SCAM!!!!!

6 years ago

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Bob Zimmer

Refund Refused. Don't sign up for this if you expect to get a refund for ANY REASON. We followed the rules, even communicated with prepexperts in advance with questions... Sorry no refund due to whatever they make up. Did not help my son as promised, NO REFUND. BEWARE!!!!!

2 years ago

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Reply from Prep Expert

Hello Bob,

I understand your frustration. I'm happy to discuss any advanced communications you had with the Prep Expert staff about the requirements of the course and take those into consideration.

Feel free to reach out any time to discuss. I'll be out of the office this week. However, we can schedule a call for next week if you prefer. Ask for Ryan.

Oct. 25th, 2021

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Jack Frisco, TX

The 200 score improvement guarantee is a Marketing Gimmick (read the fine print). Score did not improve from first practice test to last practice test from their own course/curriculum, but they refused to refund the money (because of their terms and conditions). VERY BAD EXPERIENCE. Did NOT expect this from a Shark Tank and Mark Cuban Company.

5 years ago