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PrepScholar

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33 User Reviews

4.4

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LAST UPDATED: February 16th, 2024

PrepScholar is one of the most widely searched test preparation companies. They were founded by Allen Cheng and Fred Zhang, both of whom received perfect scores on the SAT in 2013. PrepScholar focuses on helping students ace the SAT. They offer online courses and tutoring for both the ACT and SAT.

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The Good

  • Customized Instruction
  • Money-Back Guarantee
  • Customer Support

Customized Instruction

At the beginning of each course, students take a diagnostic test to discern their ability level. This unique prep program caters to the needs of each student. Students then receive step-by-step instructions, so they know exactly what to study and can easily review their mistakes. They also receive weekly reports to track their progress. Those needing additional assistance can also add one-on-one tutoring to their course. 

Tutoring services offer two plans: Plan A is focused more heavily on tutor instruction, while Plan B requires more self study. All tutoring services include access to the online program.

Money-Back Guarantee

Both the ACT and SAT courses offer a five-day risk-free trial. Dissatisfied customers can request a refund; it is important to note that any used portion of tutoring packages cannot be refunded. Tutoring services do have a one-hour guarantee. Once a customer has tried tutoring for an hour he or she can cancel and receive a full refund.

In addition, PrepScholar offers a point increase money-back guarantee. They guarantee scores will increase 240+ points (up to 2300+) on the SAT and 4+ points (up to 34+) on the ACT. These guarantees include certain requirements, such as finishing the course and a prior score received before taking the course.

Customer Support

PrepScholar advertises free technical support. Customers can contact a purchase question hotline or email the company. They also offer a helpful FAQs page and have a clear, easy-to-use website. 

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The Bad

  • Only SAT and ACT Preparation Courses
  • High Tutoring Prices
  • Only Online Courses
  • Time In Service

Only SAT Preparation Courses

PrepScholar specialized in SAT and ACT preparation courses. This may be advantageous for customers seeking courses for these test; however, customers seeking courses for other tests will have to research other companies. 

High Tutoring Prices

The price for both online courses is $397. This price is reasonable for the test preparation industry; however, their tutoring services are much more expense than competitors. Tutoring services include the online course and range from $995 to $6,995.

Only Online Courses 

PrepScholar only offers online courses. They do not offer any in-person or online live sessions. Their tutoring services are completed over the Internet through Skype or Google Hangouts. 

Time In Service

PrepScholar is a very new company, one of the newest in the industry. Customers looking for more established companies will want to seek out other options. 

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The Bottom Line

PrepScholar offers customized SAT and ACT preparation courses. These courses are designed to meet the needs of individuals. All courses are performed online and allow flexibility for busy students. We recognize PrepScholar as a good SAT and ACT online prep company. Their price is more affordable than many competitors. 

However, those looking for an inexpensive program should look at other companies. Their tutoring services are also more expensive than competitors, so we recommend seeking other options for tutors. PrepScholar only offers SAT and ACT prep courses so customers looking for other tests will need to seek out other options. 

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User Reviews

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3.5

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33 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

52%

4 grade

9%

3 grade

3%

2 grade

6%

1 grade

30%

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Anne Holly Springs, NC

We signed up for the free trial and then realized they were difficult to speak with. I immediately emailed and asked to cancel the class and they replied with a question about cancelling the class or the add ons. I replied to cancel everything but we were still charged. I was told if he never logged on we would not be charged but that is not the case. They are incredibly difficult to reach and we have now paid $550 for something we never used because we thought we cancelled. So disappointed in this company.

1 month ago

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Beth B.

After researching many options, we selected PrepScholar both for SAT Prep, and College Admissions – Full Essay Service and Application Review Service. The SAT Prep was very helpful for my son, and the resulting score we were very proud of. The College Admissions services were wonderful. Our consultant, Julianne, was the best! She did an amazing job! Her communication style (both to my son and me), turnaround time, and guidance were remarkable. The essays were always 100% my son’s thoughts and wording. She assisted with the flow and encouraged him to add more detail when needed. We met our early deadlines for applications, and her assistance in reviewing the applications was very beneficial. Overall, we are so happy we went with PrepScholar!

1 year ago

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vanessa varela Key Biscayne, FL

We chose PrepScholar among 5 other companies offering college counseling, and we are more than satisfied with our decision! The company is very organized, responsible and clear. Claire, besides being very knowledgeable, managed to get to know our daughter and manage her times much better than we have done in 18 years. She offered Lucia a wide repertoire of schools that were unknown to us and to the rest of her classmates, opening up opportunities for her acceptance. She took the time to understand Lucia's interests and strenghts, as well as her weaker sides. We loved working with Prepscholar and Claire! Totally recommend. She got into many schools she loved.

1 year ago

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Eric Cambridge, MA

Our son used PrepScholar to get support with the college admissions process. Since he goes to a public school, he was used to getting minimal time and attention from his high school counselor. This prompted us to look for a counselor who cold help him more in-depth and it was probably the best decision we could've taken. The consultant we got assigned was amazing!! She was attentive, charismatic, smart, and knowledgeable about the whole process. My son and her met weekly and she was available via email to answer additional questions any time. This made the whole process smoother and we're proud to say that our son got into 2 of his top 3 choice schools!

1 year ago

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Reem E Trenton, NJ

Prepscholar was honestly the best choice I made when it came to studying for the SAT. I took a Princeton Review course the summer before my junior year planning to take the SAT in October. The course was not helpful at all for me as it wasn’t personalized to what I needed to work and focus on. Even after the course, I had to do a list of self studying to bring my practice test score up. In October, I got a 1430. This was pretty good for a first score, but I really wanted above a 1500 to stand out. In April, I found I PrepScholar. I called several times and they answered very quickly, trying to get all the info I can on their course. I completed the course within a month, ready for the May SAT. Keep in mind, you should probably give yourself about two months to complete the course, as it requires a lot of self dedication and motivation to complete. However, once I did, I got a 1570!!!! I would definitely recommend the course as it is customized, cost-effective, and easiest to use and understand.

4 years ago

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Debbie Lincolnton, NC

Our experience with Prep Scholar was excellent...and we are NOT employees, friends, or such as mentioned in previous reviews. What was most helpful was the customized plan based off of the diagnostic test. This program is definitely geared toward self motivated students or students who have someone at home urging them to put in the time. A suggestion for improvement would be the option of a live team of tutors for students who are still stuck on a certain concept, but not needing full tutoring. Example: purchase 1 hour of live help that could be used on an as needed basis...10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, etc We actually would like to commend the customer service! Although it would be VERY NICE to be able to call or chat versus having to wait for an email response, they always answered within 24 hours, and most requests or questions were answered the same day if it was early enough in the day. In addition, they offered discounts if you had multiple family members using the program or if you purchased the SAT and then decided to add the ACT or vice versa. They were prompt in issuing the credit to our credit card once discount verification was complete. As far as their money back guarantee, they DID honor it for the ACT program quickly once proof of scores were reviewed. In addition, they offer the 5 day FREE trial period which gives you full access to the program for a realistic experience to see if it is a good fit for the student. Another suggestion would be the option to retake quizzes for all areas even if they were skills that had been mastered. When prepping far in advance of test dates, it would be nice to quiz again over material that was covered months earlier...just as a refresher. Our daughter put in the time, completed the full programs, and earned excellent scores! We purchased both the SAT and ACT Prep and we will use them again when our next daughter is ready to begin prep.

5 years ago

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Aspen F Manhattan, MT

Although i am not familiar with their way of operating in customer service, i have used the ACT prep program since june of this year. After studying for about 4 months (only a couple hours each week), i raised my score from a 24 to a 28. What i appreciate the most is that they try to use all three methods of learning (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) in order to help you obtain the information. they also adjust the complexity/broadness of a course so that if you are a beginner in a skill, they include beginner's information. There are three practice tests you may take to get an estimate of your new score. All in all, the program is great for independent studiers who simply need practice.

5 years ago

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Nathan Orr Wexford, PA

We highly recommend the SAT prep material and have used it for multiple students. We also used the college application consulting. The service excelled with regard to essay writing and overall presentation of the student through the application. We were also hoping for similar strong support with regard to college selection and negotiation of financial offers. Ultimately the list of schools applied to came from my family and not recommendations of the service. Advice on financial negotiations was succinct and ultimately not helpful in producing a desired result. Also, when advising my student as to which order to submit applications to target schools, it was overlooked that 2 schools could have been applied to early action (non-restrictive). Instead my student was urged to choose 1. By the time I noticed this myself, it was too late to apply to both early, which would have been preferable.

1 year ago

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Tom Jones White River Junction, VT

We had a unique situation to jump in with Prep scholar with just a few months before the January 15th application deadlines. This was unexpected and a little stressful for our family. Our Prep Scholar counselor, Paige, was very efficient and calm. She was able to increase her availability to make up for lost time and we got all the final product applications in ON TIME. I would highly recommend Prep Scholar services, and, I think it would have been even more of a great value and experience if we had started sooner.

1 year ago

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Dayna K Mount Kisco, NY

I was beyond happy with PrepScholar. Anna was our personal consultant and she was incredible. My son would not have had such an amazing common app essay if it wasn't for her. She made the process seamless which is not an easy task with my son who is not a strong writer. He has thoughts but has trouble putting them on paper. Anna was wonderful at guiding him and then was so clear with her suggested edits. After we finished the common app essay with her, we bought another package and had her assist with a few of the supplemental essays. Again she was so amazing!!

1 year ago

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Austin Che Chicago, IL

We had a good experience with PrepScholar. It's an online program that was really convenient for my daughter who had way too many activities as a junior. They have thousands of questions, videos, and good answer explanations. My daughter felt she got what she wanted from it and improved her ACT score by 4 points in addition to her own research using books from the library. It's not as personal as hiring a tutor but it's a lot less expensive and in our experience about as good.

4 years ago

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Raina Flatley Montclair, NJ

I thought PrepScholar was a pretty good program. My son improved his SAT score by 130 points and that was enough for the schools we're interested in. It does require the student to be motivated, since there isn't a teacher goading the student into studying everyday. Customer support was done by email, usually we got a response within the day, it was enough for what we needed and we didn't have any technical issues.

5 years ago

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S Andover, MA

My son is an active user. He has been in the program for 10 months and spent over 100 hours. He has taken 5 practice exams. His math score is up 160 points and reading/writing is up about 60 points. You will get out of it what you put into it. Online support is poor. They will answer emails, but just using the party line. They did re-set some sections for me at my request, so that was helpful. The program's interface is average at best. This is odd since prepscholar publishes tons of information online. I tract the data myself in excel and create much better charts than Prepscholar used. This is a missed opportunity on their part. My biggest current complaint is related to Covid-19. SATs have been delayed and my son's one year program will run out a few months before the test. This is unanticipated due to SAT cancellations. I asked for an extension and they want $300 for another year. Ridiculous! Where is the empathy and good corporate citizenship? Extend the kids that got caught in the Covid-19 cross-fire and get some good press. The program is online, so the cost to Prescholar would be nothing. I was previously a major proponent of the program, but now I am more than a little irked. All in all, I would say the program is good but not great. The concept makes perfect sense, and I endorse it because it is cheap, self-paced, and on-line. I wonder if they listen to their customers, and if they are investing in the program at all.

3 years ago

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Kaylee Gay Columbia, MO

I used PrepScholar for help with analysis for my English essays. I love the in-depth analysis that Prep Scholar had and how easy it was to find examples for different books. I also used to help with my SAT prep and they gave helpful hints to improve my score. I definitely recommend them because they have good answers for various things.

2 years ago

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Kimberly Freitas Redwood City, CA

We used the online only services of PrepScholar (not tutoring). All the marketing materials make a strong case for advanced materials that students should commit to 50 hours to fully take advantage of the material. My students (2) essentially maxed out of the materials (ie achieved 'mastery' in the Prep Scholar system) after <15 hours each. After you take a module one time and still need improvement, you are tested again in the same area -- but the second test is highly repetitive of the first test. The content is quite limited. Students who are of moderate competency at the material don't get much value out of the online materials, there simply is not enough content, variety or depth. When I gave the company feedback they would only correspond in email, not by phone and only canned responses from a first level support person. They declined to interact or to consider that their product advertising is misleading and their product of low value for certain types of students

4 years ago

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Duan Las Vegas, NV

My opinions , customized training of the program have been mixed throughout the year, but altogether I think that it is an effective preparation option for the SAT reasoning test.

5 years ago

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Connor McDaniel Katy, TX

The results were amazing! I got into 11 out of 12 of my colleges, all of which were major public universities across the US. I feel that a major part of my success was due to the help I got for my essays, as my grades weren’t particularly amazing, but not bad of course.

1 year ago

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Lucia Correa Varela Medellín, ANT

It was most beneficial in helping me find Colleges that were the right fit for me. My counselor was really devoted to getting to know me and showing me places that matched me. She was also amazing with writing help. Made everything so much easier!!

1 year ago Edited May 20, 2022

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SAT Prep Reviewer Justin, TX

I called Prep Scholar and purchased a $2997 full package program and spoke with an 'Allysa'. I specifically asked her about the 160-point guarantee. "We require that your student take an official SAT before beginning our program, and then COMPLETE our online course prior to qualifying for the guarantee. Most of our students COMPLETE the program in 50 hours. The tutoring your child will receive is one-on-one, and is done along side the online work. If your child COMPLETES the program, all 49 skills, and uses all tutoring hours, but does improve by 160 points, we will refund $397 for the online portion, and you will receive an additional 20 hours of free tutoring." This is her pitch. But it fails to mention the definition of 'complete the course.' To be clear, the 'terms and conditions' that one MAY read before purchase do define it, but the program is implemented to disallow qualifying for the guarantee. Here's how. I called Allysa again today and asked her to explain what constituted 'complete' the course. She said, "your child must achieve mastery level in all 49 skill areas." When I wondered if a student could do that, she said, "Oh don't worry MOST of our students achieve mastery of all skills in only 50 hours of online instruction." This statement is 100% untrue. I asked how many hours a struggling student might take to achieve mastery in ALL 49, worst case. She said "100" hours. Our daughter spent 4 months, 110 hours online and 18.5 hours of tutoring to get a 90-point improvement, with 'mastery' in only 3 of 49 skills. Her tutor purposefully did 18.5 of the 20 hours with her so she could not 'qualify' for the guarantee, even if she had mastered all the skills. The 'terms' also indicate that a skill may no longer be assigned if you have taken it too many times. In 110 hours, no skill was ever 'no longer assigned' to our daughter. So that statement is UNTRUE. The terms are RIGGED so that your child will never qualify for the 'guarantee.'

2 years ago

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blue Skize Richlands, VA

Prepscholar has a bad refund policy. My child barely practiced for few hours but they refused to issue a refund saying the I requested the refund just couple of days after the 5-day trial. After that he never used their material and was able to get a great score with out using prepscholar material. Even though my son's SAT score was in the 1500's, the diagnostic test he took on prepscholar gave him very low score, which makes me wonder if it is their policy to give a low score in order for them to claim an improvement later on. I just did not feel good about that. Lastly, if you go to their website to check how good or bad your SAT score is, you will see that your score is never good enough, and they always use your score to push you to take their course. P.s.: The CollegeBoard SAT prep book is helpful. Also, you can always google SAT questions and watch Youtube videos of people kindly solving past SAT tests and you will be fine. You do not need Prepscholar to do well on the SAT.

2 years ago

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Lisa E Tampa, FL

I am so disappointed with this program. I bought it to help my son who initially scored a 1380 on the SAT. Although PrepScholar supposedly guarantee a 160 point increase, I would honestly have been happy with 100 points. After over 50 hours of use (plus 30 hours with Khan) with almost every module going from Core to Advanced or Mastery level, my son scored a 1390. A 10 point increase from his previous (without PrepScholar) score!!! This is a joke, right? Not only has his range not changed 1 iota (the range for this type of score is anything from 1350 to 1430) but bearing in mind the amount of time he invested in Prep Scholar and the skills that the program indicate he acquired, I would've expected at least a bump into the next range and would've been happy with any score over 1480. It is difficult to communicate with anyone on this platform however when I phoned about it, was told I would only become eligible for a refund if my son reached Mastery level on every module and still had the same results so apparently you have to dig for this information unlike the very prominent guarantee. Sadly he is in his Senior year and currently has a full plate with 5 APs and a very rigorous elective that should be getting his full and undue attention. Interesting that there are no negative testimonials on PrepScholar's website which to me are far more honest and allow the prospective purchaser to evaluate a product more truthfully. Garbage. NOT impressed.

2 years ago

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Sicely Lyn Russell Mesa, AZ

I used this site for some of my Act prep and honestly it boosted my math score! The test questions are good and it gives explanations that make sense!

3 years ago

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Christian Kang Johnson City, NY

My SAT Tutor and my college counselor were both perfect fits and helped me immensely. In addition they were prompt with their emails and were sure to address any questions I may have had.

1 year ago

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Lilli Reno, NV

I liked how personalized the service was to me and my needs. My counselor and I got along great and she was always available to help me with whatever I needed. She was really helpful in brainstorming essay topics and unpacking the different questions.

1 year ago Edited May 20, 2022

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Timothy Rich Herriman, UT

I really like the method of test prep that they have, it focuses on working on and teaching things that you don't know rather than just reteaching you things that you already know.

2 years ago

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Vanessa Grand Rapids, MI

PrepScholar is a scam, please do not used them. My daughter spent over 40 hours using there SAT program to improved her scores. Yes people there is no guarantee of the 160 points, they make the student jump through hurtles with their ridiculous 49 skill set or what is called mastery level which was not disclosed in there advertisement or when I called and spoke to a live person. THERE IS NO REFUND. Misleading and false advertisement. PrepScholar scams parents out of there hard earn money, please do not used them they are a joke!

2 years ago

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Tim Billups San Jose, CA

We signed up for the course for our daughter and then COVID caused all SAT tests to cancel in Northern California making it impossible to take the test. We asked if we could get a partial credit or transfer the subscription to our son next year when tests resume. We were told no. They suggested we continue the program and take the test AFTER the college apps are done and gone if we want to get a refund for not getting a guaranteed 160 improvement. They said that since you have a 2nd child we give you a $40 discount if you pay the fee again... Yeah sure...

3 years ago

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Andrea Kailua, HI

If I could give the company 0 starts I would. Never been more dissatisfied with ANY purchase in my life. Customer service is unavailable after you spend hundreds of dollars. The software does not load and we just spent 2 days trying their "troubleshooting" which is an automated canned response. They haven't answered our initial inquiries from 2+ days ago. Horrible, horrible service and the product doesn't work.

6 years ago

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Jennifer Boulder City, NV

Horrible. Look at all the one scores they have. Then a bunch of fake 5 reviews by employees and friends. Absolutely no human service. Try to call or email and speak to someone before you purchase. You will see ! Once they have your money it’s all over. The guarantee would never be honored.

5 years ago

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Destiny Cowart Atlanta, GA

THOUSAND’S OF DOLLARS AND MY SCORES WENT DOWN. Considering a lawsuit as they refused to refund money because their app wouldn’t work to meet their “requirements.” I’m looking to sue! Would NOT recommend

2 years ago

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Jeremy Muench Tampa, FL

With COVID, we delayed our son taking the SAT. After 12 months, they terminated access while a fixed term is not listed on the website or the welcome letter. DON'T USE PREPSCHOLAR!

2 years ago

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Bob Chicken Corning, NY

We have quite disappointing experience. The materials in tests are easier than in real test. Promise about money back is not real.

4 years ago

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Aanand Patel Mumbai, MH

I liked the personalised attention with the counselling

1 year ago

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