Udemy

• Udemy App
• 30-Day, Money-Back Guarantee
• Lifetime Access
• Reviews and Free Previews
• Variety of Test Prep Courses

Udemy App

A mobile app is available for individuals to download courses and watch offline or listen to courses in a podcast-style. The app also allows learners to download courses to watch offline. You can also watch courses with Chromecast and Apple TV. 

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

All eligible courses on Udemy can be refunded within 30 days. The company does not require you to have a specific reason. If you are unhappy with a course, you can request a refund. Certain restrictions do apply and some purchases may only be eligible for a credit refund. Payments are sent to instructors after 30 days, which means that Udemy will not issue a refund after the refund window. 

Lifetime Access

Udemy courses are on-demand. You can begin the course whenever you’d like, and there are no deadlines. You also gain lifetime access to the course. Even after you complete the course, you will continue to have access to it with some limitations: your account has to be in good standing and Udemy must continue to have the license to the course. 

Reviews and Free Previews

Udemy hosts 78 SAT courses alone on its platform. This selection could make it difficult to select a good fit for your learning style or needs; however, the company does allow past learners to review courses. Reading reviews can give interested customers a good idea of the instructor’s teaching style and course content. You are also able to view a free preview of courses. Every Udemy course has some lectures the instructor has selected for a free preview, so students can sample the course content and their teaching style. These two features are critical to Udemy’s usefulness because it does not directly hire or vet its instructors as do most other test prep platforms. 

Variety of Test Prep Courses

Udemy's platform hosts a large number of different test prep courses: SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, test taking skills, and more. Each test has a varying number of courses available at any one time. For example, the SAT had 78 courses at the time this review was written while the ACT has only 12. Each course may cover the full test, or just specific parts such as ACT English.

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• Courses Could Be Removed
• Serves as a Marketplace

Courses Could Be Removed

Udemy hosts over 130,000 courses on its online learning marketplace. Because it is a marketplace model, Udemy does not actually own the copyright to the content of the test prep course. Course content is owned by the respective instructors. This means that on rare occasions, instructors might remove their courses from the Udemy marketplace. This could be very inconvenient if you are using the course content. Udemy does say it can assist if this happens, but offers no specific solutions. 

There is also the potential for instructors to unpublish their courses. Instructors may choose to do this if they have an older course that they’ve updated. If a course is unpublished, the course content will remain on the platform and will be accessible to students who enrolled in the course. 

Serves as a Marketplace

The fact that Udemy is a marketplace and not a producer of online instructional content could be inconvenient and lead to inconsistent test prep course material and instruction. Many competitors have a more direct involvement in the hiring process for its instructors or have developed their own test prep curriculum. Udemy’s lack of direct involvement in its courses or instructors could be troublesome. You are able to read reviews and view a preview before enrolling in a course. The prices of Udemy’s test prep courses are significantly more affordable than its competitors due to its marketplace model.