<p>I'm looking into ACT tutoring/prep for my S as he is not self motivated and will not crack a book to study on his own. Does anyone know anything about Princeton Review tutoring/prep classes? They offer 1:1 in home tutoring and 4 full length ACT exams. The package is for 24 hours of tutoring/ test strategies ( 2 hours per week) for 12 weeks. It is pricey at $135 per hour of tutoring but other centers in my area also range from $80 to $120 per hour. I'm wondering how Princeton Review compares with Huntington or Kaplan, for example.</p>
<p>Thanks for any input.</p>
<p>Many people on cc will poo poo review courses. However, I think it is very good for certain kids. One on one tutoring is the best. Most of the prep places are similar, what is more important is the fit between the tutor and the student and unfortunately that is hard to vet until they actually start working together. So I think that the one that you are looking at sounds good. Make sure that the practice tests that kid does are from the red real act book rather than only Princeton created act tests.</p>
<p>Before you spend over $3,000 on tutoring you should have him take a practice ACT test. Then look at the scores that are required for the colleges that he is interested in. He may already be at that level. Not all kids need to prep for the ACT or SAT and that $3000 may be able to pay for college instead. </p>
<p>I agree with above. Even better would be take a full length real act under strict times conditions (you do the timing) and full length real sat under strict conditions score both and see which one he does better in using act-sat concordance tables and which test he likes the feel of better. Then study for that one exam. A full length practice test is available on the act registration website and the college board sat registration website.</p>
<p>You don’t need to spend $3000. My son took the Princeton Review ACT 18Hr Classroom Prep for $500 which was plenty of prep. </p>
<p>He did do a few hours per week of out of the classroom “homework” - which IIRC was mostly practice drills. </p>
<p>We bought our son the Princeton Review guide and it sat unopened for months so we figured we better get him in a more structured environment that would lead him through their preparation process.</p>
<p>I would suggest, if you are spending that kind of money, that you hire your own private ACT tutor, not through a company. I don’t think the company adds value, it all comes down to how knowledgable the tutor is in preparing students for the exam. </p>
<p>The benefit of hiring a private ACT tutor thru, say, Wyzant, is that they are much cheaper so that you can get more hours of tutoring.
The benefit of hiring a private ACT tutor thru Princeton Review is that
- They will have lots of PR vetted and mass produced review packets to work on to improve areas of weaknesses
- The tutors are vetted and usually have been tutoring other students thru PR for some time already
- There is a basic tutoring regimen that has been set up by PR in the past</p>
<p>Can you get that with a private tutor? Absolutely! Some private tutors used to work at places like PR and branched off to make more money. Do they have review packets to work on, say, triangles, etc? Maybe!
It will take much more legwork on your part to vet the private tutor. So if you have the time and the ability to do this vetting yourself, then go private. If you don’t have the time or skill set, then PR is fine.</p>
<p>I am frankly standardized test savvy, having taken so many std tests that it would make your head spin (and makes my head spin). I was going to go the private tutor route (thru Wyzant) for the ACT for my DS. Even with my background, I felt that I might not have the skill set to vet the tutor as fully, so finally just went with Elite, a West Coast prep company private tutor. Was totally awesome! (Price was supposed to be $65 per hour for a small group of 3 students, but he was the only kid enrolled so he got private tutoring at $65 per hour). DS got a 35.</p>
<p>My friend offered an iPhone 5 to his otherwise unmotivated son if he can get ACT above 32 (with 28 or so initial practice score). He work hard on it for a few months and get a surprise score of 33. It is a lot cheaper than any prep course. ;)</p>