Hi everyone,
So I took the ACT a couple months ago and got a 31. My goal score is a 33, so when I saw the 4 point boost guarantee on the Prepscholar website, their program definitely started to look appealing. I’m sure that I won’t actually be able to boost my score 4 points but I was wondering if this program would help me achieve my goal score at least. Has anyone tried this program? If you have, did it work? If it didn’t work, did they give you a refund or not? Thank you for responding 
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My son went through this with them a few years back I remember their policy had a stipulation about capping the 4 point improvement at 34. I found it online: “4+ Improvement up to 34+. Your After-Score is below 34 and is less than 4 points higher than your Before-Score.” So If your final score is 34 or above, their guarantee doesn’t apply
I can’t comment on the effectiveness of their software. However, you can check out various other threads here. It is almost impossible to get a refund regardless. They will give you your money back if you cancel in the first 5 days. However, they are almost impossible to reach for refunds. They require and official score report, and official reports are only sent to schools and so on.
My aunt bought this program for me, and to be honest, I haven’t found much help from it besides as a very basic refresher course. It goes through grammar rules, basic math concepts that you will be tested on, and then their ideas of what you need to know for the ACT. It’s not a bad program, but it definitely has its downsides.
It is all text based. Not all learners can effectively read through some text on a page and get information out of it, but Prepscholar definitely relies on reading. There are no videos, no audio, and barely any interactive-type lessons at all. It will review the most basic of concepts and tack in some examples (which may be completely absent in some of the math lessons). I definitely don’t like this, and I wished that they at least had a feature that allowed you to take notes right on the page. This would make it easier to review later.
The brevity of the math lessons. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but if you’re struggling on the math aspect of the ACT, you might be in some trouble if you only rely on this course. They give the very basics of what is tested - the bare minimum - and expect you to be able to know how to do problems that most people can’t figure out without some kind of information that tells you how to use the information they give you. I would probably invest in an addition practice book or an actual tutor if you have trouble in math.
It’s outdated, but not in the way you may be thinking of. They use the OFFICIAL ACT PREP GUIDE 2016-2017 as a source for their practice tests, which they ship out to you as a “gift.” Many reviews on Amazon for that book say that it has not been actually updated for the new revised test that came out last September, which I fully agree with. After maybe about a week of studying with the course they have you take a practice test from the book with writing. If you ever keep up with news about the ACT in your endeavors to study (in my case, it’s in my procrastination while I should be studying) you’ll know that the writing test has been upgraded immensely. There’s now a 3 perspective prompt with a new grading scale of 36, plus 10 more minutes to write during the test. These changes aren’t accounted for in the prep guide, and thus not accounted for in Prepscholar. I know this because I took this practice test with writing, and got a score report back grading my essay out of 12, not 36. (My suggestion is that you should invest in a book called 'Mighty Oak Test Prep: Guide to Mastering the New 2016 ACT Essay; these folks continuously take the ACT to make sure their test prep is accurate, and its shows through their tips)
It caters mainly to lower scoring students. Like what GabyWinston said above, they really only have a guarantee up to 34, and seeing as you got a 31, I cannot be truly sure that this program would really help you besides showing you that, hey you might have forgotten to study about this, which is the same thing that happens when you take a practice test and completely bomb a question. In that case, I encourage you to find a big book of practice tests like Barron’s. Prepscholar mainly caters to those who might not have the fundamentals high scorers have, which is a person you are very easily capable of being.
I know all of this stuff because I have used Prepscholar and taken ACTs and practice tests before (my last grade on one was a 33, so I sympathize with you). A good tip, since you already have a score, is to look at your scores in each individual section. Look at the number of questions you got right, and set a goal. Get a couple more right in each section. If you’re getting at composite of 31 right now, what would happen if you got four more questions right in, say, the math and science section? Depending on your raw scores (I’m using 33,28,33,30 as a reference; I don’t know your situation, so please don’t feel insulted), that could jump your score right to the 33 you want!
Wow I wrote a lot. Now if only I could write as fast as I type… I drifted a little off topic towards the end, but please consider my points in your decision on whether or not you buy Prepscholar!
Thank you so much for your thorough reply I’m leaning towards not using prep scholar. I’m thinking of maybe using the kaplan prep program. It may not be top of the line but at least it’s fairly inexpensive.
To be honest, I have come to the realization that these prep programs are a complete waste. I used Prep Scholar for the SAT, and to be honest, I did not get much out of it by the end. Stick to self-prep.