Hi ,I am about to take my SAT in about two months and I want to join an online prep course but I am extremely confused on to which is the best and which one will give me the highest score boost. I have three options in mind Magoosh ,prepscholar and veritas but I am more inclined towards Prepscholar. Let me present my thoughts first. Prepscholar offers Customized prep ,which I believe (correct me if I am wrong), no other course offers. Secondly , it has additional features like progress report and some motivational features. I think small things count a lot. About Veritas ,I don’t like it but it has got some good reviews. Thirdly, Magoosh is the cheapest of all ($79 for 6 months whereas prepscholar starts from $400) and it also has most prompt ,even faster than prepscholar, student assistance via email . Now I am not sure whether magoosh or veritas provide the facilities like prepscholar? Has anyone used these? Can anyone please provide an analysis? Also please do tell which one of the course is best in terms of worth, quality ,email assistance? And do include if in any way the two are better than prepscholar . thanks Your help will be appreciated.
@Spreadthelight I’m co-founder of PrepScholar and I’m happy to comment. Of course I have potential for bias so take what I say with a mountain of salt and try to find objective opinions.
I’ll speak in particular about what I think PrepScholar offers and give some advice.
The two aspects you pointed out about PrepScholar are indeed where I believe we improve upon the market. In designing the program, our approach was to think, “how can we take the best parts of a great 1-on-1 tutor experience and put it into an automated online program?” This led to two specific aspects - customization and behavioral guidance.
Our customization uses advanced statistics and machine learning to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. We then customize what you learn based on our understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. We care a lot about this aspect and continuously refine our algorithms based on the massive amounts of data we collect from our students.
When we studied the market, we often found that many programs claimed to customize but actually did a poor job of it. In a number of courses I tried, I purposely got every math question right and missed every reading and writing question, but it didn’t actually detect my strength in math accurately.
For behavioral guidance, we also believe strongly that the average student benefits tremendously from encouragement and feedback. Many students on CollegeConfidential are incredibly motivated and driven, but in my experience most students aren’t this way and benefit from being held accountable for their work and progress. This is something I feel most programs ignore, and a ton of our students and families enjoy getting feedback on how they’re doing and being held responsible for focusing and working hard.
The best way to figure this out is to try out each program, if they have a free trial like we do, and see what attributes you like about each. Then just stick with the one that you like the most. We have a 5-day free trial that begins after you finish the diagnostic, which gives you plenty of time to vet whether PrepScholar is the right fit for you.