Best SAT Prep Courses
Table of Contents
As you complete your final years at high school, you’ll need to be thinking about which college you’d like to attend, and how strong your college application is. A way that you can boost your application and demonstrate your intelligence, focus, and determination to the college admissions team is by gaining an excellent SAT score.
However, the SAT is a tough test that is hard to complete. It requires you to work quickly, accurately, and methodically to get a great score. So how can you be sure to ace the test? We recommend completing an SAT prep course or private tutoring to make sure your SAT score is as high as possible.
We’ve brought together the best SAT prep courses available to help you make a decision about which is the most suitable for your learning style. We’ve compared these SAT prep courses on their price, the packages available, the quality of resources including lessons, practice questions, and practice tests. We also look at the quality of their teaching staff, additional support available, and private tutoring options.
Take a look at our summary sections in this article, and our individual review articles if you’d like more detail on each learning provider. We hope that this information is helpful for you to find the best SAT prep course for you and achieve your ideal grade.
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Ranking | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 |
Rating | Best Value | Most Comprehensive | |||
Standard Price | $100 - $1000 | $899 - $1599 | $149 - $599 | $999 | $399 - $799 |
Discount | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming | Needs confirming |
Free Trial | 7 days | Free Resources | Free Resources | Free Resources | Free Resources |
Guarantee | 100 point increase | Score Guarantee | No Guarantee | Score Guarantee | Score Guarantee |
Course Length | 1 month - 1 year | 1 year | 6 weeks | 6 weeks | 1 - 6 months |
Practice Questions | 1,750 questions | 2,000 questions | 1,000 questions | 1,000 questions | 3,000 questions |
Practice Exams | 3 tests | 3 full length tests | 8 full length tests | 0 tests | 2 tests |
Delivery Options | Online | In Person, Live Online | Live Online | Live Online | Online |
Videos | 200 video | 18 hours live lessons | 18 hours live lessons | 60 hours live lessons | 50 hours videos |
Study Plan |  | | | | |
Physical Resources |  | | | | |
Essay Feedback | | | | | |
Elite Program | | | | | |
Mobile App | |  | | | |
Support Options | Email | Tutoring Available | Tutoring Available | Online Coach | |
Full Review | Kaplan Review | ||||
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1. Our Top Choice – Magoosh
Magoosh is an online platform that provides learning resources for a range of US standardized tests. Magoosh has a good reputation for being affordable for students, offering self-paced courses, and having a good range of resources. Magoosh is our top choice because it is a low-cost option, has self-led resources, and has comprehensive SAT prep resources.
Price Packages
Magoosh offers the same package of resources over a series of months, so the longer you sign up for, the cheaper your package will be. Firstly for 1 month, the cost is $100, for 3 months the cost is $300, and for 12 months the cost is $1200.
However, Magoosh often run offers and have discount codes, so you can often pay under $300 for 12 months of access. Compared to other courses, this price is very reasonable, making it a popular choice for students.
Resources
SAT prep from Magoosh is taught through 200 video lessons. These lessons are available on-demand and vary in length and teaching style. The lessons aim to cover the knowledge required for the SAT as well as answering strategies and techniques. Compared to other courses, Magoosh offers a good course of on-demand lessons, which you can complete by following a study plan.
Practice Exams and Questions
Magoosh offers 1,750 practice questions for you to complete throughout your SAT prep. These questions are split across the 4 sections, which gives you around 430 questions for each topic. Magoosh also provides video explanations for each of these practice questions, so if you have answered incorrectly, you can learn about what the correct answer would have been.
Magoosh also offers up to 3 practice tests; these are taken from your pool of practice questions, rather than sitting separately. Each practice test would be around 150 questions, which means that to complete 3 practice exams, you’d use 450 of your 1,750 practice questions, which is 25%!
It’s a disadvantage of studying with Magoosh that they don’t offer official tests or full-length tests like other learning providers do. By choosing this option, you will miss out on valuable experience and practice.
Study Plans and Score Predictions
As a standard offering, Magoosh has a range of study plans available to suit your timescale and academic strengths. Most learning providers give students some form of a study plan, and usually, they are flexible to fit your needs.
Magoosh also offers am SAT score prediction service, which will use your practice question answers to predict what you might achieve in the SAT test. This prediction will change over time as you become better and improve on your grade.
Free Trial and Guarantee
Magoosh offers a 7 day free trial of their resources so that you can get a feel for what the lessons are like and the layout of the learning platform. This is a great opportunity to test the materials and see if they are suited to your learning style. You may find that the academic level is too low, and you need more challenging materials, or you might find that the video lessons are just right.
Magoosh also offers a score guarantee; your grade will increase by 100 points from the last SAT test that you took or get your money back! If you’ve taken the SAT before and haven’t gotten the score you wanted or needed, this is a great safety net for your studies.
Most students will naturally increase their grade by 150 – 200 points by completing SAT prep, so even if you haven’t taken the SAT before, you are bound to see good results.
2. Most Comprehensive – The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review has a great reputation for providing learning programs that are very comprehensive and taught by expert teachers. They have been providing learning for over 30 years, and started out by offering one to one tutoring for high school students in New York.
They soon realized that there was little opportunity for these students to learn through online or remote programs, and so they expanded to offer prep courses for lots of different standardized tests. These days, they offer prep courses for SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT, to name a few.
Teaching Quality
The Princeton Review also has a rigorous employment process and only employs experienced teachers who achieved top percentile grades in these standardized tests. This means that the teaching staff is experts at helping students to prepare for their SATs. The quality of learning is reflected in both the resources offered and teacher experience.
As most of the Princeton Review courses have an element of online classroom learning, the quality of your teacher can have a positive impact on your learning. This is the value of The Princeton Review compared to other learning platforms like Magoosh.
Course Packages
The Princeton Review offers a range of test prep course packages to suit all types of students and a wide selection of budgets. We rate them as the most comprehensive because the resources in each course cover every aspect of the exam, and they offer a great selection of courses to suit all students.
Firstly the Ultimate package, priced at $899, offers students a full year of access to the resources, as well as a month of scheduled online lessons. This provides the best of both worlds, as you can learn at your own pace for most of the year, and be guided by expert teachers in the online lessons. The Ultimate course offers 18 hours of class time and is best suited for good students looking to get a max of 1350 points.
Next up is the 1400+ points program, which is priced at $1599. This course is for students looking to score 1400-1500 points, and so has more challenging content than the Ulitmate course. With 36 hours of instruction, homework assignments, and practice exams, this course is intense and takes place over 1 month.
Thirdly, the 1500+ points program, priced at $2299, is for the highest academic students that are looking to rank in the top 1 percentile of test-takers. This course is conducted with small groups in the classes and 1-1 sessions to maximize learning. The course includes 28 hours of advanced level classroom sessions, hosted online. Also included are a series of prep books and one to one coaching sessions.
Other options from The Princeton Review include a Summer Camp course – priced at $1499 for two weeks of intense learning. This is best for students that have limited time or want to see a big score improvement quickly. Another option is to take the Self Paced route for $299. This is a great price considering the quality of learning that is offered by The Princeton Review.
Practice Tests
The Princeton Review understands the importance of practicing, which is why they provide students with official and proctored practice tests throughout their SAT course. On the Ultimate course, you’ll get 3 scheduled, proctored practice exams, and this rises to 4 on some other courses.
Also, you’ll have access to additional full length and by-section practice tests, which can boost learning in these areas. This is a brilliant offering and well worth completing so that you can see your grade improve over time.
Physical Resources
Another advantage of using The Princeton Review for your SAT prep is that they offer you several physical resources to accompany your online study. The prep books are a mixture of official SAT prep books and books created by The Princeton Review and are an excellent resource for additional study.
If you’re a tactile learner and like to make notes or highlight, then combining the online lessons with the best SAT prep books will provide a boost to your learning. Not all courses include physical textbooks, so this is a resource to make the most of if you choose to study with The Princeton Review.
3. Kaplan
Kaplan is an international learning provider that provides learning for many standardized tests, including ACT, GRE, and SAT courses. Kaplan SAT courses are comprehensive, well structured, and have a great reputation for good quality learning. Kaplan SAT prep courses are hosted by teachers that have high scores in SATs and experience in tutoring and teaching, which benefits learners that have enrolled.
Course Packages
The most popular and comprehensive package from Kaplan is the Live Online SAT prep course, at $599. This course is taught over 1 month, through 10 scheduled sessions. Each session is two hours and focuses on a different topic, including answer strategies and techniques.
When you enroll in this online SAT prep course, you can select the dates that you are available to study. Make sure you can fit these in around your school, work, and home life. An expert teacher will teach each session, and you can choose which teacher you’d prefer when you select your schedule.
Kaplan also offer a self-led course for $149, where you can work through the course materials at your own pace. At under $200, this is a great option for students on a smaller budget, and for learners that are motivated and dedicated to their study. In this course, the video lessons are available on-demand for you to watch at any time, or in line with the Kaplan SAT prep study plan.
Resources
Kaplan courses include 18 hours of live instruction from your teacher, which is delivered through a live online platform. These sessions cover everything you need to know about the SAT, including how to answer questions, boost your grade, and increase your knowledge and understanding.
Furthermore, you’ll also have access to an additional 16 hours of video content, which you can work through at any time. By utilizing the additional video content, you will have a better understanding of the topics, and a different perspective from your teacher’s lessons.
Kaplan also provides you with 4 physical SAT prep books to accompany your online SAT prep course. These books are a mixture of official SAT prep and Kaplan’s own SAT prep books and are a brilliant resource for learners that like to make notes or highlight text. Kaplan offers students a combination of online SAT lessons, physical resources, and on-demand resources, making their course really comprehensive and suitable for a range of learners.
Practice Questions and Tests
As part of the Kaplan SAT course packages, there are 8 practice tests for students to complete, including 4 official college board SAT practice tests. This means that in nearly every week of your course, you can complete a practice test to get a clear idea of your progress and development. You should see a score improvement on each of these tests, and be able to identify strengths and weaknesses in the different sections.
Kaplan also gives you access to 1000 prep questions across the 4 test sections – Reading, Writing, and two Math sections. This again is a brilliant resource for you to have access to and will help you complete test prep between classes or on the go. Compared to a learning platform like Magoosh, Kaplan excels in their offer of practice questions and exams, and are great value for money for their online SAT courses.
Score Guarantee
Kaplan offers a score guarantee for students that have previously completed the SAT exam. If you have a result from a previous SAT exam and have undertaken a course with Kaplan, you should see an increase in your result at the end of the course. If you do not see an increase from your previous result, you can get your money back from Kaplan. Most learners will see an increase of 100 points as a minimum, as the quality of teaching is high.
4. Prep Expert
Prep Expert is an online provider that has been helping students with SATs and other standardized tests for a number of years. Prep Expert is a host for a number of different courses that are taught directly from teachers. Many of the teachers work freelance and also teach for other providers. Prep Expert has created the content for each SAT prep course, and rely on their teaching staff to deliver the sessions.
Course Packages
The most popular course from Prep Expert is the online 6-week Flagship Course. This course takes place over 6 weeks through regularly scheduled sessions. In total, there are 60 hours of online lessons, all taught by the same teacher. This course is priced at $999 and has a 200 point improvement guarantee.
You’ll have sessions scheduled twice weekly for 3 hour sessions, which are hosted online. This test prep SAT course is quite intense and requires a time commitment, so make sure that you can make time for the study alongside your schooling, work, and home life.
Next up is the 3-week Fast Track online course designed for students who have less than a month before their SAT. It has a 100 points improvement guarantee and has over 60 hours of online lessons. The online lessons are the same as the 6-week course, just condensed into 3 weeks.
When you enroll, you can choose a schedule, these sessions are 3 hours long and take place 4 times a week, so you really need to be committed to attending every session.
This course is also $999, so there is no price difference compared to the 6 week course. This is mainly because the curriculum is the same, and the lessons that are taught are the same.
Prep Expert also offers a Weekend Review course, which is super intense and covers all the content over just two days. This is a last-minute crash course that meets for 6 hours on the Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday. We don’t recommend this style of learning unless you are desperate. Most learners will prepare for 3-6 months before the SAT.
Furthermore, Prep Expert also offers a Self Paced Video course, where you can watch all the lessons as delivered by their founder. Dr. Shaan Patel. This course gives you access for one year to the videos and completes your test prep.
Teaching Staff and Tutoring
The teaching staff at Prep Expert all have different experiences and college degrees. They have a short bio which gives you more information, but they are also graded by the Platinium, Gold and Silver ratings. This means that if you’re purchasing a platinum teacher package, you will get one of the very best staff members.
When you select your course, you’ll also be able to select a tutor. Each teacher has a short bio online explaining their schooling, the college they attended, their teaching history, and style. This is a great opportunity for you to read through each bio and choose a teacher that you think you would learn the best from.
Tutoring is also available from a range of tutors at an additional cost, either alongside your test prep or completely separate from it. Tutoring starts at $1,199 for 4 hours, which works out to be $300 per hour. Compared to other private tutoring offers from The Princeton Review, this rate is quite expensive for SAT prep.
Practice Exams and Questions
Most SAT courses have a few thousand practice questions available for learners to use, and at least 3 official SAT practice tests. Prep Expert does not offer either of these options and are one of the only prep course options to not offer additional material outside of the video lessons.
5. Testive
Testive offers a more holistic and well-rounded approach to SAT testing, as they offer weekly coaching and guidance sessions to students from their Testive coaches, to help learners stay on track. Their packages are mostly self-led and include a weekly 30-minute catch up with an expert coach.
Price Packages
The main offering from Testive is their Coaching Package. This is priced at $399 per month and can be continued for up to a year. This test prep gives you access to all the online resources to work through at your own pace, and a weekly check-in with a coach.
The Coaching Plus online course is priced at $599 per month and offers additional support for students that need a stronger hand or more motivation. It’s accessing the same content but has two weekly check-ins with your online coach to be sure that you are focusing and motivated.
Testive also offers a Bootcamp option, which is a 6 week online test prep priced at $799. This online course includes two weekly check-ins with your coach and is designed to be completed just before your SAT exam.
Additional Resources
Testive are quite vague about the type of resources they offer and have not been specific about their video lessons, on-demand material, practice questions, or tests. The support aspect from Testive is the key area and the main quality that makes this course provider different from the rest.
When you enroll with Testive, you’ll be guided through consultation and questionnaire about your lifestyle, school, and family life. You’ll also take a practice exam and discuss your strengths and weaknesses on the SAT topics.
This information helps Testive to create a personalized learning plan, and helps your coach to get a good understanding of you. You’ll also discuss habits, motivations, and learning techniques to get the most from every Testive session.
The Testive approach is unique, and if you think this method could be right for you, take a look at our Testive Review article, which goes into more detail.
Is SAT Prep worth it?
When you’re preparing for your SAT, you may be thinking ‘are SAT prep courses worth it’? or ‘is SAT tutoring worth it’? And to be truthful, it really depends on your ability and intellect. We recommend first taking one or two SAT practice papers and marking them to get a baseline score.
If you’re already getting great raw scores, then you may want to just pursue a small SAT prep course or a specialized program of SAT private tutoring. If you’re wondering ‘are SAT classes worth it?’, then also consider your learning style and whether you thrive in a classroom environment.
Overall, if you’re thinking ‘does SAT prep really help?!’ the clear answer is yes, and you should absolutely complete SAT test prep before your test. In this review article, we’ve looked at the best SAT prep course options available for students.
When considering which SAT test prep courses might be best for you, also think about your learning style and the best environment for you to complete learning. For some people that are motivated, dedicated, and have good self-accountability, they will be able to complete a self-guided course.
These SAT test prep courses give you access to a full suite of resources online and allow you to work through them at your own pace. You can follow a selection of study schedules, but the accountability really lies with you to complete the work.
Alternatively, you may want to complete an SAT prep course that has live online lessons. This is where a teacher will take a class of students through topics, as part of a learning schedule.
This is best for students that enjoy learning directly from an expert, having a set timetable of lessons and the opportunity to interact with other students. Some courses offer a money-back guarantee, including The Princeton Review.
Understanding the SAT
The SAT is a standardized test run by the College Board that most high school students will take if they want to be considered by college admissions and attend college. The SAT is a long exam, at over 3 hours, and has a total score of 1600 points. There are 5 sections to complete, Reading, Writing and Language, Math No-Calculator, Math Calculator, and an optional essay section. Each section gives you a raw score, and these are then combined with a total scaled score, out of 1600 points. The exam is demanding and requires students to answer questions quickly, with less than 1 minute to answer each question.
The SAT is designed to test students’ intelligence, ability to work under pressure, and analytical skills, all of which will be needed at college. The college admissions team will review your SAT test result alongside your application and make a decision about whether you should be accepted into the school. This is why getting great SAT scores and working hard through SAT preparation are important factors to getting your place at college.
What SAT grade should I aim for?
The total SAT scaled score has a minimum grade of 400 points and a maximum score of 1600 points. Elite and Ivy League Colleges will expect students to be scoring the top 3 percentile of students and achieve a score of at least 1400.
The average SAT grade for high school students is 1060, and a great SAT score would be around 1200 – 1400. That being said, it’s best to set yourself a target grade and work towards this.
When setting your target grade, you should complete some research into what SAT and ACT scores the college expects of students that are applying. Furthermore, complete an SAT practice test early on, so you can see what your baseline score would be and work on score improvement from there.
SAT vs ACT
Some students will choose to take the ACT instead of the SAT as part of their college application. When we compare the SAT and ACT, many points are simular, including the SAT ACT math, reading, and writing sections. However, the ACT has a Science section, where the SAT does not, which can be a great option for those taking Science Majors.
Another difference is the scoring system, where the SAT has a top score of 1600, the ACT has a top score of 36. This is because the raw scores and scaled scores are calculated in a different way within the scoring structure.
SAT scores can be converted into ACT scores, but this doesn’t give a fair representation of your SAT ACT performance. Take a look at our SAT vs ACT review article to find out more about the differences between these two exams, and which one would be most relevant to you.
