PrepExpert ACT – Full Review
Table of Contents
PrepExpert is an online learning provider that offers a range of SAT and ACT prep courses to high school students to help them get the ACT score of their dreams.
By helping students to increase their ACT score by several points, students then have more opportunities to be accepted at the schools that they aspire to attend. Prep Expert is committed to high-quality learning and employing experienced teachers and delivering excellent lessons for high school students.
Prep Expert was started by Dr. Shaan Patel MD MBA, originally from Las Vegas, who had to work hard to get a great SAT ACT score in high school, and has since soared academically. Dr. Shaan Patel noticed that there were not many online options for students to complete ACT prep courses, and so set up Prep Expert in the hope of providing personalized online classroom lessons.
Prep Expert hosts online learning courses for standardized tests for students across the US and internationally, and has a range of course lengths and prices.
Choose your course
The main focus of PrepExpert is to host 6-week courses for ACT learning. These courses are a boot camp style of intense learning and are jam-packed with resources and materials to not only give you the knowledge you need for your ACT but also gives you the answer strategies necessary to get a great score.
Prep Expert also hosts a range of course options for students that are pushed for time, including a 3-week fast track course and a weekend review course. These courses largely have the same content and but are following a different timescale and study plan.
When you’re browsing the courses online, you can choose dates and times that work with your schedule. The Prep Expert courses require a large time commitment to attend the online sessions and additional time in between lessons for additional study at your own pace.
When you select a course, make sure that you can fit the ACT course into your lifestyle, around your study, work, and family. You don’t want to overload too much and then not be able to complete the full study.
Furthermore, when browsing the course dates, you can also choose which Prep Expert tutor you would like to have as your main teacher. Each tutor has some information about themselves, including their education, teaching experience, specialist subjects, and achievements.
They may also include their teaching style, which will help you choose a teacher who will be a good fit for you. This will also help you get to know them before the program starts and give you a sense of familiarity.
6 Week Flagship
The Prep Expert Flagship course is a complete ACT prep course designed to cover all aspects of the test and help you get the perfect score. The course includes 60 hours of learning taught by a Platinium level Instructor in a live online classroom, and all the classes are recorded so that you can review them again if needed.
You’ll also have access to 1,000 practice questions and 100 perfect score answering strategies, and 6 Prep Expert ACT books. Having physical ACT prep books is a brilliant resource for students who like to highlight text and write notes throughout their studies. This course costs $999 and is the most comprehensive offering from Prep Expert.
Also, with this program, you will have the opportunity to interact with the teacher and fellow students, which will give you a greater understanding of the courses covered in each session. Connecting with students outside of the classroom is an excellent way to work together on homework, practice tests, and additional study.
3 Week fast track
If you have one month or less before your ACT exam, you might want to consider taking the 3-week fast track Prep Expert course for speedy test prep. This course is intensive and comes with a 2 point ACT score guarantee. It’s recommended that this is not your only prep course, as most students will start their study up to 6 months in advance of the test.
This course is 60 hours of live online classroom learning from a Gold Instructor, so it requires a time commitment from you to attend all classes and give it all your effort. Also included in this course are 1,000 practice questions, 6 Prep Expert ACT ebooks, and 100 perfect score ACT strategies. This course costs $999, which is the same price as the 6-week program, but this cost can be lowered by using our discounts.
Self Paced
The self-paced course is best for students that like to work with their own schedule, and it provides you with 1 year of access to the materials. If you haven’t booked your test yet or you are not sure when you will take the test, then a year of access is a great option to start your study now in small chunks.
The self-paced course is taught through on-demand videos from the founder Dr. Shaan Pate, who is an expert in teaching standardized tests. You’ll be guided through high-quality learning and have access to 6 ACT books from Prep Expert, 1000 practice ACT questions, and 100 perfect score strategies.
This course also comes with a score guarantee that your score will be improved from a previous ACT score that you have taken previously. This course is fairly well priced at $699 for a year of access to the resources.
Weekend Review
Prep Expert also offers a weekend review course, which is the ultimate crash course in test prep, to take a week or two before your ACT test. This course is ideal for students who have taken the ACT previously and are looking for top-up learning, or have limited time and resources to study.
The weekend review course is 12 hours of learning that happens over a Saturday and Sunday and is back to back learning sessions. It requires dedication, motivation, and focus for both days of studying to get the most from the program.
This ACT prep course costs $499 and is a great option for a last-minute study, but we do not recommend it for students that have at least 2 months before they sit the ACT.
Price Packages
Prep Expert’s courses range in length and time, and also in cost. Their cheapest ACT prep option is the Weekend Review course, which costs $499, and has 12 hours of content over the weekend. You won’t have access to the resources once this program is completed.
Next up is the Self Paced course, which is reasonably priced at $699 for a whole year of access, and has video lessons taught directly by Dr. Shaan Patel, the founder of Prep Expert. Finally, the most expensive is the 3-week course and a 6-week course, which are both priced at $999.
These programs have the same price because the learning on these courses is relatively similar; it’s just the length of time and quality of instructors that are different. Remember, you won’t be able to reaccess these materials once the program is completed, so you’ll need to factor this into your budget. By using our discount codes, you can save on these initial course fees, and spend less on your study.
Expert Teachers
Prep Expert pride themselves on only having the best teachers available to host their courses. They claim that every teacher has either scored a perfect ACT or SAT score, or is in the top 99th percentile of scorers. Having such a high score demonstrates that they have a great understanding of the standardized tests and how to answer quickly and correctly.
Through the high-quality course material, they can pass this knowledge onto you and help you to get a great score, maybe even in the top 99th percentile.
When you browse the courses, you can select from a range of times and dates and choose the tutor you feel you’d be most suited to. Tutors are rated with a Platinum, Gold, or Silver rating, which helps to grade their experience, score, and teaching ability.
Each tutor also has some bio information about their education, teaching experience, and specialist subjects. They may also include their teaching style, which will help you to choose a tutor that will match your learning style. Having this information is a great and flexible option that is not offered by many other course providers!
Private Tutoring
Private tutoring is also available from Prep Expert, either as an accompaniment to your ACT course or as stand-alone learning. Once again, tutors are rated Gold or Silver, and you can browse through their bio information to find a tutor that could be a good fit for you.
All tutors have scored in the top 99th percentile of ACT or SAT score and have at least 100 hours of experience in teaching SAT ACT courses. Suppose you’re choosing to enroll in the 6-week program or the self-paced program. In that case, you might also benefit from some 1-2-1 tutoring at intervals to discuss particular concepts, learning points, or answer strategies.
There are a few tutoring packages available from Prep Expert, with the hourly cost ranging from $250 to $300. This is quite expensive for private tutoring, and you may find cheaper packages with other course providers like The Princeton Review and Kaplan. Take a look at our Best ACT Prep Courses review article to find alternative options for your study.
Cons
In all our review articles, we look at the disadvantages of each course provider, and there are a few key elements that we need to mention when looking at Prep Expert’s courses.
While Prep Expert has a range of courses available, and have good teachers hosting the live online sessions, when you look deeper into the resources offered, they are not as comprehensive as many other course providers like The Princeton Review or Kaplan.
Firstly, outside of the lessons, Prep Expert offers a limited amount of learning to students. Many other courses have short, bite-sized lessons that quickly cover topics in detail, whereas Prep Expert does not offer this kind of additional learning.
You may find that the lessons alone will not be enough for you or your learning style. They do provide you with some ACT textbooks if you’re on the 6-week or 3-week program, which is great for students.
A key disadvantage of using Prep Expert is that they do not provide any ACT practice tests. They offer 1000 practice questions, split across the 4 main sections, only 250 questions per section. This is a minimal amount compared to other online courses.
By not providing practice tests, Prep Expert limits students and does not allow them to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Practice exams are the best way to get a sense of the ACT standardized tests, understand how they work, answer questions, and help predict your performance on test day.
Finally, unless you are enrolling in the Prep Expert Self Paced course, which provides a whole year of access, you will only have access to the materials provided for that course length.
So if you choose the 3-week course, once the 3 weeks have finished, you won’t be able to reaccess the materials. This can be a disadvantage for busy students and makes the cost a little harder to justify.
