An unbiased guide to 5 popular prep courses
Competition has become an essential part of life. It increases productivity of an individual while at the same time providing the individual with encouragement to perform even better in the future. This is especially true for students who need a cutting edge among their peers to clear competitive exams such as SAT, GRE etc. In order to prepare students for such exams, several courses have sprung up that prepare students and train them on how to appear for their exams so that they know what to expect on the D-Day and how to deal with it. Here are 5 such popular prep courses that are widely talked about today. It is important to keep in mind that all courses have their own pros and cons both of which need to be taken into consideration before a student applies for the same.
1. Magoosh
Available at a mere sum of $99, Magoosh offers the students to prepare themselves for tests like ACT at their own pace and according to their own convenience. One of the best aspects of this course is that students can gain access to premium content for a year by paying just the initial amount of $99. In addition, they can also access more than 250 prerecorded video lessons covering every concept needed to prepare for the test. These videos explain everything from lessons to practice problems. Also, the course offers at least 1300 practice questions which are extremely beneficial to students as they start getting the hand of answering questions by multiple practice sessions.
Pros:
a. A 24/7 team of ACT experts is available at students’ beck and call. This is particularly useful for students whose maximum productivity is at night
b. This course allows students to keep a track of their progress through regular tests and diagnostics.
c. 4 practice tests are included in this course which has been set by ACT experts. This gives students an added advantage.
Cons:
a. Since the lessons are all online, students who prefer live lessons and the ability to speak face to face may find this course dreary.
2. Kaplan- Live Online
This course allows students to participate in one on one dialogue with one teacher while the class is led by another teacher. This is particularly useful for those students who are either too shy to ask questions, or for those who want to ask quick doubts without disturbing the rest of the class. Kaplan has a mandatory 16 hours of online tuition which is of great help to students wanting to appear for competitive exams. This course also offers a lot of practical tests. In fact there is even an ACT prep ebook with over 2000 test questions. The best part about this course is that students can choose from a variety of schedules according to their convenience and all of this at a simple cost of $399.
Pros:
a. Kaplan ensures providing excellent teachers who are already experienced in the area and have at least a 90percentile. Thus quality is assured.
b. It offers personalized progress to students who can then focus on working on their weak areas.
c. A refund is available for those students who do not score well in the main exams.
Cons:
a. The only drawback to this course is that it only gives a time frame of 6 months access to its resources. This could be a source of frustration to students who like to take it slow.
3. Princeton Review GRE
One of the best prep courses for GRE, Princeton Review supports both self-paced, in person and live online training. A very important aspect of this course is that it enables both the student and the teacher to keep a track of progress. The performance of each student is reviewed which adds a personal touch to this course. Princeton Review also comes with an added benefit of including a library of supplementary materials that students can access as per their need.
Pros:
a. The personal touch of this course helps in making complex problems easy for the student.
b. An efficient review system helps target the students thinking while also improving the thinking of the student.
c. This is one of the very few courses to have a user friendly dashboard
d. It includes a large number of practical tests that are very similar to GRE. This helps the student in preparing even better for the real GRE.
Cons:a. The main drawback of this course is that all of the study material can be obtained only if students select a course that includes it.
4. Target Test Prep
This is an online course to prepare for exams like GRE. This course includes a personalized study plan. Target Test Prep offers its users unique strategies, techniques and tools to score higher than their peers in the exams. It offers more than 500 lessons, 800 video solutions and 3000 practice problems. This helps the students get an overall knowledge of topics while also giving them enough practice to be able to efficiently give the exam. The course also offers intelligent analytics to target weaknesses of the students and helps them overcome it. Study methods in the course are Time based with constant live support from experts on the particular topic.
Pros:
a. The live online supports a source of huge relief to students who are burdened with many doubts
b. Personalization of the study plan and its customization is of great use as students can make study plans according to the ways that best suit their needs.
Cons:
a. A major disadvantage of this course is that there are no computer adaptive tests
b. This course focuses only on the quantitative section
5. PrepScholar Classes
This is one of those prep-courses that offers premier, live SAT classes that are said to guarantee the user an improvement in their scores by 160 points failing which they assure to return the money paid by the user for the course. The price of taking the course is around $895. Classes are conducted in virtual classrooms with care being taken to assure the existence of an inter-personal relationship between the teacher and the student. This is done so that the student can approach the teacher with any doubts without any hesitation. The curriculum also includes diagnostic tests to keep a check on the overall performance of the student and what all areas they still lack in. The best thing about this course is that you can study at your own pace.
Pros:
a. All teachers are experts in SAT and scored in the 99th percentile so benefits are guaranteed.
b. Class size is small which means maximum attention being given to each student.
c. Curriculum takes into account and deals with student’s weaknesses.
d. Students can push for higher courses if they want to increase their scores further.
e. If you don’t improve your score by 160 points, they offer a full refund
Cons:
a. It is only available online. So if students need a physical setting, they cannot depend on this courseb. Students get only 9 hours of live classroom time within which they have to accommodate everything from learning to clearing of doubts.
