Kaplan Vs. The Princeton Review Digital SAT (Which Course is Better?) 

The Princeton Review and Kaplan are the two biggest test prep companies in the test prep space. Competing fiercely in the SAT test prep vertical and nearly every other test prep vertical.

Naturally, with their close competing SAT prep products, choosing between these two SAT prep providers can be difficult.

So to help you make an informed purchasing decision, we purchased both of their new Digital SAT prep courses/classes and spent weeks reviewing them closely.

This way our recommendations can help you identify the program that suits your student's Digital SAT score goals the best. 

Kaplan SAT vs. The Princeton Review SAT Overview

The Princeton Review’s Digital SAT prep course comes in four options: The Digital SAT 1500+Tutoring, Digital SAT 1400+, Essentials, and Digital SAT self-paced packages offering up to one year of access to online resources.  

On the other hand, Kaplan has four Digital SAT prep course packages: The Live Online SAT Prep, SAT Bootcamp, SAT On-Demand, and SAT Tutoring+Live Online courses.

Who should buy the Kaplan SAT course?

• Budget conscious buyers looking for a live Digital SAT class
• Students looking for engaging on-demand video lessons

Who should buy The Princeton Review SAT course?

• Students looking for more instructor support
• Students desiring more Digital SAT practice material

Let’s highlight the main similarities and differences between these prep courses.

Main Similarities

• Both platforms offer Digital SAT courses in the form of self-study, live classes, and personalized tutoring packages.
• They offer physical prep books when you purchase their premium SAT prep packages.
• Neither platform has mobile apps for students looking to prep on the go. 

Main Differences

• The Princeton Review offers in-person classes in several locations, whereas Kaplan no longer offers in-person SAT prep classes.
• Kaplan’s self-paced course has six months of access, whereas that of The Princeton Review comes with 12-month access.

Kaplan vs. The Princeton Review SAT: Performance Comparison 

To help you make the best decision, our experts evaluated key performance areas on both platforms, including pricing, lesson quality, practice material, and customer policies.

SAT Lessons

Kaplan provides 35 new Digital SAT video lessons on their self-paced platform totaling over 4 hours of playback. 

They set the standard for creating very engaging on-demand Digital SAT video lessons. Their lessons include comedic skits and use cartoon characters frequently, making them fun to watch.

The Princeton Review's self-paced course provides a larger library of video content, with over 12 hours of video lessons.

Where these video lessons are adapted from a past recording of a premium Digital SAT live class.

In other words, you’re getting 12 hours of a similar learning material for much less than what you’ll pay for their live Digital SAT class.

Both platforms have short quizzes and drills after each video lesson, allowing students to test their understanding of the lesson content.

While Kaplan has a slight edge over The Princeton in terms of video engagement, The Princeton Review has a better quality of SAT-specific strategies.

Overall, The Princeton Review takes the win in this category.

SAT Practice Material

Kaplan's digital SAT platform provides 300 new online Digital SAT practice questions.

While The Princeton Review provides more than double that amount with over 800 new Digital SAT practice questions.

The new Digital SAT practice questions on The Princeton Review's platform are attempted in an environment that mimics the real Digital SAT.

While that of Kaplan does not mimic the real Digital SAT.

Kaplan provides two full-length Digital SAT practice tests. In contrast, The Princeton Review provides four full-length Digital SAT practice tests.

The test-taking experience of the practice tests on both platforms do a good job of mimicking the real Digital SAT experience on Bluebook. 

In the sense that the practice tests are two-stage adaptive, and contain all the on-screen elements that are found on the real Digital SAT test-taking environment. 

Such as an on-screen graphing calculator, formula sheets for the Math section, and the ability to cross out answer choices. 

An excellent feature of The Princeton Review's Digital SAT practice material is their detailed performance analytics tool.

This tool does a great job of analyzing the results of a completed full-length Digital SAT practice test, allowing students to discover areas of weakness.

Both courses lack ample video-based answer explanations to their online practice questions, which is not ideal for visual learners.

However, Kaplan provides more video-based answer explanations than The Princeton Review.

Although Kaplan offers a better learning experience, The Princeton Review wins in this category based on the sheer volume of new Digital SAT practice material available.

Pricing

At the time of this review, The Princeton Review’s standalone self-paced SAT course started at $300. Kaplan’s self-paced course with six months of access cost $199.

For an additional $200, buyers can access The Princeton Review’s combined ACT/SAT course. However, Kaplan does not have this option.

The Princeton Review’s self-paced course is the cheaper option on a cost-per-month-of-access basis. Their Essentials course with 18 hours of live instruction costs $949, which is $53 per hour of live instruction. 

Kaplan’s live online SAT class package with 18 hours of classroom time starts at $699, an hourly cost of about $39. So, Kaplan has the cheaper SAT live class package at face value.

To help families afford their SAT prep programs, both platforms offer monthly payment plans with 0% APR.

The Princeton Review’s private SAT tutoring option starts at $180 per hour for 3 hours of tutoring and goes down to $150 per hour for 18 hours of tutoring.

Likewise, Kaplan starts at $200 per hour for 10 hours of tutoring and goes down to $115 per hour for 40 hours of tutoring.

Based on their starting tutoring rates, The Princeton Review is more affordable than Kaplan.

Student Support

The Princeton Review and Kaplan lack on-demand access to an instructor in their self-paced foundation courses.

However, students using The Princeton Review’s combined Digital SAT/ACT self-paced course can get 10 hours of on-demand tutoring for an additional $200. 

The Princeton Review caps its live classes at 25 students, which allows students to get more interactions with the teacher. On the Kaplan platform, class sizes could exceed this number.

Users of all live class packages on the Princeton Review receive on-demand access to an instructor via chat and unlimited access to their daily virtual classrooms.

In stark contrast, Kaplan provides none of these features to students using their live Digital SAT classes. So, The Princeton Review is the clear winner in this category.

Customer Policies

Kaplan provides a 7-day risk-free trial with limited access to the course content. However, The Princeton Review does not offer a free trial period.

The Princeton Review has a 100% refund policy if the self-paced course is canceled within the first seven days. No money-back refunds are given for course cancellation on Kaplan. 

The Princeton Review takes the clear lead in terms of score improvement guarantees, with a +180-points guarantee. In contrast, Kaplan has no clear point increase guarantee, even on their premium SAT course.

Based on their favorable customer policies, The Princeton Review has the advantage over Kaplan.

Final Recommendation

Based on the pros and cons of both courses, The Princeton Review has a stronger lead over Kaplan. Hence, The Princeton Review makes it into our top picks for the best SAT courses on the market. 

So, if you’re stuck deciding between these two test prep giants, you’ll get more value with The Princeton Review.