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The Princeton Review and PrepScholar are equally remarkable ACT prep platforms, each with varying advantages over the other.
Their ACT prep courses outshine most providers on the market. So, it’s understandable if you’re stuck trying to pick the best of the two ACT prep courses for your student.
But we’ve done all the work, so you don’t have to.
We purchased and spent weeks using both course platforms. And in this article, you will get all the information you need to decide which ACT prep course can boost your student’s ACT scores the most.
The Princeton Review vs PrepScholar ACT Overview
The Princeton Review offers four ACT prep packages: Self-Paced, Essentials, ACT 31+, and ACT 34+ Tutoring. These range from a basic self-paced course to a deluxe tutoring package, with varying features and levels of student support.
PrepScholar ACT offers the Complete Online ACT Prep, Instructor Led Classes + Complete Online ACT Prep, and 1-on-1 Online Tutoring + Complete Online ACT Prep. They also provide an option to add SAT prep to the ACT Prep package at a discount, and to extend ACT Prep to two years for an additional fee.
Who should buy the PrepScholar ACT prep course?
- Students who are looking for official ACT prep study material.
- Students who are looking for personalized lessons and activity delivery.
Who should buy The Princeton Review ACT prep course?
- Students who prefer interactive learning.
- Students who are looking for a guaranteed score improvement.
The Princeton Review vs PrepScholar ACT: Similarities and Differences
Main Similarities
- The Princeton Review and PrepScholar offer self-study ACT prep courses, live ACT prep classes, and private tutoring with an ACT expert.
- Self-paced courses come with a year of continuous access.
- Users of the self-paced online packages don't get on-demand access to an instructor or live assistance.
- Neither platform has a dedicated mobile app for ACT prep.
Main Differences
- The Princeton Review offers in-person ACT classes in numerous locations, whereas PrepScholar takes a virtual approach.
- The PrepScholar self-paced platform utilizes an adaptive learning algorithm to provide tailored ACT learning material to each student. In contrast, The Princeton Review’s self-paced platform, on the other hand, follows a standardized approach.
- All PrepScholar ACT packages come with a physical copy of the official ACT prep guidebook, whereas The Princeton Review provides its own ACT prep books to students who sign up for their teacher-led classes.
- The Princeton Review’s live ACT class packages include 18 hours of instruction. In contrast, PrepScholar’s live ACT classes only include 9 hours of instruction.
The Princeton Review vs PrepScholar ACT: Performance Comparison
We assessed various areas of each course to see how these two ACT prep powerhouses compare. These areas included lesson structure, pricing, and practice material.
ACT Lessons
Both courses have comprehensive ACT video lesson libraries. Each platform has over one hundred on-demand video lessons with short activities. However, The Princeton Review has much better video production quality and student engagement.
The Princeton Review always has on-camera instructors with an interactive teaching style. In contrast, PrepScholar doesn’t show on-camera instructors in their video lessons. They also blend their videos with text-based lessons.
Reading video lesson on The Princeton Review ACT prep course
PrepScholar’s lesson delivery style gives this platform a unique edge over The Princeton Review and many other self-paced ACT courses. Users complete a diagnostic quiz before being granted full access to the PrepScholar course platform.
Prepscholar ACT sample math video lesson
The diagnostic quiz enables PrepScholar's learning algorithm to analyze your performance and suggest lessons and practice drills appropriate to your skill level. Students spend most of their prep time on areas with the most room for improvement, making PrepScholar's content delivery the most personalized.
In this category, we give the slight lead to The Princeton Review for its excellent student engagement.
ACT Practice Material
PrepScholar offers a large reserve of practice material, with over 4,000 online unofficial ACT questions. However, they don’t provide full-length ACT practice tests. PrepScholar refers students to full-length ACT practice tests from the official ACT prep guidebook, which you get when you purchase their course.
The Princeton Review provides nine full-length and eight single-section ACT practice tests. However, they are not official ACT practice tests.
Practice test library on The Princeton Review ACT self-paced course
We also reviewed the answer explanations provided on each platform. The Princeton Review only provides text-based answer explanations that are not always easy to read. PrepScholar does a better job in the presentation of their text-based answer explanations.
PrepScholar even provides video-based answer explanations to some of their online practice questions.
Given the larger question bank, better-quality answer explanations, and provision of official ACT practice material, PrepScholar edges out The Princeton Review in this category.
Pricing
At the time of this review, pricing for The Princeton Review’s standalone self-paced ACT course started at $300, whereas the PrepScholar self-paced course cost $397.
Pricing for The Princeton Review’s exclusive live ACT class starts at $2,200. The ACT 31+ course has 36 hours of instruction. The cost is, therefore, $61 per hour of live instruction. If you purchase the 18-hour ACT Essentials course, you only pay $949 – $53 per hour of live instruction.
PrepScholar only has one live class package, which includes 9 hours of classroom time. It’s priced at $900, making the hourly cost $100. However, they offer monthly payment plans for their ACT prep packages. The Princeton Review does not have this option.
When comparing both courses based on the price per month of access and price per hour of instruction, The Princeton Review wins in this category.
Student Support
The Princeton Review and PrepScholar self-paced ACT courses don’t provide on-demand access to an instructor. This option is only available on the premium versions of these courses.
Users of all Princeton Review live class packages get on-demand access to an instructor via chat. They also get unlimited access to daily virtual classrooms. On the other hand, PrepScholar does not provide additional access to an instructor in their live class package.
We further evaluated the live class size of both providers. The Princeton Review caps its class size at around 25 students, whereas PrepScholar limits live classes to 12 students per class. The smaller class size ensures that each student receives enough attention from the instructor.
The Princeton Review and PrepScholar allow students to ask questions, making the live classroom environment interactive. Although PrepScholar has a smaller class size, users of their online ACT class package could benefit from more hours of live instruction.
Considering that their pros far outweigh those of PrepScholar in student support, The Princeton Review takes the lead in this category.
Customer Policies
PrepScholar has a 5-day risk-free trial for their self-paced course, which begins when you complete the diagnostic ACT quiz. The free trial gives you unlimited access to their course platform, whereas that of The Princeton Review only provides limited access.
Customers of The Princeton Review’s self-paced course can claim a 100% refund if they cancel it within the first seven days. However, refunds for cancellation of their instructor-led class packages are only possible before the first live class or tutoring session begins.
PrepScholar has a more flexible policy, providing a refund for course cancelations made within five days of using the self-paced course and immediately after the first live class or the first hour of the 1-on-1 tutoring session.
In addition to flexible refund policies, PrepScholar has a +4 points guarantee on all their ACT prep packages. Although The Princeton Review has a higher score guarantee of +5 points, this guarantee is limited to their premium ACT 34+ and ACT 31+ packages. Their other courses promise an unspecified score improvement.
Based on their bolder and more generous customer policies, PrepScholar takes the lead in this category.
Final Recommendation
Considering how close both courses performed in the different areas we evaluated, you won’t be disappointed with either choice. Hence, The Princeton Review and PrepScholar are our top two picks for the best ACT prep courses on the market.
However, our preferred choice for ACT self-paced prep is PrepScholar. The Princeton Review is the better choice for students who need more teacher-led support in their ACT prep.
