"I called Prep Scholar and purchased a $2997 full package program and spoke with an 'Allysa'. I specifically asked her about the 160-point guarantee. "We require that your student take an official SAT before beginning our program, and then COMPLETE our online course prior to qualifying for the guarantee. Most of our students COMPLETE the program in 50 hours. The tutoring your child will receive is one-on-one, and is done along side the online work. If your child COMPLETES the program, all 49 skills, and uses all tutoring hours, but does improve by 160 points, we will refund $397 for the online portion, and you will receive an additional 20 hours of free tutoring." This is her pitch. But it fails to mention the definition of 'complete the course.' To be clear, the 'terms and conditions' that one MAY read before purchase do define it, but the program is implemented to disallow qualifying for the guarantee. Here's how.
I called Allysa again today and asked her to explain what constituted 'complete' the course. She said, "your child must achieve mastery level in all 49 skill areas." When I wondered if a student could do that, she said, "Oh don't worry MOST of our students achieve mastery of all skills in only 50 hours of online instruction." This statement is 100% untrue. I asked how many hours a struggling student might take to achieve mastery in ALL 49, worst case. She said "100" hours.
Our daughter spent 4 months, 110 hours online and 18.5 hours of tutoring to get a 90-point improvement, with 'mastery' in only 3 of 49 skills. Her tutor purposefully did 18.5 of the 20 hours with her so she could not 'qualify' for the guarantee, even if she had mastered all the skills.
The 'terms' also indicate that a skill may no longer be assigned if you have taken it too many times. In 110 hours, no skill was ever 'no longer assigned' to our daughter. So that statement is UNTRUE.
The terms are RIGGED so that your child will never qualify for the 'guarantee.'
"
"Charged $397 even after cancelling the free trial and receiving email confirmation that I canceled !!!"
"I never had a worse experience with any company in my life. As my daughter was preparing for the ACT, questions arose such as to how to access parts of the program. I also wanted to know what my daughter specifically had to do for a refund. At first I tried to call PrepScholar leaving many messages on their voicemail. Weeks later I received an email saying they had no phone support. So my daughter and I emailed them questions, starting at least a month before the ACT. Responses to our emails were canned and useless. Weeks and up to days before the test date we sent emails begging PrepScholar to guide us to the strategy sessions. We received an answer over 2 months after she took the ACT. After 40 hours using the program my daughter's ACT scores went down. For the aggravation and lack of support I would have to say don't waste your money on PrepScholar. I would gladly pay more for another program which supports their customers. I give PrepScholar a zero."
"I am so glad I found PrepScholar. The one-on-one instruction with the ability to work at my own pace was exactly what I was looking for. This program helped me improve my SAT score by 400 points. The owner, Allen, would email me and check in with me often. I liked that personal touch."