The Best 1:1 Test Prep Tutoring Services
Updated: June 2021
We reviewed nearly 20 of the leading SAT and ACT test prep tutoring services so you don't have to. You'd be surprised by how they all stack up.
WINNER
$70/hour
Score Increase Guarantee:
Personalized Matchmaking:
First Session Free:
Proprietary Curriculum:
The Bottom Line:
Learner is the only service to provide a first session 100% free and a guarantee on increasing test scores. The customer service is outstanding and they work hard to connect students with the right tutor meaning zero stress for parents. It is a relatively smaller service, which explains the personalized attention and effectiveness of outcomes to earn trust. There's nothing to lose by trying their service first based on their complimentary offering.
4.9 out of 5
Score Increase Guarantee:
Personalized Matchmaking:
First Session Free:
Proprietary Curriculum:
The Bottom Line:
With Princeton Review, you pay for the brand name, but the experience doesn't necessarily reflect that. The structure of their proprietary program is solid and seemingly built on their extensive experience, but the platform feels outdated and focused on the volume of customers rather than providing a personalized experience. It is a larger company with a trustworthy name that has become complacent.
3.7 out of 5
Score Increase Guarantee:
Personalized Matchmaking:
First Session Free:
Proprietary Curriculum:
The Bottom Line:
If you’re looking to put in some work for a lower price, then Wyzant is the place to go. It is essentially a marketplace for tutors that are only vetted by the user, therefore removing responsibility from the service. It lacks any personalization, so the parent has to have direct contact with the tutor from the start. It also has virtually no customer service and falls on the customer to solve any problems that may arise.
4.0 out of 5
Final Score:
Find a tutor$150/hour
First Session Free:
Personalized Matchmaking:
Score Increase Guarantee:
Proprietary Curriculum:
The Bottom Line:
With Princeton Review, you pay for the brand name, but the experience doesn't necessarily reflect that. The structure of their proprietary program is solid and seemingly built on their extensive experience, but the platform feels outdated and focused on the volume of customers rather than providing a personalized experience. It is a larger company with a trustworthy name that has become complacent.
3.7 out of 5
WINNER
$70/hour
The Bottom Line:
Learner is the only service to provide a first session 100% free and a guarantee on increasing test scores. The customer service is outstanding and they work hard to connect students with the right tutor meaning zero stress for parents. It is a relatively smaller service, which explains the personalized attention and effectiveness of outcomes to earn trust. There's nothing to lose by trying their service first based on their complimentary offering.
4.9 out of 5
Final Score:
Find a tutor$45/hour
The Bottom Line:
If you’re looking to put in some work for a lower price, then Wyzant is the place to go. It is essentially a marketplace for tutors that are only vetted by the user, therefore removing responsibility from the service. It lacks any personalization, so the parent has to have direct contact with the tutor from the start. It also has virtually no customer service and falls on the customer to solve any problems that may arise.
4.0 out of 5
Best of the Rest
Then there are what we’ve called the “Best of the Rest”. Other services that are worth your time, but that didn’t crack those top three spots in our reviews and those of other users.
Why We Began
As parents’ responsibilities require time and students require focused efforts, trying to balance it all often puts families into a spiral of stress. SAT test prep time only adds to the frustration, especially when the outcome is not as expected.
To fix this situation, we’ve seen that more and more parents are relying on live, private tutors for help. The increase in demand, has increased the supply of test prep tutors, classes, books, and videos — leading to an endless amount of test prep options and just adding to the confusion. An overload of choice, is not always a good thing.
You also have digital college prep courses that are essentially pre-recorded videos of teachers or tutors going through their lessons. We didn’t focus on this. Why? Let’s be real. What percentage of kids have the discipline to sit through all these lessons and self administered quizzes without a parent or teacher looking over their shoulder. We bet it’s a tiny percentage. If your child is part of that elite group, do you really need to pay for extra courses?
That’s where we settled on what we, as parents and educators, believe works best: live 1 on 1 tutoring. Due to the ongoing pandemic, online tutoring became the hot commodity. Some were sceptic at first, but were forced to try online out for the first time. We’ve seen that the results are essentially the same, and in terms of cost, even better!
Then we began testing over the course of a few months and got together to discuss the good, bad, and the ugly for each live, online, 1 on 1 test prep service. We determined our favorite ones, as seen above, based on different needs and criteria.
Our conclusion is that you need a solid tutor by your side who will provide you with results, but won’t break your budget. Having a 1:1 tutor can enrich any students academic experience and help their college admissions rate.
Bottom Line
As parents, educators, and students, our goal is to offer a quick summary of our experience, to take away the stress of making a difficult choice.
The three categories we ended up with, show our overall favorite with the best value, the one with the best materials, and the one that’s the best for those on a budget (this process can get very expensive!). Those fit the categories of what we’ve seen most parents are looking for: brand name, value, or price.
Check out our summaries for our top ranking services to see how we felt about those top options, or click the link to the other verified reviews for each service to get a broader opinion.
For the record, our site may earn an affiliate revenue when purchases are made via our site. This keeps it all free of ads and we hope to continue summarizing reviews for more services and academic offerings out there to help busy parents. Thanks for your support!
