PrepScholar ACT Review 2026: Rebuilt for the Enhanced ACT?

In this PrepScholar ACT review we’ll dig into what the company actually rebuilt for the Enhanced ACT, what the four packages cost, and how it stacks up against Kaplan, Princeton Review, Magoosh and the free official practice ACT gives you.

We’ll tackle some of your hard-hitting questions – is PrepScholar worth it and does it work to prepare you to ace the exam come test day? Read on to find out!

The Verdict

The ACT was rebuilt in 2025, which means a great deal of the prep material still on sale was written for a test that no longer exists. Getting that right matters more this year than any other single thing, and it’s where PrepScholar is strongest: 54 skill lessons refreshed for the Enhanced ACT, math questions rewritten for the new four-choice format, and science lessons you can switch off if you’re not sitting that section. That’s a documented rebuild, not a badge on a homepage – and it counts for more than any spec on the page, because drilling five-choice math trains instincts you can’t use on test day.

The second thing you’re buying is a plan. PrepScholar runs a diagnostic, works out what’s actually weak, and hands you a week-by-week schedule. Most rivals hand you a library and a search box, which is fine if you already know what to do with one. If you’re studying alone, that structure is the product – and the AI Learning Assistant on the $495 tier means there’s something to ask at eleven at night when a written explanation doesn’t land.

At $397 it isn’t the cheapest self-paced ACT course, and I’ve set out the full comparison further down. What the extra buys is twelve months of access rather than six, material demonstrably rebuilt for the test you’re actually taking, and a program that decides what you study each week so you don’t have to.

Buy it if you’re sitting the Enhanced ACT, studying alone, and you’d rather be told what to work on each week than work it out yourself. Skip it if you’re on a tight budget, disciplined enough to build your own plan, or you want live instruction – Kaplan and Princeton Review both do that better.

About PrepScholar

Founded by a pair of Harvard grads, PrepScholar offers programs for multiple tests at the pre-college and post-graduate levels, not just for the ACT and the SAT. Student sentiment has warmed up considerably since I first looked at the company: it now holds a 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot across 301 reviews, alongside a 4.4 overall score on BestCompany, where 35 reviewers left an average of 3.3 stars. The Trustpilot figure is the one I’d weight, simply because the sample is close to ten times larger.

What Changed on the Enhanced ACT

The ACT you’re about to sit is not the one your older sibling sat. The changes rolled out from April 2025 and finished landing across all testing windows in 2026:

• Science is optional, and it no longer counts toward your composite. Take it and you get a separate STEM score instead.
• The composite is now the average of English, Math and Reading – three sections, not four.
• The core test shrank from 215 questions to 131, and from 175 minutes to about 125.
• Math answer choices dropped from five to four.

That last one looks like a footnote. It isn’t. Almost every math strategy worth knowing runs on the number of answer choices. A blind guess went from 20% to 25%. Eliminate two and you’re at 50% rather than 33%. Backsolving – plugging the answers back into the question – got roughly 20% faster because there’s one less answer to plug.

So if you spend the autumn drilling five-choice math questions, you are rehearsing arithmetic you will not be doing on test day. Which reframes the question of which course to buy: not who has the most practice questions, but whose questions match the test you’re actually going to sit.

PrepScholar Pricing Options

PrepScholar sells its ACT prep four ways, and all four run on the same underlying program – what changes is what gets bolted on top. The entry point is the flagship Complete Online ACT Prep at $397, and for most students that’s the one to look at first.

Here’s how the four ACT packages compare:

As is the case for most prep offerings, the real premiums come with live instruction and one-on-one tutoring. Most ACT preppers don’t necessarily need these services to dramatically improve their scores but if you have the extra cash available the help offered by the testing experts at PrepScholar can likely bump your score up a few extra points, which may be worth the investment.

PrepScholar Curriculum Review

One of the best features of PrepScholar is the personalized curriculum generated for each student based on a variety of factors like:

• Area of focus (math, reading or writing – or all three)
• Desired score improvement
• Time you can commit each week

Before you begin your test prep, PrepScholar is already customizing your prep strategy based on a series of questions when you sign up.

Some of the questions they ask include:

• Your dream school
• Your target score (1-36 on each section)
• Any extended time accommodations available to you (in the context of the ACT, these are only offered to students with documented disabilities that cause them to work more slowly than others; the vast majority of test-takers do not qualify for these provisions)
• The components of the test you struggle with most

They also ask (for marketing purposes, presumably) about how you discovered PrepScholar, how likely you are to recommend test prep services to a friend, etc.

Once you get registered and settled in for full-swing prep, it’s time to hit the books. Below, we’ll cover the actual lesson content, how the platform works, and pros and cons of the PrepScholar program versus competitors.

PrepScholar Lesson Content

As the company continuously reminds you before and after purchasing its courses, expert educational professionals design the lesson content. Accordingly, it’s very well-developed and well-structured.

PrepScholar really provides great graphics to accompany the text that illustrate the often-complex material (especially in the science section) that is otherwise difficult to explain using the limited medium of language alone.

At the end of each lesson, you’ll take a quiz to test how well you absorbed the presented material. After you finish, you can access detailed explanations for the correct answer as well as tips for how to reach the right one if you don’t necessarily know for sure (what your elementary teacher used to call an “educated guess”).

To summarize, the standout points of PrepScholar’s lesson content are:

• Well-partitioned subject matter
• Helpful visual aids to accompany verbal instruction
• End-of-lesson quizzes complete with thorough explanations for the correct answers

In addition to the lessons covering the actual material on the test, PrepScholar also offers a plethora of “strategy lessons” that cover various aspects of strategic test-taking from the basics like “Preparing for the Day of the Test” to more advanced ones like “Stress and Anxiety—Dealing with It.” You can even learn the best tips for applying to the school of your choice after you score high on the exam.

These strategy lessons are particularly helpful for those of us who struggle with test-taking more so than, perhaps, with the actual material. As work published in Psychology Research explains:

“Some students do poorly in tests because of the lack of test-taking strategies or the use of poor ones. These have both direct and indirect effects on students’ performance. Directly, these strategies help students increase their scores on tests through the effective use of their time, effort, and test conditions. Indirectly, using appropriate test-taking strategies affects other related but important factors such as reducing test anxiety and improving students’ attitudes toward tests.”

What that means, basically, is that how you take the test may be just as important as what you know. Acing the ACT or SAT, accordingly, depends not just on a familiarity with the material but also on a strong strategy to approach the test.

This is where PrepScholar really delivers ahead of other test prep companies that either fail to emphasize the importance of well-developed test-taking strategies for success or neglect them altogether.

PrepScholar Questions Bank

The ACT program comes with an arsenal of more than 3,000 practice questions, and the math ones have been rewritten for the Enhanced ACT’s four-choice format rather than carried over from the old five-choice test.

One of the handiest features that I appreciated most during the process was the quiz generator.

How the quiz generator works:

• Select the topic area broken down by the four subjects of the test (English, math, reading, and science)
• Choose the number of questions (5 or 10)
• Answer the questions in the allotted timeframe (a counter in the corner keeps track of how you’re doing timewise)
• Review your performance
• Get detailed explanations for each answer which include both the reasons why the correct answer is, in fact, correct, as well as test-taking tips that will help you suss out the right answer when you aren’t sure (again, mastering the “educated guess” game)

As you work your way through the content, PrepScholar will index all the incorrect answers in, appropriately so, the “incorrect answers” tab on the platform. There, you can go back and review the questions you got wrong and, more importantly, why you got them wrong to avoid similar mistakes when the same types of queries pop up on the real test.

PrepScholar AI Learning Assistant

The biggest change to PrepScholar’s platform in years, and the one that actually alters how you use the program day to day: there’s now an AI tutor – PrepScholar calls her Aila – built directly into the course. She sits in a panel to the right of whatever practice question you’re working on, and she comes with the $495 Complete Online Prep + AI Learning Assistant tier.

Now, I’ll admit I braced myself for this one. Every company on earth has bolted a chatbot onto its product in the last couple of years, and most of them amount to a search box with extra steps. This one is different in a way that matters, and the difference is that it flatly refuses to just tell you the answer.

Open her up on a question and she gives you a way in: Why was my answer wrong?, Give me a hint, Teach me, and – my favorite bit of plain speaking from a test prep company – Explain it like I’m 5. There’s a full explanation guide too, if you’d rather just read the thing through. A small touch, but it solves the blank-page problem of not knowing what to ask.

Ask about a question you’ve missed and Aila comes back with a question of her own. In the screenshot above, a student working an exponential growth problem gets walked along in stages – what does the formula give you at t = 0? Right, so that part checks out. Now try t = 1 – until they land on the answer themselves. That’s the Socratic method, and it’s exactly what a good human tutor does when you beg them to just hand it over. It is, deliberately, a little bit annoying. It’s also how people actually learn things.

A few specifics worth knowing:

• She can see the question you’re on. Aila has the context of the actual problem in front of you – passages, charts, and graphs included – so you’re not copying and pasting a question into a chat window and hoping the thing understood the graph.
• She’s trained on PrepScholar’s own material. Their lessons, their strategy guides, their question bank – rather than a general-purpose model with “you are an ACT tutor” stuck on the front of it.
• She’s there at eleven at night. This is the real pitch, and it’s a good one.

That last point deserves unpacking, because it goes at the single biggest weakness of every self-paced course ever made, PrepScholar’s very much included. You hit a wall on some skill, you read the explanation, you still don’t follow it, and there’s nobody to ask. So you quietly decide that geometry isn’t your thing and move on. Every self-study student has done this at least once. Having something to ask in that exact moment is worth more than another thousand practice questions in the bank.

So, is it worth the extra $98? My honest read: if you learn well from written explanations, probably not. PrepScholar’s answer explanations have always been one of the program’s genuine strengths, and for plenty of students they’re entirely enough on their own. But if you recognized yourself in the paragraph above – if you’re the sort who reads the explanation, still doesn’t get it, and quietly gives up on that skill – then $98 to have something to ask is money well spent. That’s precisely the failure mode this thing is built to catch.

One caveat before you reach for your wallet: Aila only comes with the $495 tier. The standard $397 course doesn’t include her, so if this is the feature that sold you, that’s the package you want.

PrepScholar Video

For the visually oriented among us, each lesson comes with its own video.

These are typically PowerPoint-style videos with text, diagrams, graphics, etc. narrated over by the instructor – which can become a bit dull and not super-stimulating over time, but they get the job done with tons of helpful examples of questions you’ll encounter on the actual test as well as detailed explanations for how to arrive at the correct answer.

Accompanying each lesson video, of course, is text below, so you don’t need to rely on the videos if you prefer to move through the lesson at your own pace.

PrepScholar Customization

PrepScholar does a decent job of customizing its approach to prepping you to ace the exam. As we discussed previously, incoming students must fill out a questionnaire covering the testing areas they are most interested in improving upon, their target score, etc.

In addition, the next step of the onboarding process is a diagnostic test to assess your current state of preparedness.

After finishing the timed 60-question diagnostic exam, you’ll select your planned real-life testing date, watch a brief intro video, and then key in how much time you specifically plan to devote to studying.

Although the volume of info that PrepScholar asks for can seem overwhelming (and, honestly, a little annoying; why do you need to know my planned study schedule for the week, mom?), it actually proves to be beneficial for keeping on target with your study goals if you are prone to procrastination (you know who you are). It’s especially helpful to get regular reminders via text message that it’s study time.

Of course, if self-discipline is a skill you’ve already mastered at a young age, you might not need the level of structure and customization that PrepScholar provides.

So, after you’ve jumped through all the hoops, PrepScholar generates a personalized study plan based on all the info you’ve provided as well as the results of your diagnostic test.

PrepScholar Platform Review

The platform is intuitive and user-friendly. When you log into the interface, you will notice it is broken up into the following sections:

• Dashboard
• Strategies
• Progress
• Incorrect Answers
• Quiz Generator

Under the “progress” tab, you can easily track all of the lessons you have completed, organized by both subject and topic – for example, “pronouns” under the “English” banner and “experimental design” under the “science” banner.

In the “progress” tab, you can also track your assessed skill level following the quiz at the end of each lesson and your scores on the practice tests.

We previously discussed the “strategies,” “progress,” “incorrect answers,” and “quiz generator” sections of the platform and their respective perks for getting fully prepped, all of which are useful.

PrepScholar Usability

When you’ve reviewed multiple online prep programs as I have, you develop a deep appreciation for usability. While perhaps not ranking as high on the usability scale as some of the elite prep programs out there, PrepScholar delivers on this front, coming in at least in the mid-range.

In addition to an intuitive layout, the platform comes with a “help” section chock full of virtually all the answers to commonly asked questions and troubleshooting issues that you may encounter during your prep.

If you can’t find the answers you’re looking for, you can submit a request for help and a human staff member will get back to you (usually in a fairly timely manner).

Aesthetics-wise, the platform is easy on the eyes. The designs are smooth and make for easy navigation, as we previously mentioned.

PrepScholar App

A big downside (for some) of PrepScholar is that, unlike many competitors, the company does not have a proprietary mobile app for studying on the go.

With that said, in my experience, the most engaging, stimulating, and effective test prep sessions occur when I’m laser-focused at a desk using a laptop, so it’s not a huge loss for me (and perhaps shouldn’t be for you).Nonetheless, this is the 21^st century, and 21^st-century digital boys and girls do love using their phones for anything and everything, so I understand the appeal of an app. If a mobile app is what you’re in the market for, you might want to look elsewhere.

PrepScholar Content Access Period

Every PrepScholar course comes with 12 months of access as standard, which is plenty for the vast majority of preppers. If you want longer, the two-year extension runs an extra $180 on top of the $397 base price – $577 all in.

PrepScholar aims this squarely at 9th and 10th graders getting an early start, and for that crowd it makes real sense. If you’re a junior sitting the test this spring, save your money; a year is already more time than you’re going to use.

PrepScholar Tutoring

As an outfit founded by Harvard grads, PrepScholar sells its top-notch tutors hard. Among the many standout characteristics of its tutors are:

• Experienced test prep teachers with actual teaching experience under their belts
• Unique instruction material developed in-house
• Up to date on the Enhanced ACT changes, so the coaching matches the test you’re sitting

See more about PrepScholar SAT and ACT Tutoring.

Is There a Score Guarantee?

PrepScholar does offer a legitimately impressive score guarantee – good news for those who expect a test prep company to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to making promises (as they all should). After all, what good is a prep program if it doesn’t produce the results you hope to see in a higher score?

The ACT guarantee is a 4+ point improvement on your official test, or your money back. There’s a wrinkle worth reading before you count on it:

• Scoring under 31? You need a 4+ point increase.
• Already at 31 or above? The bar isn’t 4 more points – it’s reaching a 34.

PrepScholar Reviews by REAL Students

As with most user-generated reviews on the web, whether positive or negative, you would be wise to take these PrepScholar reviews with a grain of salt: it’s simply impossible to get the full back-story.

These PrepScholar reviews, by definition, are subjective based on the individual reviewer’s experiences. The best way to get a realistic impression of the quality of any online product, including test prep programs, is to take a wide survey of feedback from a range of sources.

With that caveat aside, here are a few samples of PrepScholar reviews from the web – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Hong Fowler is a big fan:

Reem E from Newark, New Jersey made a favorable comparison to Princeton’s SAT course, a leading competitor of PrepScholar’s:

Ann Pittman, on the other hand, has had some issues with communication from the company as well as getting her book delivered and is seconded in her criticism by another disgruntled customer/commenter (note: physical books not necessary for the online coursework, though, so you don’t need to worry about shipping issues).

Another parent apparently enlisted his daughter in PrepScholar’s tutoring program with less-than-stellar results.

Who Needs This Course?

The PrepScholar program is ideal for students who:

• Need to develop their test-taking strategies in addition to enriching their knowledge base
• Do best with visual learning (all lessons have video and graphic components)
• Want a score guarantee backed by a solid money-back promise
• Are new to ACT prep and need a baseline assessment to find your strengths and weaknesses

PrepScholar ACT Course Alternatives

Here’s where PrepScholar sits against the other names you’re probably weighing. I’ve put the numbers in one place because the pattern only shows up when you do.

Self-paced ACT course	Price	Practice questions	Official full-length tests	Access
PrepScholar	$397	3,000+	4	12 months
Magoosh	$129	4,800+ (their figure)	20 (their figure)	12 months
Princeton Review	~$300	~2,700	several	12 months
Kaplan	~$180	2,000+	3	6 months

PrepScholar Vs Kaplan

Kaplan is the interesting one, because they have two things PrepScholar doesn’t: an official partnership with ACT, and an Enhanced ACT course built off it. Their questions include real, previously administered ACT items, and ACT’s own fee-waiver course is powered by Kaplan. If official provenance matters to you – and there’s a decent argument it should – that’s a genuine point in their favour.

The catch is everything around it. Kaplan gives you 6 months of access where PrepScholar gives you 12, 35 video lessons against PrepScholar’s 54 rebuilt ones, and 2,000+ questions against 3,000+. At around $180 for the self-paced tier it’s less than half the price, so whether that’s a bargain or a false economy depends entirely on how much structure you need.

Kaplan’s live online option, at roughly $650 for 16 hours of live instruction, is better value than PrepScholar’s $895 classes if live teaching is what you’re after.

PrepScholar Vs Princeton Review

Princeton Review’s self-paced Enhanced ACT course runs about $300 with roughly 2,700 practice questions and 100+ video lessons – cheaper than PrepScholar and with more video. Their production values are higher too; they have the budget for it. They’ve clearly done the Enhanced ACT work as well, publishing dedicated Enhanced editions with revised pacing and guessing strategy for the shorter test.

Where it gets expensive is everything above self-paced. The Essentials course is around $950, the ACT 31+ course about $2,200, and tutoring runs to $7,000. Those upper tiers come with live instruction and score guarantees, and if your family is spending at that level the conversation is a different one entirely.

PrepScholar Vs Magoosh

On the spec sheet Magoosh looks strong, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. They advertise 4,800+ practice questions and 20 official full-length ACT tests, 250+ video lessons, 12 months of access and a built-in AI tutor, all for $129. Their score guarantee matches PrepScholar’s: 4 points if you scored 30 or below.

The question I’d want answered before handing over the money is how much of that library has actually been rebuilt for the Enhanced ACT. Magoosh’s own Enhanced ACT page confirms one concrete update – the score calculator – and otherwise tells students that “lessons and notes from Legacy ACT prep are still accurate.” It doesn’t say the math questions were rewritten for four answer choices, and it doesn’t address the science change.

That may be a documentation gap rather than a content one, and I’d rather say so than overstate it. But it stands out precisely because the others have shown their working: PrepScholar states its math questions were rewritten for four choices, Kaplan sells an Enhanced ACT course off an official ACT partnership, Princeton Review has published Enhanced editions. On a test that changed this recently, that’s the difference I’d weight most heavily – and it’s the one thing a bigger question bank can’t fix.

PrepScholar Vs Free ACT Prep

SAT preppers get a genuinely excellent free option: Khan Academy, built with the College Board, plus free official practice tests in Bluebook. ACT students have nothing comparable, and it’s worth being clear-eyed about that.

What you do get free from ACT.org is one full-length official Enhanced ACT practice test online, plus practice questions and PDF downloads with answer keys. The Official ACT Self-Paced Course, powered by Kaplan, is free – but only to students who register using a fee waiver, which is a genuinely good deal if you qualify and irrelevant if you don’t.

So the honest position: start with the free official test, because it’s the most accurate read on where you stand and it costs nothing. But one practice test is a diagnostic, not a prep plan. Unlike SAT students, ACT preppers can’t get all the way there for free.

PrepScholar Reviews FAQ

Let’s run down a few frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding PrepScholar that interested preppers often have.

The Bottom Line on PrepScholar

Make PrepScholar the centrepiece of your ACT prep if you:

• Have anxiety about test-taking or generally struggle with tests (PrepScholar’s “strategy lessons” are among the best parts of the program)
• Want a customized approach to your prep based on your current proficiency level as assessed in the diagnostic exam (as opposed to a “one-size-fits-all” program)
• Place a premium on high-quality prep questions with richly elaborated explanations
• Don’t care about physical, hardcopy books
• Are sitting the Enhanced ACT and want material rebuilt for it rather than relabelled