Verified by Rick Lopez, M.Ed.
There is no doubt that a good score on your Digital SAT and/or ACT will be a key component of getting into your dream college. And in order to achieve the best possible score, you’ll likely need to turn to a prep course for help. With PrepScholar and Magoosh both offering effective, budget-friendly options, how do you choose? In this detailed comparison, we will provide you with a closer look at the SAT/ACT prep courses of both PrepScholar and Magoosh, as well as our team’s nod to the overall victor.
Editor’s Choice
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Sale: 15% OFF Code: TPI15Given that this is a lengthy and detailed comparison, we’ve included helpful jump-to table links above for easy navigation.
Editor’s Choice
In order to most effectively compare these two SAT/ACT prep providers, it is important to understand the areas or categories in which each company excels. So with that in mind, let’s first discuss why PrepScholar is the way go for Digital SAT or ACT prep.
Overall, our team believes that PrepScholar offers a slightly more comprehensive SAT/ACT curriculum. Their prep program includes a bundle of robust coursework, with detailed lessons that are delivered through their tried and tested “Learn, Practice and Review” approach.
The concept is simple, but effective. You are steered through the text and video lessons, after which you take a quiz to check your level of learning. Then, you revisit the lesson by reviewing the information and making determinations about your grasp of the material and learning from your mistakes.
By contrast, Magoosh delivers your content primarily through a less rigid structure of video lessons and a bank of practice questions. That said, if you are a disciplined learner, Magoosh’s approach should work just fine for your needs.
We also really like PrepScholar’s adaptive technology. Starting with the initial diagnostic test and continuing through your practice exams and mastery of the material, your program is customized to your specific needs, and constantly adapts to changes in your skill level.
Magoosh, on the other hand, offers a generic, suggested schedule for working your way through the material. If you are self-motivated, this might work for you, but we were really impressed with PrepScholar’s personalized study plans.
It should be noted that just because we give a modest edge to PrepScholar here, doesn’t discount the fact that we believe Magoosh offers some very good SAT/ACT prep resources.
In fact, we really like their video-based problem explanations and the quality of their practice materials. We just like PrepScholar’s “Learn, Practice, Review” approach to studying better, as well as their customized study plans, where we really see added value.
With both PrepScholar and Magoosh, your instruction is delivered primarily in the form of video lessons.
While Magoosh stands out for the number of video lessons (200+ for SAT and 250+ for ACT compared to PrepScholar’s 98+ for SAT and 70+ for ACT), our team actually found them to be a bit lackluster in comparison to those of PrepScholar.
Magoosh’s videos consist of short, old-school, PowerPoint-type lessons. We found them to be very informative in terms of content, they just weren’t as engaging as the PrepScholar videos, which might make a difference for students who are easily distracted.
As far as live class instruction and tutoring goes, PrepScholar is the winner here. Up until recently, Magoosh did not offer live SAT or ACT classes, with 100% of their offerings being self-driven and online.
However, they have recently rolled out a live class package that adds 16 hours of live instruction to their standard prep bundle.
While we did find these classes helpful, they just don’t feel quite as well developed yet as PrepScholar’s classes. Perhaps with a couple years to work out the kinks and get the curriculum streamlined they will match PrepScholar, but for now we prefer PrepScholar’s top notch instructors, polished lesson work and small class sizes (capped at 9 students).
In total, PrepScholar has more full length practice exams than Magoosh. They offer 4 for the Digital SAT and 6 for the ACT, whereas Magoosh has up to 3 for the SAT and up to 4 for the ACT.
The quality of the questions on both PrepScholar’s and Magoosh’s practice tests is very strong, and they closely replicate problems found on the real exams (same story with Kaplan and Princeton Review).
The issue, however, is that the practice exams offered up by Magoosh are simply made up from the questions in their question bank. So in all likelihood they probably contain questions that you’ve previously answered during your studies, which we see as a downside.
In contrast, PrepScholar’s practice exams are made up of questions that are dedicated specifically for the practice exams.
It should also be noted that the number of practice questions delivered by Magoosh (1,750+ Digital SAT and 1,300+ ACT) pales in comparison to those included with PrepScholar (7,100+ Digital SAT and 4,300+ ACT).
Provided you have previously taken the Digital SAT or ACT, both companies offer money-back score guarantees. PrepScholar and Magoosh both promise a 4-point increase on your ACT.
The difference lies in their SAT assurances, where PrepScholar guarantees a score increase of 160+, but Magoosh only commits to a 100+ increase.
In either case, both are generous guarantees as compared to other prep providers like Kaplan and Princeton Review, and should give you comfort in knowing that you will likely get a better score after completing their courses.
