ACT Test Prep: How much should you pay for it?
Individualized, one-on-one tutoring is becoming more popular across all academic areas, and there’s really no surprise why: we all learn easier and faster when the instruction is catered to our specific goals and weaknesses. The ACT is no different. Students who work one-on-one with a knowledgable tutor will see much faster progress than those that try to prep independently or in group settings. However, these latter options are generally much cheaper, so how do you know if and when you should pay for individualized tutoring?
ACT Test Prep Types
Knowing what’s at stake with the the ACT due to the current structure of some colleges’ tuition packages, we encourage all students to do some kind of ACT test prep leading up to test day. On one side of the spectrum, this may include independent studying and research; on the opposite end of the spectrum, this may be more focused around individualized, one-on-one tutoring.
There are many test prep plans, and the best option for one student may not be the right solution for another student. Every student is unique, so every test prep plan is going to be unique as well. Some students will prefer independent test prep using books and videos, while others will need one-on-one tutoring support. The key is to determine an ACT prep plan that will help a student to reach their ACT score goal. There are so many different ways to increase a student’s knowledge of the ACT:
ACT Textbooks
Online videos & blogs
Online courses
Practice tests
Classes through school
Private group classes
Individualized, one-on-one tutoring
At The Prepared Student, we consider ACT test prep effective when it leaves students prepared to defeat three areas on test day:
1. Content Knowledge: Students need to be knowledgable about many concepts and ideas in order to do well on all four sections of the ACT. We work to pinpoint students strengths and weaknesses and use focused practice to fill in any content knowledge gaps that may hold a student back on test day.
2. Pace & Timing: The ACT is composed of four sections with some pretty intense time constraints. That means students are tested on how well they can work through content quickly. This is where identifying specific strategies comes into play. Strategies that work well for one student may not work well for another because every student is unique. Our expert tutors guide the student and test various strategies, tweaking any that are effective until they help the student to answer as many questions as possible as accurately as possible in the time given.
3. Psychological Barriers: This is where things like test anxiety and confidence come into play. Some students are naturally more anxious than others when it comes to standardized exams, or exams in general. One main area of focus for our one-on-one test prep is repetitive practice of content and strategies. By building familiarity of the exam with frequent practice, there is no way for the student to be surprised on test day - they’ll know exactly what is coming. This is a huge step in building confidence and lessening any test anxiety. All students differ in this area as well, and the complete approach to lessening psychological barriers will change from one student to the next.
The Cost
As with most things, the cost you pay for tutoring should correlate with the quality of tutoring you receive. The more specified the test prep is to your student, the more it is likely to cost, and the more effective it is likely to be. Consider some ballpark rates for the resources we noted above:
ACT Textbooks: $20
You can buy an ACT textbook that is published by the makers of the ACT and contains 4+ practice exams on Amazon.com for $20. This is a great starting place for any ACT test prep plan. This book provides students an in-depth background of the test and the format of all the sections, providing a strong Content Knowledge base. It also allows students to work through some real practice exams and get a feel for what it will be like on test day. Your best bet is always to use an ACT textbook that is published by the ACT specifically. You won’t get better practice exams that are as close to what students will see on test day anywhere else, despite the numerous ACT books out there.
Online videos & blogs: FREE
A lot of the time, resources like this can be found online for free. If you dig around in YouTube, you’re bound to find handfuls of videos walking you through different ACT strategies and practice problems. These are always good resources to use, especially when you run into concepts that you find challenging and want to review. Remember, practice makes perfect. However, make sure any sources you use are reputable and have received good feedback.
Online courses: $100 - $3,000+
There are many, many online ACT courses. Some will be pretty reasonably priced, and some will cost a lot of money. Some courses cost in the hundreds of dollars, and sometimes the pricing can even go into the thousands of dollars. A main factor of the price of an online tutoring course has to do with the total number of hours of the course material. The more videos, practice questions, and time that a course takes, the likelier it is to be pretty expensive. You’ll also have to take into account the structure of the course. Does it include any live classes with an actual instructor that you can ask questions? If so, the course becomes more valuable because students can receive specific support, making this is an increased level of individualized help. Before you purchase an online ACT test prep course, make sure to do your homework. There are some great courses out there, and there are bound to be some duds as well. Read up on reviews, ask around for referrals, and do your homework before you spend hundreds of dollars on virtual test prep, especially since this is usually a one-time transaction and you pay in full for the course upfront. (Also make sure that it is a course your student will thrive with. You know your student better than anyone: will they be able to work independently through an online course? Will they take the time to complete the entire course?)
Practice tests: $0-$20+
You can find some practice tests for free online through the ACT website. As noted above, you can also purchase the ACT textbook for just $20, and this includes a handful of real ACT practice tests created by the real makers of the ACT. We recommend practice tests in combination with any of the test prep plans mentioned here. By taking real, timed practice tests, students will be able to get the best sense of how much progress they are making.
Classes through school: $50+
Many schools will offer some kind of ACT class or workshop for a pretty reasonable fee. Oftentimes this is just a one-day class or a group that meets once a week for a handful of weeks leading up to the ACT. These classes are a great resource for students looking to get an overview of the test, but they rarely go very in-depth into the exam. They will usually focus on reviewing some math equations and grammatical concepts and then exploring some one-size-fits-all strategies for helping with the time constraint on the test.
Private group classes: $500+
The idea behind private group classes is that students still receive individualized ACT prep from a specialized tutor, but the support is less expensive than sessions they complete on their own since there are other students sharing the same tutoring time as them. This sounds good in theory, but for many students this is a stressful type of test prep. Depending on a student’s personality, it may be incredibly intimidating and stressful to try and prepare for the ACT with a group of their peers. Students may be hesitant to ask questions or admit that they don’t understand a concept. This leads to tutors being unable to fully help students because they aren’t given the full picture.
Individualized, one-on-one tutoring: $25-$150+ per hour
Individualized test prep is like the gourmet version of ACT test prep. Students get to work individually with a tutor that can help guide them through the parts of the ACT that they find difficult and help them determine what strategies will be best suited for their testing style and tendencies. This is the goal of (hopefully) any private ACT tutor, yet the cost of one-on-one ACT tutoring can fall within a wide range. A big plus about one-on-one tutoring is that you generally only pay for the tutoring support that is used; you don’t usually have to pay for a costly tutoring package upfront. Based on these average per-hour rates, here is what you can generally expect from an ACT test prep tutor:
$25-50/hr: Minimal Support - Mainly Content Knowledge
Tutoring in this range will be a good fit if you are only looking for support with better understanding answer explanations. This type of support will give students access to a tutor with a great understanding of the content that’s tested on the ACT. It will likely not include much focus on developing individualized strategies and increasing student confidence, though. If you’re looking for help increasing your content knowledge only, a tutor in this range could be the perfect fit. These tutors will often be freelancers; you won’t frequently find company rates this low.
$50-150/hr: The Sweet Spot - Well-Rounded Support
Tutoring in this range will include well-rounded support. The tutor will be educated and able to help you increase content knowledge, and they will help you to create a comprehensive study plan and develop strategies to assist you on test day. A tutor in the range should meet all your "must have" qualifications.
$150+/hr: Expert Assistance - Rigorous Support for Higher End Goals
Tutoring in this range will typically be conducted by a company that has a strong brand and custom curriculum, so they can command higher prices from wealthier families. Since these companies can charge such high prices, the tutors they employ are usually going to be incredibly knowledgable about the ACT. Tutoring in this expense range often makes the most sense for students striving for very rigorous ACT score goals or goals that they have been unable to reach via alternate means. For example, this may be the student who is aiming for a 34 but has taken the test three times and has been unable to get higher than a 30. Think of this level of tutoring as almost a last resort. You want to be careful when working with tutors that cost this much money - consider whether a tutor that costs $200/hr is twice as effective as a tutor that costs $100/hr. It is not always the case. A lot of the time, the pricing comes down to the branding more than the actual tutoring effectiveness.
Conclusion
In general, completing test prep and working through practice tests independently is not going to see the same level of results as direct tutoring will. With many hours of hard work, really dedicated students might be able to achieve their goal score without the assistance of a professional tutor, but many students will find that they hit a wall that they can’t seem to get over no matter how many blog posts they read and how many YouTube videos they watch. That’s because most of the resources out there are meant to be “one-size-fits-all.”
ACT test prep IS NOT one-size-fits-all. We know that each student is unique: each student learns differently, struggles with different topics, reads at a different pace, has a unique amount of anxiety toward standardized exams, and more. For these reasons, test prep that is effective NEEDS to take into account all of the things about a student’s unique situation and prep that specific student for success.
Included in each student’s unique situation is their goal ACT score. Make sure you’re selecting a test prep plan that takes into account your student’s goal ACT score. Consider their current situation and their most recent practice test score or real ACT score. Then consider the amount of progress that needs to be made to go from that score to their goal score. The bigger the leap, the more time that will need to be spent on test prep. Based on this, you can calculate the average amount of time that will need to be spent on test prep to see the results you’re after.
At The Prepared Student, we believe that customized, professional tutoring should be available at a more affordable rate so that more people can benefit from it. Our goal is to help students meet their ACT test and college admissions goals. It’s hard to do that if we’re too expensive for students to work with us. For that reason, our hourly rate for one-on-one tutoring is $75 per hour, and we only charge clients for hours that they use tutoring services. There are no costly tutoring packages that must be paid for upfront. Our competitors throughout the Twin Cities can cost up to $125 per hour or charge clients hundreds of dollars for expensive tutoring packages. The most prestigious brands and known companies in the Twin Cities will charge very high hourly rates for one-on-one tutoring, often with rates of upwards of $100 or $125 PER HOUR for individualized time.
We actually think you'll find that our pricing is very reasonable for the quality services that students receive. We provide professional tutoring services that are tailored to each student's unique abilities. ACT test prep focuses on developing students content knowledge, identifying test day strategies, and building confidence, so that each student walks into test day ready to reach their goal score.