College Prep Genius Review: Self-Paced Or Virtual SAT and ACT Test Prep

College Prep Genius is a test prep company that makes studying for college exams more affordable.

Every year, college gets more and more expensive. According to the Education Data Initiative, the average college student can expect to pay $36,436 per year to go to school. After four years, that adds up to a staggering $145,744.

Fortunately, there is an abundance of scholarship opportunities out there that can help make the cost of college more affordable. College Prep Genius is a college exam prep company with a twist: It teaches students how to use test scores to access scholarships that can help them pay for college.

Is College Prep Genius the right test prep solution for you? We’ll dive deeper into what College Prep Genius is, the services it offers, and how it can help students boost their test scores and earn scholarship dollars.

What Is College Prep Genius?

College Prep Genius is a test prep company that offers courses to prepare students for college entrance exams. According to its website, College Prep Genius has served more than 37,000 students across five different countries. Its process can help students achieve competitive SAT and ACT scores, increasing students’ chances of getting into the school of their choice.

The company was founded in 2004 by Jean Burke, a mom who homeschooled her children and wanted a way to not only help her kids improve their SAT scores but use those scores to pay for school. Operating as a digital platform, College Prep Genius is accessible to students anywhere they have an internet connection.

One feature that sets College Prep Genius apart from other test prep companies is its emphasis on scholarships. College Prep Genius believes students become better candidates for scholarships if they can get competitive SAT and ACT scores. Using test preparation to access scholarships is a brilliant way that College Prep Genius can potentially pay for itself, as the scholarships a student can qualify for with improved test scores may have substantially higher values than College Prep Genius’ course fees. 

What Does College Prep Genius Offer?

College Prep Genius offers a number of different learning options, including in-person classes, live virtual classes, and access to self-paced learning modules. Students who participate in a College Prep Genius program can use books and workbooks produced by the company as well.

eCourse

College Prep Genius provides a self-paced eCourse to help students prepare for college admissions exams like the SAT and ACT at their own speed. Students who purchase the eCourse get access to the training materials for a full year, with the option to renew for a reduced fee.

The course includes 12 lesson modules for students to work through, covering the reading, math, and English skills students will have to master for their college entrance exams. Modules provide students with tips and strategies for answering questions they can expect to receive when taking different standardized tests.

Students can choose between the Comprehensive and the Fundamental eCourse. The primary difference between the two tracks is the degree of access provided to bonus materials. For a higher fee, the Comprehensive eCourse offers the same features as the Fundamental eCourse with a few extra guides that prep students for the college admissions process and divulge special insights into paying for college.

Students have homework assignments and take quizzes to reinforce the material they learn in the eCourse, and parents can track progress on a custom dashboard. The course also includes material to help students find scholarships and increase their odds of receiving them.

Virtual Bootcamp

Virtual boot camps are live events that last for either three or eight days. Both versions consist of 12 hours of on-screen, live instruction that follows the College Prep Genius curriculum.

The same materials covered in the eCourse are covered in the boot camp. The main difference is that the boot camp is a guided program taught by a College Prep Genius instructor. Like the eCourse, it’s flexible, in that students can study the material from home. But it adds additional accountability by providing live training sessions that students need to show up to in order to get the full benefits of the program.

Students who enroll in the boot camp get access to the College Prep Genius eCourse materials for one year. Parents also get access to the College Prep Genius dashboard to monitor their child’s progress.

Live Classes

Students can also take an in-person, boot camp-style course. These in-person classes are offered in select locations around the United States.

If the upcoming in-person class is being hosted at a location far away from where you live, you can elect to host a course at your own home using the College Prep Genius curriculum. This hearkens back to the company’s roots as a resource for homeschooling parents.

Similar to the virtual boot camp, students who take the live course have access to online eCourse materials as well.

Training Guides

If you’re looking for a more DIY approach, College Prep Genius offers all of its training guides online. These can be purchased in hardcover or as downloadable e-reader files.

Are There Any Fees?

All of College Prep Genius’ courses come with a fee. The more hands-on the course, the more expensive it will be.

• Fundamental eCourse: $189 for one year with a $59 annual renewal fee
• Comprehensive eCourse: $239 for one year with a $59 annual renewal fee
• Virtual Bootcamp: $395
• In-Person Class: $445

You can also purchase the textbook and course study guides à la carte. These range in price from about $15 to $70.

How Does College Prep Genius Compare?

College Prep Genius is an affordable and accessible option for students looking for test prep help. It offers a lot of flexibility, as students can access College Prep Genius’ learning materials in different formats to suit their individual needs. But there’s no shortage of other test prep providers out there for you to choose from.

If you’re working with a tight budget, the not-for-profit Khan Academy might be the best place to start preparing for the SAT. Through its partnership with the College Board (the SAT’s administrator), Khan Academy offers free SAT prep lessons, video resources, practice tests, and more.

Those who don’t mind paying a little extra for standardized test prep might instead consider working with Prep Expert, which provides test preparation courses for both the SAT and ACT. Prep Expert stands out in part due to its impressive score increase guarantees: Students who take certain Prep Expert courses are guaranteed to see either a 200-point score improvement for the SAT or a 4-point score improvement for the ACT. If a client’s test scores don’t improve to that degree, Prep Expert will refund their money.

Prep Expert also uses experienced instructors to teach its courses; each of its instructors scored in the top 1% for the test they teach. Only one of the instructors for College Prep Genius appears to meet that standard, per the company’s instructor biographies.

How Do I Open An Account?

You can get started with College Prep Genius by enrolling in one of its programs on its website. Enrollment provides access to the online eCourse material library and parent dashboard. Depending on which offering you select, you may receive access to supplementary material as well.

Is It Safe And Secure?

College Prep Genius processes payments, creates user logins, and maintains a web-based course library and database. In its privacy policy, the company notes that it “takes appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or unauthorized destruction” of the data it collects.

After being in business for nearly two decades, College Prep Genius has not received any complaints with the BBB, so there’s good reason to believe personal information stored on the College Prep Genius website is safe and secure.

How Do I Contact College Prep Genius?

College Prep Genius can be contacted by calling 817-282-7737, emailing info@collegeprepgenius.com, or accessing the company’s live chat service, which is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CST.

Customer Service

College Prep Genius is a Better Business Bureau (BBB)-accredited business with an A+ rating. To date, the company has not received any complaints via the BBB.

Is It Worth It?

Compared with other test prep services, College Prep Genius is reasonably affordable, and the company has done a good job of delivering its material in different formats to make it as accessible as possible. And unlike most of its competitors, College Prep Genius provides its clients with material and strategies that can help them find and apply for scholarships. Whatever costs are incurred by enrolling in a College Prep Genius program can potentially be offset by future scholarships.

That said, unlike many other for-profit test prep competitors, College Prep Genius doesn’t offer guaranteed score improvements, and only one of its seven instructors’ biographies highlights a strong, recent SAT score. If money is tight, it’s a good idea to exhaust free test prep resources before investing in a test prep company that doesn’t guarantee results or experienced instructors.

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