Are ACT prep courses worth taking?

The short answer here is yes, ACT prep courses are worth taking.

Education is an investment in yourself. With that in mind, there is no reason why a student wouldn’t want to do their best on the ACT. Students who are able to achieve exemplary scores on their ACT are most often able to gain acceptance into their college of choice.

Of course, actively studying will help students to retain knowledge and therefore achieve higher scores during testing. The purpose of ACT prep courses is to ensure that students are studying the right material to be successful at getting a higher score than without participating in ACT test prep.

Where can you find ACT prep courses worth taking?

One place you can start is by checking the link above for our list of free resources for studying for the ACT. Within that list, you will not only find many useful links for a variety of resources from downloads to apps to quizzes and virtually everything in between, but you can also find several of the resources listed also offer ACT prep courses. This, however, does not necessarily mean that these are free as well.

One of the resources on the list that has free practice tests and events is the Princeton Review.  They also have an option to help students find ACT test prep courses which are nearby. Students are then able to view the options for both online and in-person test prep in places it is available. These options are generally not free with the lesser expensive options being around $300.00 depending on the area.

Another popular choice for students is Kaplan Test Prep which has a lot of experience in test prep in areas such as the GMAT, SAT, ACT, LSAT, NCLEX-RN, MCAT, BAR and more. Kaplan offers multiple packages for students seeking ACT prep courses with the high end including tutoring for around $2600.00.  The least expensive choice offered is a self-paced online prep course which starts at around $300.00.

While checking out prices it’s not uncommon to wince and think about your poor bank account considering it. Considering the cost of college itself, $300.00 really isn’t a whole lot to invest in yourself, especially if it betters your chances at gaining a scholarship which can shave thousands off the overall price tag of a degree.

When you think in terms of an overall investment, spending money on ACT prep courses can be extremely reasonable. This isn’t to say that everyone can afford to splurge on some of the pricier test prep courses even if they do believe it’s worth it to get into their top choice college and maybe even get a scholarship to attend.

If you are unable to spend the money on test prep courses or have taken a practice test and scored well on it, you may feel you don’t need a full course in all subjects to improve your score. There are still plenty of free or cheap options, such as the free resources mentioned previously. Using these resources, students are able to identify their weaknesses if they don’t already know what they are. Then they are free to focus on studying those areas and simply review the subjects they are already doing really well on.

If you found this interesting, feel free to check out our SAT and ACT prep guide for more great information. If you are considering attending college online, don’t miss our Top 100 Best Online Colleges.