By Tech Powered Dad | June 3, 2018
In this post:
- What is a Magoosh Online Class Like?
- Mobile Apps
- Magoosh Pricing
- Magoosh Score Guarantee
- Is Magoosh Worth the Money?
Why Choose Magoosh SAT / ACT Review?
- Affordable price
- Online prep
- High quality mobile apps
- Email question support
- Score guarantee
While test review services like Kaplan and Princeton Review have been around for decades, Magoosh is a relative newcomer to the scene, having only been founded in 2009. While they are the new kids on the block, they’ve made up ground fast, quickly becoming a popular option for ACT and SAT prep with parents. I’ve wanted to write a more in-depth Magoosh SAT review for a while now. I recently took a look at Magoosh as part of my review of the best ACT & SAT prep courses, and I found that they stacked up extremely well, my best ACT/SAT prep course online. How are they able to compete? It’s a combination of a great online experience, an affordable price, and an impressive score guarantee. Let me tackle each of these individually.
Magoosh offers a 7-day free trial on all courses. Click here to try out their ACT or SAT service risk free.
What is the Magoosh Online Experience Like?
Unlike some of the other ACT and SAT test prep providers, Magoosh’s experience is 100% online. If you are looking for a classroom experience, this is not the place to go. However, if you are looking for an experience that was built from the ground up with prepping your child online in mind, they are a top-notch option.
Magoosh’s online experience is built around several core features such as full practice tests, individual practice questions, and video lessons. Based on the timeline for your child’s SAT or ACT test, they will set up a practice schedule and allow them to track their progress. Since the experience is completely online, students have the ability to complete their practice via Mac, PC, or Chromebook. Magoosh also has some of the highest rated iOS and Android apps for ACT and SAT review available in their respective App Store and Play Store.
When students go back to work on a specific problems that they’ve missed, inevitably there will be some where even after seeing the right answer, they will need an explanation. Magoosh has this covered. They have written explanations and hundreds of video lessons corresponding to the questions that appear on the practice problems and exams. Here’s an example of what a student would see in a math lesson about the equation of a circle.
Sometimes that’s not going to be enough and even more explanation is needed. Fortunately, Magoosh offers email support for every question in their SAT and ACT prep courses. With a click of the button from the question interface, a pop-up will allow the student to follow up with their question. Magoosh says they can usually expect a response in less than 24 hours. You can see this email tutor support demonstrated in the video below at around the :45 second mark.
Let’s summarize what comes with both the ACT and SAT prep courses.
On the Magoosh ACT Prep Course, you get:
- 250+ Lessons
- 1000+ Questions
- 4 full length tests
- Targeted practice schedule
- Email tutoring assistance
- Android and iOS apps
With the Magoosh SAT Prep Course, you’ll get:
- 200+ video lessons
- 1000+ practice questions
- Targeted practice schedule
- Email tutoring assistance
- Android and iOS apps
Does Magoosh Have Mobile Apps?
On the subject of those apps, Magoosh actually offers two apps for each platform (iOS and Android). There’s the full mobile app that you get when you pay for access to their sites. There is also a flashcard app with free study questions for the ACT and SAT. While the experience on this flashcard app is not nearly as full featured as the full experience you get with a paid subcription, you can try it out for free and see what you think of Magoosh. The flashcard app offers:
- Flashcards designed by ACT/SAT experts to ensure you study the most commonly tested concepts
- Over 200 flashcards on ACT/SAT concepts
- Optimized for iPhone and Android
- A Spaced Repetition Technique (SRT) which is a way of to helping students focus on concepts where they are struggling the most
Is Magoosh Affordable?
The fact that Magoosh has kept its experience entirely online and avoided the class/tutoring approach has kept it very affordable. While Magoosh has created a great set of student resources, one of the biggest reasons that Magoosh has risen in popularity is its simple and affordable pricing structure.
Pricing can vary over time, so it always makes sense to check the pricing page. However, as of the time I published this review, Magoosh was charging $79 for their 1-month plan, $89 for their 3-month plan, or $99 for their 6-month plan. Honestly, at those prices there’s really no reason not to go for the 6-month plan. You could even schedule a Fall/Winter test right before starting the 6-month plan and give your child plenty of time to prepare at a slower pace for a Spring test. The give a free 7-day trial, so it’s easy to take Magoosh for a spin and see if you like it.
Does Magoosh Offer a Score Increase Guarantee?
Magoosh offers one of the most generous guarantees in the college test prep.
- Magoosh guarantees a 4-point increase on the ACT
- Magoosh guarantees a 100-point increase on the SAT
Obviously, in order to take advantage of these guarantees, the student must have already taken the test within the last 5 years and have purchased a premium Magoosh subscription. If for some reason a student’s score doesn’t come up enough, they pay that money back to your PayPal account. In addition to these guarantees, Magoosh offers a 7-day money back guarantee with their subscriptions, so it is easy to take the service for a try and make sure it is up to the standards you expect.
Is Magoosh ACT / SAT Prep Worth the Money?
If you’re looking for a personal tutor or classroom experience in your ACT or SAT prep course, Magoosh is not the right fit for you. However, many students and parents are only looking for a high quality online experience at an affordable price. Given the quality that Magoosh has invested into their online experience, a price that is no more than an hour or two of tutoring, and their generous score increase guarantee, signing up for Magoosh is well worth the money. There are a lot of ACT reviews out there, but Magoosh has one of the best online prep experiences available. This is one of those situations where a few bucks invested upfront have the potential to return much, much more in the form of financial aid or being admitted to a better school.
Click here to learn more about Magoosh’s ACT & SAT reviews and receive a 7-days FREE.
Please note that some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning a percentage of your purchase will support my work at Tech Powered Math at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!