Magoosh SAT / ACT (2024 Test Prep Review)

Ever heard of Magoosh’s pocket-friendly SAT and ACT courses? Dive into this review and see if it’s the golden ticket for your prep journey.

Let’s unravel what Magoosh offers. I’ve laid out the key features, price tags, side-by-sides, and even a sneak peek via screenshots, setting you up for a full view of its potential. Magoosh isn’t just about hitting the books—they’ve got innovative self-prep avenues, engaging live streams, and intense 1-week online SAT boot camps. And here’s the cherry on top: a 7-day test drive, letting you dive into their resources and feel the vibe. The verdict? These courses pack a punch! And trust me, the Magoosh app coupled with their crisp video walkthroughs? Absolute game changers. The price tag’s the stunner—I’m still pinching myself at its affordability!

If you decide to sign up, I recommend choosing:

• 12-month self-study SAT prep – only $129. There’s also a 1-week online boot camp available (the seats are limited). For $79 it’s a steal if you compare it to the competition.
• 12-month self-study ACT prep – only $99.

The prices for shorter access (3-6 months) are only a bit lower, so it’s always much better to go for the 12-month option. But let’s explore these options in more detail so you know exactly what to expect.

Related content: The 4 Best SAT Prep Courses To Take

SAT / ACT Courses From Magoosh – A Quick Review

The results you can expect after taking one of Magoosh’s self-paced courses are well-documented. They are published on the company’s website. Every student who completes the course is asked to give an honest opinion about the course and share their score improvements. If you dig into some of these reviews, you’ll find out that the vast majority of students have only positive things to say about the course. Some of them improved their score by 10%-40% depending on the starting point. These are great results.

You can read what students who took the course have to say here:

• About the SAT course
• About the ACT course

Related content: The 4 Best ACT Prep Courses To Take

The Pros and Cons of Taking the Magoosh SAT / ACT Prep Course

Moving forward with any test-prep option has its advantages and disadvantages. That’s also the case with Magoosh. Let’s quickly compare the pros and cons of their courses.

Pros:

1. Fantastic video explanations and an awesome SAT / ACT YouTube channel

These courses deserve a lot of praise for their awesome video content. The YouTube channel is updated regularly, but that’s just one piece of a larger puzzle. The thing that stands out is that all questions (1500 for each test) come with individual video explanations. In this way, when you answer incorrectly, you can watch a 1-3 minute video where an expert tutor explains the concept to you in detail. This is the number one feature appreciated by the students because it almost makes you feel like working with a private tutor. Here are a few samples of video explanations for the SAT.

2. Great intuitive mobile app

You’ll quickly realize that Magoosh has the best SAT and ACT mobile apps on the market. Use them to your advantage when you have a few minutes to spare. I suggest you check the mobile app section below for more details!

3. The course is super affordable

Magoosh is changing the test prep landscape with its inexpensive courses. Nowadays, you don’t have to pay $1,000+ to get solid help with your standardized test prep. Rather, you can grab lots of materials for one-tenth of this price, and still get great results.

4. The accessibility and results-driven guarantee

First, you have a 7-day free trial to take advantage of. This will enable you to check the whole curriculum without taking any risks. And on top of that, you’ll get a performance-based guarantee. For the SAT, you’ll improve your baseline score by 100+ points, or you’re eligible to get your money back. For ACT, you’d get a guaranteed improvement of 4 points. This shows that the company has confidence in its materials. If you look at comments from students, you’ll see that some of them knocked it out of the park in terms of score.

5. Personalized study plans for every type of scenario

In high school, you should have enough time to get two, three, or even four attempts at passing the SAT or ACT. But sometimes, depending on your situation, you can only have one week or a couple of weeks to give it your best shot. Here Magoosh will have you covered, as they provide multiple study plans for every type of situation imaginable. You have everything from a 3-day plan to a 6-month plan which you can pick depending on your time constraints. These plans are fantastic as they give you access to supplemental resources you can use in your prep.

Cons:

1. You won’t be working with a tutor in a live setting

Working with a private tutor is one of the best ways to boost your score because of the one-to-one setting. Magoosh offers a course that is fully online-based and this means you won’t get this individual attention. In-person courses or tutoring packages are much more expensive ($1000 – $3000) so you can’t expect to get this type of service for only $99. Fortunately, most of the practice questions from Magoosh’s dashboard come with short video explanations, so that’s as close as you can get to working with a tutor.

2. It’s not a full-comprehensive course, so you’ll need some extra materials

Again, you cannot expect miracles for a course that costs only $99. You will receive three or four full-length practice tests in the package. But this may not be enough to get you fully prepped for one of the most important tests you will ever take. That’s why you will need to invest in some extra study materials. I recommend signing up for the free course from the Khan Academy. You might also want to buy one or two prep books with extra tests and learning strategies. And finally, never forget about the power of YouTube. The platform has hundreds of videos that will help you gain more understanding of the course.

The Pricing of the SAT / ACT Prep Courses – Are They Worth the Money?

Here’s where Magoosh outshines the competition. Both the SAT and ACT courses are only $99 for 12 months of access. You won’t get such a deal anywhere else, especially with this amount of professionally designed test prep materials. Recently, Magoosh also launched a 1-week online boot camp initiative. It allows you to study in an online classroom along with a tutor. That’s 6 hours of coursework for only $79. With other companies, you’d easily pay hundreds of dollars for such a service. Let’s quickly compare the prices from Magoosh to other companies offering self-prep SAT and ACT courses:

Magoosh	Princeton Review	Kaplan	PrepScholar	Testing
$99	$150 – $250	$299	$397	$399 / month

As you can see, you can’t beat the price you’ll get from Magoosh. All the courses from the company come with a score improvement guarantee and a 7-day free trial. If you don’t get the improvement you desired, you’ll get your money back so the risk of the transaction is pretty low.

What About the Books and the Mobile Learning App?

As of today, the self-prep courses from Magoosh are online-based. There’s only one ACT prep book produced by the company so far, and it’s great. It has 5 out of 5 scores on Amazon and you can download it on your Kindle app for a couple of dollars. Other than that, the company doesn’t offer any other prep books you could use for your standardized test. So if you need any, check the “extra resources” section below. But, in the mobile app, Magoosh shines and crushes the competition. Other companies like Kaplan or Princeton Review only allow you to do basic stuff (like checking your stats) on their apps.

But with Magoosh apps you can:

• Practice math, reading, and writing questions
• Review questions with text and video explanations
• Track your progress with online dashboards
• Read prep-related articles from Magoosh’s blog
• Watch video lessons

So basically, you can do all the things you’re allowed to do with the main desktop version! This is fantastic because you’re probably always on the go. Now when you’re sitting idly and waiting for something, you can pull out your mobile device and start crunching the content of the course. Turn it into a habit and you’ll quickly boost your scores almost effortlessly.

The available apps (iOS and Android compatible) are:

• SAT Test Prep by Magoosh
• ACT Test Prep, Practice, and Flashcards
• SAT / ACT Flashcards
• English Grammar Practice

The main two apps give you access to full course features through your mobile or tablet. The flashcard app is amazing because it uses spaced repetition to help you remember the most important concepts in the areas of SAT / ACT math, science, grammar, and vocabulary. And the “English Grammar Practice” app teaches you exactly what you’d expect – English grammar. This includes word choice, punctuation, idioms, clauses, and exercises for improving the sentences and choosing the correct subject or verb. The app is expertly crafted by one of the pro tutors from Magoosh and it will surely boost your language skills.

All the apps receive a mostly positive score from students and get solid 4 and 5-star ratings regularly. You can even download them for free to get access to limited resources. And once you sign up for the paid course, you’ll get access to all materials.

Screenshots of the Magoosh SAT/ACT App

The online dashboard is easy to use, as it gives you quick access to all the main areas of SAT and ACT prep. First, you’ll have a quick walkthrough, and then you can check the sections for math, reading, and writing. Everything is laid out in an organized way, so you know exactly how to follow the course step by step. In the main dashboard, you’ll also see your average score on different sections of the test, so you’ll know exactly where you need to improve.

Here are a couple of screenshots to give you a better idea of what it looks like:

Other SAT / ACT Study Materials to Use Along with Magoosh

If you’re serious about getting admitted to your dream school, you should do everything in your power to maximize your score. While Magoosh’s courses are great and worth the money, you shouldn’t leave anything to chance. So get your hands on some extra materials that will boost your score. First, check out the free study materials from the Khan Academy. They have a course available only for the SAT at this moment, but that’s still better than nothing. The best thing about this course is that it gives you access to 8 full-length practice tests created in partnership with the College Board. Magoosh only has 3 or 4 full-length tests on offer which may not be enough. So here you have an extra 8 right off the bat. Plus, you’ll get a ton of practice questions and study materials for PSAT/NMSQT as well.

The second thing to use as a supplement to Magoosh are the materials from The College Board. They offer loads of free materials for SAT, AP, and PSAT. If you’re preparing for the ACT, you should check out the free materials available on ACT.org. Other than that, I recommend completing at least one free practice test from Princeton Review. After completing it, you’ll get a comprehensive score report which will give you a better idea of where you stand, and how much you need to improve. Finally, you can take a look at SAT / ACT prep books on Amazon. They’re fairly inexpensive and they always give you more materials to chew on, including full-length tests and questions with detailed explanations.

Conclusion

Finally, Magoosh is crushing the test prep competitors when it comes to the SAT and ACT courses. No other company will give you so many materials and long access for such a low price. Of course, if you want to apply to some of the top colleges in the country, you may still want to use private tutoring or in-class courses. But on the other hand, a few students were able to get into colleges like MIT with the help of Magoosh. It all depends on your level of perseverance and the time you’re willing to put into your studies. Next up, you may want to explore the best assignment help websites for students.