Tutoring Options and Pricing

We meet with students online via Zoom and in-person at our office in Del Mar and offer traditional private tutoring and private tutoring plus (recommended). All of our tutoring is pay-as-you-go and charged at the hourly rates listed below. We provide all of the materials for all tutoring options (with the exception of our Digital SAT Math Book and ACT Math Book, which must be purchased on Amazon), so students have physical copies of the binders, practice tests, and study guides that we will use in sessions. You can pick one of the options below or can mix-and-match.

Private Tutoring Plus (Strongly Recommended)

$99/Month for Access to All Our Online Courses

 Our Proven Process

Customized Plans for Each Student

Everything we do in sessions is personalized to each student, so there is no set program. For students who have never taken the SAT or ACT before, we provide a practice SAT and practice ACT. We use the diagnostic scores along with the student’s feedback to determine which test is the better fit and identify each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses. For students who have already taken the SAT or ACT, we review their most recent test scores before the first session. Our expertise allows us to immediately pinpoint what students need to learn to improve their scores.

In general, we meet weekly with students for 1-hour or 1.5-hour sessions for a total of 12-20 hours in sessions. Each week, students can expect 3-5 hours of homework. Of course, the benefit of 1-on-1 tutoring is that we can build a plan that will work for you. If you are in a rush to take the ACT, we can set up a crash course with longer sessions and meetings multiple times per week. Already taken a class and only need some help on a specific SAT section? Not a problem! No matter what your schedule, budget, or past prep, we can put together a plan that will help your student improve on test day!

We will also act as your personal SAT/ACT consultants and guide you throughout the entire test prep process. When should we start SAT/ACT Prep? Which test is better for me? When should I take the test? You have questions. We have answers, to these questions and many more.

An Organized Approach

ScoreBuilder Test Prep private tutoring focuses on five major components to increase student confidence on test day and maximize scores:

1. Mastery of content. Learn all the content featured on the test. Exactly what content is taught in sessions is tailored to the student’s strengths, weaknesses, and scoring goals.

2. Pattern recognition. Increase “test IQ.” Learn the all the ins and outs of the SAT and ACT. The better you know the test, the easier it becomes.

3. Effective strategies. Find the best strategy for you. The right strategy can turn a challenging section into an easy one.

4. Structured studying. Complete weekly homework assignments. Contrary to what some other companies may tell you, there are no quick tricks to bump your score. Big score improvements take hard work week after week.

5. Applied Practice. Complete full-length SATs and ACTs, lots of them. Most students complete 5-10 practice tests. Repetition and obsessively learning from mistakes are key to maximize improvement.

We Write Books on This Stuff, Seriously

The best, most up-to-date materials are a crucial part of maximizing SAT and ACT improvement.  We did not love the materials out there, so we wrote our own.  The materials are constantly updated to accurately reflect the most recent version of the SAT and ACT. 

To date, we have written over 1,500 pages of materials and counting. Only private tutoring students and students signing up for our 30+ ACT and 1400+ SAT courses get access to these materials. The only exception is the PrepPros Complete Guide to Digital SAT Math and PrepPros Complete Guide to ACT Math, which is available for purchase.

 Frequently Asked Questions

The biggest difference between the SAT and ACT is the pacing of the test.  The ACT is a faster-paced assessment test that asks students to solve straight-forward questions quickly. The SAT is a slower-paced reasoning tests that asks students to solve more complex questions.

In general, students who read and work quickly are more comfortable with the pacing of the ACT; students who are slower readers or processors may never be able to keep up with the pace of the ACT no matter how much they prep.  As a result, slower readers or students who like to have time to carefully think and work through the steps of each question usually feel more at home on the SAT.

You can learn about more SAT vs. ACT in our blog post here.

We recommend that students take a practice SAT and a practice ACT before starting any of our test prep programs. We provide free copies of both practice tests here. We use the diagnostic test scores along with the student’s feedback to determine if the SAT or ACT is a better fit. From there, we will focus all of our time and energy in and out of sessions on the SAT or ACT. Since all colleges and universities accept both the SAT and ACT, there is no need for students to prepare for and take both tests. In our experience, focusing on either the SAT or ACT is the best way to maximize your scores!

The answer to this question will depend on the exact student, their academic level, and their other commitments.  In general, we recommend students take the SAT or ACT during their junior year or during the summer before senior year.  Starting as a sophomore or earlier is simply not necessary, as students are still learning content in school that they need to know for success on these tests. 

For higher achieving students, especially those who are in honors math and/or will take calculus as a junior, it is best to begin SAT/ACT Prep over the summer before junior year and take the SAT/ACT in late summer or early fall.  Most of these students take the SAT or ACT a second time in October, November, or December as well.  Summer prep can also be great for students who will have extremely busy schedules during the school year due to other commitments (AP Classes, sports, drama, etc.).  Most students who start preparing over the summer are done by December. 

For students who are not as strong in math, we recommend beginning SAT/ACT Prep anytime from October to March of junior year, as completing more math coursework at school can be very beneficial to scores in the math sections.  For these students, we aim to be done with the SAT or ACT by June or July at latest.  This allows the students to then focus on their college applications. 

If you are reading this and your student is a junior and it is after March, get started ASAP!  Do not panic, though; we have worked with plenty of students who do not start until the summer before senior year and still get great results.  

We recommend starting SAT or ACT Prep 3-4 months before a student’s first SAT or ACT test date. During this time, we meet with most students in weekly 1-hour or 1.5-hour session for a total 12-20 hours in tutoring sessions. Students will complete 5-10 full practice tests along with plenty of other homework. This lead up helps us manage the work load and keep SAT/ACT Prep as stress free as possible. What if my child’s SAT or ACT is only 6 weeks away? Or even less? Not a problem! We can come up with an accelerated plan to get any student ready for test day.

We use Zoom for remote tutoring. The instructor and pages are visible, and the student has a hard-copy of the book, prep binder pages, or practice test that we are working from. We share our screens and use an iPad that we can write directly on, so the student can see exactly what we are working on. As a result, our remote tutoring sessions work just like if we were sitting across the table from the student.

We spend 100% of our time in private tutoring sessions learning.  Students learn the content, test-taking techniques, and strategies that they need for success on test day.  There is no set curriculum, so what we cover each week is customized to each student.

There are two main phases to our private tutoring: (1) mastering content and (2) applied practice.  In the first phase, we make sure that students know all of the content featured on the test (grammar rules, math formulas, strategies, patterns to recognize, etc.).  During this first phase, time in sessions is spent teaching the content that students need to learn and reviewing homework assignments.  In the second phase, we focus on completing timed practice tests.  Time in sessions is spent reviewing the practice tests to find areas of weakness that need to be addressed and to identify ways that we can continue to increase the scores.     

Normally, we meet with students once per week for 1-hour or 1.5-hour sessions.  Of course, the frequency of tutoring sessions depends on the student, how soon the test date is, and the scoring goals.  For high-achieving students that score 28 and above on their practice ACT or 1300 and above on their practice SAT, we recommend starting with 1-hour weekly sessions.  For students scoring lower, we recommend the longer 1.5-hour sessions.

If your child is in a rush to get prepared for an upcoming SAT or ACT or you just want to make sure he or she is as prepared as possible, we can meet 2x per week or more.  We custom-build our private tutoring to each student, so we can come up with a plan to get your child ready for test day.

Most students need anywhere from 12-20 hours in private tutoring sessions.  The exact number of hours depends on the student.  In general, students with higher practice test scores need fewer hours in tutoring sessions, as these students already know more of the material on the test and learn more quickly in sessions.  Students with lower practice test scores usually need more time in sessions to learn the content and review the questions they are missing on practice tests.  Students with very high scores (32+ on the ACT or 1450+ on the SAT) often require 8-12 hours or less to get prepared for test day.

We can also work with students for a much shorter amount of time if your child has a specific area of need or only wants private tutoring for one part of the test.    

If you have a set budget in mind (say you want to get your child prepared in 8 hours of private tutoring), we can come up with a plan for that.  Otherwise, we will provide feedback as we work with your child on what will best prepare him or her for test day. 

Yes, we offer a free 15 minute consultation for students and parents signing up for private tutoring. In the consultation, we can help determine if a student is a better fit for the SAT or ACT, come up with a test prep plan, and identify what dates students will take the SAT or ACT, and answer any other questions the student or parents have about the SAT and ACT.

We tutor students anytime from 8:00am - 9:00pm PST on Monday - Friday.  We also offer some times on Sundays for students who are too busy during the weekdays. 

Students are assigned 3-5 hours of homework after each tutoring session. For students meeting with us once per week, the total is 3-5 hours per week. For students meeting with us 2x per week, the total is 6-10 hours per week. The exact amount and content of the homework depends on the individual student. In general, homework is a mix of content-building work from chapters of our books and prep binders and practice tests.

Practice tests are self-proctored at home.  We provide the practice tests along with scantron sheets and self-timing sheets.  We do not offer remote proctoring because, well, we believe it is completely unnecessary.  Our students are busy and scattered across the country and across the world.  We trust that they can self-time their practice tests at home. 

The best materials are critical to the best prep. We do not love anything else out there, so we write all of our own materials. We have published the PrepPros SAT Math Book and are working on the PrepPros ACT Math Book as well. For the other sections of the tests, we have our own custom-written ACT and SAT notebooks that cover the topics, strategies, and test-taking tips that students will need to learn for success on test day.

All materials are included in private tutoring with the exception of the PrepPros Complete Guide to SAT Math and PrepPros Complete Guide to ACT Math, which must be purchased on Amazon.

For local students, all materials can be picked up in Solana Beach before the first session. For any students or parents who live farther away or are unable to pick up materials, all materials will be mailed to your home before the first session. The only exception is the PrepPros Complete Guide to SAT Math and PrepPros Complete Guide to ACT Math, which will be purchased on Amazon.

Yes! The summer before junior year is one of the best times to prepare for the SAT/ACT, especially for high achieving students, advanced math students, or students who will have very busy schedules during junior year. For students aiming to get the bulk of their SAT/ACT Prep completed over the summer, we recommend meeting 2x per week starting in late June or early July. Students can expect 6-10 hours of homework per week. Summer students usually take their first test in August (SAT) or September (ACT).

Once the school year begins, we scale our tutoring back to once per week. Most students continue tutoring and take the test a second time in October (ACT and SAT), or November (SAT).

The majority of our students who start SAT/ACT Prep over the summer have great scores and are done taking the SAT or ACT by the end of the calendar year.

Most of our students take the SAT or ACT twice. Of course, this all depends on the student. Some students crush their first ACT or SAT and are one-and-done. Others struggle more and decide to take the SAT or ACT for a third (or more rarely a 4th) time.

Most students take the SAT or ACT twice for two reasons: (1) continued improvement and (2) superscoring. After taking the SAT/ACT the first time, students gain valuable experience. Once they know how test day runs and how they performed on the real SAT/ACT, the students can usually better manage the added pressure and stress of test day, which of course can greatly impact performance. As a tutor, once we see the scores, we can make adjustments to our approach and identify what content we need to work on further. The continued practice and additional tutoring helps students be even better prepared for their second SAT/ACT. As a result, students usually score better on their second test date.

Additionally, many colleges and universities allow superscoring, which lets students to combine their best scores from different test dates into a “superscore.” For example, let’s say that a student took the February ACT and got a 31 on the English Test but 25 in all other sections. The student studied a lot more and then re-took the ACT in June and got a 27 on the English Test but 31 on all other sections. The student’s “superscore” is a 31 because we combine the 31 from the February ACT and the 31s from the other sections of the June ACT to get the “superscore.” As you can see with this example, superscoring is another great reason to take the ACT or SAT multiple times to try to maximize the final score.

Yes, we work with students with a wide range of learning difficulties. In our experience, we do not need to treat students with learning difficulties any different than of our other students. We always customize our teaching approach to each student based on their strengths, weaknesses, and learning style, so we do the same for any students with learning difficulties. For students with extended time, we recommend meeting for longer 1.5 hour sessions. We are also well versed in the process for applying for extended time on the SAT and ACT, so we provide guidance on that as well.

No. All of our tutoring is pay as you go at the normal rate hourly rate. There is no discount for a package deal. We do not want you to sign up for a big package deal of 20 or 30 hours if your child does not need that many hours of tutoring.

No, we do not. As tutors, we provide the best prep possible, but we are only half of the team. We cannot control the variety of factors that can affect how a student performs on test day. How much was the student studying? How did they manage the pressure and stress of test day? Does the students suffer from testing anxiety? All of these factors can affect the scores.

Additionally, any test prep company offering a “guarantee” is not really offering a guarantee. If you read the fine print, students must complete a very large number of tutoring hours, all homework assignments, and all practice tests to qualify for a guarantee. Plus, your child needs to have already taken an official SAT or ACT before beginning the process. Want to sign up for over 30 hours of private tutoring, complete 300 pages of homework assignments, and take 15 practice tests just to qualify for a guarantee? Yeah, we did not think so.