A Profile of Revolution Prep

Revolution Prep began in 2002, after founders Ramit Varma and Jake Neuberg met at UCLA's Anderson School of Business. After years of teaching for Kaplan and The Princeton Review, Jake and Ramit dreamed of starting a company with the mission of helping students achieve their academic goals by improving upon traditional educational tools and creating new and innovative solutions to academic problems. They began by creating a better SAT Reasoning Test curriculum and a program that would be accessible to students of all income levels, including those who otherwise could not afford to pay.

Revolution Prep is primarily focused on the SAT and ACT, although we recently added services to prepare for the GMAT and academic tutoring for AP exams.

We offer programs these ways:

• Real classroom settings
• Online classroom settings
• Private in-person tutoring
• Private online ‘Skype’ tutoring
• Self-guided online courses
• Hybrid courses that combine real classroom courses with in-person tutoring and our self-guided online course. Our new Premium Instructor Online Course provides an interactive virtual classroom setting that makes our courses available to students nation-wide during evening hours that are more convenient to students.

The best way to know which program is right for you is for you to take practice tests in both the SAT and ACT, as well as make an honest self-assessment of your learning needs. We regularly donate mock exams in both the SAT and ACT to high schools as a fund-raiser for the school and a way to help students choose between the SAT and ACT.

Once you’ve decided on your standardized test, there are a number of things to consider when choosing a program:

1. Do I have time for a classroom course? Or am I already playing a sport, starring in the play, and really can’t commit to one night a week? – Look for private tutoring or a virtual classroom that will fit with your schedule.
2. Did I score over 2000 (SAT) or 30 (ACT)? Get private tutoring. Classroom courses are targeted towards students with lower scores, and you’re going to get more bang for your buck with private tutoring.
3. Am I self-motivated, or do I need more structure? Online courses are great for students who will use them, but many students recognize that they need the pressure of going to class in order to fully prepare. Take an honest look at your study habits, and choose online study if you’re capable of making a study schedule – and sticking to it.
4. Have I spoken with a test-prep professional? Before making a decision, call one of our test experts and discuss your options. You’ll get an honest recommendation of the best program for you or your student.

Our most popular product is the Hybrid Course. This program puts students through our classroom course, with 6 weeks of classes and 5 full-length practice exams, and addresses the students’ individual needs through four hours of in-home private tutoring with their classroom instructor. Hybrid students also have access to our customized online course, providing endless study lessons, all completely personalized to the immediate needs of the students as evidenced on their practice exams. At $799, this course is very competitively priced, and a great value.

Revolution Prep was founded with the mission of providing world-class test prep to every student, regardless of ability to pay. Since our inception, we’ve never turned away a student who could not otherwise afford our services, and we never will. In 2009 alone, we gave away over $2 million in free prep courses. Revolution Prep partners with a number of schools and organizations to provide free or reduced-cost test prep to their students. Our group course is priced at $499, which is very competitive. We used to say that our course is about half the cost of our competitors, but many test prep companies have since slashed their prices in order to compete with us!

We’ve been able to grow so large in only 8 years by holding a number of advantages over our competitors like Kaplan and The Princeton Review.

1. Curriculum. The very core of our courses are built around an innovative, modern curriculum that seeks to teach students not just to do well on the SAT or ACT, but to be better students. We teach our students strategies to make them better readers, and this is a skill they can take with them to college and beyond.
2. Location. Hosting our courses directly on high school campuses has given us another advantage over our competition. We don’t operate expensive test prep centers like some companies, instead giving students the convenience of having class right on their high school campus.
3. Social Responsibility. Being founded with a social mission has been a different kind of advantage for us. Schools and clients simply want to work with a company that cares about their students, has never turned away a student, and is willing to hold, in some cases, entire classes for students who otherwise would receive no preparation for the SAT and ACT.

We offer a complete satisfaction guarantee for all of our courses. We’re committed to helping all of our students achieve their best score, and work with each student personally to ensure their complete satisfaction.