Wednesday, November 28, 2012

BenchPrep AP, ACT, and SAT Prep: Review

After trying Kaplan, I stumbled across BenchPrep, a lovely site where you can choose to have access to a single course for a year or pay a monthly fee to study as many as you want. I've been using BenchPrep for two months now and I like it a whole lot. Pictured above is a snippet of what the site looks like - a simple, streamlined layout, cross compatibility with computers, smartphones, and tablets and lots of courses to choose from.



Pros:
  • Clear, well-written answer explanations
  • Easy navigation
  • Ability to complete the course from beginning to end or hop from section to section
  • Compatible with phones, tablets, and computers
  • You can access everything they have for a pretty low monthly price - perfect for some extra studying those last few months before a test
  • After taking practice tests there's a clear breakdown of which skills you need to work on
  • Ability to rate sections by how hard or easy they are for you, which is great when you need to concentrate on and quickly find parts of the course - fantastic for homeschoolers with busy schedules!
Cons:
  • Some of the courses don't have as many practice questions or tests as others - there are two ACT math prep courses and I prefer one to the other by FAR. If you're buying the monthly all-access version of BenchPrep that's obviously not an issue.
  • That's really it!

I'd recommend using BenchPrep if you're looking for courses that highlight strengths and weaknesses so real progress can be made. It's easy to see where you're at and there's no battling through section upon section of review before happening upon something you need to work on. In true homeschooling style, there are no limits on how long you take or how quickly you complete the work and you can study only what you need to practice without an effect on the entire course progress and grade.