Kaplan is one of the two names most parents mention when SAT prep comes up. It has been selling test prep for a long time, and it offers everything from a self-paced course to private tutoring. Rather than walk through a long list of features, I want to start with the kind of student who comes to me, because the right answer depends on the student much more than on the company.
Full disclosure: I built freepracticeSAT.com. Kaplan's prices and course details below come from Kaplan's website, checked on October 28, 2026.
| Option | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| On Demand | From $199 | Self-paced video lessons with quizzes, 4 full-length adaptive practice tests, a question bank of 500+ questions, 6 months of access. |
| Live Online | $799 | 18 hours of live online classes, plus the practice tests and question bank. |
| Private tutoring + Live Online | From $1,999 | 10, 20, 30 or 40 hours of one-on-one tutoring, plus the 18-hour live course and materials. |
Kaplan also offers a "higher score" guarantee: score higher than your starting point or get your money back, with eligibility conditions on their site.
All of these cover the whole SAT: reading and writing as well as math.
These are made-up students, but each one is a type I have taught many times.
Her reading is fine. Math is where the points are.
Maya does not need a course that spends half its hours on reading and writing. When I look at the math she misses, it is rarely the hard SAT topics. It is the same few basic skills, over and over: working with fractions, solving for a variable when the equation has brackets, reading a graph carefully. Those basics sit under dozens of SAT questions.
For Maya, I would start with free full tests on my site. After each test she sees the mistake behind every wrong answer and the basic skills underneath, which I call the DNA of SAT math questions. If she wants it laid out day by day, the $29 plan does that. A Kaplan course would cover a lot she does not need.
Both sections need work, and Jordan studies better with a schedule set by someone else.
Jordan is the student a live course is made for. Eighteen hours of class with a teacher, homework between sessions and a group moving at the same pace keep a student like this going. Kaplan's Live Online course fits. I would still have Jordan take free math tests on my site between classes, because a class teaches topics to the whole group, and Jordan's own mistakes may be different from the group's.
Sam knows the math. The last points are lost to the hardest questions and to careless slips.
At this level, the student needs a lot of hard questions and an honest look at where the slips come from. On my site Sam can take unlimited tests of hard questions only. A good private tutor can also help, particularly with timing and with the very hardest question types. If the family can afford it, a few hours of tutoring aimed at specific problems is a better use of money than a general course.
Kaplan's guarantee promises a higher score than your starting point or your money back, with conditions. Guarantees like this sound good, but read what they ask of you, usually finishing the course work and sending official scores. A guarantee does not do the studying. I don't offer a score guarantee on my site, because I don't think anyone can honestly promise a score. The $29 plan has a seven-day money-back guarantee instead.
Take one full practice test and look at your two section scores. If one section is clearly weaker, put your time and money there. If math is the weaker one, take a free test on my site and see what the results say. You will know within an hour whether your problem is a handful of basic skills, a few hard topics or careless slips, and that tells you what kind of help to buy, if any.
Where these facts come from: