The short answer
Match the format to the actual problem. A prep class teaches content to a room and works when your student genuinely hasn't seen the material. A subject tutor fixes one weak section and works when one section really is the whole problem. Coaching manages the composite — all four sections, the schedule, and the accountability — and it's what works when the student knows the material but the score won't move.
Most families pick a format by price or by what a friend used. The better question is which problem your student actually has, because each format solves exactly one.
Three formats, three problems
A prep class solves a content problem. If your student has genuinely never learned the material — missed a year of math, never read science passages against a clock — a structured course delivers content efficiently. Its limit is built in: the syllabus is set before anyone meets your kid, and the pace belongs to the room.
A subject tutor solves a section problem. One section far below the others, clear content gap, no mystery. The limit is scope: a tutor pointed at English has no mechanism for noticing what Math and Reading are doing while everyone’s attention is elsewhere. Delaney’s English tutoring worked exactly as intended — English up four points — while her composite fell from a 23 to a 21.
Coaching solves a composite problem. The student knows the material, the practice tests say so, and the score still won’t move. What’s missing isn’t content — it’s targeting (which question types are actually bleeding points), pacing, and somebody watching all four sections plus the calendar at once. That’s the job coaching exists for, and it’s the only one of the three jobs Boosted Brains does — sprint coaching aimed at the composite, never at a single section.
The one-question shortcut
Ask your student to explain why they’re missing what they’re missing. “I’ve never learned this” points to a class or a tutor. “I know it, I just run out of time” or “I keep making dumb mistakes” points to coaching — those aren’t knowledge gaps, and more teaching won’t close them.
If you’re not sure which answer is true, a diagnostic settles it in an afternoon. That’s where we’d start anyway.
