Our story

Revolution Prep was started with the idea that there was a different, better way of doing things. We had a vision to transform education and wanted to provide the highest quality instruction to all students regardless of their ability to pay.

By building a team of smart people dedicated to this vision, we've created innovative methods and curricula that lead to student's success not just for tests but also in the future. From our social mission of never turning a student away because he or she could not afford our program, to company service days and partnership programs, our Revolutionaries are committed to making a difference in our communities.

We know it's wrong to expect yesterday's technology and techniques to work for today's students. We're built to be flexible and have the ability to adapt to the new ways students learn. We use online resources to personalize learning and train our instructors to infuse energy into every class to engage our students. We're passionate about what we do and you'll experience this in every interaction you have with us.

Starting the Revolution

Jake and Ramit met at UCLA's Anderson School of Business where they realized that while they both had business backgrounds, they'd also both spent significant time as SAT prep tutors, Jake at Kaplan and Ramit at Princeton Review. They also realized they both felt that something was missing from the big tutoring companies. So Jake and Ramit came up with an idea … a revolutionary idea. Together, they decided to start a new test prep company, one that was completely different from the two market leaders.

They started their company with no outside investment. At first, they ran Revolution Prep out of Jake's apartment and paid for everything with newly-opened credit cards. This meant late nights, high risk, and mounting debt. This meant answering every phone call themselves. It even meant having their phones turned off temporarily because they'd missed a payment. But it also meant individual attention for every customer and complete involvement from Jake and Ramit. It meant they threw themselves into the company and acted like every potential new client was a make-or-break situation, because in a way it was.

They were the scrappy underdog in the test prep world. At times, they couldn't help wondering if they were crazy for giving up the security and big pay checks of consulting or investment jobs. But the passion they felt for their new business and the fact that they knew they could do a better job helping students achieve success than the existing companies, kept them going.

In just a few years, Revolution Prep became the leading SAT and ACT test prep company in California. And how did they manage to accomplish this? By trying new things, being flexible, listening carefully to customers, and committing to the social mission of never denying a student the chance to take a Revolution Prep class, even if that student could not pay for the class.

Revolution turned the old test prep model on its head. Instead of focusing only on teaching students tricks to “beat” the test, Revolution teaches long-term learning strategies and ways to alleviate test-day stress. Instead of spending money on specialized testing centers, Revolution partners with high schools to hold classes at the schools, making the classes much more convenient for students. And Revolution has stuck to its promise: never turn away a student who wants to take a test prep course but cannot pay. They do this, Jake explains, “because it's the right thing to do.”

Jake and Ramit set a lofty goal for their company. They didn't want to create just a test prep company that helped students prepare for college admissions tests; they wanted to create a transformative educational company which empowers students to take control of their education and teaches them to become better learners.

As Revolution Prep has continued to develop new and innovative products, it has increased in size, revenue, and scope. But one thing that hasn't changed is its mission: to revolutionize the test prep industry and help as many students as possible. Revolution, now a major competitor in the education services industry, still has the attitude and work ethic of the scrappy underdog it used to be.