Two leading ed-tech organizations offer today’s AP® students a better path forward by waving goodbye to test prep books and overpriced private tutors
Marco Learning, a company committed to providing the best, most complete AP® resources for students, parents, and teachers, is joining forces with The Graide Network, the leading provider of online grading and feedback services to K-12 schools, to launch a revolutionary test prep resource to address the widening gap in the current market’s efficacy and affordability.
Every year, more and more students participate in AP® courses. In 2019, over 2.8 million students took over 5 million AP® exams. Today, students have two bad choices when it comes to preparing for exams outside of the classroom: buy a test prep book or hire a private tutor for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Marco Learning’s online courses offer an engaging, effective, and personalized digital test prep experience in a way that a conventional 400-page test prep book cannot. Courses include on-demand video lessons, tailored study guides and pacing guides, and three expertly designed full-length practice tests with detailed explanations of every multiple-choice question. The premium version of the course, Marco Learning’s AP® Essay Review Powered by The Graide Network, includes essay review with personalized feedback from The Graide Network’s expert readers.
With the premium version, students will have the opportunity to receive AP® rubric-aligned scoring and personalized feedback on their practice free-response questions (FRQs). FRQs are a critical component of the AP® exam, counting for approximately 50% of a student’s final score. The FRQs are challenging to prepare for and often overlooked in traditional test prep products, which is what makes the Marco Learning and Graide Network partnership so unique. Decades of research have shown that feedback is the single leading driver of achievement and critical for students in the test prep process. The Graide Network’s expert readers give students feedback that is actionable, specific, and curriculum-aligned, designed to foster reflection, increase comprehension, and improve students’ understanding of their individual strengths and areas for growth.
John Moscatiello, the founder and CEO of Marco Learning, has decades of teaching experience and deep roots in the test prep industry. He believes this product will be a game-changer: “This new resource will transform the way thousands of students prepare for AP® exams. AP® teachers have been burdened by frequent exam changes and swelling classroom sizes, and students struggle to prepare on their own using just a test prep book. This resource will provide students with the one-on-one guidance they need to succeed on exams and ease some of the burden placed on AP® teachers.”
Test prep is overwhelming for parents, too, who are trying to find the best way to support their child without breaking the bank. Together, Marco Learning and The Graide Network are offering best-in-class content and design in a digital product that is easy-to-use, relevant, and cutting-edge at a fraction of the cost of private tutoring.
Blair Pircon, co-founder and CEO of The Graide Network says, “We want all students to have access to an engaging, effective education, and we know how powerful individual attention and feedback is for learning. Our mission aligns with Marco Learning as they seek to make high quality, rigorous AP® prep accessible for millions and so we’re excited to, for the first time, make our pool of talented Graiders available beyond the school setting.”
Marco Learning’s AP® Essay Review Powered by The Graide Network will go on sale starting Feb 3, 2020 – just in time for the 2020 AP® Exam test prep season. Courses are available from February through early May, and students can sign up through April. Join the test prep revolution today at https://marcolearning.com/ap-essay-review/.
About Marco Learning
Marco Learning has helped thousands of students gain confidence in their AP® classes and improve on AP® exams. Developed by expert AP® teachers, tutors, authors, and designers, Marco Learning’s prep courses are designed to help today’s students with engaging video lessons, online practice, and an online social community. Marco also supports AP® teachers throughout the school year and summer with online professional development and resources for the classroom. For more information, visit https://marcolearning.com/.
About The Graide Network
The Graide Network is building better writers through its online platform of feedback and grading support to K-12 schools. With an award-winning, innovative model, The Graide Network provides on-demand, formative feedback on student writing via remote teaching assistants. The support of “Graiders” unlocks the tremendous power of feedback to improve learning outcomes and puts relevant data at educators’ fingertips like never before. For more information, visit https://www.thegraidenetwork.com/.
