Piqosity

Piqosity is an online test prep and coursework platform for students, run by a Houston-based education technology company that describes its mission as rethinking education. It prepares learners for the ACT, the digital SAT and PSAT, the ISEE at its Upper, Middle and Lower levels, and the TSIA2 college placement test, and it pairs that prep with full math and English courses for grades 5 through 11. The name, the company explains, means "to pique curiosity," and its FAQ traces the team's tutoring and test prep experience back to a first student helped out of a Rice University dorm room in 2003. The company says it built the platform both for parents and students at home and for tutors and teachers, and its plans are one-time purchases rather than subscriptions.

How the platform teaches

The center of the product is Patrick the Piqosity Virtual Tutor, or PVT. The tutor personalizes the course outline to a student's goals and walks them step by step through lessons, practice questions and mock tests. It can also switch on Intelligent Math Remediation, which spots weaknesses in prerequisite math and sends the student back to relearn them; the ACT page gives the example of a student who struggles with an Algebra 2 topic being redirected to a topic in Algebra I. A student unsure where to begin can take a diagnostic test first and let the results set the starting point.

Practice runs in two modes. Adaptive mode raises or lowers the difficulty after each correct or incorrect answer, so the questions stay at the edge of what the student can handle. Gamified mode keeps the adaptive engine but adds instant feedback, leaderboard points, badges and sounds, and the site runs a leaderboard alongside it. Piqosity can also build individualized practice sets from a student's weakest areas.

Every course carries dozens of lessons written by educators, and many topics come in more than one version of the same concept, including video and text options. The company says its growing community of educators keeps adding and updating content. Question difficulty is peer normed: rather than an editor deciding what counts as hard, a hard question on Piqosity is one that only the most advanced learners answer correctly. The analytics track improvement, timing and weakest areas, and the estimated test day score updates after every full-length test and practice set.

The test interface mimics exam conditions. A countdown timer can be set to standard time, time and a half or double time, which matters for students with testing accommodations. Answer choices can be struck through, questions flagged, and scratch work done on an on-screen whiteboard. Every full-length ACT question carries at least one explanation, and students can request more from educators in Piqosity's network. Every practice set, including adaptive questions and full-length mock tests, downloads as a PDF for printing, so a student who prefers paper can still use the material. For discussion there is a question-and-answer feature and a forum, where students can talk through what they reviewed with a peer, parent or tutor.

Courses and how long they take

The math sequence runs Math 5, Math 6, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus. English runs from English 5 through English 11. The FAQ estimates each math and English course at around 40 hours of work. With school in session for roughly 35 weeks and a student putting in about one hour a week, a course fills a full academic year; a student preparing for a test like the ISEE Lower Level will need to compress that. The courses serve enrichment as well as remediation, and the company says a child falling behind in class can use the lessons and practice to reinforce the concepts they find hard.

The test prep courses lean on those subject courses. The ACT page suggests bundling English 11 for more than 100 extra reading passages and Algebra II for more than 1,300 extra practice questions, and recommends taking both an ACT and an SAT diagnostic before choosing which test to focus on.

Content is written partly in-house and partly by third-party publishers, including tutors and teachers. It is aligned to Common Core and to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and written to the specifications of the test makers, which the FAQ names as ACT, College Board and ERB. The company describes a process of analyzing published specifications and released official tests, writing and editing questions for resemblance to the real exam, and peer norming each question with actual students. It says its writers scored in the top 1% on these tests and that its Houston-based team of editors and educators has more than 20 years of experience in K12 education. Piqosity states that it is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by the makers of the ACT, SAT, ISEE or SSAT.

Plans and prices

The ACT course plans come in three tiers, each priced as a one-time fee:

• On-Track is free and needs no credit card. It includes the Mini Diagnostic test, 2 full-length ACT practice tests, 150 personalized practice questions and the concept review lessons.
• Honors costs $89. It raises that to 6 full-length tests and 300 personalized questions and adds the premium 15-hour ACT video course.
• Advanced costs $149, with 12 full-length tests, more than 1,200 personalized questions, the video course, Intelligent Math Remediation, a Digital SAT Advanced course with 12 practice tests, and all English and math courses for grades 5 to 11, which are optional extras on the two lower tiers.

The video course holds 60 videos split between concept review and question walk-throughs, can be watched at any time, and is described by the company as equivalent to a typical in-person prep class. The lower tiers get text-based and animation-style lessons only. Every tier includes the virtual tutor, dynamic question difficulty, a score report with a predicted score, the strengths and weaknesses analysis, gamified and adaptive practice, and compatibility with an outside tutor. A parent-tutor consultation and remote online tutoring are optional services on all three.

Paid plans charge the card once, with no recurring billing, and give unlimited access for 365 days from activation. A lower plan can be upgraded later, but coupons do not apply to upgrades and an upgrade does not extend the original access period. The chart applies to users who sign up directly with Piqosity from September 18, 2025. The FAQ adds that every course, not only the ACT, has a free membership level, and that for the ACT, SAT and ISEE the free level includes two full-length practice tests. The site also explains how students at Piqosity partner schools get free access.

For tutors, teachers and schools

Piqosity doubles as a teaching tool. Educators get student management that shows them everything the student sees, automatic scoring and analysis of all student work, assignments with due dates, and custom branding for tutoring companies and schools. The company offers a free learning management system for educators. Group pricing is a discounted per-student rate, open to schools, tutoring companies, teachers and tutors, with each student license charged individually depending on how many licenses are active in the educator's account. Only the Advanced plan is sold at group rates. There is no application: the discount applies automatically once someone registers as an educator or organization. The company also says it is looking for educators and publishers to contribute content to the platform.

Piqosity offers online private tutoring for the ISEE, ACT, SAT and PSAT and for math and English, delivered directly and in partnership with local tutors and companies, and some course packages include a consultation or tutorial session with those educators. The site lists no tutoring rates.

Support and credentials

Help comes through a support center with how-to guides for students and educators, a list of known issues and release notes, support tickets at any time, and a phone line during business hours. The company says its global team of engineers, curriculum editors and educators generally ships updates every two weeks. Piqosity is not an accredited institution and does not offer course credit, and it does not currently issue certificates of completion, though it says it is working toward that.

Who it suits

Piqosity fits a self-directed student preparing for the ACT, SAT, ISEE or TSIA2 who wants a lot of full-length practice at a fixed price. The free On-Track plan, with two full tests and a diagnostic, is enough to see whether the format works before paying, and one-time plans with a year of access are easy to budget. Families with a younger child get the most from the Advanced plan, since it opens the whole grade 5 to 11 math and English catalog alongside the test prep. Tutors and small tutoring companies get a ready-made practice and assignment system with branding and per-student group pricing.

The company is candid that online learning is not for everyone: a student who struggles to focus at a computer may do better in a classroom. Live group teaching is not the core of the product, so a student who needs a teacher setting the pace will want to add the optional tutoring. And because Piqosity issues no certificates or course credit, its math and English courses work as practice and remediation rather than as transcript credit.