A Plus Review

The biggest waste of time and money. I was nervous about my first marketing exam because the average is usually very low, so I thought I’d attend the review session. I paid $ 80 to basically sit through 6 hours of the staff talking poorly about my professor. They gave us six large packets full of material (1 day prior to the exam) and insisted on certain questions being on the exam — and they weren’t. I studied for hours, got no sleep, got sick, and still ended up getting a terrible grade. NOT WORTH IT! I will never go back and you shouldn’t either.

Don’t support A+ Review and their reprehensible business practices. Mike and his team profit off of creating an «us vs them» mentality, attempting to make you think that the teachers don’t want you to learn anything and won’t show you how to get to solutions easier.
First, my experience, and then a dissection of his website and its blatant misinformation:
I paid $ 79 to do the Math 120 review because I had taken Calculus before, got cocky, and thought I didn’t need to go to class. The review session helped me – but only because of COURSE a 7-​hour review session is going to help you! The entire time this man was at the stage practically YELLING at us at the top of his lungs, generating this whole «us vs them» mentality than seemed to take half of the class. He was constantly tearing down the teachers at State, making them sound like evil, evil people, when in actuality they’re not. They’re simply teachers who are trying to TEACH YOU. It’s your own fault (like mine) if you don’t put in the effort to learn or study. Office hours exist for a reason.
Also, a few weeks later the card I used to pay with was suddenly compromised. That was the only «shady» thing I felt I’d purchased in the past few weeks. I have no proof, merely a very strong suspicion.
Now, on to the statements they make on their website –
First, his «review» from San Diego News at Five:
«…a Super Tutor who should be applauded… — San Diego News at Five»
Talk about quoting out of context! Here’s the full quote: «Schrivener denies it all saying he is a „super tutor“ who should be applauded not ridiculed.» He’s quoting himself being quoted in a local news story about how shady his business practices are!
«Around 50% to 60% of the Stats119 Nobel, Spoon, Velado and Denaro, etc. students get stuck with C’s, D’s, F’s at the end of the semester.»
Their figure about 50 to 60% of Stat119 students getting C’s, D’s and F’s is actually true according to a Stats teacher at SDSU. But here’s a more interesting statistic — 70 to 80% of students PASS the course with 40 to 50% getting A’s and B’s. Throwing the C’s in with the failing grades is inflating that statistic by at least 30%. A C IS NOT A FAILING GRADE.
Additionally, around 15% of students stop attending class before or shortly after the first exam — they either signed up for Stat119 just to get their required math class so they could register or plan to use course forgiveness to retake the course later. That means that almost every student who wants to pass Stat119, passes Stat119.
Just put in the work and study during the semester. If you’re expecting some 7-​hour review cram session to save your GPA after not attending class at all, you don’t respect yourself or your education as much as you should.
«SDSU classes are graded on a Bell Curve.»
Statistics 119 is NOT graded on a bell curve. That’s an over-​generalization.
«On the campus, professors design the lectures and exams so that the average student receives a „C“. Because our goal is for the A+ Review students to get „A’s“, we must go that extra mile to „perfectly explain“ the material to you. Profs HOLD BACK certain info to generate the „C“ average.»
I refuse to believe that the people who have dedicated their life to teacher would actually hold back information to generate a random grade. Professors don’t hold back ANY information. And they aren’t under any requirement or pressure to maintain a C. Obviously, they can’t make the course so easy that everyone gets an A, but it’s set up so that students who try in the course will do so without the need to pay some scumbag for 7 hours of additional instruction.
Your instructor, whether a professor or a TA, is rooting for you to do well. They want you to pass the course, if for no other reason that not having to teach you again next semester.
For those of you not yet indoctrinated into this supremely incorrect view, please realize that this ‘professors are big fat meanies’ tagline only benefits them. Whether it’s in an effort to scare you into thinking you need their crap (which is just your professors crap repackaged in larger font) or to make you feel like it’s OK to skirt around academic dishonesty issues by having them ‘help’ you with a project or assignment.
I’ve actually seen documents where they’ve told students not to worry about failing a class that they’ve reviewed: «Worst Case scenario: take **** this Summer, go to class the first day and for the three exams. Go to A+. It will be a painless B or A.»
Seriously, not only did they have these students pay them $ 200+ over the first semester without anything to show for it but a failing grade, but then they asked those same students to pay them AGAIN! Not to mention the tuition fees these students would have to pay for summer session! Even more laughable to me is the fact that they tried to guarantee students would pay them again by telling them not to go to class.

Do not WASTE YOUR MONEY! The staff doesn’t know anything about course material or following up. Pretty much they gathered an old version of test bank and read out to the students in the small room. I ve been there last semester for MIS 302. He didn’t even check the chapters for test. He just gave us bunch of papers which is totally different chapter we covered. When someone mentioned it, He made a frown face and just says «uh.ok»
If you guys want to own this shady business to take out students’ cash. at least follow up current material of classes and be more professional! I’m so glad that I can leave this review on Unilocal,I hope my real story will help people to know their poor teaching skills, and SAVE your money.

This place has literally saved my ass from failing 3 classes my freshman year. With their help, I passed all my classes while most of the class failed. Thank you A+!!!

Extremely unprofessional. All workers are rude and not helpful. I took this for chem 200 final (had an A all semester but got a 56% on the final) but it was a huge waste of time and money. The lady who was instructing it made about 10 mistakes where I and a couple other students had to speak up and correct her. I didn’t help me at all. This is honestly only for kids who haven’t tried the whole year and need some sort of cramming session. Shady business, rude people, complete and utter lack of customer service. Would not recommend to anyone. Btw the prices are outrageous for what you’re getting. Better luck studying on your own. Read the other reviews and save your time and money.

I *always* attended every single regular class session — I’ve never missed a class.
But A+ review is on another level. They might not be the most professional (OK, they are very unprofessional, but who cares, they are FUN), but they know their stuff and they know exactly how to prepare you for the exams they are prepping you for. I have no doubt that Walter, one of their finance/​math experts, is more intelligent than many of the professors at the university. If you are on the edge about going, just do it. You won’t be disappointed, except by the included pizza, which is the worst pizza I’ve ever tasted.
To do well on exams, study what your professor tells you to and read the material. Use A Plus as a supplement and you will do fantastic if you are willing to put the time in to understanding what they are teaching.

Coming up to finals time, I spent a while debating whether I should spend $ 70 to go to A Plus Review for Math 120. I decided then that it was worth a shot anyways.
First let me say that this guy is super sleezy. During the review he keeps marketing his own business by saying «how well his kids do on the tests», and that if they don’t go to A Plus, they will fail, which is not true. Anyways, he also swears a lot and gets off track. And he is very very «odd»…
However, he has done a good job teaching the material. He will give you calculator tips and equations to use on the test as well. He really does spoon feed the concept to all of his customers all while regularly insulting you.
He will come in and hand out «review packets» to you, you will go through a few of them in the course of the lesson he has. The packets consist of problems from previous tests. He will go through all the steps to solve each one with you and really spoon feed it.

This place is awesome. A+ has helped me do well in all my business classes. Walter does a great job with Fin 323, Sarah’s Mktg 370 reviews are extremely helpful, and I haven’t had Mike in a while, but I remember his reviews being great as well. If you aren’t satisfied with your results after A+, you probably aren’t studying enough afterwards. Yes, they do dumb everything down and spoonfeed it to you but unless you review and actually practice the problems afterwards, you will not do well. I have always studied the materials provided by A+ after the reviews and the results are evident. Thanks for all your help.

This place is a waste of time. Its a shady business run by a shady guy.
With no prior experience here i thought it was worth a shot, I arrived 5 min before the session was supposed to start and paid the 65 $ (i had a 5 $ coupon).
It wasnt till i sat down in the class till i looked up the Unilocal reviews on this place. As i read through them i was optimistic hoping for the best, but i would soon find out, all the low rated reviews turned out to be very true.
The guy whose name i did not catch (shaggy, long hair, extremely unprofessional) did not start until 4:30 — while the students in the room were just waiting around.
He is very unorganized, very unprofessional and simply reads off his hand outs. Any one can do that, there is no teaching or further examples, just reading off his hand outs.
He was extremely off topic, and as everyone says before, he keeps boasting how well his students do, and how all of «this is on the exam».
I couldn’t take anymore of it and got up and asked his assistant what the refund policy is. She replied, «we dont offer refunds.» I argued that it wasnt mentioned anywhere, that there was no mention prior to the payment and that this place is a waste of time. She quickly agreed with me and returned my money while i went and gathered my things.
This place is for bad students plain and simple. You will not find an A student attending these reviews because they know that cramming the night before and listening to sum bum read of some print outs will not lead to passing test grades. To pass math courses you must study regularly and practice the material. Listen to the other reviews and save money.

I’m always fairly dumbstruck when I come across an arrogant business owner who thinks he can do whatever he wants without regard to what his c.u.s.t.o.m.e.r.s. want. Mike is a great example of this. Everyone who goes to Aplus keeps telling him that they want the reviews more than a day before the exam so they have time to study the material that he goes over. His response to this request? If you don’t like it, don’t come here.
1) Since you don’t have time after the review to study the material that Mike teaches you, and 2) since Mike teaches you completely different ways of doing EVERYTHING than the professors taught you… *insert flow of logic here*… there’s no point in going to Aplus Review!
I’ve gone to several reviews and my grades have been all over the board… and I study a LOT.
There is a guy near UCSD who does this exact same type of review for the Economics majors there and he charges $ 150 for the entire semester including all exams and quizzes no matter how many classes you have. That makes Mike about 5 – 10 times as expensive.
Mike also charges an extra $.99 if you use a credit card which is a violation of his merchant agreement. (It’s a cost of doing business… I would think with the crazy ridiculous prices he charges he would be able to cover someone using a credit card.)
Anyway, the pizza is disgusting and he spends a lot of the review time making stupid jokes, trying to figure out where he was, is, or will be, overselling the review, and slamming the professors as all being morons.
Complete waste of $ 70 if you ask me. Spend that 5 – 8 hours studying the material that the professors gave you and your notes. You’ll get a better grade and have a lot more beer money.

Okay here is the truth-​this is a waste of money. It’s like this guy is on cocaine during the review but not in a good way. Half of the review time he spends cracking jokes and talking about how awesome the review is. He doesn’t know what’s in the packets he gives you, skips over a third of the questions, and often has to spend multiple minutes looking up answers to questions he gives you.
In reality, he spend a ridiculous amount of time on the easier stuff, then brushes off the harder stuff claiming it won’t be on the test. Guess what? It is. And he blames students for rushing him, that’s why he couldn’t go over it.
Save your money and take the five hours you’d spend with the review reading your book and studying notes-you’ll be much more productive I promise.

Q: How did half the business school at SDSU get through their classes?
A: A Plus Review
These guys are freakin’ geniuses! I have no idea how they managed to remember so much stuff because my memory fails me all the time. Don’t get me wrong though, you still have to put in decent effort in the class and use this as a test prep/​review if you want anything higher than a C-​. Also, you HAVE to still study after going to the prep course unless you have a photogenic memory.
BTW — They were always willing to stay behind and answer additional questions after the session ends if they didn’t have another class immediately afterwards.

Signed up for A+ Review for ACCTG 202 and it really helped! Took ACCTG 202 WITHOUT taking ACCTG 201 (long story) and was going into the first ACCTG 202 exam basically blind.
The instructor explains things to you as if you were taking notes with crayon in a coloring book. He breaks it down simplistically with easy to follow templates and guided examples. After I left I had a much more solid understanding of the material and was able to take the information home and apply it to previous homework and textbook activities for practice.
⁴⁄₅ Stars because it feels like amateur hour all the time. The scheduling was a nightmare and really screwed up, class time changed 3 times in one day causing me to rearrange my schedule when it wasn’t necessary.
But, small inconvenience aside, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND AND WILL BE COMING BACK FOR MORE!

For some people cramming information is great and for others its not. For me Its not but I always come in with a basic understanding of the material and it helps me out a lot!!! knowing the material a little also helps when your sitting there for 6 hours. Ive never recieved an A on a test after going to A plus review but I give it five stars because I’m just so grateful that we even have something like A plus to go too as business majors.

Mike definitely knows what he is talking about when it comes to Finance. I honestly learned more conceptually with him then I did in my five month semester class, I just wish that all my other classes could just be taken through him.

After 5 hours of A+ Review, my brain feels like it has been fried, re-​fried, and fried again. But, I’m really grateful for this glorious establishment. If it wasn’t for A+ Review, I don’t think I would have learn or studied as much for one subject. I’m not saying this program is for everyone, but it really forces you to study for long periods of time. And as an added bonus, Mike will give out free pizza for those who stay longer than two hours.
For anyone who has ever struggled in any business class at state, I recommend A+ Review. The reviews are solid and the people who work there DO know what they are talking about. Just make sure to do the extra work and practice that goes along with the packet. I hope this helps and good luck! :)

Mike knows how to teach. thats it. no he doesnt just teach from previous tests, he teaches from the book. covers everything you need to know. then you walk into the test and you actually know the material b/​c someone taught it to you opposed to our «teachers» who don’t teach… they just read off slides they didnt make and try to make sense of it as they read through. SDSU is blessed to have mike teaching its students because if it werent for him our students would not be learning. Thanks mike.
and yes the pizza sucks, but whatever: anything tastes good after sitting and learning for 4 hrs. Beggars can’t be choosers :)

A+ review is a life savor for students who don’t understand or get along with numbers. I am one of those people who always get stuck with a professor who doesn’t speak English and so they have a fatty accent and you can’t understand shit. Plus it doesn’t help that that side of my brain doesn’t function when numbers are involved. Just like A+ reviews slogan, «Dumb down the material and spoon fed it to you.» is exactly what they do. This place is better than personal tutoring because:
–FREE FOOD (pizza/​soda &water)
–Go over information that will actually be on the test
These instructors have been covering these subjects for years and so they know what material the professor will put on the test
–Give you questions to the test that are actually on the test, so helpful
I went for IDS 302 and got a B on the exam #2 which is a full grade higher than what I got on exam #1 when I tried to study by myself.
A+ review is close to SDSU and the price is totally worth the grade. They teach a variety of subjects such as Finance, Accounting, Statistics…
So if you want to succeed A+ review is the answer.

Many professors at SDSU are not there to teach it all but to introduce a student to a certain subject. It is up to the student to take it from there and learn on their own.
A Plus Review is a good way for the student to learn the subject in a different way. A Plus is just like paying a private tutor for lessons; it doesn’t replace studying or homework. If one REALLY wants to learn, A plus is just a supplemental tool.
A Plus is only for business classes. Located on El Cajon Boulevard next to Tokyo Sushi and very close to SDSU. The area is not very safe and I must warn you to be careful when parking in surrounding areas (although A+ receptionist told me she had never heard of any danger in the area).
Anyway, A+ is certainly not perfect. You almost feel really gross and dirty when you leave this place. The owner is not necessarily pleasant or hygiene-​oriented. He is politically opinionated and not someone I would want to be a mentor in any way. HOWEVER, he does teach you the subject with energy and loud excitement. He makes things clearer but he is not free of errors (I have seen him make several errors).
For the price which varies between $ 59 to $~70 you get a good review prior to an exam. Included in the price, highlighters, snacks, water, sodas, and pizza. Oh! You might want to bring your own food if you want healthy snacks. I recommend being on time and never leaving early (he doesn’t like it). Don’t ask many questions because he is normally tight with time.
At least 60% of students in my classes attend and believe me it does help. You will learn even more if you actually study ahead of time. It just helps see things in a different way. Never use this as your only way of learning material.

I contest Kat A.‘s review that A+ Review is unethical. What is truly unethical is paying tuition to go to class only to hear your professor touch on a topic, go off on a rant and tell a few jokes, then go and test you on content hardly even touched on in class. What A+ Review does is go over the basic content of the class and cutting out the noise. It is true that they use past tests, but as a guide. They don’t hand you tests to memorize, they explain the content to you and you end up understanding it better than before and that is the whole point. It truly is four hours of cramming and it isn’t very fun, but delivers the marks… most of the time.
It generally runs from 50 to 60 bucks per session which is about 4 hours which includes all the refreshments you can put down and a pizza break.
Perhaps trying it before reviewing it would clear up some confusion.