Improve your grade, then ace the official AP exam

At Brightfox, we support students with AP classes and exams every step of the way. Starting as early as the summer before the school year, we offer pre-learning programs that give students a head start on the material so they feel confident from day one. Throughout the school year, our tutors work closely with students to help them keep pace, prepare for midterms and finals, tackle projects, and ultimately earn strong grades in these weighted classes—boosting their GPAs significantly. Whether a student needs ongoing support or targeted help, we provide personalized guidance that makes a real difference.

In addition, Brightfox runs a focused AP exam preparation program each spring. Beginning in mid-March, students take a diagnostic test that highlights their strengths and weaknesses. From there, we deliver customized tutoring sessions to strengthen weak areas, followed by a practice-test phase starting in mid-April. During this time, students review missed problems in detail and sharpen their skills on the free-response section, ensuring they walk into exam day prepared and confident.

Buy tutoring hours, use on anything

At Brightfox, families don’t have to juggle multiple packages or worry about unused sessions going to waste. Instead, you purchase a package of tutoring hours—almost like credits that go into your Brightfox bank account—and those hours can be used for anything your student needs. Whether it’s SAT prep, AP exam preparation, help with finals, college essay coaching, or even ongoing tutoring for younger siblings, your hours are fully flexible and designed to adapt as your child’s needs change. Parents love this model because every dollar goes to good use, without the inefficiencies of separate packages for every service.

Your Brightfox hours are valid for four years, making them a smart investment that carries you through the entire high school journey and beyond. One family might use 60 hours spread out across SAT prep, AP tutoring, and college counseling. Another might start with a middle schooler and later apply remaining hours toward an older sibling’s senior year applications. No matter the subject, no matter the sibling, Brightfox hours work seamlessly—giving you a simple, one-stop solution for all academic support. And if priorities shift—say you planned for SAT prep but suddenly need urgent chemistry help before finals—you can use the same pool of hours, without hunting for another tutor. It’s convenient, cost-effective, and built to make sure no time or money ever goes to waste.

Online, In Person, or a Mix of Both

At Brightfox, families can choose the learning environment that works best for each student. For those local to the San Ramon–Danville area, we offer a beautiful, modern tutoring center with private offices—quiet, clean, and designed for focus. Students can book entirely in-person, entirely online, or mix and match depending on their schedule. Many families love the flexibility: one student might attend in-person on Thursdays, while another logs in online on Tuesdays. And if you’re ever running late, switching an in-person session to online takes just one click. Our simple 7 p.m. night-before cancellation policy makes it even easier to plan around busy family schedules.

Our online program is just as robust as our in-person experience, with the same pricing, format, and personalized support. Whether you’re down the street or across the country, Brightfox makes tutoring seamless. Some families find that older students thrive with the convenience of online-only, while younger students benefit from the added structure of in-person sessions. Every time you book, you can choose what works best for that day—online, in-person, or a combination of both. With students enrolled from all over the U.S., Brightfox has built a system that delivers consistent results wherever you are.

Start Scheduling

At Brightfox, scheduling is designed to be as simple and flexible as possible. Parents log into their Brightfox account and can either book sessions themselves or allow their student to manage their own schedule—it’s completely up to you. Once you choose the subject, you’ll see all of the available time slots for the upcoming week or two, such as 4–5 p.m. or 5–6 p.m. on a given day. Sessions are one hour on weeknights during the school year, one and a half hours on weekends, and always one and a half hours during the summer. After selecting a time, you can choose whether the session will be in-person or online, and whether you’d like it to repeat weekly for consistency. You also have the option to upload files or add notes in advance, so your tutor knows exactly what you’d like to focus on—though it’s not required. All booked sessions appear in your Brightfox schedule, and if you ever need to cancel, our straightforward policy allows changes up until 7 p.m. the night before.

This flexible structure gives families the freedom to adjust tutoring around their needs. Some students keep a steady weekly slot to stay on track with schoolwork, while others ramp up sessions before a big exam and scale back during vacation. For example, a student with a strong grade might come once a week to stay ahead, while another who’s aiming to raise a B to an A could benefit from two sessions per week, and students working to turn a C into a stronger grade may meet three times per week until progress is made. Every student’s plan is personalized, and our team is always available to guide families in setting the right frequency. With sessions running six days a week and the flexibility to increase, decrease, or pause as needed, Brightfox makes it easy to build tutoring around your family’s goals and schedule.

How Sessions Work

Brightfox sessions are a 2:1 student to teacher ratio, with the instructor alternating. It’s not a group class. Our instructor works directly with your student, one on one, teaching them concepts using our curriculum or their class-specific materials. Once they have a solid grasp of a topic, our instructors will assign problems from their homework or our curriuclum, so we can measure their understanding. During this time, the instructor rotates to the second student for their lesson. Then, the instructor will return to your student, evaluate how they performed, and review any errors. If ready, they will move on to the next topic. If they struggled, we’ll review and continue practicin guntil the student is ready to move forward.

Diagnostic & Consultation

At Brightfox, we schedule our AP diagnostic exams in mid-March because timing is everything. If we test too early, in January or February, students simply haven’t covered enough of the class material for the results to be meaningful. On the other hand, if we wait until April, there’s not enough time left to build a strong prep plan. Mid-March strikes the perfect balance: students have learned most of the content, but there’s still ample time to address gaps and strengthen their skills before test day.

We think of the AP prep season in two phases. From mid-March through mid-April, the focus is on learning—reviewing concepts, filling in weak areas through tutoring sessions, and solidifying core knowledge. Then, from mid-April through mid-May, the emphasis shifts to practice: students complete full practice exams, carefully review their missed questions, and put concentrated effort into the free-response sections. If a student is preparing for multiple AP exams, we administer all the diagnostics up front and then hold one comprehensive planning meeting. That meeting lays out a clear roadmap—sessions, practice tests, and review—so that every student is positioned to earn their best possible score.

Extra Practice Tests

At Brightfox, we design our diagnostic and practice exams to be as close to the real AP exam as possible. Each test is built from a bank of problems that mirror the official College Board questions, giving students a nearly identical experience to what they’ll face on exam day. In March, your child will take a multiple-choice diagnostic exam to identify strengths and gaps. Then, beginning in mid-April, they’ll complete four full-length practice exams that include both multiple-choice and free-response sections. These exams help ensure students not only know the material, but are fully prepared for the pace and structure of the real test.

From April 15th through May 15th, we encourage families to set aside weekend time for these full practice exams. They take about three hours, just like the official test, and are followed by review sessions where instructors go over missed questions and provide detailed feedback on free responses. Because free response can make up half—or more—of the AP score, this guided practice is critical. For subjects like math and science, we even provide a paper booklet version of the test, mailed directly if needed, to recreate the actual testing environment. All of this is included in the BrightFox program, giving families peace of mind that their student is fully supported leading up to exam day.

Notifications & Analytics

One of the most popular features of BrightFox is the level of insight we provide to parents. We know students aren’t always the best at sharing what happened during tutoring, and it can be frustrating to invest in their success without a clear picture of how things are going. That’s why, at the end of every session, your child’s instructor writes a detailed summary—typically a paragraph or two—explaining what was covered, how your student performed, observations about their progress, and what the plan is for the next session. By default, this summary is automatically texted to you right away, so you never have to log in or track anything down. If you prefer, you can choose to receive it by email or even turn off notifications entirely.

In addition to these session notes, your BrightFox account gives you a full dashboard of insights whenever you’d like to dive deeper. Parents can review practice test results, see detailed analytics on which topics are strong or need more attention, and access all session notes in one place. This combination of instant updates and on-demand analytics makes it easy to stay informed without ever feeling overwhelmed, giving you peace of mind that your student is making steady progress and that your investment is paying off.

Always Here to Support You

At Brightfox, we know parents often have questions along the way, and we make it easy to get the answers you need. For quick updates—like checking in on your student’s AP exam plan or clarifying something from a recent session—you can always reach us by text, phone, or email. For more in-depth discussions or formal planning meetings, we recommend scheduling a video call with one of our directors. This allows us to screen share, walk through your student’s progress, and make any needed adjustments to their current plan together.

In addition, for families looking for broader academic strategy, we offer a separate college counseling service. This premium option connects you with our most experienced counselors, who can help map out multi-year academic plans, guide extracurricular and internship choices, recommend the right classes, and ultimately provide hands-on support with college applications. While our director team ensures your student’s AP plan stays on track, our college counseling service is designed for those bigger-picture questions about long-term success.