Yes, the truth is that regardless if they cost $1500 or $60, they are all very similar. They teach some basic strategy, they reinforce some skills, and they provide some basic education... Sure, some may have you working with a tutor, some may have you simply reading a book, and others may have you taking practice test after practice test. But, in the end, I have found they all produce a very similar result.
As a teacher and a mother, this was just unacceptable to me. To see all these students investing their time (and their parents investing their money) into something that had almost NO BENEFIT really made me angry! Especially when I saw the outrageous claims being made by many of the ACT prep peddlers.