As a parent, and a parent college coach, any program that offers affordable test prep for students deserves a “look see”. When I was approached by UWorld to help get the word out about their free 30-day SAT prep program I was definitely interested; and when I heard about the cost of the program after the 30-day trial, they had me at “affordable”.

UWorld is a leading provider of question bank materials for professional licensing exams. They have now expanded into SAT prep and are hoping for the same success in this area that they have had in all their other ventures. The new SAT site includes over 1400 questions. They have experienced educators on staff who provide them with questions similar to what students will find on the real SAT.

It’s easy to get started with the FREE trial—all you do is provide your email address and a login password. Once that’s done, you are taken directly to the registration page that asks for simple information such as name and address. No credit card information is required to start with the full program. Once the 30 days are up, your student can decide whether or not to continue with the tutoring, which can be purchased for 90 days, 180 days, or 360 days—all at affordable prices for budget conscious families.

There are several features of this tutoring program that appeals to me as a parent and a college coach:

• You can setup and customize your tests and your tutoring options
• You can choose the level of difficulty on many of the questions-low, medium or hard
• You can create flashcards from the questions for quick review by simply selecting a word or formula in the math section
• You can get hints to help you before you choose the answer
• You can choose tutor mode to explain the answers after you submit them
• You can save the test to continue later or pause it while taking it
• You can define difficult words from the read
• You can track your time while taking the test
• You can flag questions that you want to go back and review later

Once the test is completed and scored, you can:

• Monitor your progress with graphs and reports
• Track your performance and compare it with others
• Identify your weaknesses to choose problems in that area to practice
• Identify your strengths to eliminate those type of questions

The tutoring feature is impressive. It clearly explains each choice from the multiple choices, why the correct answer is correct, and gives tips on how to choose the correct answer next time. Not only do you have a chance to practice the test with these sample questions, you are able to improve your test-taking strategies with the explanations and the tips given in the tutoring function.

Since this is an online test prep program, students can access it by using their computers at home, their laptops, their tablets and even their smartphones using an app. This essentially puts test prep in your student’s hands to use at any time during the day when they have a few extra minutes of free time. Additionally, once the difficult questions are flagged, your student can use these as a study guide before the test.

For most middle-class parents, it’s inconceivable to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for SAT prep, college consulting and essay prep. When I find a program that offers an affordable option for parents I’m always excited to promote it. And when the program is such high quality as UWorld, it’s a win-win!