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!

Can you imagine a young James Harden, dreaming of a future NBA career, saying “I’m just going to wait until I get to college to start playing basketball”?  What about a 16-year-old Tom Brady saying “Coach, these drills aren’t important.  Besides, throwing passes in practice is boring.  I’ll throw touchdown passes when I need to in the championship game”?  It’s crazy to think that anyone becomes skilled without putting in the practice.

Yet, that’s exactly what happens every year as students start applying to colleges and taking the SAT.  They figure they will wait until the “big game” to put their skills to use, arguing that practicing those skills is boring and unnecessary.  Unfortunately, a lot of students end up on the bench as a result.

One of the most important skills that students need is critical reading.  Nearly all courses in most college majors require hours of reading each week, meaning that becoming a capable reader has the greatest impact on college and career success.  But the U.S. Department of Education reports that, in 2015, only 37% of the nation’s high school seniors were proficient in this skill.  Similarly, many students report difficulty answering critical reading questions on the SAT, a test used by colleges for admissions and scholarship consideration.  Clearly, the time to get in the game is before it starts.

In 2015, only 37% of the nation’s high school seniors were proficient in critical reading.

Becoming an MVP takes practice and time.  Becoming a skilled reader requires the same.  There are several things your student can do to improve:

Read.

Sometimes, the most obvious advice is the best.  Students get better not only at understanding what they read, but also at maintaining their focus for longer periods of time, which is a common problem.

Read hard things.

Unless a player’s little brother is Michael Jordan, he won’t become a better basketball player by always going against him on the court.  Players progress by pitting themselves against worthy opponents.  The same is true about becoming a better reader.  Help your student choose material that challenges her, whether it’s Charles Dickens or The New York Times.  She’ll begin to have a larger vocabulary and increased reading speed.

Read things that belong on the SAT.

Most of the reading done in English classrooms is literature.  Although each SAT has one passage that comes from a novel, the majority of readings are nonfiction.  Your student should read interesting articles on websites such as Scientific American and NPR to broaden his knowledge.  He’ll feel more confident about the reading selections he encounters on the test.

Putting in the practice now has the potential to pay off with more college options and financial aid.  Plan like the pros and your student can become his or her own most valuable player.Playing in as many games as they can also increases players’ chances of scoring big.  It’s expensive to take multiple SAT tests, but your student can simulate test day as many times as he likes by using UWorld’s test-preparation materials.  The online program provides practice answering questions over the kinds of reading passages found on the test.  It also lets students time their responses to determine how fast or slow to take each set of questions.

Click the ad on the right and get a FREE 30-day trial of UWorld‘s SAT prep 

This post is sponsored by UWorld and written by Suzanne Dilday. Suzanne is a college prep content specialist with UWorld. She was a high school English instructor for 27 years with a BA in English from Baylor University.