Free SAT and ACT online prep material available

It takes hours and sometimes lots of money to prepare for college entrance exams. Luckily, there is free SAT and ACT help for students currently available through eKnowledge, as well as a grassroots effort by a group of students at Emory University promising to soon deliver free test preparation to local students.

Georgia lags behind much of the country on SAT scores. According to the College Board, which administers the test, Georgia students’ 2009 average score of 1,460 was 49 points lower than the national average.

Even the brightest students want to improve their scores, thus increasing their chances for earning academic scholarships and entering the colleges of their choice. The problem is, in this economy, few people have the resources to drop hundreds of dollars into improving results.

And they shouldn’t have to, said David Wichman, a sophomore at Emory and one of a group of students behind the pending fall launch of the nonprofit, Enspire.org.

“Our premise is that getting into college shouldn’t be based on which people have the most money to pay for test preparation,” Wichman said. “It should be free. Currently, there are not too many ways to get test preparation for free online.”

The most notable test preparation companies are Kaplan and Princeton Review. Growing in popularity is eKnowledge, which began offering free test help to military members and their families and now has expanded its reach to high school students.

Georgia students can use the promotional code 11084DA521 when going to the eKnowledge Web site. There, they’ll find a suite of offers, including the standard SAT or ACT preparation package valued at $199 for free. A fee of $13.84 is required to pay for the licensure, registration and other processing requirements to receive the software.

“It’s very comprehensive and adequate,” said Lori Caputo, vice president of sponsorship. “This is world-class software.”

Complementary testing tools can be purchased for additional money, but those too are now dramatically discounted.  The program receives sponsorship from the National Football League and Major League Baseball, including Atlanta Braves player Chipper Jones.

The company did not provide specific data on the percentage of improvement on scores as a result of students using their material, instead offering anecdotal testimonies.

Wichman’s classmates are not as far along. They are working with students from UCLA and leaning on other Emory resources to develop the tests and the Web site. The group of about 12 hopes to roll out testing in local schools around November. They have varying backgrounds, led by president Nikesh Patel, a junior pre-med student.

To push the initiative along, they are applying for grants, including  one through the Pepsi Refresh Project.

“Our plan is to go to local Atlanta high schools and administer our tests against real SAT tests,” Wichman said. “We will try to refine them and make sure they are accurate representations of the real exam.”

Eventually, Enspire.org would like to move onto a video stage where students can view the answers and have a video description of how the answers were found and why that answer is correct.

“There’s no one else that’s willing to step up and try to tackle something like this,” said Wichman, an accounting and finance major. “The people that are stepping up to do this are getting paid a lot of money. Test prep is a multi-billion dollar industry. We will remain a nonprofit.”