Paying for college: free and low-cost SAT and ACT prep

College starts costing families money long before the acceptance letter arrives. SAT and ACT scores influence not only admission, but also financial aid: higher scores help students qualify for more types of financial aid. It is possible to spend a lot of money on test prep, but it is not necessary. There are a lot of free and low-cost SAT prep programs.

Khan Academy, provider of many different academic tutorials, just announced a new SAT practice program that matches up to the new SAT exam, to be introduced in March of 2016. It is free, too.

Another option is eKnowledge, which offers several test prep software products, including Standard SAT/ACT PowerPrep. This includes more than 10 hours of instructor-led video and more than 40 hours of classwork. It also includes more than 120 lessons, electronically graded quizzes and hundreds of practice tests. It normally costs $200. However, NFL and MLB players, as well as many community organizations, have been donating to a program that allows students to order this program free. All the student has to pay is the cost of materials and shipping, around $17. There are separate programs for SAT and ACT preparation. Order at www.eKnowledge.com/OnTheCheap.

Students can study on their own, too, for free or very cheap. The College Board, which publishes the SAT, offers a practice exam and practice questions on their website. The ACT does, too. Take a practice test, see where you are weak, and then get a study guide like those published by Barron’s. They can be found in most libraries; if you want to buy a copy that you can mark up, you can find them in most bookstores for under $20. Use the study guide to improve and practice.

I speak from experience, by the way. When I took the SAT and ACT, the test-prep industry was just getting started. The test companies had long claimed that preparation didn’t matter, but they were beginning to be proved wrong in the early 1980s. I bought myself the Barron’s SAT, 27th Edition (Barron’s Sat (Book Only))book and took it on a family trip to Lake Erie the weekend before the exam. My youngest brother was in first grade and going through an obnoxious phase, so I hid in my room and studied. My scores were pretty good, too. Who knows how my life would have played out had my brother been more pleasant that weekend?

I used the Barron’s GMATto prepare for the GMAT and scored well enough to get into my first-choice program. When I took the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam, I bought test-prep books and studied on airplanes. I’ve since taught in CFA review programs; they are really good, but they aren’t magic. Some people need the discipline of going to a classroom once a week, but not everyone does. When my kid was preparing for high-school admissions exams last year, I gave him a choice of taking a prep class or working withBarron’s COOP/HSPT/TACHS, 3rd Edition. He decided he’d rather work with the book, and he got into his first-choice school. (And yes, it is pathetic that there are test-prep classes for high school admissions in Chicago. That, however, is another rant for another time.)

Standardized tests are games. You can psyche them out with good preparation, and you don’t have to pay a fortune in the process.

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