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Review of UWorld SAT Prep Tool

At First Choice, our driving mission is to give students greater opportunities in their lives. We have a number of approaches and products, but primarily we do this by helping our students better prepare and conquer the one piece of their admissions package that can be improved in a tight time frame – their SAT and ACT scores. Unlike GPAs, community service, or extra-curricular activities, their standardized test scores are snapshots of single moments in their academic careers. Because of this, we can coach them to success by emphasizing both test preparedness (strategies for approaching the test, as well as how to handle time and anxiety pressures) and subject matter expertise.  Each student has different needs within both areas, and creating concrete improvement requires commitment by the student and tailored instruction by our tutors. I am always on the look out for tips, tricks, approaches, or materials that can help First Choice create both comfort with the exam itself and deeper understanding of the test material for students.

When I was asked to review UWorld’s SAT site, I confess to looking across my desk at the eye-high stack of SAT test prep books and wondering if it was worth the time to add another to the pile, digital or otherwise. In a word, I was skeptical. UWorld did something interesting, however, right out of the gate; it worked, in a simple and easy-to-use format. Given how many books, apps, and websites fail that test, I was intrigued and prepared to give it some more time. What I found was a site that showed its strengths as an aide for students and teachers alike, a site that would be a great tool in battle for improved SAT scores.

UWorld’s SAT Product – What is it?

Uworld is a sophisticated bank of test questions that allows students to customize quizzes, targeting any range of topics and difficulties. It is not a stand-alone tutoring website, nor does it have any detailed information about the test itself, generalized strategies, or other important and necessary test-taking knowledge. Rather, it is a supplement, like a good test prep book, but better.

U world’s test bank is both easy-to-use and highly customizable

From a teacher’s perspective, the UWorld interface gives a great amount of flexibility to target an individual student’s efforts. For example, a student needs to erase her blind-spots on systems of equations and exponents, but also wants to sharpen her advanced knowledge of circles and trigonometry. Creating a test with these parameters in UWorld is simple, as is evaluating the results. This alone would make UWorld a powerful tool for me, allowing true tailoring of specific plans for my students to address their individualized needs.

By and far, however, the greatest strength of UWorld’s product comes with the questions themselves. Upon completion of a question, you are given easy-to-understand explanations for both the correct and the incorrect answers, including alternate approaches. Rarely have I seen such clarity of thought and approach in any test prep product, rivaling even one-on-one tutoring. I found myself reading and re-reading several of these answers, using them to compare my own approach to explaining certain questions and was left with a very strong impression of the quality of work. Without an exception, I found these explanations to be clear, concise, and very strong. Additionally, students have the ability to take parts of these detailed explanations to create digital flash cards for future study and reference.

A clear and concise explaination

Conclusion

Having spent a couple of days kicking the tires, I can see how UWorld would be a great help to both my students and myself. At this stage, I would recommend the product as an add-on to taking a course or private tutoring, as it lacks much of the bulk preparatory work necessary to tackle the SAT. That said, the strength of the program is in the questions and their extremely well thought out explanations. Everyone can benefit from these, and there are few products I have come across that deliver these so well.

At $49 for 90 days, or $79 for 180 days, UWorld may not be suitable for everyone (in addition to the test fees, tutoring, and prep courses). First Choice may explore integration of UWorld into its courses in the future, as I can see great potential, and students looking for extra, targeted work may find the price is worth the results. Either way, there is a free 30-day test drive, and I can easily recommend that.