Many students cannot afford SAT preparation programs and therefore are disadvantaged in comparison to those who do take those classes. However, one group of seniors is providing free SAT guidance to give these students a chance to succeed.

Seniors Victor Eng, Andus Kong, Darion Lee, William Liu, Dickson Lui and Jesse Luo, all of whom scored above 2200 on the SAT, started the SAT Scholars Program last June, according to their website. The tutoring program serves as an alternative to expensive test preparation by corporations, and is purposefully free. “We’re trying to give everybody a little bit of guidance and an opportunity to do really well on this test,” Lui said. “We know that every student can be successful on the SAT.”

The seniors were inspired to start the program after their friends approached them requesting individual tutoring. “A lot of our own friends had been coming up to us and asking us if we could tutor them,” Eng said. “We thought it would be more feasible if we did a program and helped everyone in a class setting, instead of having to run across the city to each person’s home to give them one-on-one tutoring.”

Using the same basic strategies as in the summer, they continued their volunteering into the school year as the SAT Tutoring Club from August to November, sponsored by physics teacher Scott Dickerman, when the tutoring was put on hold due to the college application season. The class sizes averaged eight to ten people. Their methodology is modeled after Elite Educational Institute’s SAT 2100 class, which five out of the six seniors had taken. “We administer a practice test on a Saturday or Sunday, and by the following Friday, we would grade all the tests and go over them in class,” Liu said.

Randolf Arguelles, director of Elite’s San Francisco Irving branch, allowed the seniors free use of a room at the Elite building to administer tests on weekends, according to Lee. Arguelles also advised the seniors on which subjects they should focus on teaching. Classes were held on Fridays after school, usually in Room 212 from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

The tutors try to provide practical tips. Students overlook simple strategies that can apply to the SAT, according to Luo. He also advised students not to panic at the sight of a complicated math problem, as many are quite simple upon a closer look.

Kong emphasized the importance of staying focused during the test, which is almost four hours long. “Just be more concentrated, and take an effort to look at everything,” he said. “Some people are lazy when they’re looking through it; they use half of their concentration.”

But the most improvement comes from students’ hard work. “What we learned from Elite was that it was basically all just practice,” Liu said. “The SAT isn’t about knowing a specific trick or knowing a special study method; you just practice and correct, redo and learn from your mistakes.”

The “student teachers” have seen score increases of two to three hundred points for the participants. However, the students’ test skillbuilding is dependent on their commitment — to come to every test and every class. “It may be difficult for students to stay with us due to other afterschool activities, but we have noticed that the ones who are committed to coming to every class are the ones who see the biggest improvements in their scores,” Eng said.

The seniors plan to start their program again in the next month or two, if there is demand for it, according to Lui.

A version of this article first appeared in the Jan. 27, 2012 print edition of The Lowell.