New Illinois Program Will Offer Free Test Prep Services for Professional Exams
Amanda Vinicky | December 21, 2024 1:19 pm
Passing the bar, nurse licensure test or real estate certification exam is a crucial step to becoming an attorney, RN or real estate broker.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) said it’s in the state’s best interest to make sure that those aspiring professionals succeed.
Ford is behind provisions in the state budget that allocate $10 million for a new Prepare for Illinois’ Future program, which would “offer comprehensive test preparation, free of charge and at no cost to students” in an effort to help them pass.
Even though money was also included in last year’s budget, the program has yet to get underway. Ford credits the state for being thorough, but other backers say the delay is harming low-income students who can’t afford to pay for test prep themselves.
But Ford said things now are moving and the program should soon be “ready to go.”
“This is going to be beneficial for many professions, especially with the shortages in all of the professions in Illinois,” like in nursing, social work and teaching, Ford said.
Test prep courses can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Want to enroll in a bar exam course? One popular vendor is marketing it for $2,050, a discount from the regular price tag of $2,650. That’s out of reach for Gabriela Rivera, who wants to be an immigration attorney.
Despite hurdles (financial as well as time, given that she has to drive to and from her home in Crystal Lake to school in DeKalb while also raising a 5-year-old daughter), she’s on her way.
Rivera is a senior at Northern Illinois University, majoring in political science, and she’s already taken the Law School Admissions Test, or LSAT.
She hasn’t yet received her score, but “I think I did pretty good,” she said.
At the very least, Rivera felt prepared going in: She’d learned how to break down questions and how to prioritize filling out bubbles on the standardized test so she’d get through as many as possible in the limited time.
“The score that you get really does influence what law schools you can apply to and what your future can look like,” Rivera said. “So it is imperative to study beforehand, and a good preparation course can help you do that.”
Rivera was able to take a LSAT prep course by Kaplan Test Prep for free through an NIU program for diverse scholars.
“Through that course, I was able to get a lot of background information on the test, what it entails, different strategies to be able to take the test,” Rivera said. “And so because the program paid for it, I got to save about $1,500 on the course. That was just a blessing for me, because in order to go to school full time I’m not working right now.”
Rivera said the price would be worth it, but were it not for the diversity scholars’ program she doesn’t know how she would have come up with the money to pay.
She said she feels for students who don’t have that opportunity.
“Let’s get it out there, because I know that there’s a lot of people like me that could benefit from the help,” Rivera said.
The law entrusts the Illinois Student Assistance Commission with implementing the free test prep program.
“Our primary focus as an agency is on ensuring that students have the information and support they need to get access to an undergraduate education, regardless of their financial circumstances or the resources available to them at their high schools,” said ISAC spokeswoman Lynne Baker. “For some students, reaching their goals will take more than an undergraduate degree; it will take graduate or professional school or require passage of a licensure exam. This new program is meant to help ensure that more Illinois students have access to tools that will prepare them to take those next steps.”
Baker said contract negotiations with a test prep provider are ongoing, and until that’s finalized there’s no way to have a timetable for when it’ll be available or which students will be eligible.
Terms of the request for proposal provide clues.
It contemplates serving students at all 12 public universities as well as five community colleges that are geographically representative of the state, Baker said.
The vendor also has to be able to provide online test prep for the most popular tests needed to get into graduate-level classes: LSAT, Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).
And the vendor has to be able to offer online test prep for professional exams, including those required for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse and medical aides and physician assistants, as well as the bar, the real estate licensing exam, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam and the Securities Industry Essentials Exam.
The RFP calls for a five-year contract, though that’s contingent on lawmakers providing the money to pay — no sure bet given that lawmakers will have to find a way to close a projected $3 billion deficit for the next budget.
According to how the program is spelled out (in HB3817 / Public Act 103-0008), ISAC can also prioritize making the free test prep available to lower-income students who receive the state Monetary Award Program grant to pay for college.
Ford said it’s also a way to help ensure more diversity.
“Regardless to what (President-elect Donald) Trump’s administration may do as regards to diversity and inclusion, it’s just very critical that we prepare people from every community to be qualified to work in these professions,” he said.
After it’s been in place for a year, the student assistance commission, by law, has to make public a report on its effectiveness, including the impact of the program on in-state university recruitment and retention and on the state’s “talent pipeline.”