By Liam Zeya

Northern-Virginia based tutor Amir Mousavi has created a website that provides comprehensive Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) preparatory materials for free.

The site, called The Ana Project, was named after an acronym that Mousavi created using the names of three students that he tutored. It was created with the goal of providing SAT preparatory materials to students of all socioeconomic situations.

“I thought it would be a cool idea to have a site where students from all backgrounds could use to help improve their scores,” Mousavi said. “Low income, middle class, affluent kids, everybody.”

Because SAT tutoring is such a lucrative business, with charges typically above $100 an hour for one-on-one help, Mousavi’s decision to offer such an expansive database of lucrative material for no cost is groundbreaking.

“I know first-hand that students from the most affluent families perform the best on the exam because they can afford to spend thousands of dollars on tutors like me,” Mousavi said. “Students from low income families typically perform the worst because their families can’t afford any test preparation whatsoever.”

There has been an increasing amount of controversy surrounding the SAT test in recent years. According to a study released by The Washington Post earlier this year, higher family incomes have a distinctly strong correlation with higher test scores. The College Board, the company that puts out the SAT test, has been accused by many of creating an unfair test that caters to the high-classes and doesn’t effectively test academic worth. Many critics claim that one can “buy” a high score by paying for expensive and specialized prep tutors and courses. That is the main reason that Mousavi created The Ana Project

“I’m ultimately doing this to change the system because getting a high score on the SAT should be based on merit, not money.”

In 2013, partially as a result of the mounting criticism surrounding their test, the College Board announced the release of a completely redesigned SAT Test to be released in 2016. According to David Coleman, the Board’s president, the new test will focus “on a core set of knowledge and skills that are essential to college and career success.”

Mousavi plans to keep The Ana Project up to date with the College Board’s changed exam, and even expand the site to the American College Test (ACT), an exam that has rapidly increased in popularity in recent years.

“I will be launching SAT prep for the new format in 2015,” he said. “I will be launching prep for the ACT as well.”

Mousavi is the man behind Langley Prep, an SAT & ACT Prep Company based in Northern Virginia.