Software for Prepared Debaters

Research, practice, and compete with the greatest technology ever built for extemp and congress.

Ultra fast research

Prepd’s research tools level the playing field. The News Feed immediately auto-files tens of thousands of articles from 40 different news sources. Beyond auto-filing, Prepd’s Fast Catch Chrome extension allows you to save web articles with a single click. You can also drag and drop PDF files. Save up to 250,000 articles in Prepd.

Auto-filed articles from 40 news sources
Save web articles with a single click
Easily upload PDF files

Practice to win

The more you practice, the more you’ll improve. Prepd is packed with useful features that help debaters prepare. In Extemp, hundreds of practice questions are added by students and curated by Prepd’s staff. In Congress, you can easily create evidence blocks from your research and organize speech outlines.

Access hundreds of Extemp practice questions
Source Congress arguments from your reading
Upload speeches and save Round activity

Compete with ease

Prepd makes you more productive. Period. Every little detail is designed to maximize your efficiency in round. Navigating through folders is a breeze. Searching for articles is blazingly fast. In Congress, tools like the parliamentary procedure guide and the precedence tracker will give you an edge. Have an iPad? Download Prepd – Extemp.

Advanced search and filtering
Superior productivity while in a Round
Fast and reliable offline synchronization

Learn while you read

Prepd is much more than a place to store files – it’s an education technology uniquely built for debate nerds. By making it easy to interact with article content, Prepd helps debaters learn while they read. Highlight content. Look up the definition of unfamiliar words. Create flashcards. Track reading activity.

Create flashcards from article content
Highlight text and define unfamiliar words
Mark articles as read

For teams and individuals

Prepd works great for teams that want to collaboratively share files as well as individuals who compete independently. Big, small, or on your own – Prepd helps every type of debate program. Every member has access to rich analytic tools that track filing, reading, and competitive activity.

Join a Team and collaborate with others
Create a Prepd One account for independent use
Review research and reading activity

Over 20,000 students and 500 schools or clubs use Prepd to research, practice, and compete.

Join Prepd For Free

Learn more

Extemp is the ultimate software for extemporaneous speaking.
Organize your articles into folders and sub-folders, or run advanced search queries. Access hundreds of practice questions. When competing, create a “Round” to prepare productively.

Features

Folders

Easily manager folders and subfolders

Smart Search

Advanced search tools, ultra fast results

Round

Efficiently organize your evidence while prepping

Practice Questions

Hundreds of questions for novice and varsity

Features

Folders

Easily manager folders and subfolders

Smart Search

Advanced search tools, ultra fast results

Round

Efficiently organize your evidence while prepping

Practice Questions

Hundreds of questions for novice and varsity

Learn more

With Congress, you’ll be the most prepared debater in your chamber.
Efficiently manage your bills, research, and speeches. Save “arguments” (or evidence cards) directly from your reading. When competing, easily track precedence and recency.

Features

Arguments

Source evidence cards from your reading

Speeches

Upload pre-written outlines or speeches

Parliamentary Guide

Reference a useful procedure guide

Precedence Tracker

Easily track precedence and recency

Learn more

General purpose research and education technology.
The Library is a hub that stores all of your research. The Library also helps you learn more while you read. Save interesting article content and review it in the Memory Bank.

Features

Reading Activity

Short exercises track reading activity

Article Summaries

Auto-generated summaries for every article

Memory Bank

Save and review article content

Vocabulary

Look up word definitions

Learn more

Manage and monitor individual or team activity with the Classroom. Review filing and reading activity. Change user roles. Download analytics reports.

Features

Analytics Tools

Track individual and team activity

User Roles

Adjust permissions for novice, varsity and captains

Challenges

Create assignments for students to complete

Prepd Settings

Adjust settings for you and your students

Learn more

A reliable and high performing application for competing offline.

Features

Ultra Fast

Synchronize in minutes, search in milliseconds

Prepd Offline

Reliable and compliant offline app

iPad App

Compete in Extemp with an iPad

Prepd apps are dedicated fo you, take them for a ride.

Try Prepd For Free

F.A.Q.

Which debate events does Prepd’s software support?


Prepd is a collection of four different applications. Prepd has built dedicated apps for Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp) and Congressional Debate (Congress). We have not built applications that support Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, Policy or other styles of debate. That said, many debaters have found that Prepd’s Library application works well for general purpose research. Prepd’s fourth application, the Dashboard, supports team and account management.

What is the total number of articles that I can save in Prepd?


Every Premium Team or Premium One account can save up to 250,000 articles. Free Team accounts are limited to 100 articles. Free One accounts are limited to 50.

Does Prepd auto-file articles? If so, how many articles and sources are auto-filed?


Yes, Prepd’s News Feed is a feature that automatically files articles. You can access the News Feed from the Library, Extemp, and Congress. The News Feed updates every hour with new articles from 40 different sources. It stores about 100,000 auto-filed articles that have been published within the last three months. You can permanently save News Feed articles to any Prepd app. For a full list of Prepd’s News Feed sources, please read this blog post.

Do I have to save my research into folders?


We’ve learned that some debaters want to organize their research into folders and sub-folders, whereas others don’t care for folders as long as they have great search tools. Fortunately, Prepd supports either research style. If you want to save your articles into folders and sub-folders, you’ll be saving files to the Extemp app. If you don’t plan to use folders, simply save articles to the Library with a single click and then use Smart Search when you’re looking for articles. If you’re not using the folders, you’ll want to compete with the Library app. If you are using folders, compete with Extemp.

Which browsers support Prepd?


Prepd runs exclusively on the Google Chrome browser. Because Fast Catch – a one click solution for saving web articles – and Prepd Offline are both built as Chrome apps, we require every Prepd user to access the software through Google Chrome.

Does Prepd work offline, without internet access?


Yes, Prepd offers a Chrome extension, Prepd Offline, that allows you to compete without internet access. Install Prepd Offline to your browser by visiting the Chrome web store. Before each tournament, you’ll want to synchronize your files by opening Prepd Offline while you are online. Once you’ve synchronized your files, you can disable the internet, close Prepd Offline, and even turn off your computer. Whenever you reopen Prepd Offline, it will recognize that you are offline and will open the files that were most recently synchronized.

Can I use Prepd on my smartphone or tablet?


If you have an iPad, you can compete with the Prepd – Extemp iPad app. Notably, this application allows you to synchronize your files and compete offline. But currently, you cannot save new articles or edit your research on an iPad. Although there are no Prepd apps for Android phones/tablets or iPhones, you can read Prepd articles by visiting the Library on your mobile browser.

How fast is Prepd?


Very, very fast. Prepd’s online, web applications load in seconds. Search results populate in milliseconds. In Prepd Offline, synchronizing 100,000 articles takes two or three minutes, depending on the strength of your internet connection.

Is Prepd built for individual debaters or for debate teams?


Both individual debaters and debate clubs will enjoy using Prepd. For individuals, you may purchase a Premium One membership for as little as $25/year. Those with Premium One accounts have access to all of Prepd’s functionality, but can’t share their research with others. If you are part of a Premium Team, all your research is automatically shared with all your teammates.

Can I try Prepd for free?


Yes, you can create a Free Team account for your school or club. You may also create a Free One account for individual use. In either case, you will have full access to all of Prepd’s online and offline functionality. Although the free memberships do not expire, they do impose strict article limits. Free Team accounts are limited to 100 articles. Free One accounts are limited to 50. If you like Prepd and want to save more articles, you’ll need to upgrade to a Premium membership.

How much does a paid membership cost?


Prepd membership costs vary according to the events you or your team competes in (Extemp, Congress, or both) as well as the size of your program. Please scroll down this webpage to visit the Pricing Calculator. Once you’ve calculated your price, you may submit some basic contact information and unlock a 15% discount.

How can I pay for a Prepd membership?


Premium Team and Premium One memberships last exactly one calendar year from the date you purchased your membership. For example, if you join Prepd on September 1, 2017, your membership will remain active until September 1, 2018. Once your membership expires, you have the option to renew your membership through the Dashboard. Prepd does not automatically renew memberships on your behalf. You must explicitly opt-in for another year.

Who is behind Prepd? Is this a real business?


Prepd LLC is a four year old company that was founded in the spring of 2013. The company is operated by its founder, Ian Panchèvre, a former high school and collegiate debater. Ian graduated from Yale and currently lives in Silicon Valley. The entire Prepd Team consists of seven full-time team members. Prepd’s professional product team builds best-in-class software for the competitive speech and debate community.

Where can I find support resources?


We encourage new Prepd users to watch the tutorial videos for Library, Extemp, Congress, Dashboard, Article View, Fast Catch, and Prepd Offline. If you have specific questions or issues, you may visit the Help Center. Check out Prepd’s blog and Facebook page to stay up to date on all things Prepd. Finally, if you ever want to get in touch, feel free to email hello@prepd.in.

Testimonials

by students

Micah Cash

“As the manager of my team’s files, it’s data tracking allowed me to easily monitor my teammates’ activity. When building a file, I was never worried about overcrowding or disorganization, a concern that frequently came up before my team used Prepd software. In major tournaments, Prepd’s Article Catcher allowed me to swiftly and easily update my files in between rounds to prepare for the next topic area. Perhaps most importantly, Prepd’s in round search mechanism and “add article to round” features made it simple to sort through massive amounts of information and access the most topical and specific pieces of evidence. Overall, I would recommend Prepd to any competitive Extemper.”

Micah Cash

Micah Cash
National Champion in USX at NSDA Nationals 2016
Tulsa Washington HS

Nikhil Ramaswamy

“As a person who always strives to be organized and efficient, Prepd provides the best of both worlds. Over the last few years competing in extemp, I’ve been consistently impressed by how effective Prepd as a software has been at keeping my files in an organized, easy-to-access place both in and out of draw. Unique features that I’ve found particularly useful include the Prepd article catcher, which helps me file articles in a more streamlined fashion than Dropbox or Google Drive, and the ability to “add” articles to a given round, which allows me to keep track of all the articles I plan on using in my speech. As a rising junior and a speaker with experience at the local, state, and national level, I would definitely recommend Prepd to all extempers.”

Nikhil Ramaswamy

Nikhil Ramaswamy
6th place finisher in IX at NSDA Nationals
Jasper HS

Paul Bousquet

“Prepd is a great system which has allowed me to further my efficiency in the prep room. Things like dropbox are extremely hard to navigate and not too terribly engaging. However Prepd is an intuitive program which allows me to be better prepared to speak. After you draw, you type in your question and it appears on your computer all throughout the speech along with a timer. Also, you can save specific articles that you are using, which makes it really easy to go back and find it if needed. Also, filing on Prepd is great because you can save the article in multiple folders which is extremely helpful. The Prepd staff also responds very quickly to any snafus with the system. They were even at the NSDA National Tournament in person to deal with those problems. In short, I am glad my team made the switch and I have yet to see a better system yet.”

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Paul Bousquet
Student
Battle Ground Academy

by teachers

Harry Stong

“With Prepd our team gained the ability to better “see and manage” our files. We know exactly who is filing, when they are filing and we can track progress in building effective files. Coaches also get tools which make them more effective in encouraging students to file. Compared to our former dropbox system, Prepd is easy, fast and efficient!”

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Harry Stong
Director of Forensics
Battle Ground Academy

Tom Cork

“Prepd has been an amazing resource for our team. Our physical International Extemp bins were lost right before our 2014 District Tournament, giving us only two weeks to recreate years of work.With limited time, we subscribed to Prepd, caught over 3,000 articles, and have never looked back. A few weeks later, three of our competitors were IX finalists, and one qualified for the National Tournament.The same student also qualified in 2015.”

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Tom Cork
Debate Coach
Santa Fe Preparatory School

Paul Gaba

“Our debate program had been looking for alternatives to research, store, and access current event materials, and then we discovered Prepd. From accessing information for practice rounds or tournaments, to making it easier for me (as a teacher/coach) to track research for grading purposes, to assisting students looking for research material for non-debate classes and assignments, Prepd has been an amazing tool. It’s great for extemp, Congressional Debate, and even oratory research. And I love that the saved articles are void of annoying advertisements and irrelevant (for debate purposes, at least) photographs. Plus, it has saved countless trees and tons of toner. All of my debate students are mandated to register with Prepd, and I have no qualms about making such a requirement for them.”

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Paul Gaba
Debate Coach
Wellington High School

Responsive Pricing

Prepd’s responsive pricing adjusts membership costs according to a team’s unique profile. As a result, Prepd is affordable for every debate program – regardless of its size or budget. Use the calculator below to determine your team’s price. It takes one minute!

Responsive Pricing

Prepd’s responsive pricing adjusts membership costs according to a team’s unique profile. As a result, Prepd is affordable for every debate program – regardless of its size or budget. To use the price calculator you will to visit our site on bigger device like a tablet or desktop.

Latest posts from the blog

Price drop! Prepd’s software becomes more affordable

We’ve reached the final third of the school year and debate budgets are running tight. So, we felt it’d be appropriate to make Prepd more affordable. Recent updates lower Prepd’s cost for individual competitors and debate teams alike.

Read more on blog

Want to get in touch? Email hello@prepd.in
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