11/10/97 ONLINE ORIGINAL: SOFTWARE TUTORS THAT PASS THE TEST

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SOFTWARE TUTORS THAT PASS THE TEST

I have to admit it: When my editors asked me to review the latest software programs aimed at helping high school juniors and seniors ready themselves for the SAT, my blood pressure shot up much higher than my test scores ever did. Algebra. Analogies. Quantitative comparisons. Yikes, not again!
But having evaluated Mindscape Inc.'s "The Princeton Review Inside The SAT & ACT '98 Deluxe," Kaplan Educational Centers' "SAT, PSAT & ACT Deluxe," and the Learning Co. (TLC)'s "Score Builder for the SAT and ACT," I only wish that I had such handy multimedia tutors when I took the SAT a generation ago. (The SAT, once the abbreviation for either the Scholastic Achievement Test or Scholastic Assessment Test, no longer stands for anything.) Indeed, the programs may help calm your son's or daughter's nerves as preparation begins for upcoming exams, the next of which is scheduled nationally on Nov. 1.
The great promise of these programs is to personalize an interactive learning experience in ways not possible in a tutorial book. As students take diagnostic practice exams, the programs can assess their strengths and weaknesses and prescribe drills and strategies that best suit them.
The software tries to make rote topics more fun by employing games, animations, and videos of attractive and friendly young people. Although the programs are no substitute for a comprehensive review course, they are--despite the subject matter--entertaining and vastly cheaper than an in-person course. And students can proceed at their own pace.
But don't expect miracles, and any score hikes will be linked to how much time a kid puts in. (Kaplan says three to four hours a week for six weeks is basic, though three to four hours for 12 weeks is even better.) The new Kaplan and Princeton Review programs also exploit the World Wide Web, with links to university sites and admission applications.
Kaplan's program uses an automobile dashboard as its main interface menu screen. The student is driving on Route 1600. By clicking on the admissions area on the dash, students can get basic info on early decisions, essays, financial aid, and other topics. A click on the glove compartment moves students to a reference area where they can view math, vocabulary, and writing quick-study flash cards. The math cards are subdivided into averages, geometry, powers and roots, and other topics.
Users of the program get fine feedback on their test-taking habits. For instance, when they take practice exams, students can indicate their confidence in a particular answer; during the scoring they'll see if they tended to change right answers to wrong ones. Students can also take tests in tutor mode (no time limit, plus hints), or test mode (more like the real thing, with time limits). Kaplan says it will refund a student's money if he or she doesn't get a higher score after using the program. To prove it, students first take Kaplan's diagnostic test on the program or the real PSAT, SAT, or ACT. They must then complete five lessons on the software, plus two sample tests, and a full-length exam. Then, if the student's new score on the real test isn't higher, the company will offer the refund.
The Princeton Review also offers a score satisfaction guarantee. The main menu on its excellent product is an animated high school corridor. Students click on doors with such labels as "math," "verbal," and "general strategies," to get deeper into the software. In the general strategies area, for example, students learn that there's basically no harm in guessing on the test, and that questions in each section of the SAT get increasingly difficult as you proceed. Princeton Review also identifies 300 vocabulary words that it claims show up year after year on the exam, including "abhor," "presumptuous," and "subtle." The program is also packaged with the Princeton Review's book "Paying For College."
To simulate a real test-taking experience, "Score Builder for the SAT and ACT comes with paper booklets that let a student put one of those famous No. 2 pencils to work. The program relies on two exam experts, Gary Gruber on the SAT and Barbara Budinger for the ACT (American College Testing Program), to help tutor you through the exam prep process. Students start out on assessment tests that help the program map out a strategy for teaching only the skills they need, without spending time on areas they are already good at. Having reacquainted myself with polynomials via the program's animated chalkboards, did I mention that I abhor the SAT?
Edward C. Baig

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