Online Test Preparation Levels The Playing Field

By Dr Suzanne Dale Wilcox,

Educational Consultant

For the first time since the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) began testing students after World War II, the current — and growing — trend of web-based preparation for the test just may begin to level the playing field.

With the click of a mouse, students can access software online geared to helping them become more successful in demonstrating their verbal and math skills during the grinding three-hour test this May and June. Online SAT preparation is coming into its own, and this may be the first SAT administration where educators and parents can observe the results.

Software has been available for some time, and many students have availed themselves of this avenue as well as of tutoring and intensive courses to prep for the tests, geared to measure a person’s verbal and mathematical aptitude.

But what about getting ready at one’s own computer, using free or minimal cost preparation? What is out there to assist them and how good is it? What is the advantage, if any, of web-based preparation over tutoring and classroom approaches?

Online, students can work at their own pace and on their own schedule. Good software can develop highly personalized reports so students only work on areas where they need help. Products designed with students in mind have the potential for enhanced design and audience appeal.

But do they exist? The only concern here for parents is having a genuinely motivated student who will proceed along the diagnostic and prescriptive pathway that most software designers favor and which has long been the practice in education.

What does this mean, practically speaking? It means the student starts by taking a test, after which the software program diagnoses the areas of weakness in his or her skills (for example, geometry-based work problems, for example of biology vocabulary).

Following this exercise, the student is encouraged to focus on that area until they better understand it, usually judged by another diagnostic test. Students can focus on areas of greatest academic weakness.

What Is Available

Without question, your first stop on the quest for free SAT skill builders should be “The Study Hall.” This site is available on line at http://www.rampages.onramp.net/~studyhal/sat.htm. This is a veritable treasure trove of free SAT preparation software, available free, and is definitely user friendly.

Students can practice vocabulary readiness on a section of the site known as Mystery Novella, a somewhat corny but still captivating mystery story incorporating thousands of vocabulary words.

Study Hall takes apart and explains in depth every variety of SAT problems, both verbal and math, and can be extraordinarily helpful if used assiduously by its student clients.

The only negative seems to be an abundance of excellent links. They are almost too luring, enabling the user to send free electronic greeting cards and alas, distracting a student from the essential work at hand, that of preparing for that all-important exam.

Another opportunity on the Web, components of which are free, is an excellent site to help students de-brief and more closely understand the composition of the SAT verbal and math sections. Available at http://www.lessonhelp.com, this site gives the student free practice tests and access to a free Question Board.

However, to utilize the Test Preparation Center portions of the web site, students must enroll and make payments of either $9.95 a month or $99 per year. This is still a bargain when compared with the cost of courses or tutoring.

A company called Powerprep offers both fee-based and free software on its site, located at http://powerprep.com. The free, downloadable software includes SAT Strategies, SAT Diagnostics, VocabMaster!, Lite and SAT Classroom software.

The classroom software covers analogies, sentence completion, comprehension, decimals, percents, equations, algebra, fractions, exponents and story problems. There is a Tip of the Day page, resources to help you find the right school, land strategic guidelines for taking the SAT. It’s worthwhile site, even if you do not decide to buy anything.

The only requirement of these programs is that you complete an online registration. Many other resources are made available to visitors to the site.

The College Board itself also gives advice on its own exam, at http://www.collegeboard.org, including an SAT Question of the Day and tips and strategies for getting ready. It even includes explanations of the types of questions you can expect from the actual administrators of the test.

Turbo Grad recently launched its college-prep web site and a host of 24/7 online, customized services geared to give everyone equal access to SAT test-taking strategies, test analysis and personalized attention.

Available at http://turbograd.com, the company is reaching out through its software to help students in a number of ways. Prior to the May 6 SAT tests, TurboGrad will offer all of its premium services, including a full-length web-based course, at no charge to students. Students can also call a toll-free SAT hotline at 800/700-4SAT seven days prior to each test, where experts will answer questions regarding the SAT.

After the current offer, TurboGrad will continue to offer its free services to students in need via its Turbo Scholarship program.

Presumably, once the site is totally launched, TurboGrad will commence charging students who can afford to pay for access to the test preparation site. In doing so, the company is competing in the e-Learning business with the classroom-based courses offered by test-prep companies such as Princeton Review, Sylvan and Kaplan, as well as with the burgeoning private-tutor industry.

The industry is indeed burgeoning. This week, close to a million high school juniors and seniors will step up their preparations for early May and June administrations of the SAT. Anxiety will undoubtedly run high, and preparation will escalate among those eager to gain entry into the nation’s most selective universities.

This year, since these institutions have received more applications than ever before, those in the know will try even harder to increase their scores, aiming for the perfect 1600 score.

Since the web approach is so new, many parents of college-bound students will send their children to specially designed courses — those conducted by Princeton Review, Kaplan and Sylvan Learning Center. These companies have made themselves accessible on the web as well, offering registration, information and even instruction online.

Kaplan (http://kaplan.com), whose nearest site is in Stamford, charges $849 for its 12-session program, including three sessions of diagnostic testing, designed to prepare students for actual testing conditions. In September, Kaplan will conduct a program at Immaculate High School in Danbury, and at New Fairfield and Bethel High Schools.

At $879, The Princeton Review (http://review.com/college) course costs a little more, but it also touts smaller classes and a $279 refresher course once the student has taken the original course. Kaplan does not charge for the refresher course. In June, Princeton Review prices will increase to $899.

SCORE Prep (http://www.scoreprep.com), an offshoot of Kaplan, offers one-on-one tutoring for students in packages ranging from $899 for eight lessons to $2,199 for ten lessons plus two review lessons and nine SAT II lessons.

Colleges rely on SAT scores as an objective measure of student aptitude. However, a steady stream of research points out that the SAT score of a student predicts only two things with great accuracy: Success in the first year of college and potential for success on other standardized tests.

As anxiety mounts and the pressure to get into that selective institution increases, parents are willing to pay more to get their students slots at top institutions. But will the online approach change all that? Time will tell.

(Dr Wilcox is an educational consultant at College Advisory Services in Danbury. Along with researching online SAT prep methods, she works with families to assist with the college search and financial aid process.)