Kaplan SAT, ACT & PSAT Deluxe 2002

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CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by: Daniel Tynan
• Reviewed on: 07/16/2001

High school seniors worry about getting into the right school; their parents worry about how to pay for it. Kaplan Deluxe Guide to the SAT helps with both. Encore Software's $40 package includes study courses for the SAT, PSAT, and ACT tests as well as informative guides to colleges and financial aid. And although it's not as comprehensive as a Kaplan class, the software provides a whole lot of learning for a mere fraction of the price. And, unlike a live, six-week course, the software is available 24 hours a day and as often as you want. Talk about a no-brainer. This is a must-have for any college-bound teen.High school seniors worry about getting into the right school; their parents worry about how to pay for it. Kaplan Deluxe Guide to the SAT helps with both. Encore Software's $40 package includes study courses for the SAT, PSAT, and ACT tests as well as informative guides to colleges and financial aid. And although it's not as comprehensive as a Kaplan class, the software provides a whole lot of learning for a mere fraction of the price. And, unlike a live, six-week course, the software is available 24 hours a day and as often as you want. Talk about a no-brainer. This is a must-have for any college-bound teen.

On tour and bound for glory
The Kaplan folks know that no matter how intelligent you are, what really counts is how well you outsmart standardized tests. As a result, everything in this study software package--from its near-constant stream of jokes to its goofy interface--aims to build confidence, demystify the tests and make them less daunting.

The program opens on a cartoon scene showing a college-bound dude wearing a baseball cap backwards, driving a convertible, and zooming past the admissions building, the reference lounge, and the test center. Before you can even start to feel lost, video tour guide Caseem pops up to explain what you'll find in each building, then urges you to take a 30-minute diagnostic test to determine which areas you need to focus on.

Inside intelligence
You can skip the tour and go directly to the math and verbal lessons by clicking the dude's suitcase. Like the SATs themselves, Kaplan's lesson plans divide math prep into regular math, quantitative comparisons, and grid-ins (bubble tests) and the verbal prep into analogies, sentence completion, and critical reading. Each section is essentially a slide show with audio narration, cartoon illustrations, and the occasional pop quiz, all presented in a friendly, low-key style.

Each segment offers scads of invaluable time-saving tips. For example, instead of actually performing PEMDAS (which stands for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction) on a complex algebraic equation, it's often faster to find the correct answer by backsolving, or plugging in, each multiple choice answer until you find the one that works. And because the choices in SAT math tests always range from low to high, you can immediately eliminate two of them by starting with answer C--the one in the middle. This is the kind of stuff you wish your high school counselor had told you about.

As you complete each section, the program flashes interesting tidbits such as unusual mascot names (the Bryn Mawr Mawrters, the Stetson Hatters) or student nicknames for courses (Georgetown's Modern Foreign Government is known as MoFoGo). These small touches help keep things lively. Kaplan's customer support is also top-notch. The company offers a toll-free support line and generous hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., PT, five days a week.

Testing, testing
Once you've finished the lessons, you're ready to enter the Test Center, where you can take 10 30-minute practice tests or 5 versions of the PSAT or SAT (or 8 practice and 2 full-length tests for the ACT). Kaplan analyzes the results and explains each answer; it even shows you where you switched from the right answer to the wrong one or how well you did on the questions you took the most time answering. If you're really up for a challenge, you can set the program to play distracting noises, such as the sound of someone eating chips behind you. Continue reading

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