Studying for the SAT test, with an iPod download that offers practice quizzes.
Three interactive programs from Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions are for sale at iTunes for downloading to iPods with video screens. The programs were released last week, giving vacationing students plenty of time for practice quizzes before the next test date in October.
The three programs, in critical reading, mathematics and writing, correspond to the three graded sections of the exam. The programs cost $4.99 each and are available in the iPod games section of the iTunes store alongside slightly more entertaining, if less educational, options like Tetris, Pac-Man and Lost: The Game.
“Learning styles have changed a lot since Stanley Kaplan founded Kaplan in 1938,” said Kristen Campbell, the national director of SAT and ACT programs for Kaplan. “Students take their iPods with them all the time, whether they’re in a car driving to baseball practice, or at home, or sitting at school waiting for their parents to come and pick them up.”
The programs include about 1,000 practice questions and hints and strategy sessions on subjects like “Top 10 Test-Taking Tips” and “SAT Math Basics.” They can be used only after being downloaded to an iPod, not in iTunes. The company also recently introduced a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/kaplan) and a series of vocabulary-building manga, or graphic novels.
But Ms. Campbell does not expect high school students to entirely forsake their books and tutors in favor of playing with their iPods on the beach or taking digital quizzes during coffee breaks on the summer job.
The iTunes downloads are “a great supplemental product,” she said, adding that Kaplan recommends that students continue to use traditional classroom and tutoring preparation. “Keep in mind that the SAT is a pencil-and-paper-based test,” she said.
