Kaplan, the nation's leader in test preparation, admissions and career services, announced SAT RoadTrip Multimedia last week at E3. A fun and entertaining program that takes the stress out of preparing for the SAT, Kaplan's SAT RoadTrip Multimedia includes everything a student needs to prepare for the test. The new software will evaluate a student's academic skills and preferences, create a personalized study plan, provide extensive practice opportunities and deliver detailed feedback on each user's performance.
SAT RoadTrip Multimedia is the first multimedia product in Kaplan's best-selling RoadTrip series. Users navigate through the program from behind the wheel of a vintage car whose dashboard features a variety of tools for improving test-taking skills and planning the college admissions process.
Wrapping humor around an in-depth package, SAT RoadTrip Multimedia includes analysis of students' academic and test-taking skills; practice tests and drills with instant feedback (additional tests are available through links to America Online and the Internet); and a "Secrets of the SAT" section that covers strategies for beating the test. The title also features a "tutor" mode that trains users to think like the test maker, and lets users compare their scores to the average scores at more than 800 colleges.
"We've built upon our best-selling RoadTrip series to create the next generation of test preparation software," said Robert Greenberg, general manager of Kaplan Interactive. "As more and more students turn to computers and software to prepare for the SAT, Kaplan is leading the way by offering fun and engaging products that break new ground in interactive studying and learning."
SAT RoadTrip Multimedia offers a personalized study plan that provides a major advantage over competing products. Different for each user, the plan is developed based on how much time the user has to prepare, the user's strengths and weaknesses, and the level of importance placed on the verbal and math tests.
Each lesson is introduced with a colorful video clip describing the various question types. For example, the introduction to the Sentence Completion lesson is set at Alcatraz in San Francisco (where prisoners complete their sentences). Two hip college students, Malindi and Kasim, appear on video to guide students through each lesson, injecting helpful hints, common questions and humorous chatter. The program also makes extensive use of animation to keep things on the lighter side.
Kaplan's entire RoadTrip series, including SAT RoadTrip Multimedia, is the only software which provides students with critical information on their test-taking skills, evaluating their behavior in areas such as guessing, answer switching, pacing and confidence.
Other features of SAT RoadTrip Multimedia include:
SAT RoadTrip Multimedia will be available in August at an estimated street price of $30. The CD-ROM will be available from leading computer and software resellers for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 and Macintosh System 7.01 or higher operating systems. For Windows, the product requires a minimum of a 50 Mhz 486SX, 8 MB of RAM, color monitor (640 x 480, 256 colors), doublespeed CD-ROM drive, sound card and speakers. For the Macintosh, the product requires a 68040 processor with 8 MB of RAM, color monitor (640 x 480, 256 colors) and a double-speed CD-ROM drive.
Kaplan Educational Centers is one of the nation's premier educational companies, with 185 centers and 1,000 classroom sites throughout the U.S. and abroad. In addition to its nationally recognized test preparation courses, Kaplan now offers admissions services, student loan information programs, career services, individualized study programs for grammar school students and assessment tools for universities and businesses. Kaplan, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), has served 2.5 million students.