csmonitor.com - The Christian Science Monitor Online
 
(Photograph)
Courtesy of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

How to prep for the SAT while taking a shower

Or on your iPod, or by reading a comic book. Preparation can be easy – but is it worthwhile?

(Photograph)
Comic test: Test-prep giant Kaplan has joined with Japanese comic-book maker TOKYOPOP to publish manga-style comics loaded with vocabulary words to study.
Courtesy of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

Page 1 of 4

Teens who plan to prep for college-admissions tests this summer can find a plethora of ways to make it fun and flexible.

Want to study in the shower? Lose yourself in a comic book? Take a quiz on your iPod? Or how about rocking out to some songs that stretch the lyrics just a tad in order to be educational?

Test-prep giant Kaplan has paired up with publisher TOKYOPOP to offer a series of manga novels (Japanese-style comics). Released earlier this month, each of three popular stories was rewritten to include more than 300 words commonly tested on the SAT and ACT. (Cost: $9.99.)

"Van Von Hunter" stars a raven-haired hero who vanquishes evil in the land of Dikay. In just the first few pages, you'll find words like "inviolable," "nefarious," and "subvert." Underlined words are de­­fined in a box on the same page.

"By having the combination of the visual story and the words popping out on the page, students can ... really retain the words, versus just memorizing a list," says Kristen Campbell, Kaplan's national director of SAT and ACT programs in New York. With librarians and even classroom teachers tapping into this popular genre, she says, it made sense to add it to the test-prep options.

With iPods becoming ubiquitous, last month Kaplan started offering downloads to prep for the reading, math, and writing portions of the tests (at $4.99 each). The audio/video segments include strategy sessions and customizable quizzes.

If you'd rather stick to more entertaining options for your ears, plenty of music CDs can make those tough-to-remember definitions sink in.

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next Page

Get Monitor stories by e-mail:
(Your e-mail address will be protected by csmonitor.com's tough privacy policy.)

Photos Photos of the Day
The best photos from July 23, 2008.

ELECTION '08 Patchwork Nation
The American voter beyond red and blue

FISHERIES Empty Oceans Series
The sea is no longer so vast.


Daily podcast

Monitor Reports

Pat Murphy hosts today's podcast with Monitor reporters from around the world.


Today

Pat Murphy

In today's podcast, we focus on the Monitor series "Cuba: Winds of Change." Pat Murphy has a conversation with Monitor staff writer Matthew Clark.




Today's print issue
Today's Issue of The Christian Science Monitor