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Health & Fitness

How Helpful Is that SAT Prep App? (Part 2)

Part 2 features a helpful app that also has a YouTube Channel.

This is the second in a series of reviews of iOS applications for SAT preparation.  I have no affiliation with either of them.  My aim is to inform those of you who may be wondering if there are apps out there worthy of your study time.   The applications so far have ranged from slightly helpful to very helpful, but I would not recommend relying on an app as your sole preparation support.  If you are studying independently, work through an SAT skills workbook (see my previous post on why I like McGraw-Hill), and buy a pack of pencils to use as you practice, practice, practice.  Pick up the College Board’s Real SATs and set aside a lot of Saturday mornings!

 

1st app: MindSnacks SAT Vocab (iPhone)- free for one level

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If I were to sum up the MindSnacks app in one word, it would be “cute”.  There are cute animal characters, fun music and creative games to play.  You can invite friends to play as well.  Will you actually get a decent vocab workout?  Well, despite giving the designer(s) credit for incorporating antonyms and pictures, the answer is “no”; I think it’s best to look elsewhere for helpful vocab drills.  The definitions are too short and the words repeat too often.

Pros: This is fun and feels like a game.

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Cons:  This feels like a game.  SAT practice should feel like work.

Grade: C-

 

2nd app: SAT Reading Lite by  PrepInteractive (iPad and video on YouTube), free

This is the most well-developed app I’ve come across; it has clearly been created by an SAT Prep business, and they have a YouTube channel as well.  I spent about 30 minutes using it and found some good and some bad aspects. Here are my observations:

The starter menu has four categories:  ”Video”, “Progress”, “Drills”, and “Flash Cards”.  I tried the videos first, and with some reservations, generally recommend watching them.  

To start, I chose the video: “Reading Prep: Eliminating Answer Choices.”  The presenter explains the value of eliminating wrong answers and demonstrates using the skill on an example, “Who was the 32nd President of the United States?”  He narrates as he eliminates answers he knows, with common knowledge, are wrong (e.g.: George Washington, Michael Jackson, Barack Obama).  This is well done.

Next video: “Long Passages”

Again the presenter is very clear in his instruction- I just don’t agree with what he is teaching here.  He starts off well by teaching that a test-taker does not need outside knowledge to handle these academia-based, topic-specific passages.  But I don’t agree that it is a good idea to read the questions first and then skim the passage; you won’t be able to handle the “main idea” and "tone" questions easily if you do that.

Next video : “Math- Using the Answer Choices”

The presenter describes an alternative way to “find x” in certain Algebra equations.  This is a great time-saving technique for these kinds of questions and he presents it really well.

Next video: “Writing the Essay”

The presenter verbally explains tips on how to approach the essay.  He suggests a five paragraph essay that is clear, well-developed, has a thesis and examples. Generally he points students in the right direction.  (He does mention a “catchy sentence” in the introduction, which I don’t find helpful and may intimidate the viewer.)  While his tips are sound, he should have written *something* on his white board to help get his point across.  Ideally that would be an example of a thesis or an outline planning the paragraphs. (or that mysterious "catchy sentence).

Moving on from the videos category, I chose “Drills” in the starter menu.  Options include, “Vocab Rootology”, “Vocab Wordology”, “Sentence Completion”, and “Reading Passages”.  I started with “Rootology” and the subcategory, “Define the Root”.

This was a timed, multi-choice quiz of the definitions of roots such as "sub", "hetero", and "fore".  While it is not a drill in the true teaching-sense of the word, it was a good quiz.  When a correct choice is selected, that choice turns green and the next question starts.  When it is wrong, it turns red and the correct one turns green.   Each question is timed.

Curious about how this set-up could help practice reading, I clicked on the “Reading Passages” subject next, specifically, “Understanding the Passage.”  This was my favorite of the “drills” since it was a creative way to get students to practice the important skill of decoding the tone/purpose in what the author is writing.  Also worth mentioning is the clever tactic in their sentence completion drill; a sentence with a blank is offered, and the player must decide if the tone has changed direction with that whatever fills that blank or stayed the same, before they have to choose an actual word.

Finally, I tried the “Flash Cards” option in the Menu.  There are “easy”, “medium” and “hard” options for words to review.  Each card has a word on the front, then a definition, a thoughtful example sentence, and synonyms on the back.  But as I mentioned in my previous post, vocab study should include a visual and sound element.

All in all, this was a very helpful app for those looking to learn tips and practice test taking skills.

Pros: This app has clever presentations aimed at the core SAT test-taking skills.  This free version includes a variety of very helpful drills and video tutorials.  They also have a math version of this app that I have yet to try.

Cons:  Their tips on reading long passages are controversial and won’t work on certain questions.  Their essay video is very limited.

Grade: A-

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