• About

LIVEdigitally

Reviewed: Pocket Prep for the SAT

Posted on September 18, 2005 by feeling entropy


I took the ETS PSAT (Pre-SAT) in 1995, then on to the real deal in 1996. My parents weren’t satisfied with the first score I got. The Princeton Review class they then signed me up for cost us $450.00. Meeting each Monday night in order to learn words like ‘perspicacious’ seemed to be their remedy to my poor verbal skills. Then I tried to give the SAT’s a good ol’ butt whipping in round two. Maybe a firm tap, needless to say, I did get into college.

Franklin and the Princeton Review got together and solved my SAT study problem. (Time to exult.) The Pocket Prep for the SAT tries to fulfill the need to buy electronic gadgets, yet feel productive at the same time. You know kids these days, if it doesn’t have batteries, a screen, and buttons, then it can’t be cool.

The unit comes with a durable Franklin carrying case, pencil, graph paper, quick reference card (for math equations and navigation tips for the unit), and the actual handset. Batteries are included, and I assume that they’ll last quite a while, as the screen isn’t color, nor is it backlit, and there is no audio.

With buttons A-E on the left hand side (used for multiple choice questions as well as other functions) and general navigation buttons on the right hand side, the study gizmo presents a nice large black and white LCD screen. A color screen on this unit would drive cost thru the roof and suck battery juice like a baby on a bottle. Hardware wise, I was not impressed by the navigation button. An up-down-left-right-select button is your primary means to navigation, but its quality is a hapless result of price-cutting.

The unit starts you up with four options, SAT prep, SAT Practice Test, Study Aids, and Settings. There’s plenty of options build into this palm pilot looking SAT guide. I figured that studying for the SAT should start out with SAT Prep. This section is basically a text file that gives advice, tips, and tricks about the latest version of the beloved test. “How to Crack the Critical Reading Section”, “Taking the New SAT”, and “How to Use This Device” are all found under this section. A quick read-thru of this prepared me for preparing for the test.

What Does the SAT Measure? If you’re like most high school students, you think of the SAT as a test of how smart you are. If you score 800 on the Critical Reading section, you’ll probably consider yourself a “genius”; if you score a 200, you may think of yourself as an “idiot”. You may even think of an SAT score as a permanent label, like your Social Security number. ETS encourages you to think this way by telling you that the test measures your ability to reason by claiming that you cannot significantly improve your score through special preparation. Nothing can be further from the truth. The SAT Is Not a Test of Reasoning “Closed Loop” The SAT is a test of how well you take the SAT.

With a boost of confidence, and the inside knowledge that Frances Brodsky, daughter to the vice-president of ETS, spent the summer after high-school writing questions for ETS tests I was pumped up to increase my score. On to the study aids! I prognosticate an increase in vocabulary, a sharpness of geometry and algebra, and a lot of my peers asking me why the heck I’m studying for the SAT’s.

There are four different “Tools”: Grammar Guide, Calculator, Drills and Exercises, and my word list. I was ready to add words to that list. My pursuit for a pastiche review of this product was going to come from this word study list. The grammar guide was stop number one for this SAT train I had going.

Facts About Verbs Introduction:
A verb combines with a noun or pronoun used as the subject to express a thought.
I speak English.
John speaks Spanish.
She spoke about it yesterday.
We have spoken about it before.

The SAT Prep is very munificent with information like this. All of the grammatical and spelling questions posed throughout my short lifetime were answered here.

“Q” is ordinarily followed by a “u” and one or more additional vowels. Eg. Query, enquire, question, quiet The only exceptions to this are a few place names and words of exotic origin. Iraq, Iqaluit, sheqel, qintar, qiviut, Chongqing, Qiqihar, qoph.

I haven’t heard of any of those “Q” words before, with exception of Iraq. I did heed that most of them sounded as though they were from a Spanish descent, or were capitalized making them the name of a place. Time to chalk that up to my Jeopardy memory bank section, and keep going.

“John runs like a professional track star.
John runs like the wind.”

The latter sentence is a simile, more of this is found under the Figurative Language section: Metaphor, Paradox, Puns, Onomatopoeia, Hyperbole, etc…

With my preparation for SAT preparation down, I was ready for some Drills and Exercises. SAT Word List Flash Cards, User List Flash Cards, Letris (that’s right, letter Tetris), Word Dozer, SAT Drills, and Grammar Quizzes awaited me.

I jumped on this Letris game before you could say the words “I don’t like studying”. With letters falling from the sky, and my thumbs ready I sang the infamous Tetris theme song out loud. “dun duh duh dun dad a dun…” This game let me down in more ways than one. Words had to be spelled from left to right and up to down. If I had a ‘w’ already down, and spelled the world ‘skate’ right next to the ‘w’, I would not be given credit for the word (‘wskate’ is not a word, but I’ve got limited space here!) the last problem I have with this game is something I’ve aforementioned. The goofy 5-way button just didn’t help this game. A word of advice, if Letris is your sole reason for purchasing this unit, the SAT Prep won’t satisfy your letter stacking desires. Look for an online Letris game or something of the sort.

Word Dozer was a bit better. You are a bulldozer. Slowly, letters appear and your objective: pushing/pulling letters into formations of words. Words which you form disappear, and points are awarded. Building diagonal words doesn’t work in this game either.

Enough games, I’m ready for some of the hardcore studying, on with the real deal. After messing around with the games and study tools, I jumped into one of the three full length practice tests. Each test is broken into 10 sections, math, reading, essay, and writing. All tests are given time limits, anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes are allotted depending on the type of test.

If I do not have any flour, I am not able to make cookies. If the statement above is true, which of the following statements must be true?

a) if I did not make cookies, I must not have had flour.
b) if I made cookies, I must have flour
c) if I have flour, I must be able to make cookies
d) if I was able to make cookies, I must not have any flour.
e) if I am not able to make cookies, I must not have any flour.

I don’t have a clue which answer is correct here. The SAT prep’s had no immediate feedback on the Practice Test. I could not tell which questions I answered wrong and which questions I answered correctly until after the section of the test I had just taken. It would have been nice to know if I was able to make cookies!

In the SAT Prep’s defense, there is a very detailed test result section once a practice test is completed. Information such as time spent, section number, correct answer, and your answer are displayed in list format. Each line is selectable so you can reference the actual question. This makes for a good follow-up study session, but requires discipline. There is also an explanation of why the answer is what it is, this feature was very helpful, and only hurt my pride a bit.

Having taken the actual SAT test myself, I can see a big difference between the SAT Prep and the actual Saturday morning test. Scrolling back and forth from the answers to the question for reference takes much longer on this device than on paper. This delay cut into my time ticker, and I wasn’t able to finish sections in a realistic period of time. I would have liked to have a bit more time tacked on for lack of quick paper shuffling. This also was a math issue when using the built in calculator. Flipping between questions and the built in calculator was difficult and unsatisfactory. I highly recommend a handheld calculator instead.

I went through an entire test in order to see how it would end up. I do admit, there were a few sections I answered “c” for each question just to speed up the process. The final readout of the test was very comprehensive. I liked the fact that I could see each question, the answer choices, and a brief explanation of how I should come to the correct answer.

Conclusion

The Pocket Prep for SAT is full of goodies:
Three full length, timed, sample tests
A ton of practice exercises
Even a few games
Complete carrying case

The SAT Prep’s downfall:
The most used button on the unit is probably the poorest part of the product.

In my opinion, I’d say that this product would be a great addition to the good ol’ pen and paper method of SAT preparation. I wouldn’t rely on this device as the sole means to study for the SAT test.

Thanks to Franklin and The Princeton Review for supporting this review.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Reddit

Related

Posted in Gadgets, General, Product Reviews | 1 Comment
« Revolution controller looks revolutionary
Programmer Board Games »

One thought on “Reviewed: Pocket Prep for the SAT”

  1. you got me! says:
    September 18, 2005 at 12:34 am

    so what was your score?

    Reply

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

Recent Posts

  • Back on the wagon/horse?
  • 11 Tips for Startups Pitching Big Companies
  • CES 2016: A New Role
  • Everything I Learned (So Far) Working For a Huge Company
  • And I’m Back…

Archives

Pages

  • About

Archives

  • January 2019
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004

Categories

  • Convergence (81)
  • Gadgets (144)
  • Gaming (19)
  • General (999)
  • Guides (35)
  • LD Approved (72)
  • Marketing (23)
  • Mobile Technology (111)
  • Networking (22)
  • No/Low-tech (64)
  • Product Announcements (85)
  • Product Reviews (109)
  • That's Janky (93)
  • Travel (29)
  • Video/Music/Media (115)
  • Web/Internet (103)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© LIVEdigitally
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.