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CD Based Learning
The recent trend in ETS preparation
has seen a competition that has not been there for a long time. No, this is not
the competition between the premier and local colleges, this is not the
competition between various training institutes.
It is the competition between the media: The traditional book based learning
versus the new CD based learning.
The standard guides like KAPLAN, Princeton Review have come up with CDs but
still their main medium is the book. Many Internet companies came up whose
primary medium is a CD or a web site. Let us look at which is the better medium
of the two.
Let us first realize that ETS is switching to a computer adaptive test mode very
fast. GRE, GMAT and TOEFL are already computer adaptive. The rest will soon be.
I have already discussed the advantage of a computer adaptive test (CAT) over
paper based test (PBT) in my free GRE PowerKit.
So, from pure "right kind of practice" point of view which one do you
think is a better medium?
You can say, it does not take more than three to four hours to get used to the
interface and mouse clicking. But it is a lot more difficult to read the
material on the screen.
You see that is the point I am trying to make. You can learn the interface fast
but you need to practice a lot more to read comfortably on the screen. You must
do it as that is how your final exam is going to be presented. You should be
able to read long passages, interpret them and analyze the choices and answer
correctly.
ETS realized this difficulty and hence reduced the number of questions: You
needed to answer 38 questions in 30 minutes in the paper based tests where as
you need to answer only 30 questions in 30 minutes in the CAT. Quantitative used
to be 30 in 30 minutes before where as it is 28 in 45 minutes now.
Best of all, (analytical where reading is the most difficult) the number of
questions were increased from 25 to 35 (40%) but the time limit was doubled from
30 to 60 minutes (200%).
My marketing team has researched and discovered that the students who prepared
using CDs scored, on an average 200 points more than those who prepared using
books. I discussed our findings at great depth in "How to crack a tough
GRE" which is a part of the SuperETS kit.
200 points is a big difference. In fact, that can make or break your case. So,
it is very clear that by studying the entire material on the screen you will not
only learn how to answer a CAT exam, but also learn to read on the screen. That,
in fact is the biggest advantage.
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