Prep pioneer Kaplan launches Podcast Series

By Jessica Kinsey

Kaplan has launched a new podcast series that will allow users to get expert insight on high-stakes entrance exams, financial aid, the shifting admissions landscape, workplace recruiting, and more from their ipod.

The series of downloadable audio clips, which will be accessible via Kaplan's site www.kaptest.com and iTunes and free to all, will include perspectives and timely advice from testing specialists, experts at top-tier universities, leading corporations and high-achieving peers.

In just a year, "podcasting" -- a term coined from iPod plus broadcast that refers to the transmission of audio files downloadable from the Internet -- has gone from a little-known technology to the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2006 Word of the Year.

The Kaplan series has kicked off with podcasts for LSAT takers which provide instant post-test exam analysis, including inside information on the test's ambiguities (such as which segment was the "experimental" section), insight into pacing and test tactics that proved effective, advice on what to do in a variety of scenarios, as well as feedback to students from peers on test anxiety and test rituals.

The post-test podcasts available at: http://surveys.kaptest.com/instantanalysis/lsat have already been downloaded nearly 15,000 times and are the most downloaded items on the Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions site.

"Over the years, our students have always been at the forefront of new media applications as they come into popular use, be it DVDs or online services or mobile phones, and have responded enthusiastically when we've adapted these applications to be relevant to their needs as students," said Ben Baron, Vice President of graduate programs at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.