Announcing Knewton's SAT Boot Camp!

July 15th, 2010

Here at Knewton, summer’s been flying by. Mid-July? How did that happen?Did you promise yourself that this would be the summer of SAT prep? And yet—College Board blue book still unopened and collecting dust? Don’t despair.

Enter Knewton’s SAT Boot Camp!

Who needs another sunburn? Instead, spend August in Boot Camp—and learn the best ways to prepare for the SAT, as well as the rigorous college admissions process ahead. Our intensive, month-long program is designed to ensure SAT success.

The best part about Boot Camp? It’s FREE for the first 300 families to enroll.

As Knewton CEO Jose Ferreira puts it, “the idea behind SAT Boot Camp is to allow parents to take a more scientific approach to helping their kids prep for the test and the college admissions process as a whole.” Instead of relying on horror stories and homespun test tips from other parents, learn insider strategies from Knewton SAT experts—all of whom have aced the test and gone on to attend top schools.

The month-long program will feature four different webinars, during which students and parents will learn how to:

  • Develop a target list of colleges
  • Develop a calendar of deadlines
  • Budget for college costs
  • Set a study schedule for the fall

In addition to receiving free college tips and guidance, students will take practice tests and participate in “SAT workouts” to help prepare them for the big test in a more productive, time-effective way.

That’s not all. All Boot Camp participants will also receive:

  • A month of Knewton’s customized online SAT classes, streamed live
  • Personalized, one-on-one attention from top SAT teachers in every class
  • Weekly homework assignments supporting critical SAT concepts covered in class
  • Weekly webinars with inside information from college admissions experts

Don’t delay—spots are limited! Sign up today at http://www.knewton.com/satbootcamp.

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The Internet Learning Debate (in GMAT Prep Terms)

July 14th, 2010

Jesse Sternberg is a Content Developer at Knewton, where he helps students with their GMAT prep.

The other day, I was telling an older family member that I worked for an online test-prep company when he proceeded to launch into a Bill Cosby-style tirade against “kids today with the hippin’ and the hoppin’ and the clickin’ and the bloggin’,” and the internet’s overall uselessness as an educational tool. Undaunted, I asked him why he felt this way.

“Well,” he said, “There is simply no substitute for reading the great works of literature. Reading books helps boost students’ attention spans and allows them to build the reading comprehension skills they need. Furthermore, students must be familiar with the canon of English and American literature if they want to be taken seriously as part of an intellectual community in college and beyond.”
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10 Unexpectedly Fun Things About Applying to Business School

July 12th, 2010

By: Christina Yu

1. Suddenly Everything “Counts” Again: Miss the cool random stuff you did in high school to round out your “extracurricular profile”? Competing in the long-jump, publishing stories, running the class multicultural society, and starring in West Side Story? MBA programs select for interesting students with diverse interests (during interview season, you’re expected to name a few clubs you plan to join to help make student life more “robust”). So, if you traded in your pom-poms for pumps and power-suits and your voice lessons for Vault guides, the MBA application is an excuse to revive your inner high-schooler (just a pinch). It can also be a great reason to jump-start your involvement with a non-profit or even start one of your own. For those who don’t have leadership experience at work, there are creative ways to demonstrate management potential in your community. See a social problem out there? Now is the time to fix it.

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College Admissions Tip: Senior slide, senior slump, senior spring, senioritis

July 12th, 2010

Life shouldn't be a beach during senior spring

This post was written by Alex Khurgin.

Beware the “senior-spring” fallacy! It is NOT the case that you can “stop working” after submitting your college applications or even after being admitted to a college early-action or early-decision. Remember that almost all colleges do request your final transcript before you ship off to campus in the fall. And sometimes, the college will rescind an offer of admission based on this final transcript. A report published by the National Association for College Admission Counseling reveals that in 2007 over one-third of colleges and universities rescinded some offers of admission, and two-thirds of those schools did so in response to falling—not just failing—grades.

An engineer at Knewton relates the cautionary tale of a friend and high school classmate: “Timmy—not his real name—got into Williams College early decision, and had his life planned out: major in history, go to law school, then sip cocktails from a porch in Westchester into his golden years. But not wanting to burn out, Timmy decided to take a nice break, enough of one that his grades dropped from A’s to C’s and D’s, and Williams revoked his admission. He was forced to attend a regional campus of a much less prestigious institution.”
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Special Webinar Thursday Night: The 5 Most Common Mistakes Made by GMAT Students in India

July 10th, 2010

Confused by all the American idioms? Spending too much time on RC passages? Verb tenses off? The GMAT can be especially daunting for students outside the United States.

Our international team of experts will cover this topic from head to toe. Join them for this extremely helpful session. All your questions answered live at 11:30am EDT (9pm IDT) on Thursday, July 15. RSVP now!

Use the form below to sign up for this sessions. Space is very limited!

<br /> If your browser cannot view the form, you can email us at <a href=”mailto:support@knewton.com” mce_href=”mailto:support@knewton.com”>support@knewton.com</a> to register. Thanks!<br />

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A note from Monica: Summer Intern, B-school Student, and Bride-to-be!

July 9th, 2010

Hi, my name is Monica Punjabi, and I’m a Marketing/Business Development intern at Knewton this summer. I am also a current Wharton Business school student and soon-to-be BRIDE (on Labor Day weekend…. wow, I just realized how close that is!).

After spending 4 years in the corporate world (Investment banking at JPMorgan and then M&A and Strategy at Pearson, the education company), I knew I wanted to work for an innovative start-up in the education space during my summer off from Wharton. After some research, I landed on Knewton and was sold right away…I just needed to make sure they would have me!

I loved the company because:

1) The team at Knewton is amazing. They come from such esteemed and diverse backgrounds, and more importantly, they’re willing to open the door for me every time I lock myself out of the office (only 11 times so far!).

2) I actually really believe in the Knewton test prep products. After experiencing a horrific course during my GMAT prep days, I can say Knewton is far superior to any of the other providers out there.

3) The whole Knewton environment is empowering. Everyone is able to suggest ideas (even interns!) and actually implement them as well. I really feel like I’ll be able to make an impact on the company in the short time I’m here.

So, I’m thrilled to be spending my summer helping Knewton expand into new and exciting international markets. Well, that and juggling the photographer, decorator, caterers, and my fiance who is working full-time at Louis Vuitton (yes, I love his job) and attending the Cornell Executive MBA program on the weekends. (Did I mention we’re having a 4-day Indian wedding?)

In all seriousness, though, I’ve learned a ton already in my time at Knewton. I had no idea when I joined the company that 20% of Knewton’s student base is from outside the U.S. What’s more, there’s a great deal of potential for Knewton to expand its international presence even further.

I spent my first two weeks at the company interviewing current students and trial users. Not only do I feel like I’ve made a ton of new friends with my interviewees, but I’ve also learned a lot about what international students are looking for in test-prep. It’s no surprise that most of these students are looking for a 700+ score, but now I also realize that their problem areas are different from US students, given the native language differences. Luckily, Knewton can address all their problems (and no, I’m not just saying that because I work here!). So geared with my interview insights and extensive research on these markets, I’m excited to help Knewton continue to offer test prep courses that cater to these students.

For those of you with international friends, spread the word about Knewton! And for those of you that are international students, rest assured that we’re looking out for you, and want to make sure we offer what you need! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to wedding dance lessons with my fiance. I can’t have him stepping on my toes the whole night!

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LSAT Logical Reasoning in Real Life: Facebook "Friends"

July 8th, 2010

Every once in a while, LSAT Logical Reasoning can help you answer some pressing real-life questions. To see how, try out this sample problem.

Facebook Publicist: Facebook is a social networking website that allows people to connect with—or “befriend”—one another through a variety of online means that includes video-sharing, the posting of personal status updates, and the exhibition of private collections of photographs. The Facebook philosophy exploits the findings of a recent survey that has proven conclusively that humans have a pathological need to connect to as many other humans as possible. The same survey also showed that, despite the implications of the preceding statement, people tend to avoid maintaining real-life (non-online) friendships because of the gross demands these real-life friendships place on their time and lifestyle. In light of this information, we expect people to maintain friendships on Facebook that they otherwise would not maintain in real life.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the publicist’s argument?

A) The cited survey included a large majority of the internet population.
B) People often maintain Facebook friendships for business networking purposes, even when they would not cultivate such relationships in real life.
C) In real life, people’s flaws are often more apparent than they seem on Facebook.
D) A Facebook friendship is less time-consuming and interruptive of lifestyle than a real-life friendship.
E) The availability of a variety of interesting features makes people more likely to spend time communicating with their friends on Facebook than they would in real life.

Think you have it? Check out the answer and full explanation after the jump.

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Announcing the winner of our Alumni Hall of Fame Contest on Facebook

July 6th, 2010

This summer we kicked off an Alumni Video Contest on Facebook asking current and former Knewton students to share their stories.

We received a lot of amazing entries, so picking a favorite was tough. In the end, though, we had to give it to David. Hilarious premise, great delivery, and some really cool course feedback—all framed by a solid pop culture reference.

Without further ado, here’s David’s story. Enjoy!

Congrats, David! Enjoy the iPad. And thanks again to all our awesome students who entered…

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GMAT Prep in Real Life: Probability and the World Cup

July 6th, 2010

Kyle Hausmann is a Content Developer at Knewton.

If the background sound of your dreams over the last month has been the endless blowing of vuvuzelas, then you either have a really annoying neighbor or you are caught up in World Cup fever. At Knewton, we thought we could tie some of the football fanfare to probability. (Because that’s what we do here.)

So, here is a data sufficiency example:

If the probability is 0.7 that Uruguay will win any given match, and if the two semi-final matches are Uruguay vs. the Netherlands and Germany vs. Spain, what is the probability that Germany will win the final?

  1. The probability that Germany beats another European team in the semi-finals or in the final is 0.6.
  2. If they make it to the final, the probability that the Netherlands wins the Cup is 0.4.

The question assumes that the outcome of each game is independent from the others. Since we have independent events, we can multiply the probabilities of each event together.

First, we consider Statement 1 alone. With Statement 1, we know the probability (0.6) that Germany will beat Spain, a European team, and make it into the final. And from the prompt, we know the probability that the other team in the final would be Uruguay (0.7) or the Netherlands (0.3). Thus, the probability that the final match is between Germany and Uruguay is: 0.6 × 0.7 = 0.42. And the probability that the final match is between Germany and the Netherlands is: 0.6 × 0.3 = 0.18. (These add up to 0.6, which makes sense, because that is the probability that Germany makes it to the final.)

Now, we have to determine the probability that Germany wins each of those to possible games — we know that the probability that Uruguay wins is 0.7, so the probability that Germany would win is 0.3. That means the probability that the Germany vs. Uruguay final game takes place AND that Germany wins is 0.42 × 0.3 = 0.126. And we know the probability that Germany would beat the Netherlands, a European team, is 0.6, so the probability that the Germany vs. the Netherlands game takes place AND that Germany wins is 0.18 × 0.6 = 0.108.

By adding those two probabilities together, we cover all the possible outcomes in which Germany takes home the cup. So, the probability that Germany wins the final is 0.126 + 0.108 = 0.234. Since we know this from Statement 1 alone, the statement is Sufficient.

Now we look at Statement 2 alone. It tells us the probability that the Netherlands would win in the final match, were they to make it that far, is 0.4. But this tells us nothing about Germany — maybe the probability Germany makes it to the final match is 0 (sorry, fans). In that case, they certainly are not winning the whole thing; the probability of winning the final is thus 0, too. But maybe Germany has a great chance of making it. We just do not know from the information we have, so Statement 2 is insufficient.

(This would be answer choice A.)

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GMAT English vs. Regular English

July 1st, 2010

Sometimes reading a GMAT Reading Comp passage is like poring through the OED

Jonathan Bethune is a Content Developer at Knewton, where his grammar skills and ESL knowledge help students with their GMAT prep.

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” ~ Charles Mingus

In William Zinsser’s 1976 classic book On Writing Well, there is a section wherein the author discusses the problem of pompous language. He explains that, because of social convention, we are often expected to put on airs of eloquence with unnecessarily verbose speech. The example that most sticks out in my mind is that of the dentist. To his patient, he says, “Are you experiencing any discomfort?” yet were he working on his son’s teeth, he would simply say, “Does it hurt?”

Professional and academic life present us with numerous similar situations, moments where we fear that the simpler phrase would cast us in a bad light. Indeed there may be no surer sign of adulthood than having acquired the ability to say very little with a whole lot of words.

In this regard, the GMAT is in a league of its own. The language you find in Critical reasoning and Reading comprehension passages is often more excruciating than even the most inept dentist’s drill.
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