The Knewton Blog

Here at Knewton, we make a lot of videos. Some have instructional content for students, some have information about our products, and some are made just for fun. (And no, you may not see the ignominious footage from our annual holiday party. That video will be released 75 years after all of our deaths.) But just in cased you missed any of our videos, we thought it would be fun to release our five favorite videos from the last year…. Read more

Posted in Inside Knewton, Knewton | No comments

Share on

Like any good startup, we’re always looking out for cool ways other businesses, be they big, small, new or established, are putting their public-facing image out on the web. Here are five of my favorite eye-catching company-made videos of 2011… 1. Google Flight Search  Sometimes, a very clear POV explanation of cool new features is more powerful than an over-edited, marketing-ish video. 2. Santa Uses Siri Getting a celebrity to endorse your product never hurts. 3. Meet the Class… Read more

Posted in Inside Knewton, Knewton | No comments

Share on

Knewton employs several dozen software engineers, all of them writing lines of code that bridge modular algorithms to…uh…okay, you caught me. I don’t really understand what they do. I’m not a coder. But that’s why I rely on guys like Trevor Smith to put into plain English what he and the tech team have been up to recently. Check out this video of Trevor explaining what it’s like working on the tech side at Knewton…. Read more

Posted in Inside Knewton, Knewton | 2 comments

Share on

In our “KnerdCast” series, we meet with entrepreneurs in NYC who are doing awesome things with technology. This week: a company that’s using powerful new hardware to keep older computers running and relevant. Check out the video wrap-up we made using Prezi; full interview text is below. Meet Jonathan Hefter. He’s the 25-year-old founder and CEO of Neverware. Never heard of him? Neither had anyone else for the year he was living in his parents’… Read more

Posted in EdTech, Education & Technology, Knewton, Startups | No comments

Share on

We’ll give it to you straight: this strategy for finding the average, or arithmetic mean, of a set of numbers isn’t for everyone. If you master it, though, you can save some serious time on extra-tough GMAT Quant questions. To show you how it works, Jen and Jess have to get a little “mean” in their exploration of averages. Don’t worry: Jen isn’t nearly this mean to Jess in real life.

Posted in Featured, GMAT, Quant Guide | 6 comments

Share on

Let’s face it: exponent rules can be bone dry. Hardly anyone gets excited about building out factor trees. Except for my good friend, RoboMath. With his sweet, autotuned voice and razor-sharp GMAT focus, RoboMath croons his way through tricky Quant questions like he was built for it. Because he was. Nate and I brought RoboMath to life at the latest Knewton Hack Day. Check out the rest of the projects here, and let us know… Read more

Posted in Featured, GMAT, Quant Guide | No comments

Share on

Dave Ingber is the Faculty Manager at Knewton. He also enjoys overly precise and intentionally pompous grammatical analyses of pop culture. The following is an overly precise and intentionally pompous grammatical analysis of a Mac’s love letter to Philadelphia Phillies 2nd baseman Chase Utley from the show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. (1) Dear Chase, (2) I feel like I can call you Chase because you and me are so much alike. (3) I would… Read more

Posted in GMAT, Verbal Guide | One comment

Share on

Dear Justin Bieber, Let’s get serious. Justin, you need to think about the SATs. Granted, you were very funny in that sketch with Tina Fey on SNL, and you have amassed a truly astounding number of Youtube subscribers. But despite what the Canadian government, your stylist, and your travel stylist might be telling you, famous people do go to college. Shaquille O’Neal. Bill Clinton. I’m sure there are many more. I have to be honest… Read more

Posted in Featured, SAT, SAT Tips, Writing Section Guide | 16 comments

Share on

David Ingber is Knewton‘s Faculty Manager, as well as an expert GMAT prep and SAT prep teacher. It all began with a high five. I was teaching an online class, and all 27 of the students in the class answered a difficult question correctly. In an attempt to form what I thought was the closest approximation of a congratulatory hand-slapping ritual with my students, who were attending the class from wifi hotspots and Ethernet ports… Read more

Posted in SAT | One comment

Share on

Knewton’s lead SAT Teacher, Sir David Ingber, decided it was time to disabuse (great vocab word — meaning to free a person from deception or error!) students of a few myths about the test. What time of day should you study for the SAT? When should you panic? What should you eat before the exam? After? Can you get a new seat on SAT exam day if the person next to you has onion-based body… Read more

Posted in SAT, SAT Tips | No comments

Share on