September 7, 2006

Web can help high schoolers, collegians with tests, more

Kim Komando, Gannett News Service

Back-to-school shopping lists should include more than clothes, cell phones and electronics. Educational Web sites and software are important, too.

But finding age- and grade-appropriate educational sites for the students in their late teens and 20s isn't easy. Most sites are geared toward early education and middle school.

The following are sites and software that should help high schoolers and collegians:

1. Standardized tests. The ACT, SAT, GMAT and GRE are sure to put fear in the hearts of your high school or college senior, but the tests are necessary for college admissions.

Traditional test-preparation courses, such as Kaplan (www.kaptest.com) and The Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com), can range from $100 to well over $2,000. They also have online classes. You won't save much online, but schedules are more flexible.

Some Web sites provide free practice tests, tutorials and test help. However, they do not provide as much personalized help as the pay services.

MajorTests (www.majortests.com) has a number of practice SATs and GREs. Number2 (www.number2.com) has free tests for the ACT, SAT and GRE. And 4Tests (www.4tests.com) has free online exams for a number of high school and college standardized tests.

2. Research it. Researching major papers requires trips to the library. But the library closes; the Web never does.

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) and Windows Live Academic (http://academic.live.com) both specialize in academic and scholarly journals. Both sites are in testing phases, but work well enough to be useful. Windows Live Academic has mostly indexed computer science and engineering journals. Google Scholar draws from a greater variety of journals.

Using the sites is similar to a regular Web search. If you type in a few keywords on your subject, you'll get the title, author and other information on articles, as well as links to the articles.

Not every article listed is available online, but you'll have enough bibliographic information to find them at the library.

3. Cite it. Mastering the different styles of writing for high school and college isn't easy. APA, Chicago and MLA all have different rules for formatting and citing information. And buying the various manuals to learn the styles isn't cheap.

The fictional Dr. Abel Scribe Ph.D. (www.docstyles.com), created by graduate students, can help. The site offers free guides to APA, MLA, Chicago and other styles. Purdue also has free style guides at The Owl (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl).

Anyone who has struggled with headings, a table of contents and page numbers knows a style guide can only help so much. Fighting with your word-processing program can be more frustrating than writing the paper itself.

There is software available that works with your existing word processor to help create properly formatted papers. Reference Point Software Templates (www.referencepointsoftware.net, $28; Mac and Windows) works with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works and Corel WordPerfect to create APA- or MLA-style papers.

Wizards for Students (www.wizards4word.com, $55; Windows) is a plug-in for Word that formats papers in APA, Chicago or MLA style. And Microsoft offers free Word templates in MLA style (http://office.microsoft.com).

4. Education Discounts. Your high school or college bookstore is also a good source for software. The software and hardware you find there are often deeply discounted.

Or, online stores such as Academic Superstore (www.academicsuperstore.com), Computer Products for Education (www.educational-software.com) and School World (www.logisoft.com) offer huge savings. And the savings aren't restricted to educational software. For example, Adobe Photoshop lists for $650, but costs less than $300 for students and teachers.

Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.

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