US: Comic books to help pass the test

Most American universities demand the results of a standardised test called the SAT before a student can be considered for admission. Students and their parents spend millions of dollars on courses to prepare and train for the legendary test.

The students traditionally dread the test prep and parents dread the dollars dropped for the books and the companion hours of nagging to get the kids to study.

Now American test prep publishing giant, Kaplan is trying a new, and eminently more seductive and unconventional version of the test prep books: manga, Japanese style comic books with potential SAT vocabulary highlighted with definitions in the margins.

The idea to use this unlikely medium of extravagantly drawn characters and pseudo-mythic story lines for SAT vocabulary prep started when school librarians touted the popularity of the print cartoon genre at a testing conference several years ago.

Kaplan, hoping to bolster its already lucrative slice of the test prep market that was worth $US18.5 million in 2006, joined with a Los Angeles comic book company, Tokyopop. Manga sales to young people in the US have grown in popularity by 20% over the past year so the collaboration seems to have been a perfect marriage.

Although Kaplan added to some of the existing manga vocabulary to make it consistent with the vocabulary commonly used on tests, the stories of warriors, witches and sci-fi characters were untouched.

Caped heroes, monstrous creatures with magical weapons spout words such as “delineate” and “collusion” in heady sentences such as “The village scouts believe he may be in collusion with the former prince!!”

Kristen Campbell, national director of SAT programmes for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, said the combination of the eye-popping visuals with the vocabulary helped students remember the words.

“Kaplan recognises that not all students learn the same way and multiple methods are helpful,” Campbell said. “So these books are designed to supplement the traditional material because the three to four hour standardised tests are a pencil and paper sit-down of which vocabulary is just one aspect.”

Although Kaplan has no official numbers, anecdotal information indicates that students seem willing to study their manga books and parental and student feedback so far is positive. Since the manga vocabulary books are supplementary and not an isolated tool, the success of the using the genre cannot be measured nor have universities weighed in yet with their opinions.

Kaplan has no immediate plans to expand the pop culture prep books to its graduate and professional tests prep programmes and, for future law student Amelia Wegner, that is probably a good idea.

Hunched over the Kaplan standardised law school version of the SAT, the LSAT, in a Washington, DC cafe, Wegner shakes her head “No” when asked if she would like a pop culture version.

“That’s fine for university entrance exams”, she says but she can’t imagine a parallel version working for the law school exam. “The LSAT is so difficult, so complex even if the test prep used my favourite magazine, The New Yorker, with its great cartoons, there’s nothing that could make this material any easier to take!”

Still, the comic book approach to get admitted to university may mean that students preparing for the SAT will no longer balk at studying or have to barricade themselves in their rooms roaring, “Rrrargh!” while shuffling vocabulary flash cards with a swoosh! Titles such as Warcraft:Dragon Hunt and Van Von Hunter may make it easier to persevere for hours and tolerate learning 300 new words.