Test-Taking iPhone Apps for High School Students

The SAT Connect app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is an incredible resource for SAT test prep. Watermelon Express created a great universal app with online access that is instantly updated through one tap on the sync button. The SAT Connect app starts with a baseline test that helps to guide your individual course of preparation. Your child can choose to focus on specific test skills, strategy, vocabulary, practice questions, and full tests. Since the SAT Connect app syncs with all devices, you can access your up-to-date progress at any time. This app is comprehensive in scope and reflects the complex process of successful test-taking. Despite the depth and breadth of the SAT Connect app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, it allows your child to create a customized prep course quickly and easily. I snagged the SAT Connect app during a sale, but the $9.99 price tag provides one of the best values among all of the apps in this list.

One of the most valuable skills in success on the SAT and ACT revolves around your child’s retention of vocabulary. The SAT VocabAhead app for iPhone and iPod Touch has more than 1,000 words presented as flashcards. The flashcards have a cool graphic illustration for visual learners, as well as the definition and part of speech. You can quiz yourself with alphabetical or shuffled lists. You can share your successes via Facebook. The SAT VocabAhead app for iPhone and iPod Touch is easy to navigate and would also serve as a fun cocktail party game for nerds.

The IQ Test Lite app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is an excellent app to hone specific testing skills. Your child can explore specific topics like general analogies, verbal analogies, logical reasoning, and pattern recognition. You can also choose a mixed test mode. One of the impressive features is the timer for each question. The clock is an important aspect to test taking, and your child is constantly reminded with a 60 second timer presented with each question. Your progress is also tracked and can be monitored with one touch on the screen. The IQ Test Lite app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad would also compliment students who are fiercely competitive with high school academic teams. It is a great buy for the free price tag.

The SAT Question of the Day app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad should be downloaded immediately, if you have a PSAT and SAT student at home. This app is produced by the same CollegeBoard who makes the SAT. The app is free, and it has one question per day. If you haven’t accessed the app for a few days, you can access the missed days’ questions as well. The SAT Question of the Day app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad allows your child to study a little a lot, and for many students, frequent study in short intervals can be extremely effective.

MyPrepPal: SAT Critical Reading app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad provides a thorough foundation for success in reading comprehension. The app links to video tutorials that discuss specific test-taking strategies for all sections of the SAT. From the home screen, your child can also access drills to enhance vocabulary capacity, identify sentence structure, and comprehensive reading techniques. Flash cards for vocabulary words are presented in a fairly unglamorous, but informative manner. Overall, the flash card section is less impressive than the skills sections. Progress is monitored from the home screen as well. MyPrepPal: SAT Critical Reading app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad does a nice job of providing strategy and techniques for building skills, but aesthetically, it leaves a lot to be desired. Your child may stumble over how ‘80s it is, and not in a good way.

PrepGame app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad addresses basic math questions in a game format. Currently, there are only three types of math questions available involving integers, percents, and probability. Your child can choose which topic to study, and the questions are presented with a timer. If your child is unable to answer the question in the allocated time, then it automatically moves to the next question. As your child progresses, the questions become more difficult. Success is calculated a la video games with ridiculously high point totals. Theory, strategy, and explanation are not addressed in this app. The PrepGame app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad tries to make test-taking prep fun and may very well appeal to your child. As a parent, you’ll want your child to have more resources than this app provides.

The BenchPrep app for iPhone, iPad, and online access provides essentially the same user experience as SAT Connect, but with the extremely hefty price tag of $99.99 for the SAT. The quantity of its information and resources is impressive, and one free download allows you to buy virtually any exam. Like SATConnect, this app has everything your child needs to develop a customized, comprehensive test-taking study course. Your child can review types of questions, hone specific skills, study flashcards, quiz, test, and monitor progress all from the BenchPrep app for iPhone, iPad, and online. The BenchPrep app incorporates study groups and other social integration tools to allow your child to connect with others preparing for the same test. The BenchPrep app is a free download, but it’s extremely expensive to maximize the use of it.

To continue with the theme of frequent study, the Vocabology app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad gathers the word of the day from several prominent online resources and presents them from the home screen. The Vocabology app also includes words in different languages like Spanish, French, and German. Your child would benefit from studying all of these words, as the roots of many of these words can help him or her break down an unfamiliar word on a test. Exposure to Latin and Germanic roots could mean the difference between a total guess or an educated guess on test day. The Vocabology app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is an enhancement to test preparation and its brevity would make it a favorite from a testing weary child.