Test-review companies bicker
Organizations
say false claims
inflate results
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
Two of the nation’s leading test
preparation companies continue to
accuse each other of using false score
improvement claims and flawed meth
ods to gather results.
Kaplan Education Centers, which
has centers in Lincoln and Omaha,
and The Princeton Review, which
will open a Lincoln center in the fall,
offer preparation courses for SAT,
LSAT, MCAT, GMAT and GRE tests.
The two companies brought their
dispute to an arbitration panel, which
convened last Thursday.
The panel recommended that The
Princeton Review change its method
for finding out how effective its pro
gram is, but company officials said
the panel approved its new results.
John Katzman, president of The
Princeton Review, said his company’s
former result-gathering method,
which involved sending postcards to
all its 70,000 students, saw about a 25
percent response.
The postcard method showed that
students who took the SAT had a 123
point improvement, he said.
The new method, which is used by
Kaplan, involved random calling of
about 100 students, he said, and
showed a 127 point improvement on
the SAT.
Kaplan representatives said The
Princeton Review “blatantly made
false claims.”
Melissa Mack, spokesman for
Kaplan, said The Princeton Review
had no proof to back up its improve
ment claims.
“The Princeton Review has a his
tory of using unsubstantiated claims,”
she said. “They misconstrue infor
mation.
“The Princeton Review is not an
ethical company.”
Mack said Kaplan came to The
Princeton Review inJuneofl993 and
threatened to sue if the company did
not sign an agreement to stop false
advertising and bring their improve
ment scores to arbitration review.
Katzman said The Princeton Re
view brought a lawsuit against Kaplan
for a false advertisement in “US News
and World Report” and then decided
to settle the dispute by arbitration
instead of tying it up in the courts.
Kaplan serves about 150,000 stu
dents per year, Mack said, and wants
to enforce high ethical standards
across the industry.
“Our primary concern is the stu
dent. That’s who we serve,” Mack
said. “It’s very difficult for students
to make well-informed decisions if
the marketing information out there
is misleading.”
Kaplan’s sole interest is in adver
tising and public relations because it
is losing its SAT market to The
Princeton Review, Katzman said.
“It’s apples and apples,” he said.
“Look at all of their kids and all of
ours. Whatever your improvement,
it’s your improvement.
“If you want it to be higher, run a
better course.”
Katzman said Kaplan lost about
$15 million trying to match The
Princeton Review’s growth.
“We’re doing our best not to talk
about how corrupt and pathetic
Kaplan is, because it’s not our style
to badmouth the competition,”
Katzman said. “The reason we’ve
grown so fast is because we run a
better course.”
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code of conduct change
By Melanie Brandert
Staff Reporter
ASUN senators voted Wednesday
to uppose a proposed change to the
student code of conduct regarding
the storage of firearms and other
weapons on campus.
The change
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quired UNL stu
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ons at the Univer
sity of Nebraska
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The current policy forbids the use
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