Earth Day Savings Extended!
We had an overwhelming response to our Earth Day promotion and have decided to extend the offer!
Call 1-877-PREPME-4 by April 30th and we'll give you a coupon code for 10% off any of our courses.
PrepMe’s new Classroom
Hey everyone,
I wanted to write a quick note and let you all know that PrepMe has released a brand-new version of our test preparation classroom. Our engineers have been working around the clock to get the new online classroom ready for our students, and we're happy to declare that their hard work has paid off!
In addition to all of our existing features, our new classroom comes with an updated user interface, an entirely new testing experience, and an enhanced reporting infrastructure so that our students can track their progress more closely than ever before. And for the techies out there, we've also launched a number of backend improvements to make the experience faster and far more scalable for our users, and will soon be launching a brand new version of our partner API.
So sign on and see what's new, and keep your eye out for a number of brand new features rolling out in the next few months!
PrepMe Celebrates Earth Day
Dear Friends,
April 22nd is the 39th celebration of Earth Day. It is an event that knows no national boundaries nor digital barriers. All efforts to preserve our planet, no matter how small, can make a difference. On Earth Day, April 22, 2009, we are asking students and parents to join us in picking the environmentally responsible test prep solution: PrepMe.
Using PrepMe's online test prep instead of commuting to classroom-based PSAT, SAT, or ACT classes reduces fuel consumption, decreases air pollution, reduces carbon dioxide emissions, and reduces our society's dependence on paper materials. These are just a few reasons why we believe PrepMe is the greener way to go.
PrepMe is offering services at 10% off our regular prices for one day only! You can take advantage of this promotion by enrolling at http://enroll.prepme.com or calling us at 1-877-PREPME-4. The 10% discount will be applied automatically when you enroll.
This promotion is good until 11:59PM Pacific Time, Tuesday, April 22nd. Please feel free to distribute this promotional offer to friends and family.
Sincerely,
Listen Up for Better Scores
Drum roll please! PrepMe PSAT and SAT students will now be able to listen to their course while they work through it! We are always looking to make our courses more effective, and our user research showed us that narration not only increases student engagement, but it also helps many students retain more knowledge. The newly narrated content has been received overwhelmingly by the students with whom we tested this feature, and we're excited to now release it to all of our students.
When we first started this project, we obtained proposals from numerous firms but one narrator stood out: Johnny Heller. Johnny is an Audie Award winning narrator with over 300 audio book titles to his credit, was named one of the Top Voices of the 20th Century, is a 2008 winner of Publisher's Weekly Listen Up Award, and a part time stand up comedian. With a resume like that, it is easy to see why we picked Johnny to narrate our courses!
We are currently working with Johnny to create narration for our ACT courses and will be working towards even better and richer media integration for all of our new programs (shhh, we cannot tell you what that entails yet). You will see us enhance all of our courses with more media and give our students more ways to learn using high-quality curricular materials personalized to meet each individual's needs.
Thank you to Johnny and Spencer (editor and technician) for helping us launch PSAT and SAT course narration! We're thrilled about this launch and excited for the many additional upgrades we have coming in the next few months.
If you are already a PrepMe student, you can check out the new lessons by logging in at www.prepme.com/classroom.
Best,
Karan Goel
CEO and Co-Founder
PrepMe in Maine year 3!
We're excited to announce the launch of the 2009 PrepMe for Maine SAT Program! Today kicks off our third year of working with Maine public high schools to help 11th graders raise their scores on the SAT and improve their chances of winning scholarships and getting into college.
As part of our partnership, every public high school 11th grader in the State of Maine is enrolled, at no cost to the student, into PrepMe's SAT Gold Course (which generally retails for $299.99 per student). This course, which offers personalized curriculum and over 60 hours of lessons, quizzes, and full-length practice tests, has been shown to dramatically improve SAT scores.
How can Maine 11th graders get started?
1. Visit the PrepMe Maine Page at: http://www.prepme.com/maine.
2. Click "Claim Account" and follow the instructions to verify that you are a Maine public high school 11th grader.
3. Create a Username and Password.
It's that easy! To login, students should visit the PrepMe Login Page at: http://www.prepme.com/classroom.
Students begin by completing their Diagnostic Exam, which allows our system to analyze the student's individual strengths and weaknesses. Following the Diagnostic, students select "Saturday May 2, 2009" in the drop-down box and click "Update Test Date". This will allow our system to create a personalized study plan for the student to follow week to week. After that, students simply follow their schedule en route to a higher score on the May 2, 2009 exam.
PrepMe Partner Program
This year, we are also launching a new initiative called the PrepMe Partner Program. This program is an opportunity for Maine high schools to work closely with us to integrate the PrepMe program into the classroom and to drive tremendous results. Partner Schools receive extra support, training, and access to online tutors. If your school wants to become a Partner School, please call us at 312-265-6446 or email us at maine@prepme.com.
Special thanks goes out to the Maine Department of Education for their continued support.
Good luck Maine 11th graders! We are excited about the opportunity to play a valuable role in your academic and professional success.
Best,
The PrepMe Team
PrepMe Wins Chicago Innovation Award
We are pleased to announce that PrepMe has been selected as one of ten winners of the 2008 Chicago Innovation Awards. We are very excited to be recognized alongside giants such as Abbott Labs and newer companies such as Flashpoint Academy. We are also very honored to be in the company of 37 Signals and FeedBurner (startups for whom we have a deep respect), winners of Chicago Innovation Awards in 2006.
Though we have tens of thousands of users, we know we have a long way to go to reach our long term goals. Thank you to everyone who has supported us and believed in us, and thank you especially to the thousands of PrepMe students and parents around the world!
You can read more about us and hear an interview with our Co-Founder/CEO at BusinessWeek: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/08_43/B4105chicago_innovation.htm
Awards Ceremony - The Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL
PrepMe Chicago Team Members (left to right):Karan Goel, CEO; Calvin Truong; Eric Bjerstedt; Felipe Chor
Not pictured: Rick Bolton; Avichal Garg; Ryan Oblak; Sammy Shreibati; Madhavan Thirumalai; Aneta Turek
PrepMe Online Classroom v2.0
Hi everyone,
I wanted to write a quick note and let you all know that PrepMe has released a brand-new version of our test preparation classroom. Our engineers have been working around the clock to get the new online classroom ready for our students, and we're happy to declare that their hard work has paid off!
In addition to all of our existing features, our new classroom comes with an updated user interface, an entirely new testing experience, and an enhanced reporting infrastructure so that our students can track their progress more closely than ever before. And for the techies out there, we've also launched a number of backend improvements to make the experience faster and far more scalable for our users, and will soon be launching a brand new version of our partner API.
So sign on and see what's new, and keep your eye out for a number of brand new features rolling out in the next few months!
Welcome Eric!
Eric Bjerstedt is the newest member of the PrepMe team. Eric will be working as Curriculum and Tutor Manager for PrepMe. He will be driving our content creation process, as well as managing and recruiting top tutors from Stanford and the University of Chicago. Eric is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, where he majored in Linguistics.
Eric was also a PrepMe tutor during his time at the U of C -- he did such a good job we had to have him full-time! Since he's become intimately familiar with our courses and the process of tutoring students online, we will look to him to take our content to new heights and develop an even more compelling online tutoring experience.
We're very excited to have Eric join the full-time PrepMe team, and are expecting great things from him in the near future!
PrepMe Featured on TechCrunch
Introducing our new Operations Manager
Hey guys! I'm Calvin and I'm the new Operations Manager at PrepMe. I'll be handling customer service and tutor operations so that each and every student gets a high quality experience. I, along with Ryan, just started full-time a little less than a month ago and I must say every minute has been great thus far. I also interned at PrepMe last summer and part-time during my last year at the University of Chicago where I obtained my Bachelor's in Economics.
As Ryan pointed out in his earlier post, the score improvement report is definitely something to check out. I was directly involved in the research for that project so I would highly recommend going through the report, understanding our methodology, and realizing the PrepMe difference is in the numbers! Also, one of the great things that doesn't come across in the report is the amazing response we have received from students. Through the process of contacting students and talking to them about their PrepMe experience, I was delighted to hear great feedback such as:
"The lessons really connected with you and that made it a lot more fun while you were studying. Everything was really straightforward. They would break everything--the critical reading section, the math section, the writing sections would all be broken down into the types of questions you would expect on the actual exam."
(Priya from CA)
"PrepMe was a last-minute call for my October SAT testing date but it sure was helpful despite the minimal preparation time. I felt that the essay feedback from a qualified tutor was crucial, as I got a perfect 12 after only three weeks of PrepMe!"
(Yamini from NJ)
These are just two of hundreds of positive comments I have heard from our students. I look forward to hearing thousands more now that I am a full time at PrepMe!