SHIRLEE BLOOM'S
GREAT FRESH LATKES
ed to attend the University of
Wisconsin, and he agreed to pay her
tuition if she could find him a corn-
patible woman. She did, and it was
classmate Rita Gwirtzn -ian, who was
from Brooklyn. Together they had
three children — Nancy, Susan and
Paul. Paul died in 1991.
In the meantime, Kaplan's business
was flourishing and he continued to per-
fect his program. He eventually began
preparing students for the MCAT, for
medical school, LSAT, for law school
and GRE for graduate school.
"My business grew and grew, and
when I first found out I had an asset
of $1 million, I couldn't believe it," he
admits. "It never dawned on me that I .
could make so much money from
something I loved doing so much."
Vindication
they have never had that question
before. No, but you should be able to
reason out the answer even if you
have never seen the question before.
And, the students who benefit the
most are the ones who are the most
motivated. That counts for a lot in
succeeding."
Does Kaplan think there is too
much weight placed on these stan-
dardized tests? "No," he answers
quickly. "All of these tests test critical
thinking as well as your ability to rea-
son things out, and I think it's a good
indicator.
"But there really isn't that much of
a difference between 1400 and 1600,
which is a perfect score. 1400 means
you are in the 95 percent and 1600 in
the 99.9 percent.
"As you get higher up on the scale,
tests like the LSAT and MCAT are
more important, because they carry
more weight. They are finding that
the MCAT is a very good predictor of
success in medical school
and if you don't do well on
the test, you won't do well
in school. Of course, a
physician has to be good
with patients, too, and that
you can't tell on a test."
Unfortunately for Kaplan, there was
opposition from time to time, and he
was accused of fraud and
even faced lawsuits. Many
people felt the SAT's were
uncoachable.
He wound up taking
on the education estab-
lishment and Federal
Trade Commission inves-
tigations, and he was
ultimately vindicated.
"I had many fights over
this — people accused
me of being a fraud, say-
ing with the SAT's you
either have it or you
Kaplan himself was a
don't, you can't improve
victim of quotas.
your score," he says.
"But all these schools
and companies that were fighting
me, eventually turned about and said
`Yes Mr. Kaplan, you were right.'"
To date, there are more than 3 mil-
lion students nationwide who have
been prepped by Kaplan's program.
"That's why when I think of the
tragedy at the World Trade Center, I
wonder how many of my old students
died there," he sadly notes. "Many, I
am sure."
When asked what's the best advice
he can give someone preparing for the
SAT, MCAT, GRE, LSAT and other
such tests, he says do your work in
school because you have to have a
good background.
"If you don't know your basic
geometry, you will not do that well on
the test," he stresses. "I can't create
magic. You need a foundation and
then I can teach the students how to
think.
"Kids would come to me and say
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Legacy Of Philanthropy
In the late 1980's Kaplan
was made an offer he could-
n't refuse, and he sold his
empire to the Washington
Post Company. At that time,
his business was a $45 mil-
lion 'enterprise.
"Although I am basically
retired and not actively involved, I am
the chairman of the company and give
advice," he says. "And the company is
doing very well, with over 1,000 loca-
tions throughout the United States."
The proceeds of the sale went to
establish the Rita J. and Stanley H.
Kaplan Family Foundation, to support
health, education, the arts and Jewish
social services, organizations and causes.
In fact, at least one-half of the
money is allocated for Jewish causes,
including programs in Israel, non-sec-
ular Jewish day schools, Ben Gurion
University of the Negev, and the New
York City synagogue where the
Kaplan's are members.
Looking back, Kaplan says he is
proud to have made a difference in
education. "When I meet people, they
say you 'are the Stanley Kaplan who
founded and invented this idea of test
preparation?'" he says.
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