Before The Princeton Review got its hands on the Internet, it was a pleasant place for teens, a place where you could chat with friends, blog your adolescent angst, download music and movies, and just generally procrastinate and enjoy a few hours of blissful brain death.

Now, thanks to a partnership with Ohio University, the Princeton Review has sucked all the fun out of the online realm by offering SAT prep sessions on Ohio University’s virtual Second Life campus. So now, after spending the day at school taking AP classes and running themselves into the ground extracurricularly, overachieving high schoolers can come home for the night and send a virtual version of themselves back to school. Dude, give the poor overscheduled kids a break.  

Here’s an excerpt from their press release:

The Princeton Review has teamed up with Ohio University to offer students virtual reality with benefits. The avatars can travel around the Second Life world and to the SAT event tent in free virtual Princeton Review branded roadsters. The SAT sessions will take place in a special event tent, and there will be information kiosks set up around the Second Life world where avatars can accumulate free virtual collectibles, as well as information about The Princeton Review, and event dates. Learning about the SAT in a virtual world
brings an educational component to the video-game-like experience.

So not only do you get information on the SATs, you also get a groovy little roadster and sweet swag with which to trick out your virtual pad. It’s almost like they’re trying to trick people into being excited about the SATs.

I’ll admit it’s a clever idea to get an online-oriented generation to focus on preparing for college, but let’s remember what we’re dealing with here. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing exciting about standardized testing, especially when it involves limited bathroom breaks. Your avatar might be able to attend a prep session in your place, but the exam itself still needs to be taken in person.

It might be more convenient for some teens to attend a prep session online than in person, but kids (and their parents) these days are more focused on getting into college than any generation before them. Do they really need one more way to burn themselves out?

And what if your avatar looks like a - pardon my French here - ho-bag? Won’t that leave a bad impression on your virtual teachers and classmates, even if you’re an intelligent, clean-cut student in real life? Things can get a little messy when virtual and real life personalities intersect.

If you’re interested in checking out a Second Life SAT sesssion, there’s one Thursday January 31st at 8pm EST:

It includes a 15-20 minute presentation, followed by a Q&A session, and will feature two Princeton Review teachers in virtual form. Important information about the SAT, including testing dates and content, sample questions and answers and general information about the SAT and the ACT, and the college admissions process will be covered. The virtual SAT strategy sessions are located on Ohio University’s Second Life Virtual Campus and can be reached at www.princetonreview.com/secondlife. The campus also can be found bysearching for Ohio University in Second Life. (www.secondlife.com).

If you check it out, let me know how it goes - I’d be interested to hear.

And in the meantime, because having memories of my own frenzied junior and senior years of high school dredged up on a Friday afternoon is super annoying,  here’s Pink Floyd’s "Another Brick in the Wall."

Thanks a lot, Princeton Review. Way to angry up my inner rebellious adolescent. Do not even get me started on the SAT II, because that will lead to The Ramones and there’s no going back from there.