Status Active Distribution Worldwide Headquarters location New Jersey, United States Country of origin United States of America | Founder Need Nonfiction topics Standardized Tests Founded 1965 | |
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Parent company Courier corporation Dover Publications is sister company Publication types Test Preparation Guides Parent organizations Courier Corporation, LSC Communications Inc | ||
The Research & Education Association is a company which publishes educational and test preparation materials, both in print and electronic form.
History
REA was founded in the late 1960s as an educational publisher, concentrating on problems and solutions, or what we'd call Test preparation today. The company's products at the time were published as paper texts, and REA trademarked the term "Problem Solver" for their early titles. They published about 1,000 page problem/solution books of the type now called test banks, exam prep or solution manuals, covering an extensive variety of topics, and advertising them as suitable "for any text or test." The problem solver series eventually encompassed over 30 topics with more than 28,000 problem/solution sets, including Differential equations, Electric circuits, Electronic circuits, Pre calculus, Calculus, Advanced calculus, Algebra and trigonometry, Physics, Linear algebra, Statistics, Organic chemistry, Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetics, Geometry, Chemistry, Probability, Materials strength, Heat transfer, Economics, Robotics, Discrete math, Fluid mechanics and dynamics, Numerical analysis, Optics, Topology, Electronic communications, Operations research, and several others.
The "problem solver" series is still being marketed in 2016 through Dover Publications, their sister company and through Amazon. Some of these original texts have grown outdated with changing technology and practice, whild others, such as Electrical circuits, are about topics which have not changed much since the '80's, and are still of use. Many of the older test banks and publications have become available free or at low cost electronically online.
Reflecting modern study practices, REA more recently has focused on providing online services and a study center, online test sims and banks. The company has specific modules for high attendance test preparation, including GED, CLEP, Advanced placement, ACT, SAT, and other widely taken tests. The online test banks contain millions of problems, and individual test prep bank may include audio and video.