Studying for the Medical College Entrance Exams (MCAT) is tough enough apart from being an expensive undertaking. Now comes a software that makes it easier to find out what you don't know and helps fill the gaps.

Creators at Learning Accord, Inc., a New York-based company with an Indian subsidiary, say they've created the "world's first and only fourth generation knowledge management system" and have filed a patent for it.

It's called "CLEARS for MCAT" where CLEARS stands for Computerised Learning Evaluation and Review System.

Called the first "Bi-Directional with Artificial Intelligence Private Tutor", it's not cheap, costing close to $800, but Shyamal Sarkar, CEO of Learning Accord, said it has been BETA tested on hundreds of students over the last one and a half years, incorporating criticism and feedback from them.

"CLEARS evaluates the knowledge base of a student and the knowledge transfer is done according to the capabilities of the student studying for MCAT," Sarkar said.

"We tell the student to go with the 'evaluation mode'... so that he or she does not waste any time in studying and fills his or her gaps in knowledge".

Sarkar said his company did an extensive search that showed no such software existed though similar more simplified ones have been used in preparing for exams like GRE.

"But we go beyond that, we not only find out the lack of knowledge, we also provide the knowledge based on their need. That is our proprietary technology."

The software is being unveiled Jan 30 at the Hindu Temple Society of North America's New York City location in Flushing, Queens, and will be addressed by among others, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.

Several district, state and national leaders have confirmed they will attend, including US Congressional Representatives Gregory Meeks, Gary Ackerman, Anthony Weiner, New York State Senator Malcolm Smith, New York Assemblyman William Scarborough, New York City Councilpersons John Liu and James Gennaro, New York District Leader Uma Sengupta, and New Jersey Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula.

"We took about three years to physically develop it, but the concept emerged 10 years ago with India's (Retd) Admiral B.R. Vasant who started working on it when the programme was only in DOS stage.

"Now we can go with a website and the power of memory is higher, so we have brought it to market," Sarkar said. The company is already marketing some similar products in India for entrance exams there.

Learning Accord used some 60 professors and 30 programmers, both in India and the US, to develop the product. The CLEARS CD contains a knowledge base of 42,407 questions based on 7,031 concepts.

"Now we are ready to go full swing."

Indian singer Usha Uthup has endorsed the product and created two songs for CLEARS' marketing, Sarkar said.