Often seen as necessary evils, the SAT and ACT can feel like the boogeymen of the college application process. But despite their unpopularity, they can be studied and overcome. Just as any new swimmer struggles to perform a back float on their first day, any inexperienced test taker cringes before seeing their first set of scores. After a concerted and intelligent effort, however, that athlete will swim a mile; that student will achieve a life-changing result. Our approach repeatedly produces circumstance-changing score growth—our students averaged an increase of 295 points on the SAT in 2023, and one improved by 470.

SAT/ACT study should begin as soon as the student has completed both Algebra I and Geometry or during the summer after grade 10—whichever comes first.

Our proven strategy

Discovery session

We employ our discovery sessions as force multipliers: when a student holds a personal stake in the outcome, she gets more out of each part of our curriculum. Transforming from a passenger into a driver, she becomes an active player in her skills growth.

Each test-taker has a different goal: perhaps it is to master a given sub-section, enhance their application, or achieve a perfect score. The purpose of our discovery sessions is to help our students find their why—their internal motivations that contextualize the greater testing journey. We use those motivations to orient the study process as part of our students’ larger narrative of success.

Defining goals

After a discussion with each student on their admissions goals, we collaboratively formulate a desired quantitative benchmark for each section of the test. Any test-taker who contributes the necessary time and effort can achieve a top score.

Custom score report

We continue with an analytical evaluation of the student’s current skills, using it to create a comprehensive score report that reveals their greatest learning priorities. Our analysis breaks down each question of the test into the granular concepts necessary for a correct answer, ensuring that we precisely identify the student’s challenge areas. We rank these areas based on the student’s potential for points improvement—for example, understanding verb tense is ranked higher than understanding comma usage if the student is losing more points on the former.

Personalized plan

To us, effort is worthless if applied without direction. Using your student’s learning priorities, we create a customized schedule of instruction that culminates before their final test date. Their schedule utilizes spaced repetition, which optimizes session time around their least competent subject areas. Each learning session is a feedback opportunity; your student’s schedule adapts to their progress based on their tutor’s commentary.

Knowledge and drilling

Through focused private instruction, our students learn the concepts and problem-solving techniques relevant to their improvement areas. Homework assignments, which complement their core academic obligations, reinforce what they learn in session. Once your student has mastered the material, they begin engaging real questions from previous tests with an emphasis on accuracy over mindless repetition. Each student evolves from completing small untimed problem sets to taking on full-length timed practice tests.

SAT

We are best known for our students’ improvements on the SAT, which averaged 295 points in 2023. Our students earn scores which consistently exceed expectations, whether they face learning differences, test anxiety, or they are determined to achieve an elite score. Alongside their score increases, our students report long-term increases in confidence and academic skills.

Our online learning platform is particularly suited to the Digital SAT, whose virtual tools reflect the skills that we have taught for years. In addition to problem-solving capacity, our test-takers learn the strategies to ensure that their scores reflect the true extent of their academic knowledge.