1. Preparatory courses are a good if somewhat rudimentary option that many students can benefit from. And yes, they are often much cheaper. However, for the truly gifted student or for challenged students standard preparatory courses are simply insufficient.
2. One reason: many of these courses are not taught by professional educators with the skills, the knowledge and the experience to take your child to the next level. Most of these types of businesses rely on under-skilled personnel – many are still students themselves.
3. Some courses are little more than a review of a $20 textbook you could have gotten on your own. In other words, don’t expect more than a review of the basic course material.
4. Lack of flexibility – In an effort to standardize procedures, many tutoring companies do not allow any deviation from the assigned texts. Without the flexibility to spend time working on your child’s particular strengths and weaknesses, true mastery of the subject matter is often elusive.
5. Missed classes – Missed classes are lost classes and wasted money. And why risk your child falling behind? A private tutor can reschedule cancelled appointments at your convenience.
6. Your valuable time – Traffic. The price of gas. Wear and tear on your car. Compare that to the convenience of having a tutor arrive at your home for your child’s lessons.
7. Your home – What environment can be better for learning than your own home?

1. Tutoring should begin after your child passes the Math A Regents or is graduating the 10th grade, whichever comes first. Excellence at anything (tennis, piano, golf, weight-lifting, etc.) takes a lot of time and effort. These exams are no exception. Summers after 10th grade are generally the best time to start.
2. Increased acceptance – Some top colleges have as low as a 10% acceptance rate under regular admissions deadline but under the early admissions deadline many of these same colleges have as high as a 40% acceptance rate. Your child’s early preparations may make the difference in getting accepted or not.

1. Why wait? There is no advantage to waiting for PSAT^® scores – with the right work now, your child’s future scores will most certainly improve with professional tutoring.
2. Wasting valuable time – PSAT^® results take months to come back to your child’s high school. By the time results are distributed (usually December) and explained (sometime in January) and don’t forget holidays in between, you’ve already wasted several months.
3. Short time – The window of opportunity to prepare for these tests is not very long.
4. The more, the merrier – Any preparation prior to the PSAT^® is good and it will help students in class, but it may not be enough for truly top level scores.

1. The test wording for the ACT^® is clearer and easier to understand. This test is generally considered much more straightforward than the SAT^®.
2. College scouts encourage kids with athletic or other talents to take the ACT^® test in addition to the SAT^® and then they submit the best score (higher percentile) for college admission. It’s just another chance to help your child get into the right school.

The best time to take these tests is whenever the College Board offers the Question and Answer Service. These tests allow your child – and their tutor – to see both the questions and their own answers, to review correct answers and to strengthen their overall scores.

Last year the Question and Answer Service was available in October, January, and May.

1. Chemistry – Some tutors, including me, will meet with your child for a free half hour consultation to see if the chemistry is right.
2. References – Ask for several references within a 10-50 mile radius of your home. Even the world’s best tutor won’t be right for you if he’s not available in your local community.
3. Results – Ask tutors to share the results of their students with you. In other words, how well did their own students do?
4. Documentation – Ask your tutor to provide their own test scores on documentation provided by the College Board itself. Why would you hire a tutor who scored less than perfect to teach your child?
5. Credentials – What are your tutor’s qualifications? Schools attended? Years of experience? Extra qualifications?
6. Testimonials – Don’t ask the students what they think, ask their parents.
7. You get what you pay for – If you want the best, be prepared to pay for it. Those “Too good to be true” prices some tutors promote are often exactly that. What’s better, paying a lot for quality tutoring that makes a difference or paying a little for tutoring that doesn’t do much at all?

    Simply put: We are the best and we back it up with results.

• We offer you and your child a free half hour consultation.
• We have dozens of references from local parents and students.
• Parent to parent – Ask how well their students did and on each test you are interested in tutoring for.
• Perfect or near perfect scores for many of our students.
• Perfect scores for our staff – Documented and original test results from recent tests, (3 perfect SAT^® scores in Mathematics, 2002).
• Credentials and Experience – Ivy League graduates (Columbia University and others), some with over 20 years of tutoring/real-life teaching experience.