World Class Test Prep Instructor with more than 15 years experience - guaranteed score improvement

Background

I am an educator with a wide range of experience in the test preparation and college admissions worlds. I have worked for test prep companies big and small, received rigorous training as a teacher and as a test-taker, and honed my skills as a tutor in countless classrooms, living rooms, and virtual spaces around the world. My experience, expertise, and teaching style make me uniquely suited to help any student reach their highest potential.

I began tutoring when I was an undergraduate student in Boston. The major tutoring companies at the time didn't seem to care that I had no experience as a teacher, but instead were concerned with my personal SAT score, which was in the 96th percentile. With this credential in hand, I was hired, trained, and welcomed into homes and classrooms to prepare students for the SAT and ACT.

I quickly learned, however, that having a good SAT score and teaching others how to achieve a good score are two very different things. My ability as a test taker only helped students if I effectively communicated that knowledge to them, challenged them to go beyond what came easily for them, and inspired them to be the authors of their own education. I soon realized that I had a lot to learn about teaching if I was going to be the most effective tutor I could be.

Luckily for me, living in Cambridge, MA, I was surrounded by some of the finest educators in the country. I began attending seminars, offering myself as a teaching assistant, and signing up for every professional development opportunity I could find. I worked in high schools and middle schools throughout New England, developing curriculum and honing my skills as a teacher in the classroom. Eventually, I found myself working and training as a teacher at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, a nationally recognized leader in education whose innovative programs have been studied by Project Zero, a division of Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

The lessons learned in these years reshaped me as a teacher, equipping me with new tools, language, and ethics to use when working with students on any subject. I learned that education is more about inspiration than it is about passing on information, or as William Butler Yeats said, "not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." This lesson has served as the touchstone of my work in the classroom, and it is the center of my work teaching the SAT and ACT.

Since this pivotal education period, I have had many opportunities to put my teaching ethic to the test. In the late 2000s I left my first tutoring company to start my own, combining the lessons I had learned about standardized testing with those I had learned in my education training. In 2011 I took this combination of teaching skills to a small tutoring company in Pittsburgh, helping them to redevelop and refine their SAT curriculum. From 2013-2016 I went back to school, getting my masters degree and teaching at Northwestern University while continuing to tutor students across the country in the online space.

So here I am, 15 years later, and while I can still score in the top percentiles of the SAT and ACT, I am now an infinitely better tutor. Not only do I have many years of experience studying, working with, and examining the intricacies of each standardized test, but now I am armed with the teaching skills that ensure my expertise will transfer to any student with any learning style. It is this combination of attributes - a balance of rigor and playfulness, inspiration and information - that makes me an effective tutor in any setting. I love inspiring young people to be their best selves, and I look forward to working with you and your family.