Testimony 2
Grade 12 / WA, USA
Neurotypical
We always assumed that my student would go to a college that did not require any test score. But when his school counselor belatedly told him that a good SAT score could not only get him into a 4-year university but also potentially a scholarship, he desperately wanted to find out a way to get ready and take the test, all within just about a month. A family friend recommended Jay, with whom their 10th grade daughter was studying with.
My student had only taken the PSAT last year, for which he had gotten 1270. We had no idea where he stood at this point, so when Jay heard about his situation, at first he wasn’t sure if his team had enough capacity to take on such an urgent responsibility. But after he talked with my sudent and together tinkered around with a few test problems, he sternly projected that, with a strategic approach, my student could potentially reach the high 1300s (but likely not 1400), within the available time. My student was determined to give it a try, so we decided to give it a shot.
For 3 weeks, they primarily on two things – building habits that can keep him from making careless mistakes in math, and shaving time off of reading passages. For math, they found out that my student often makes mistakes when solving a particular kind of algebra problem, and put together some step-by-step rules to memorize and use. He also introduced my student to his colleague in South Korea, whom he called a “critical reading wizard,” that taught him quite an interesting way to quickly read passages.
In the end, my student scored almost exactly as Jay had predicted. He didn’t get the scholarship that he had wanted, however, but he was able to get into a much better school than he had initially thought of.
Before: PSAT 1270 (Reading & Writing 690 / Math 580)
After: SAT 1370 (Reading & Writing 750 / Math 620)
