Mr Test Prep

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The best candidate for my tutoring program is student for whom my approach resonates. [See: Methodology] If it doesn’t feel right to you, then it probably isn’t right for you. In order to give prospective students an opportunity to try out the Mr. Test Prep approach before making any kind of financial investment, I offer a full, two-hour trial session, free of charge. During this session, the student and I spend some time getting to know each other, and the student works through a diagnostic test. Not only will the trial session give me a better idea of where the student struggles, but it also gives the student a taste of my tutoring style and offers a glimpse into how things work here at Mr. Test Prep Headquarters.

After the Free Trial Session, I have a phone conference with one of the student’s parents to discuss how the diagnostic went and recommend a test prep plan that fits the student’s needs. During this conversation, I’ll offer the family a score satisfaction guarantee and discuss financial assistance, if necessary.

If the family feels I’m a good fit, then we can set up the first paid session. If not, I’m happy to recommend another local tutor who may align more closely with what you’re looking for. The last thing I want to do is strong-arm anyone into working with me, even if that means giving business to one of my competitors. After 18 years in the business, I’m 100% convinced that my approach is the best way to prepare for standardized testing, but some parents want something more traditional, and I fully support that decision.

Cost Each 2hr session is $250. Practice tests are free of charge. Investments of time and money vary from student to student. Depending on the score improvement desired, my test prep services can cost anywhere from five hundred to six thousand dollars.

Payment Policy Our policy is “pay as you go”. We do not invoice: however, we are happy to accept advanced payments or will create a payment schedule if necessary.

Skype Sessions Skype sessions are available for students with special circumstances or challenged by the commute. Skype sessions are 2 hrs long and $250.

Where Classes are held in a studio space at my home: 787 Cereza Dr. Palo Alto, CA 94306. Phone Number (650) 575-5867

When Free Trial Sessions can be scheduled on Thursdays at 3:30pm or 5:30pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 12pm or 2pm.

Regular sessions are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3:30pm or 5:30pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 10am, 12pm or 2pm.

If you would like to speak with me prior to your Free Trial Session, see Contact Page. Be sure to include your phone number and a time you would liked to be reached. Otherwise, schedule your Free Trial Session by filling out the form that follows.

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stand behind the fact that the Mr. Test Prep program can help almost any student achieve the score increase he or she is looking for. I am so confident that I offer my students a score satisfaction guarantee, which allows them to continue to attend Mr. Test Prep, free of charge, if they aren’t fully satisfied with the results.

How does the Score Satisfaction Guarantee work?

Based on your student’s diagnostic test results, score goals and standardized test history, I will estimated the maximum number of sessions I think it will take to get the SAT/ACT* score you’re looking for. After we have exhausted that number of sessions, if you are not completely satisfied with your student’s test results, he or she can continue to attend Mr. Test Prep—one tutoring session each week, no limitations apply—totally free of charge. Because you don’t have to pre-purchase a set of sessions, this places all of the commitment on Mr. Test Prep.

Moreover, compared to other guarantees in the test prep industry, this offer is not contingent on “verified” completion of homework assignments or practice exams, so as long your student attends the prescribed number of sessions, we’ll either get the scores you want or we’ll keep working at no additional cost. This offer puts a reassuring ceiling on your financial commitment to test prep, but there is no ceiling on the amount of time I will commit to making your desired test scores a reality.

* The Score Satisfaction Guarantee is only available for SAT and ACT test prep programs.

Why do I offer a guarantee?

Much like an athlete who prepares tirelessly for the big race but fails to perform up to expectations, well-prepared students cannot be 100% guaranteed that they’ll get great results on test day. Sometimes forces outside of their control conspire against them. An illness, an argument with a friend, a poor night’s sleep or even an unprepared test proctor can prevent students from reaching their maximum score potential. Fortunately, the SAT and ACT are offered once every couple of months, giving students more than enough time to regroup and take another shot at a successful outcome. Recognizing that even the most dedicated students sometimes suffer from uneven performance—poor results for one test, stellar results the next—I began offering this guarantee to not only reassure parents that they won’t be on the hook for an infinite number of sessions, but also because I want my students to know that I believe in them and the program I offer.

I was raised in Rhode Island, where my parents ran a chain of popular nursery schools. Watching my mother, affectionately known as “the Mother Goose of New England,” and her positive impact on countless youngsters have certainly shaped my way of relating to both teenagers and adults. After high school, I attended Duke University on a partial music scholarship and graduated in ‘91 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Music. While studying Psychology, I learned that success in life (as well as success on standardized tests) is much more about the timely entrance of peak performance states than it is about any particular ability or talent. My education and continued interest in the psychology behind such performance states are key components of my approach to tutoring. Additionally, as an accomplished musician, I am aware of the positive impact music can have not just on mood and health but also on academic performance, a phenomenon know as the “MOZART” effect. As a singer-songwriter, I am well versed in an artistic process that rewards openness, flexibility and receptivity. These lessons learned from years of music and songwriting inform my tutoring, as I aim to affect my students in an inspired and creative way, a phenomenon known as the “MR. TEST PREP ” effect. After college, I moved to California and started working for an SAT tutoring company. Along the way, I saw flaws in its methodology and thought I could bring more successful strategies to the test prep process, strategies which I have been refining since 1997. To date, I have prepared over 1500 students. I Love what I do. Not surprisingly, when I was little and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my response was not Astronaut or Policeman; it was “MR. TEST PREP “.

ONE MORE THING: I LOVE BASKETBALL! GO BLUE DEVILS!

When I started out as an SAT tutor almost 20 years ago, I worked for one of the big chain companies, and I learned something that very few tutors will admit: since students almost never apply themselves to test prep homework, it’s almost always a complete waste of time and energy. When homework gets done—if it gets done—there’s actually very little A) that I can tell from their performance and B) that the students get from the experience. This is because almost no one does the homework in a way that replicates the conditions of the test. Some do a rush job in the 10 minutes before the lesson. Others make a halfhearted attempt while watching TV or intermittently scrolling through Instagram. Even the most dedicated students shoot themselves in the foot by going WAY over the time limits because they “don’t want to get a bad grade.” It’s the dirty little secret of the tutoring industry that no one else wants to admit: homework is for the parents. Parents expect it—and they’re the customers after all, not the students—so no one ever stops to ask if homework is actually a useful pedagogical tool.

For this reason, I stopped assigning homework altogether and it’s been the best choice I’ve ever made as an educator. By not demanding that students self motivate on their own time, I avoid the frustration and demoralization that comes with halfheartedly doing something that is simultaneously hard and boring. Of course students get frustrated doing SAT homework! Standardized testing is designed to take place inside a strict infrastructure—proctors, ticking clocks and silent classrooms—which forces them to take the questions seriously. If students don’t apply the attention that these tests require, the questions go from challenging to impossible. Now, just imagine how your confidence would plummet if, week after week, you went through an unpleasant exercise that just reinforced how stupid, pointless and tedious standardized testing is. That negative mental state basically guarantees a lower score, so why do all the other test prep programs insist on doing something so ineffective?

By dispensing with homework, I get a huge amount of credit with my students, which translates to a stronger rapport, the #1 tool in any educator’s arsenal. Eliminating homework also prevents the burnout that so often occurs 3/4ths of the way through these sorts of programs. Instead, by giving up a very limited pedagogical tool, I am able to pull out of my students a much more dedicated, serious and engaged performance. They appreciate that all I’m asking for are the two hours of the lesson, so they work harder and stay focused longer, and that’s worth a whole lot more academically than 15 pages of homework done by the light of a TV screen.

Most test prep programs use a one-size-fits-all approach. Students work their way through simplified content, which is designed so relatively inexperienced tutors can teach the broadest set of subjects to the broadest set of high school kids. These programs about are about coverage rather than depth. A good tutor will pick and choose which subjects to focus on, but still, a lot of time gets wasted either going over things the student already understands or attempting to explain subjects that the student isn’t ready for yet, just because that’s the next chapter in the book. For a high school student, this uneven approach to test prep can be alternately boring and exceptionally frustrating, with moments of genuine learning in between.

After years teaching the SAT just like everyone else, I decided to abandon convention and try a radical approach. Instead of doing what parents expected me to do—lots of homework and long one-on-one tutoring sessions—I decided do what was best for my students and their test scores.

The first thing to go was the one-on-one session format. Simply put, it’s just not that effective. Even if the tutor has the most encouraging attitude, it’s just too exhausting and demoralizing for students to be subjected to that kind of critical scrutiny for hours at a time, and it does NOTHING for confidence. Instead, I switched to a 2 hour session format that combines the best elements of private tutoring with the best parts of group learning.

Group testing to replicate the conditions of the test

Everything starts with the test-taking environment. My approach is to create two separate spaces with two separate purposes. First, there is the test room, where a group of students simulate the group-testing environment. I supply my students with real SAT and ACT tests and have them complete them section by section, sticking to the time limits, just as they will on test day. Like the actual test environment, my testing room is not without distractions. People shuffle their papers. They tap their pens. And intermittently, I purposefully go in and cause distractions. All this prepares the students for the actual day of the test. If they can work through the distractions they encounter here, no sniffly nose or bouncing knee will upset their performance when it really matters.

Private conferences to teach content and testing strategy

After the student has completed a section of the test, I immediately score the test and address the weak areas I see. This approach has a few major benefits. First, I don’t just pull students aside; I bring them to a separate and more calming space—when the weather permits, we meet at a table in the garden for some fresh air and sunlight. This little break from the test helps them stay focused, improving attention and mental stamina. Second, by addressing problems as they arise rather than hours or days later—as is the case with tutoring programs that emphasize homework—students have a chance to struggle through the questions, just like they will on the day of the test, but then we walk through the problem while it is is still fresh in their minds. Whether it is an issue of comprehension or confidence, this calm space allows me to address whatever is limiting the student’s score without increasing test anxiety or undermining confidence.

Over the course of each 2-hour session, students meet with me for three private, one-on-one conferences (totaling about 20 minutes per student, each session), during which we work through difficult question types, process performance anxiety, build confidence and review test-taking strategies. This balance of hands-on, real-world practice with focused, expert instruction has resulted in huge score gains for a wide range of students. [See: Testimonials]

Free, Group Practice Tests

To ensure my students have an accurate gauge of their progress, I offer full-length, group practice tests, free of charge. After a few sessions—once he or she has had a chance to internalize some of the things we’ve been working on—I encourage each of my students to sign up for a practice test. This helps the student build mental stamina, a huge advantage when preparing for a high-stakes, four-hour, multiple-choice exam. This also helps reduce testing anxiety through low-stress exposure, making standardized testing nothing but an annoying routine, rather than a looming crisis. Embracing the routine—show up, sit down, do your work, go home—is the best antidote I know for anxiety.

The next time we meet, the student and I go over his or her scores and address any material that posed a problem. Not only does this give the student valuable exposure to actual test-taking stressors and actual tests, but it also gives us plenty of opportunities to identify and then solve the underlying issues that cause students to struggle with standardized testing.

Mindfulness and Meditation

There is no greater impediment to big scores on a standardized test than anxiety. In some ways, the thing the SAT and ACT test most effectively is a student’s ability to perform under pressure. This is why even kids with the highest grades, taking the most advanced classes, can still sometimes underperform on material that is comparatively easy when positioned next to the final for APUSH or Calculus BC.

Too many test prep programs focus on teaching students ways to game the exam: “If you see a question that looks like A all you have to do is B.” But strategy and skill building is really only part of the solution. The key is learning how to maintain poise and a positive mental state even in the midst of an intensely stressful and unnatural environment. The clock is ticking. A proctor is pacing the aisle. The kid next to you seems to be finishing the section twice as fast. How do you cope with those stressors?

The answer is mindfulness and positive self-talk. Laying the groundwork for a peaceful mental state can be the difference between a panic attack and a smooth sailing on test day. Bearing this in mind, I help my students unlearn bad mental habits—“I’m not good at this subject.” “The SAT is stupid. Why do I have to take it?” “What if I get a bad score and no colleges accept me?”—silencing the incessant, self-critical inner voice that plagues both adults and high school students alike.

Not only do I use our session time to reshape their mental image, but I also offer free, mindfulness and meditation classes once a week to anyone who is interested.

Lessons from Sports Psychology

Have you ever started doing something and it just felt right somehow? Mysteriously, your performance capacity has seemed to multiply overnight and suddenly you’re able to run faster/think quicker/perform better than you ever have before. Sports psychologists call this “flow state” or, more colloquially, “getting in The Zone.” As a lifelong athlete and musician, I’ve sought to reach that flow state on the basketball court and at the piano bench, but in my professional life, I’ve also sought to help my students find their flow on the day of the test.

The first step in increasing your chances of getting into the SAT/ACT Zone is changing how you think about yourself and test-taking in general—after all, no one ever got into The Zone by telling themselves that they couldn’t do it—so preparing for flow state performance starts with increasing confidence and retraining your brain to silence nagging self-doubt. While it’s essential to tune out or turn off the negative voices in your head, you also need to get as much practice as you can in order to making the unnatural and traumatizing process of standardized testing into a totally unremarkable part of daily life. By practicing in a calm and controlled environment, you can slowly transform something remarkable into something routine, thereby giving you the mental space to find The Zone.

Even the most experienced athletes can’t be certain that they’ll find their flow state during any particular game, but with lots of practice, good mental discipline and a constructive inner voice, they can increase their chances. The same goes for students doing standardized testing.