Seattle SAT 2400

Nobody prepares for the SAT intelligently.

That’s a strong statement – let me support it.

Practically nobody begins by evaluating the exact set of skills they need to attain: they wander through prep books, trying to memorize everything. When in the midst of study, practically nobody follows the proven rules of deliberate, active practice: they wastefully work before and beyond the edge of their ability level. And after they finish, practically nobody takes seriously the (brutal) fact that they will forget 80% of what they just learned in a month (and 95% in two months): they allow their labor to dissolve into nothingness.

In general, test-prep classes are not set up to help you navigate these realities. Following the traditional American classroom model, classes often graduate students with thrown-together knowledge about a hundred different things. It’s not surprising when students then fail to apply their understanding to the test.

I’m an independent SAT coach, and I’d like to suggest a better way.

Using the fruit of cognitive science, this course (your choice: 4-person or one-on-one) will ground you in how to study as efficiently as possible. You’ll have a structure in which to identify the holes in your math, reading, and writing skills. You’ll be pitted against the hardest problems the SAT can dish out. At every stage, you’ll be in control of yourself, actively building your academic abilities.

You’ll learn to hack into your memory, adding much vocabulary in little time – and never forgetting it. You’ll learn the fundamental moves of reading: rhetorical, syntactical, and morphological (aka ‘paragraph-level’, ‘sentence-level’, and ‘word-level’). You’ll learn why focused memorization is a must for SAT math. You’ll learn to spot grammar errors at a glance. And you’ll learn what performance psychologists call “deliberate practice”, and how to apply it to any task you want to master.

Most people treat test-prep as a brief, casual affair: we treat it as physical training. You’ll leave the class more prepared for college reading, writing, and reasoning.

The class will be limited to 4 high-level students: students starting at 600 and above in Math and Critical Reading and aiming for a score above 700. It will run 1x/week for 12 weeks, and require between 30 and 60 minutes of homework each day. It’s a major commitment, but when you finish it, you will be able to perform masterfully on the SAT.

Because I’m independent, I can afford to run the class at about one-half the cost of the national companies.

Check out the website below for more details about what I do, or contact me on TeachStreet for more information or references.

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