SAT prep, one student at a time.
Past a certain point the SAT is no longer a test of how well you can do the math. It’s a test of how well you understand the way the problems are written. I diagnose that first with an instrument I built myself, write the plan backwards from the target score, and teach every session personally, over Zoom.
Start with the number you actually need.
Nearly every family I speak to has a target school before they have a target score, and the two are not the same conversation. Here is every Georgia school on one scale, and a calculator that puts your student on it.
Each school’s own published middle 50%: half of its students scored inside the bar, a quarter below it and a quarter above. UGA and Georgia College publish figures for the students they admitted; the rest publish the students who actually enrolled, which runs a little lower. The table below labels every row with which it is.
Most students come to me with a score and a deadline.
I start with neither.
The first session is the diagnostic, under test conditions, and I take notes while the student takes it. From that I know whether a 620 in math is a geometry problem, a pacing problem, or a reading-the-question problem. Those need different work, and a prep-center curriculum can’t tell them apart.
What it usually looks like before I start.
Four sittings across a year. The number moves, then moves back, and ends roughly where it began. Practice on its own does that, because practice repeats whatever the student is already doing, including the parts costing them points.
Representative of the pattern I see most often, not one student’s transcript.
What actually happens, in order.
Eight to sixteen weeks for most students, at an hour to an hour and a half, twice a week. The same person every session.
1 · The diagnostic session
The SAT diagnostic first, and at 650 or above in math the Execution Diagnostic with me watching. $199, and the whole fee is credited toward any package.
Book it →2 · The report and the plan
Up to two hours going through the results with you live, then a written report within five business days with the plan in it: what I hit first, in what order, against your test date.
3 · Twice-weekly sessions
With me, over Zoom, plus a twelve-month Test Innovators license for full-length adaptive practice in the digital format. Dozens of platforms have asked me to partner with them; I tried every one and this is the one I kept.
4 · A proctored retest, halfway
A full-length test under real conditions, scored the same way as the diagnostic. This is the checkpoint where I find out whether I was right. If I wasn’t, the plan changes.
5 · A second written report
To you, after the retest, with a note after every session in between and a strategy call in the middle.
What you get from a prep center, and what you get here.
Princeton Review, Kaplan and the rest are built to scale. That is not a criticism; it is what they are. But scale means a curriculum, and a curriculum means your student gets the same lesson as everyone else, in the same order, whether or not it is the thing costing them points.
The diagnostic
A full-length practice test, machine-scored and broken out by topic. It reports which questions were missed. It cannot report why, because nobody was watching while your student answered them.
The Execution Diagnostic, an instrument I built to tell knowing the math from executing it. It records time and confidence on every item and returns the reasons the points leave, not a score. How it works.
The plan
A curriculum written to be right on average across many thousands of students, and sequenced before anyone at the company has met yours. It is a good average. Your student is not an average.
No set curriculum. I work backwards from the target score and write a plan that is very specific and very action-oriented: what I hit first, and why.
The teacher
Assigned by the schedule rather than chosen. Usually part-time, often hired against a test score and trained on the company’s own materials, and a change partway through is ordinary, because staffing a national roster means covering shifts.
Always me. I don’t onboard students I won’t have time to work with, and every student has my cell number.
The practice
Largely the company’s own question bank, written in-house to resemble the exam. Useful volume, and a step removed from the questions the College Board actually writes.
Official practice tests, plus the Test Innovators platform in every package. Dozens of platforms have asked me to partner with them; I tried every one, and this is the one I kept.
The check
A score at the end, and often a guarantee attached to it, though the usual remedy is another round of the same course rather than your money returned. Nothing checks midway whether the plan is the right one.
A full-length proctored retest halfway through, scored the same way as the diagnostic. If things aren’t going the way I thought, the plan changes.
What parents see
A dashboard, and a report when the course finishes. Speaking with the person who actually ran the sessions is not usually part of what you bought.
A written report within five business days of the diagnostic, a note after every session, and a strategy call mid-engagement.
What it costs.
One number is public: the diagnostic. After that, families choose hourly sessions or a package, and the diagnostic fee comes off a package. The full rate sheet comes with the first call, in writing, before anything is booked.
The diagnostic, $199
Flat. The Execution or Foundation Diagnostic, my notes, and up to two hours reviewing the results live with me. Required first, and the whole $199 is credited toward any package.
Then, hourly or a package
Hourly for students who need a few targeted sessions; I don’t suggest a long commitment until I know it’s a good fit. A package, priced by the block of hours over eight to sixteen weeks at two sessions a week, for students with a test date and a score to move. Package hours are good for twelve months.
My package hours come in between 30 and 60 percent below Kaplan’s and about half of Princeton Review’s, and under the going rate around Athens, with the diagnostic and the practice platform included rather than sold on top.
A national brand’s hourly rate pays for offices, advertising and a sales team before it pays the tutor. Here there is nothing in between.
“My son was really having a problem in one class, which Michael was able to correct in just a few sessions. My wife and I were completely amazed.”
Jake M, parent
Questions I get
Anything not covered here, ask me directly. (706) 389-0528.
Book a diagnostic session.
Every SAT student starts here. $199, and the whole fee is credited toward any package; there is nothing to commit to beyond it.
1 · The SAT diagnostic
A practice section taken online, with the answers on screen. It sets where the score sits, and the student can take it before we’ve even spoken.
Take it now →2 · The Execution Diagnostic, at 650 and above
If math comes back at 650 or higher, the student also sits the Execution Diagnostic with me watching, to find where the points go when the math isn’t the problem. If you already bought it on its own, the $99 comes off.
3 · The session
Up to two hours going through both with you live, then a written report within five business days with the plan in it: what I work on first, in what order, against your test date.
Tell me about your student and the test date.
I reply within a day. (706) 389-0528 if a call is easier.