Please see "General Test-Preparation Strategy" for my general approach to test prep. This page contains some of my thoughts on particular sections of the SAT
SAT Reading
I scored a perfect 800 on my SAT Reading section. As an experienced SAT tutor, I’ve helped many students improve on their SAT Reading scores. Here are some areas I emphasize: (1) I teach my students to read closely in an efficient fashion to find textual support for their answer choice. Many students read hastily, get a general idea of the reading, and choose an answer choice based on their prior knowledge or their misinterpretation of the reading. I help the students figure out exactly what the reading is saying. (2) I teach my students to parse complex sentences. The SAT features reading passages from historical documents and classic literature which have long intricately-structured sentences. Many schools don’t teach students how to break down and diagram these sentences. I teach students this skill, and it helps students understand those long sentences. (3) I help students build vocabulary. (4) I’m an experienced high-school teacher who has been frequently recognized for building exceptional mentoring relationships with students. I get to know all my students as people and make them feel valued as people and make my lessons fun and engaging by taking into account my students’ particular interests. In the context of the SAT Reading section, students can become exhausted from doing practice questions. When the student has time, I like to assign and discuss articles that are about topics that interest the student and that are similar in difficulty to the SAT from magazines like the New Yorker.
SAT Writing
I scored a perfect 800 on the SAT Writing test and perfect 5 on the AP English composition test. My strategy for tutoring the SAT Writing test is to teach (1) grammar and writing style; (2) to do practice multiple-choice problems from practice tests; and (3) to go over compositions, including essays from English class, essays in response to practice prompts, and college-application essays, with students. Some review books have too many grammar rules that are not tested on the actual SAT. As an experienced tutor who has seen many real SATs, I help my students master the most important rules with a personalized step-by-step approach.
SAT Math
I scored 780 on SAT Math section and 800 on my SAT 2 Math Test. To help students improve on the SAT Math section, I strike a balance between filling in any knowledge gaps and fine honing problem-solving skills. Oftentimes, the student has a good conceptual knowledge of how to theoretically solve a problem. What they need to do is examine the concrete steps they’re taking to solve a problem and figure how they can execute them more smoothly and with less errors. Oftentimes, there is a simple step the student can add to make the problem easier. Here are some examples of areas of growth I might identify and help a student with.
In the example of scientific notation, you might notice that you tend to make mistakes when the problem is counting the number of digits and figuring out the power of 10. You might always makes yourself do that twice.
Another example might be that when adding fractions you sometimes forget to convert the denominators to the lowest common denominator. You might have a mnemonic or just get in the habit of doing that.
Another example might be when you try to solve equations, you notice you make errors when you tend to do a certain step in your head. You might have to always write out that extra step.
Another example, might be questions involving absolute value. You might often spend 10 seconds wondering about whether you need to flip a negative sign to a positive sign. We can discuss that and make sure you’re confident of that.