FAQ

When you’re “ready” academically and when it’s the best time for you to prep. We have specific plans for each grade level of high school from Freshman to Senior year.

Please reach out to us to discuss our various offerings for tutoring, tutors and associated costs. We offer one-on-one tutoring as well as small group lessons.

We tailor each tutoring course to each individual student so we do not sell packages of tutoring or specifically suggest a duration for tutoring. We offer our services as long as a student needs them to achieve success, but typically between 3 to 5 months.

We offer tutoring online via zoom session or in person in our offices in Livingston or Millburn, NJ. At times, we are also able to accommodate in-home tutoring.

Our Strategic Consulting program offers individualized guidance to 9th-11th grade students to build a tailored roadmap for each academic year that will maximize their chances of admissions to the most selective colleges. Based on their specific needs, interests, and strengths, we create a catered collegiate vision so that by the time our students are ready to begin their college applications, they have set themselves up to have a competitive advantage to their top-choice schools.

The Application Advising program is the final step to the high school journey. We begin by developing a personalized college list based on their profile and then help to generate the most compelling applications to these schools, including resume building, personal statement, supplemental essays, interview prep, and financial planning. This program typically begins the summer before senior year and lasts approximately six months, until they have committed to a specific school. 

The Common Application is the most “common” application platform through which applicants can apply to colleges in the United States. Currently, over 1,000 colleges use the Common Application, but some colleges use other platforms such as the Coalition Application, and a select few such as the University of California schools have an online application of their own.

One of the most important decisions students must make when applying to colleges is the admissions “type” for each school.

• Early Decision (ED) applications are binding, and therefore, students are restricted to selecting just one school. This is an agreement between the student and the college that he or she will enroll if admitted.
• Early Action (EA) applications have an earlier deadline than Regular Decision applications and have the advantage of receiving admissions decisions earlier, typically in December/January. Unlike ED applications, it is non-binding, though some colleges (like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford) impose “restrictions,” that prevent students from either applying to an ED school or certain other EA schools.
• Regular Decisions (RD) will make up the bulk of your applications. They are typically due in early January and you will receive your admissions decision by late March / early April. Lastly, a few schools offer Rolling Admissions which functions as “first-come, first-serve.” In other words, the applications are reviewed as they are received, so the earlier you apply, the earlier you will hear back about your admissions decision.

In order to apply, most colleges require that students provide a high school transcript, test scores, teacher recommendation letters, a list of extracurricular involvements, a personal statement, and a few supplemental essays. Students with special interest (i.e., athletics or the arts) will need to provide additional materials such as recruitment videos or art portfolios. Those requesting financial aid will also need to complete the FAFSA (Federal Student Aid) application.

Most students apply to 10-13 schools, and they divide up their college list equally with “safety,” “target,” and “reach” schools. However, there’s no limit to how many schools one can apply!

We always recommend that students begin preparing their applications the summer before their senior year. While the application portals for most application platforms do not open for the new cycle until late July / early August, students can always begin drafting essays as they tend to be the most time consuming and compiling a checklist of to-do’s.

Your essays are an opportunity for you to tell your story. Whether you discuss your background, academic passion, outside-of-the-classroom interests, or even something quirky about your personality, your essays should discuss something genuine about who you are. Keep in mind that every college you apply to will be filled with countless applications from students with similar credentials (grades, test scores, etc.) as yours. Your essays, then, are a chance to distinguish yourself among the competitive pool of applications. As college essays are a crucial component of the college application, we always recommend that you starting drafting early and go through several revisions before coming up with the final product!

Many colleges (not all) request that students complete a number of supplemental essays in addition to the personal statement. Unlike the main essay, which is submitted to all colleges, supplemental essays are specific to each school. They generally range from 100-300 words per prompt and will ask for you to discuss something specific, such as, but not limited to, your most important extracurricular experience, why you wish to attend their school, or what you can add to their community. 

While colleges are agnostic to which test you take, they will want to see your best score. To figure out if you are better at the ACT or SAT, take our one-of-a-kind diagnostic test and review your results with one of our experts.

Anything that falls into the mid-50% range for any of the schools you’re applying to is considered a strong score.

Nope! In fact, many of them reward you for doing so by “superscoring” your test.

It’s a practice whereby colleges will allow you to send your best scores from individual sections taken on different test dates as opposed to just the scores from one test date. This allows students to show what they’re truly capable of on each section when they’re at their best.

Nope! Colleges will never take an average of your test scores.

Our one-of-a-kind ACT/SAT diagnostic is an abbreviated version of both tests in one that will tell you if you are better suited for the ACT or SAT. Our reports also highlight specific areas of growth/focus for each student. Having this knowledge will ensure that your tutoring sessions are more targeted and individualized to suit your needs – it saves time and money and allows you to improve your scores faster.

• Click here to sign up for our diagnostic ACT/SAT test. The fee is $75 per test.
• You’ll need to register first and create a login – then utilize that login when you are ready to take the test. You should have your laptop ready and charged and set aside 3.5 hours to complete the test.
• Results will be available upon completion.

• Click here to sign up for our practice tests. We offer proctored, full-length ACT and digital SAT practice tests  every week in person at Academy of St. Elizabeth. Students can also take digital SAT practice tests at home.

Results for our SAT/ACT Diagnostic test are available immediately. Scores for our SAT and ACT practice tests are usually available the next day.

Unfortunately, AP Exams are also stylized tests, and good grades in AP classes don’t always translate to the AP Exams. We recommend that all students who are signed up to take an AP exam do some sort of exam-specific preparation ahead of time.

Because the SAT and ACT are, to a large degree, performances, and students have to learn how to perform well on them. Further, they test math and grammar in a somewhat “tricky” way that is completely unfamiliar to students when they first take a diagnostic test. Students need to learn the style and “language” of these tests in order to feel more comfortable with them and, ultimately, score well.

Many of our tutors have been working in the academia field for more than 8 years; some of our tutors have been working for more than a decade. Our team is comprised of full-time tutors as well as part-time tutors whose full time roles are as teachers or professors. Each of our tutors has been trained in our internally-developed and tested curriculum.

On average we improve ACT scores by 4+ points and SAT scores by 150+ points. We’ve also seen gains of up to 12 points on the ACT and 540 points on the SAT. Every tutoring experience is deeply personalized to each student – whether that’s a student striving to close a gap of a few points or a student trying to make a big leap. Given this, we can’t guarantee a certain increase because each student’s needs are vastly different.

Click here to check out the upcoming dates for the ACT and check out the SAT information here.