How it Works
Achieve Maximum Point Gains
Efficiently and Effectively.
Our Proven Approach Creates Higher Test Scores, Guaranteed.
Convenient, in-home-sessions
Our weekly or biweekly sessions take place in the convenience of your own home, on your desired schedule—to better fit you and your student’s busy lifestyle.
Tailored Learning
Results-Driven Approach
How it Works
STEP 1: Guided Test Selection
Through years of experience, research, and analysis, we’ve developed proprietary tools to help you select the test where your student is likely to gain the highest point increases. We consider factors like GPA, language, math and English class grades, PSAT/PLAN scores, and reading ability to assess which test will reward your student’s unique strengths.
STEP 2: Tailored Instructor Assignment
While all of our instructors are outstanding, each has his or her own teaching style, energy level, and personality. We strive to find the perfect fit for your student—whether your preference is male, female, high energy, or more laid back. We also have teachers who speak Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, so we can communicate with students and parents in the language that’s most comfortable.
STEP 3: One-on-One Instruction
Our focused and effective 90-minute sessions are optimized for maximum point gains in the shortest amount of time. Research has shown that teenagers begin to lose focus after around an hour and half—no matter how motivated or dedicated they are.
At Powerful Prep, we’re realistic about the attention span of our students and design each session with efficiency in mind. Our unique methods focus on engagement, interaction, and review—allowing us to accomplish more in 90 minutes than other programs do in four hours.
STEP 4: Adaptive Approach
Proactive Recalibration® is our process of constantly analyzing practice test results, homework, and in-class feedback to ensure we’re on the optimal course.
If your student performed well on a math section, we’ll analyze if it makes sense to skip that topic. If your student is struggling more in writing than reading, we’ll run the numbers to confirm that additional time spent there will be worth it.
Proactive Recalibration® tells us where to spend more time and where to spend less, so that your student can maximize his or her score efficiently and effectively.
STEP 5: Targeted Homework & Practice
Deliberate Practice refers to a specific preparation method where individuals can achieve high levels of performance or expertise in a particular field. It involves breaking down complex tasks into “skill chunks,” combining that with immediate coaching feedback, and practicing skills at more challenging levels than expected.
We apply this concept to our homework assignments to ensure that our students are working smarter, instead of just harder.
Tailored to Your Child’s Unique Learning Style
Our advanced, adaptive curriculum is based on the following four learning styles:
Oral
Oral learners prefer to learn verbally and vocally.
Aural
If you use the aural style, you like to work with sound and music.
Kinesthetic
These “hands-on learners” concentrate better and learn more easily when movement is involved.
Visual
Also called spatial learning, visual learners prefer using images, pictures, colors, and maps to organize information and communicate with others.
Our Unique Approach
Engagement-Based Teaching
At Powerful Prep, students learn by doing and engaging with material. That’s why we ensure that our teachers and curriculum evoke student interaction, practice, and participation about once every 30 seconds. Instead of long lectures, we keep our students focused through hands-on practice and productive conversation that actively combats today’s short attention spans.
Better Data. Higher Scores.
We rigorously track all of our students’ results, prep time, starting scores, and teacher-hours. By using this data, we can make informed predictions and better answer questions like: what test will a 3.3 GPA female student likely score better on? Let our extensive analytics guide your student toward the highest scores possible.
Focus on the Big Gains
If your student has a 400 in Reading and a 700 in Math, logic would suggest that you should focus your efforts solely on Reading. However, by ignoring strengths and only focusing on weaknesses, your student could be missing out on opportunities for even higher point gains.
Our unique Proactive Recalibration® method ensures that your student’s time is always allocated wisely—adjusting our curriculum based on progress to deliver maximum point gains. For example, by allocating two sessions to Math, your student may be able to increase their score to 800, then spend the remainder of their sessions on improving Reading. It’s about focusing on the right topics at the right time.
Teach the Test—Not the Subject
Other test prep providers take a one-size-fits-all approach, assuming that students need to relearn years’ worth of Geometry and Algebra in order to improve their scores. However, our extensive research and superior results have demonstrated that students need to focus on just a few key concepts in order to ace their SAT or ACT exams.
By staying focused on those key concepts, we can spend our time more efficiently and position your student for the highest scores possible—without introducing any extraneous information.