The counselors at this location were very nice! I wasn't sure if I should take SAT or ACT test. I didn't know what my level was, and they were trying to help me to find my goal! I spent a lot of time on practicing the materials they provided, and my grade got significantly better! Definitely is "The Place" to learn, and get your SAT high score! read more

I've been going to Elite for years for English tutoring, and Miss Haile is the best! Writing essays used to stress me out, but she helped me improve so much in both my grades and my confidence. She's super patient, really encouraging, and explains things in a way that just clicks. I'm so grateful for her support and would totally recommend Elite (especially Miss Haile!) to anyone who needs tutoring. read more

Elite Prep Irvine-Northwood - Tutoring Centers Near Me - Irvine, California

Our experience with Elite Prep has been nothing short of exemplary. Director Wonna is extremely knowledgeable, supportive, and direct about expectations and what it will take to move your student towards their education goals, albeit in a way that's much deeper than most college prep agencies. Upon our first meeting, the focus of her questions for our son weren't merely about what schools he wants to attend, but instead, more about what he see himself doing, what does he find engaging and exciting and what kind of experience does he want out of life? It caught us off guard, but where a lot of prep agencies are trying to get you to sign up for packages that will hopefully slot you into a statistical possibility of where you want to attend, Director Wonna's approach is more mature and asks more of the student to carefully and enthusiastically consider their vision for their lives and then proceeds with whatever programs she feels will aid that vision. She's caring, precise and direct in her approach and manner, which is refreshing. She's relentless in making sure each student gets what they need, and for that we remain grateful to her and the staff for their efforts. read more

The tutors here are very welcoming and helped me a lot with math and bio. Math is too hard for me but it's getting better.

My Daughter's ACT scores have gone up since she started practicing here. Worth all the money. Also, scheduling was flexible, and communication for their classes was first class. I'll sign my other kid up soon. Thank you! read more

I have been working with different education companies in the US and other countries. I am no longer working with them now. But I had a great experience with them during the past few years. I just want to say something based on what I saw during my work there and give you some insight about this company. Their prices are so so so low. for College applications services, They charge really low prices. I never see any company this much well known but charge so little money. For a long time. I was very surprised. The counselors there are very knowledgeable and helpful. they always try to help you without just trying to have you sign up for their programs. They will identify if you really gonna benefit from this class or program. if you are not the right fit. They will tell you very frankly that this program does not gonna help you. Not like some company just wants money from the students and parents. They are so good at this. Always consider the students and parents' side first. Each year the counselor will just take certain numbers of College Application students just to make sure they can give all their students enough attention not just sign as many as they can to get more money but less attention to the students. The company has their clients 80% percent by their old students' referral instead of doing marketing. Most of the students here are introduced by their friends or siblings. so, you know this is the right place if they get their reputation from old customers. They have their own test center and their own test for SAT. I do not see that many companies do that in this area. Their SAT and ACT classes are so popular. Most of the family are the one the older kids do a couple years ago and get good scores and get into good colleges and come back for their younger ones. I swear, I heard this kind of story all the time. One of the really amazing things in this company is they give students free college counseling for free if you are a tutoring student here(not including senior students). I do not think any other company does that. If you have a tutoring session here. Once a while. You can meet the counselor. That is amazing. The front desk are very polite and always try to help their students and parents in a nice and friendly way. They will reply to the text message system and email very quickly since they are checking it all the time. You can feel very comfortable when communicating with the staff. The director always tells their staff to try to accommodate the teachers and students as much as we can. There are so many good qualities I can not write everything down here. I think the most important thing is that they are very honest to customers. You can feel it whenever you have a conference with the counselors here. They offer a free initial conference. so, if you need help, trying a conference will be pretty worth your time. read more

Whoever owns this business, please get rid of Ms. Wanna K. She has one of the worse personalities I have ever seen for a person in this type of position. Unless, she is too clever and manipulative for the parents and able to bring in the big bucks, then that explains why she is still around. Which tells you what type of business this really is. I am writing this review because of our interaction with Ms. Wanna K. We have gone in for an interview and meeting to see if elite prep was right for us, but Ms. Wanna discouraged us from joining when she realized we did not want to buy a bigger, lengthier and more costly package. She also does not respond to our e mails either. It seems that they only care about money, so STAY AWAY. She is probably going to reply to this review with the same old B.S. she has with all the other bad and honest reviews. read more

It was a disappointing experience for my daughter to be at a prestigious elite Irvine to help her prep for writing test, to find out her 3 months of class was a waste. We signed her up for the English class to help her with third grade entrance to APAAS, it turned out they taught her more reading and argumentative writing instead of narrative and creative writing like I requested. I specifically verbalized with the teacher during class time and emailing her the request to focus on creative writing, come to find out it was disregarded. We switched 2 teachers but the same thing happened, no creative writing. Of course she took the test and was not well prepared for creative writing. Every week she has 2 hours of meeting, the teacher spent 1.5 hours on reading passages with my daughters on some website and 1/2 hours was designated for writing. This is completely opposite of my request. I expect them to know if a kid need to do well on a test, they need more time than half hour each meeting to improve writing. I did not need to educate them on this. This should be their expertise. I spoke to the director, he was argumentative. He said the teach was doing what she knows best as an English teacher. No apology or explanation, but just defensive. Honestly, I would rate Elite as a 0/10 if you need your kids to prepare anything outside of prep class. read more

Wanna told me why they reply me late and I can understand now, sorry I think you guys not care me but I was wrong thank u for trying to help me to ask who interesting our credit as well . I am a little bit rude sorry about that read more

I attend Elite for their 1 on-2 sat prep, teachers are nice and they give you many resources. I find out it helpful overall!

I talked with one of the male counselors at Elite and I must say, I was quite impressed with how knowledgeable he was regarding standardized testing and college admission. I understand people may have good and bad initial impression about this place but after shopping around, you rarely find a place that produces their own SAT material. That probably says a lot about their credibility and knowledge in this field. I learned a lot just from my initial consultation with the counselor and I didn't even pay a dime! It was refreshing to be able to genuinely ask questions I was curious about and to get an actual response cause other places just keep pointing to packages I need to purchase in order to get that information. I'll be back for their summer program. I highly, HIGHLY recommend Elite for my friends as well. read more

Elite Prep Irvine-Northwood - Example of some the SAT prep materials. - Tutoring Centers Near Me - Irvine, California

We visited this place for my son's summer camp and there was a guy front desk who looked mad for some reason, no smile to us, no eye contact. Anyway we had a meeting with a consultant and my son stayed there one more hour for a test. My son had questions on the test itself and asked questions to the guy in the front desk. The guy laughed at my son, very mean laugh, and in the second or third question, he told my son "why don't you bring your desk and do the test in front of me?". It was very unpleasant. My son finally cried. We complained to the consultant and he was sorry but kept saying the guy is from different culture. What culture is that? Also there were boogers on the wall. No reason to go there any more. Even the one visit was a waste of our time. read more

Nothing (legal) in the world can make SAT prep fun. However, a few counselors at ELITE try their best to make it at least bearable. Definitely helps in general preparing for SAT and College apps. The counselors really do push you and guide you through the process, so that's nice. Not an enjoyable way to spend your time, but definitely a beneficial one read more

I agree with the other reviewers regarding the counselor, Edward Lim. He is extremely helpful and honest and gives free consultation and doesn't try to sell Elite programs. We have attended one of his webinar on SAT/ACT test optional and college admissions, he really explains well and has in depth knowledge and understanding on the process. He is definitely worth talking to. It helped us a lot. It very rare to find such honest and dedicated person. I would definitely recommend him as the best counselor. read more

Solid average. If you started with an 1100 on the SAT, you may well end up with an 1100. Minus the $2,000+ you spend for the course.

The college counselors and directors at Elite are extremely knowledgeable and you can tell they've had years of experience in this field. Whatever your student needs work on, they'll know how to effectively plan in a way that will benefit your student the most. Elite is more professional than a lot of other tutoring centers and they offer so many different programs. Most of their programs are online ever since covid, but they try to be as accommodating as possible! read more

This review is directed solely at Wonna-director of the facility. I've interacted with her twice and both times she was extremely cold, dismissive and almost combative in answering a simple question. Even my children felt extremely uncomfortable with her as she either completely ignored them or spoke in commands to them without making eye contact. I wasn't going to post a review since I am not coming back but my friend just told me she had a very salty interaction with this director lady as well so Elite needs to know. For an educational institute that caters to the positive growth of children and their academic needs Elite/Irvine sure has the wrong person as the director. Parents are stressed enough with this race to nowhere so we come to these academies for help and pay their rates. It is unnerving to be met with attitude and rudeness. I would not trust this facility to have my child's best interest in mind when the director cannot even show respect or simple interest. She condescendingly behaves as though she has a chip on her shoulder and she is just too bored to be bothered...she should not be in the education field. I was a high school teacher and worked at Princeton Review and I am disgusted with the behavior of this lady...Elite of Northwood please re-evaluate your choice of who represents you. * The rest of the staff has been nothing but helpful and kind. read more

After I moved I started coming to this Elite branch and it was just as great. The summer course does push you a lot but I could clearly see my scores improving every week as well as my confidence in test taking. The counselors pay really close attention to each students progress and they ended up recommending me for ACT. I started with a 26 in ACT and scored a 31 on my actual test! I took the extension course after the summer so that I could take tests right up to the exam and that really helped me a lot. The work seems tedious and as a student it may seem like a lot of work, but the homework and quizzes actually gave me a lot of practice. The best part of this program is that all the tests were ones that I've never seen before. They make all of their own tests and books which is great because I had already taken all of the College Board and Barron's practice exams. When my mom first signed me up I thought it would be a waste of my summer but I actually met a lot of people. It's fun coming here for the summer and meeting students from other schools too. Overall, if you're having trouble getting a good score on SAT/ACT, this is a solid place to come. read more

MY REVIEW IS HOLISTIC. THERE IS NO FORM OF HATRED TOWARDS THE SAT OR PROCESS IN THIS REVIEW, THIS IS PURELY FROM EXPERIENCE WHEN I ATTENDED. The classes are hard to keep up especially where there is no stop to take a break and actually understand how you are doing, it's a nonstop chugging along and getting through the material in time. In my opinion, time wasn't my problem it was how I was performing. The material however is very informative and hefty. The staff there is quite disorganized. A lot of my stuff I did there "wasn't turned in" when I actually turned it in (Summer Boot Camp 2014). If you don't pass 80% or better on their quizzes or don't do homework you automatically receive "office hours" which in other terms is detention. You sit there for an hour extra and do other assignments. The teachers there do care and are helpful depending on who you get assigned to. If you go for an appointment, DON'T BE DISAPPOINTED IN YOUR SAMPLE SCORE. They purposefully give you a low, random score so you now have some obligation to enroll in their classes. I had a friend who is a SAT tutor, who scored a 2330 on the real test, randomly take the sample test and they scored around a 1430. They give you hard tests on purpose so that you can do even better and then when you take the real test you score higher. This makes them look good so that you can refer other people and, likewise, make them look even better. My teachers at that Elite told me that the tests they give out for weekly tests are more challenging tests in comparison to the actual test. Please, save your money and find a private tutor. A private tutor will probably a greater benefit because they can and will work at a student's pace one-on-one. You can find really good resources (hint: the Internet) or buy a review book. The people who make the SAT, CollegeBoard, make a review book so it might be a really good investment. Khan Academy has online videos for free that teach the same material as Elite does, all you have to do is signup. Quizlet has sets of flash cards with vocabulary words for free. You can save thousands of dollars if you have the motivation to do it on your own! Good Luck! read more

I had been attending Elite for their SAT prep program, and it was such a great experience! Before starting their program, my practice test scores were in the 1300-1400s and more importantly, I did not have any self-confidence in my test-taking or writing abilities. However, after a few months of participating in the program and being mentored by the counselors here, my scores were consistently improving and my official score was in the 1500s. In addition to my test score improvement, the college counselors here are also extremely knowledgeable and transparent on the college admission process. They were always here to answer any questions I had, and they were just as committed as I was to make sure that I got into my dream school. Unlike other SAT prep places that have you take practice SAT exams you can find online (most of which I had already completed and practiced with on my own time), Elite makes their own SAT test material and study workbooks. The program is meant to be challenging, and it essential that you also put in great effort to make the most out of the program and get the best results, but the support system here has been amazing and I could not recommend Elite enough! read more

This rating is only for the counselor, Edward Lim. He is extremely helpful and honest when he explains the programs that Elite offers. I don't know where they found him, but he definitely has my trust and my business. He makes the whole ACT/SAT process easy to understand and doesn't try to sell all the programs. He only offers what the student needs. He is like an honest mechanic. There are so many out there, but honest ones are hard to find. If you want to raise your ACT/SAT scores, talk to the counselor here. He is the best. read more

If you work hard, your results will show. I attended the Elite Summer Boot Camp program back in 2013 to prepare for the SATs. I remember I went 6 days a week for 5 hours a day. It's harsh, but that's why it's called a boot camp. You will have to memorize 50 Vocab words a night, and there will always be a Vocab quiz the next day, as well as quizzes in Writing, Math, and Reading. If you fail at least one quiz, you have to stay afterwards for one hour detention, but detention is basically study hall. ELITE really pushed me to my limits. Looking back, I remember dreading the drive to ELITE and enduring five hours of test studies. However, now that I think about my experience again, I think it really prepared me and showed me how much time and work I have to invest to really reach my goal. My first practice SAT score was a 1620; by the next year and on my final attempt at the official SAT, I scored a 2050. You won't gain anything if you don't care to learn or improve your SAT score. Think of ELITE as a resource, and your own willpower as the driving force for your improvement! Good luck to all those taking the SAT! :) read more

I am a two year student at Elite and they have helped me improve my SAT scores along with my self discipline. They set up their curriculum to be difficult and intense to make sure we remember what we are taught. How else would they ensure that we remember things or improve our test scores? They definitely do their best with providing the material needed for us to learn. I would highly recommend this place since their material closely mimics the real SAT. The reviews claiming that the staff there is rude are very untrue. The staff at Elite are all very polite. Some of the staff are Koreans, but they hired Mandarin and Vietnamese speakers just to accommodate non native English parents. read more

Never enjoyed studying for SAT and still dont but elite is tight. High key forced me to work hard and now im at UCI. Zot zot~ swag. Thanks elite ya'll the goat. Much love from your boi JoshKangRock Shoutout to the best counselor Edward. read more

Summer Boot Camp here was tough but it was worth it. My score went from 1100's to 1400's. Very satisfied with my August test score. If you put in the work, you'll be rewarded. The teachers here seem to be very experienced with SAT specifically. They knew exactly what to do when it comes to testing skills. The directors were always available to answer any of my questions and concerns. Honestly, I believe that as long as you put in the work, it'll reflect on your scores since this program is almost designed for us to be an expert on SAT. I don't recommend this program if you have an extremely busy schedule since it is an intense program that'll keep you working for straight 8 weeks read more

My son and I visited this place for his SAT placement test on 12th of June. To get a results, I asked a call consultation to the lady ( name was Wanna, director of Northwood) on 15th of june. But that day I didn't get any call from her so two days later, I made a call. she said "I made 2 times and you didn't get the phone so that is your fault." And then she said " you still want to sign up or not for the camp. You have to decide right away otherwise there is no rooms for your son. We take the card over the phone" Her voice was rude and didn't apologize about the calls. I hung up the phone and looked through recent calls on that day. She didn't call me and didn't leave any message either. read more

My son had great experience during last summer. He was well prepared for the next year and enjoyed the classes. Will sign up for this summer again. ! read more

If there was a negative stars I would choice that, whatever I say they dont allow and say company policy. Don't waste time and money

I was not going to write a review of this place as I am not an avid reviewer, but something just happened that changed my mind. My daughter was solving some SAT problems for tomorrow's test and I noticed that she had difficult time using whom or who. When I asked her what she learned at Elite, she said that her writing teacher, Ms. Wilson?, taught the kids to use "whom" when the passage is formal and "who" when the passage is informal. I think this is saying enough about this place. Thank you for nothing! Off topic, why do I get the feeling that some of these above-3 star reviews are by the employees or people who are hired by Elite to post them. read more

I went here last summer for the SAT boot camp. It was the worst experience ever. They make you study on your own and take tests more than half the time. After 8 Weeks hell, my score only went up by 80 points. And cost my mom more than $2000! Do not go here if you really want to improve your SAT score. read more

Elite does an amazing job with SAT prep and college prep counseling. The counselors here are all helpful, supportive, and knowledgeable. I highly recommend Elite! read more

Very bad experience! I would not recommend to anyone to come here. The staffs were rude and inexperienced. They change their teachers every time. Most of all, Elite does NOT teach. Teachers throw pile of papers at you and expect you to finish it, when they don't even teach it. The teachers are there just to answer questions on the problems students don't understand. And the teachers seem very inexperienced! The tuition fee isn't worth it. In my opinion, this place just wants your money without giving effort to help kids succeed. read more

didn't do much, I self studied and got a better score. The teachers are unorganized and the staff loses ur stuff all the time. Please consider somewhere else when considering your SAT score. read more

Going to Elite of Northwood was the best decision I made in my college entrance process. I attended the Summer Bootcamp two years ago and I boosted my score by 700 points! The teachers are reliable, the curriculum is strong, and the staff members there are SO friendly. The prices may seem a little steep, but it really does work. 700 points. Enough Said. read more

My 11th grader's been going to Elite for about 2 years and he is so happy with teachers here and his grades. His GPA has improved since and we've started doing college counseling as well. Past summer, my son took the SAT boot camp and we're so happy his score improved 150 points. Wonna has been a tremendous help with planning classes for each high school year and for summer school options as well. She's always there when we have questions and she really cares for the students and their future. Can't wait to send my 8th grade daughter here soon!! Thank you so much Wonna!! read more

My son went to the summer boot camp and extension sessions. He also did the Christmas SAT Bootcamp. His scores went way up and he got into his first choice of schools early decision, Tufts University in MA. I can't thank Elite enough for their services. Mr. Kim and Ms. Min along with all the instructors did a fabulous job and we are sending our other sons there as well. I see some of the other reviews reference racial issues. We are white and never saw any bias or experienced anything related to that. I recommend this place all the time to any family who has a kid willing to work hard (there is homework) and pay attention. read more

I highly recommend Elite to any parents looking for a test prep tutoring center. I came here for their summer boot camp and the teachers were extremely encouraging and helpful. The staff always had a smile on their faces and always willing to help around. The environment was very clean and organized and it was easy to find the designated classrooms. The tests really helped my test score grow over 400 points. Definitely recommend. read more

THIS IS MY VERY FIRST REVIEW EVER. I'm not an employee, a family member or personally affiliated in any way with this school. The following is my personal experience with Elite as I was feeling the enormous pressure of making sure I did everything I could to support my son with his college application process. My son joined the Elite SAT PREP program at this location during the summer prior to his sophomore year. He then went back to seek their advise on college application process the summer prior to his senior year. My son's SAT score improved by an expected 350 points. Even though he graduating from high school a valedictorian with 14 AP classes, a 4.4 GPA and countless years of extra curricular activities there was still no guarantee of acceptance to any of the reputable colleges. We literally left no stone unturned. Our experience with another school during the previous year in preparation for his ACT test was very disappointing. Fortunately we were referred to Elite by one of my son's classmates. I had no idea who they were. I took a chance and enrolled him in their program. If your student is willing to follow their instructions to the T and work hard then you should expect the results you're looking for. Hours may seem to be long and effort needed may seem to be out of the ordinary but when you open the acceptance letters from UC Berkley, UC Sandiego , UC Irvine and on and on, you come to the realization that every minute spent, every dime spent every drop of sweet that went into the 12 years of hard work to get your child one step closer to their dream was worth it. I will forever be thankful to Mr. Ken Shin and his incredible staff for guiding my son. They are extremely knowledgeable and caring professionals who know exactly what they are doing. They are brutally honest and will not misguide you in any way. Granted every child is different and not everyone will have the same results at the end. But I can tell you with confidence that what you get out of this school depends heavily on what you're willing to put into it. My son decided to attend UCI's Ayala school of biological sciences. Out of over 104 thousand applicants and with thousands of highly qualified students his acceptance at UCI was truly a dream come true. I found comfort in knowing that my son was in good hands and that we were doing everything possible to increase his chances of acceptance. I wish all the parents and students who are preparing for college best of luck in this grueling but exciting journey. I have recommended Elite Prep Irvine-Northwood to many friends and colleagues. Check them out and if your child is up to a challenge give them a try. I can not tell a lie. They believe in tough love and have strict rules. But they have your child's best interest at heart. I know this for a fact. I have emailed my son's counselor numerous times long after he was done with the program and always received a prompt and courteous response no matter the time, weekends, evenings or holidays. If your child succeeds then they have succeeded. I truly think that's how they feel. THANK YOU Mr. KEN SHIN and the ENTIRE STAFF at Elite-prep Irvine Northwood. read more

Terrible place for SAT. Since I have a limited amount of characters I will briefly explain in points. 1) Diagnostic tests don't work. They're made by Elite themselves and violate rules of the SAT which encourages bad test taking habits. Also it's guaranteed not to simulate how the SAT will truly behave. 2) Homework is trash. There's an article book to read from but it's useless. There is not one time on the SAT where you read blogs and articles and it doesn't contribute to the understanding of the test. There are also no times where you read articles on the SAT. 3) Lots of apparent money grubbing schemes. I noticed during my conference with one of the counselors and pricing themselves. Plus what they emphasize ("Take more $2,000 classes so you can get better scores!!!") Yeah- no. 4) Claims are false. 300-400 is definitely not guaranteed. If I were to file a report to the Better Business Bureau, I will almost guarantee Elite would be forced to change their claims down to 30-40 points. Sometimes students see no improvement 5) Elite says harder questions yield better results. On the contrary, harder questions make you do worse on the SAT for reasons explained in diagnostic tests. It also overlooks the difficulty presented on the SAT. It's like saying driving a car is harder than cooking but getting better at driving a car won't make your cooking any better. Those are two different things. Just because it's harder does not mean it's useful. 6) They emphasize low scores alot only to make you take their classes. It's, actually, in a sense, very convenient for them. Considering their prices and how much emphasis is put on having more classes. 7) I myself quit within two days and saw better results just taking an online course from a certified tutor who gets his students to 2380s and uses real SAT tests (for those of you curious: Mike Barrett). 8) They make the SAT harder than it should be. The questions are actually very fundamentally simple and their curriculum isn't based on the concept of the tests standardization. It's based on the knowledge which is the opposite of standardization. If the SAT was not a standardized test how else would the results be reliable to colleges in order to assess a student's application? 9) Vocabulary is trash as well. There's 2,000 words to learn. 50 words a night. Huge waste of time. The key to doing well on the SAT is understanding. Not memorization. Memorization is the enemy of understanding. In fact the questions aren't standardized for vocabulary. You can solve them by breaking apart words and inferring what they mean. Either way, CB only cares about what might be right for vocabulary. If it was a vocabulary test then CB could just put definitions and terms and tell us to match them. 10) The tests are designed to accommodate the curriculum. Seriously, how else would you believe you're getting better if you're taught to memorize instead of utilize a useful skill? 11) The people here are absolute idiots. They just are, they genuinely want to help but they're just naive in a sense. 12) They ask for a target score instead of concentrating on getting every question in the section right. It should be vice versa because the taker wants to be the most precise in his skills to get nearest to a 2400. Accomplishing a target score will only stop at a threshold. Essentially it's like a brick wall. Once you get there, you get there. 13) If there is even scientific evidence online to support my statement stated by Academic Researchers then there's obviously something wrong with this company. 14) In all honesty, I'd rather invest into stock market during the recession than Elite. If you really want to increase your SAT score MARGINALLY, invest into an online course, private tutor, or the Blue Book by the SAT + the Black Book by Mike Barrett. I realize this may seem brutal, but it's the honest truth. Long story short: Investment: A waste Staff: Although genuine and nice. Ultimately ignorant. Improvement: Close to zero Methodology: Very flawed and time consuming. read more

Both of my daughters have attended Elite for their SATs and their SAT subject tests. Elite has some of the best instructors that are very knowledgeable about the material and also on test taking strategies. They do assign a lot of homework, but it does pay off. My first daughter attended  Elite for the summer between her freshman and sophomore year of high school. However she was not dedicated to the material and her score did not improve. However, during the second summer, she did complete all of her homework, attended office hours, asked for extra practice tests etc. and this helped her score come up by 500 points (old SAT). My second daughter also saw major score improvement. Both of them scored better on the actual exam than on any Elite practice test because Elite makes the material slightly harder than the actual SAT so that you are well-prepared. If you are willing to dedicate the time and effort that Elite requires, then you will definitely see results. read more