Finally we (as parents) are over the hurdle of standardize tests. We have two daughters: one is close to graduate from college and one is in her final stretch to find her ideal college (she is still a junior). I hope that our experience can help anyone who comes to Yelp (this page specifically) to make a sound decision for his/her kids with less anxiety.
We have attended all the garden variety of tutoring and counseling in Tri-Valley area: the C*, the E*, and the I*. You should know all of these if you are doing a little bit research. With both of daughters, we spend great amount on C*, good amount on E*, and outrage amount on I*. If you ever a big believer that money can solve any problem, this experience can clearly prove you are wrong. They all pressured you to sign up with big $ in advance but offered obscured subpar tutoring and counseling sessions, especially by talking about how great their own kids were (BTW I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW THAT). With my first daughter, the standardized test scores we got were mediocre with multiple tries, of course with multiple money traps.
Luckily my first daughter has a sport advantage who was accepted in a very good college. Lucky !!! But my second daughter has no such luck.
We know Maggie and co. for a while, since we took some AP tutoring classes offered by STC for our second daughter to get her ahead or at least smooth out her nervousness in her AP math courses.
So we asked Maggie help for her SAT standardized test this time. We do not want to shed big $ for a long period, but just want to have solid private tutoring sessions with reasonable cost.
Maggie and co. definitely helped us on this front. They provided proctored practice test in the morning similar to the real deal (this is critically important and worth every penny). After the practice test, we followed with a private tutoring or a small group review session. After going through about 10 sessions in about 2 months, my second daughter's SAT test result finally came back and proved the effectiveness of Maggie and co, and WE ARE DONE WITH IT (what a relief!).
One important point we hope anybody could share with us before our journey is that you should always separate standardize test preparation from college counseling. Many are trying to trap you with big $ spent in front for both, which is nothing but a big waste.
Again I wish you the best luck on this journey if you are about start or just start. But you should at least REMEMBER Maggie and co, who can provide you genuine helps, which you may NOT get anywhere else.
I hope this help you! read more