Long time Talent Prep family! Both of our children have done Talent Prep starting at 3yrs old to 6 yrs old during the school year and summer camp. While we were disappointed neither of them made it to Hunter round two, we've stayed with Talent prep for 3 years for each of them to give them additional support to build a strong educational foundation across reading and math. We've also used Talent prep for private tutoring. I'd recommend talent prep for any parent looking to build a strong education foundation, a great supplement to school. read more

My 4.5 years old son took a series of prep courses from Talented Prep (group session and 2 private classes toward the end). I enjoyed that their group session is a 6:1 ratio (students to teacher). I see progress after each of the session and is in disbelief that hes able to answer complex puzzles and verbal questions. While the material is a lot of hard work. I see that he enjoys and even look forward to attending his "puzzle school" each weekend. Ms Maxine is a delight and all teachers geniuely care about the student's well-being and progress. During the last session, Ms Maxine provided me a list of helpful tips which helped in prepping him for the test. And, the entire staff always answer my questions promptly through email. Irrespective of the outcome of the score, I think my son walked away with knowledge (logic, vocabulary, critical thinking, etc) which he can easily applied toward his future studies. read more

I would not recommend this establishment. I enrolled my daughter, but I found it unusual that parents aren't allowed inside. I didn't feel fully informed about what was happening, and the materials they used seemed outdated. read more

Not a fan. Spent over $2000 with lessons twice a week for months, including privates and mock tests, to prepare for the G&T exam. This was in addition to working with my own child extensively. My kid didn't pass. We attended both the FiDi location and Chinatown one. Very little communication with them. You get to speak with them for 15-20 seconds as they are shoving your kid out the door and other parents are clamoring to pick up their kids. There is practically no feedback. You can't speak to them before the class either. You can only drop off your kid within 5 minutes before class. Doesn't matter if it's cold or raining. I had to avoid being late but also avoid being too early so that we wouldn't be standing outside for thirty minutes. Do you need feedback? If you want anything over 15 seconds of "this is the worksheet they did today", it costs extra. Take a mock test and want to look at it? Extra fee. Often times, I would try and ask a question and would be met with staff looking at me as if I was stupid. They are very cold and clearly favor some families, even separating classes into "potential 99's" and segregating everybody else who I guess they don't work as hard with. Missed a class due to the train path changing while we were literally on it. Couldn't reach the station without doing two more transfers, so we walked in the rain from the next stop over. We were 25 minutes late and soaked so I told them what had happened. Did we get a make up class? Nope, because I joined the semester a week late so they counted that as my only makeup. Another time, we had no class on a random day and there was no email to remind us (schedule was given months prior, but a simple courtesy email would have been nice, too). Another thing they should do, make it more clear when we are and aren't allowed in the building. Can we help our 3/4 year olds take their shoes off and put them on? What about helping them in the bathroom? I often felt helpless standing outside of the glass because their policy is so strict on no parents entering. Yet, other parents waltz right in without comment. If I was going to do this again, I would go with a different company that was more welcoming or just tutor my kid myself. The worst part of the experience was the culminating G&T celebration party at the end of the prep program. They had one person to do face painting for like 40 kids (btw wayyyyy too many people in one space!). We got there on time but decided to eat first and take off our coats. By the time we got on the end of the face paint line, it wasn't looking too bad but some parents were "holding spots" for other families so we kept getting pushed back further. After like 40 minutes, my kid was bored so my kid started interacting with the other kids sitting in chairs who were next in line for face paint. I remained in our place. Some moms felt it appropriate to stop the lady who was face painter to make sure that they knew that my kid was in fact NOT in line and not to take my kid before their kids. *eye roll* My kid was literally the last person in line. They squeezed in one last kid before my kid, then looked at me and said they were wrapping up. The parents were itching to start the certificate distribution ceremony. Ok. Whatever. I didn't make a fuss about it. The icing on the cake was the fact that they didn't have a certificate with my kid's name on it. My kid doesn't have some exotic name or spelling. They literally didn't have one with my kid's name on it. They called a random name at the end that no one answered to, so everyone looked around and then at us, the strange family, and I said lowly, "That's not my kid's name." Everybody turned around and they just continued on and closed the ceremony. Nobody approached me afterwards to apologize for the mix up, or at least offer to face paint my daughter! I went up to them to ask what was going on with the certificate. The lady said, "Oh, well, the name is wrong in the system. So I need to make another. Can you come pick up next week?" We live 1.5 hr away. Was I going to take 3 hours out of my day for a piece of paper? No. Should they have offered to mail it for their error? Yes. Does the paper matter if my kid failed the test anyway? You decide. I can't wait for NYC to change the G&T admissions process. read more

Definitely recommend them for any tutoring or help with academics. They were really professional in helping my 2 boys with GT testing. One of them scored District and the other scored Citywide. Very happy with their scores. Although we decided to change direction, and put them in private schools, but the tutoring really help both of them in advancing in their classes in school. read more

Agreed with the the other reviewers, the teacher are good. But it really depends on your child, and how they respond to a actual class room type format. This is test prep and study, if your child is not ready for it, do not push them. Got to let your kid be a kid. read more

I enrolled my daughter (3yrs old at the time) into Talent Prep this summer into their G&T introductory class as a starter to see if she would transition well into Pre-K. The class had a 3 students to 1 teacher ratio. She was able to feed off the other students energy and build on that, while still getting individualized attention from the teacher. They were very knowledge and personable which is a huge plus in my books. Always gave me insightful feedback on areas we needed to work on and different ways to make it fun & interesting at home. Now my daughter just turned 4 years old & currently in the fall G&T class. I've already noticed a huge difference in her progress. I enjoy knowing that she's learning and actually enjoying it at the same time! read more

My aunt asked me to find a place for my cousin to learn chinese a while back. She didn't want one of those places where they just lecture you to death. She was afraid that he would lose out on his chinese culture and language since he was born here. He barely spoke any chinese aside from "Hi" and "Mom" since its all english in school. I had passed by this place on my way to the park and read their brochures and told them to give it a try. Ever since starting up at this school, hes been picking up reading and writing chinese and speaking more conversational chinese to me and my aunt. Highly recommend this place! read more

Had a free demo pre ballet class for my daughter. She LOVED it! It is so much fun to see her dancing like a ballerina. Great teacher, highly recommend ! read more

Very professional team and material. Great for those who are looking for mandarin education for their children. I greatly improved my mandarin after a couple of months. I think their mommy and me is good cuz their tutors have high education background in early child education and development. read more

I checked out the companies website after the director from my son's preschool referred for gifted and talented tutoring at home. Honestly, i was not so sure at first but decided to give it a shot anyway since it is very inexpensive. To my surprise - my son's teacher Ms. Michelle was so professional so sweet and knowledgeable! She came with test prep materials every class. I stayed at my office while they had lessons. She always stayed after to talk to me about some areas of strength and weakness and what i can do at home to work with him. They say, never judge a book by its cover, and its true! read more

We are really happy with Talent Prep! We came here for G&T prep for my younger child and Mandarin class for my oldest. The staff is great - all the teachers are extremely sincere and hard-working. They are always willing to help tailor things to suit your child's/family's needs. I have already recommended this place to two other mom friends who now send their children. We are all very pleased! read more

I signed up for private gifted and talented tutoring and mandarin immersion for my son this summer and so far we really enjoyed the sessions. I appreciate their customized lesson plan for my son who is 3.5 years. We've left for vacation once and forgot to reschedule the session and when the instructor show up at my apartment calling me, I felt terrible but the tutor was so nice and did not give me any stress. I knocked off 1 star because they only service families in Manhattan so i had to bring my child to my sister's house every week but its worth it. His teacher in school said he has gotten better and he utters a few words in Mandarin! i am a proud mom. read more

I checked out the companies website after the director from my son's preschool referred them to me for gifted and talented sessions at home. Honestly, i was not impressed at first. Then i thought the director referred so it couldn't be bad and $35 wasn't bad at all. To my surprise, my son's teacher was so professional so sweet. She came with materials so i didn't have to prepare for anything. I stayed at my office while they had lessons. She always stayed after to talk to me about some areas of strength and weakness and what i can do at home to work with him. They say, never judge a book by its cover, and its right! read more

My child goes to a Mandarin Immersion private school. He was having trouble catching up with his school work, especially since Mandarin isn't his native language. A coworker referred me to this company. Now, my son loves Chinese culture. The teacher worked on different activities with him. His favorite was definitely dumpling making from scratch. We were impressed and it was delicious too. He was very proud of his accomplishments and so were we. Find a tutor from company is much more reliable than find a individual. read more

I enrolled my twin niece and nephew for the Gifted and Talented prep class on Sundays. I really like the small class size, which only has 6 students per class. Also, it seems like my niece and nephew enjoy it as well. Lastly, given the new environment, the program also provides a flexible transition phase which builds up on class time to let the students adjust. read more

This is a really good prep school with lots of diversity learning. From arts to early academics, this is the place to be.