Tips for choosing a plan

Torn between tiers? Parsing through packages? Here's our advice for picking the best plan for your needs.

Always start with a first time package.

It’s fairly important not to dive into a long course of study without meeting your tutor and scoping the task first. After your initial sessions, you’ll have had the chance to confirm that you’re comfortable with your plan and that your timeline can accommodate a Comprehensive syllabus. Tutoring is a serious commitment and you want to make sure you’re completely comfortable before proceeding further.

Give yourself time to learn the material.

Most learning processes require the student to consolidate new knowledge and then practice applying this knowledge iteratively. How much time is required for each of these tasks depends in the student’s comfort and familiarity with the topic, as well as their goals. No matter what, though, learning involves time to understand, then, time to integrate, and, finally, time to practice. As for admissions, these are always long-haul processes that benefit from reflection over an extended periods of time.

More time is (usually) more valuable than a more expensive tutor.

It is (almost) always better to work with a less expensive tutor for the full Comprehensive program, than with the most expensive tutor for less time. Ultimately, the tutor is guiding your process, so regular accountability will be more impactful than a few sporadic sessions with a tutor who exceeds your budget.

A good fit is also more valuable than a more expensive tutor.

When you reach out to us, we ask you a bunch of questions about your background as a learner, a test-taker, or an applicant (whichever is most relevant to you).  We also ask you about budget and other logistics, like best days and times for meetings. Then, we take this information and, as a team, discuss which tutor would be the best fit for you. Although there are cases where one of our higher-tiered tutors makes the most sense for a student (see below), for the most part, we know that the tutor who will help you the most will be the one with whom you click best. So, we are always looking for the perfect fit between student and tutor, and again the most expensive tutor is not always the best one for every student.

But, there are some times when you may need an ultra-experienced tutor.

There are some situations in which only a very experienced tutor is going to make sense for most students.  Here are some examples of those situations:
  • You’ve taken a test more than once and seen all or most of the extant official materials.
  • You’ve done a lot of tutoring (or other kinds of prep), you are not seeing results, and you don’t know why.
  • You are trying to raise your score incrementally at the highest levels.
  • You struggle with a learning or standardized testing challenge that is impacting your performance
  • You have an ambitious (maybe even slightly unrealistic) timeline.
  • You have a non-traditional background with respect to your goal, or you have some very specific questions that would benefit from an experienced opinion.
  • You are looking for niche academic or professional help that only a more advanced career educator is able to provide.