Elite Educational Coaching

Specializing in test prep, writing, and college admissions
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Enrichment and test prep for grades 4-8
 
Sign up now for new courses, March-May 2010: Core Skills & Selective-Enrollment Prep (grades 6-7) and Accelerated Enrichment & Greek Mythology (grades 4-5).  Scroll down for details.
 
See my students' high-school entrance exam scores and acceptances (class of 2008).
 
 
Why should all students start enrichment early (no later than 5th or 6th grade)? Click here. Waiting until 7th or 8th grade is a mistake, since tests taken as early as February or March of 7th grade help determine admission to selective-enrollment high schools.  In fact, those 7th-grade tests carry the same weight as the 8th-grade selective-enrollment exam for the elite public high schools in Chicago.
 
Thus, students who plan to apply to Payton, Whitney Young, Northside College Prep, Lab, Latin, Lincoln Park IB, St. Ignatius, or other highly competitive high schools should commit to early, steady exam preparation, with an emphasis on the development of substantive skills and knowledge that will improve performance in school as well as on entrance exams.
 
  • Prepare for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) selective enrollment exam, taken during 8th grade
    • In 2007, 15,000 students applied for 2,700 spots at 8 elite high schools
    • Acceptance rates: Payton 2.9%, Whitney Young 4.4%, Northside 4%
    • Some elite public high schools reject students with test scores as high as 98%
  •  Prepare for the equally important 7th-grade standardized test (ISAT for public-school students; Iowa, Terra Nova, or a similar test for private-school students), which carries the same weight as the CPS selective-enrollment exam in 8th grade   
  • Prepare for the ISEE (for independent schools) and SSAT (for boarding schools) – both are much harder than the Stanford, Iowa, and Terra Nova tests
  • Prepare for the HSPT (Catholic high-school entrance exam)
 
Click here for answers to frequently asked questions about my courses. 
 
Note: Course dates and times below are tentative and subject to change. 

"I learn more in 10 minutes here than I do in an hour at school."

                                             -- a seventh-grader at his second Core Skills class

2010-11 enrichment and selective-enrollment prep course listings appear here.