SPEAKER_01 0:01

You're listening to the Support Ed Learning Podcast, where we challenge the status quo of education and reimagine what learning should be. I'm Dr. Joe Sebastian, and in every episode we dive into critical thinking, Bloom's Taxonomy, educational innovation, and how AI is shaping the future of learning. Whether you're a teacher, parent, policymaker, or lifelong learner, you're in the right place to rethink, reshape, and revive education. All right, he runs a one-on-one SAT practice built on diagnostic learning analysis, advanced math depth, and something most tutors skip entirely, mental conditioning to actually handle test day pressure. Steve Kirshenbaum, CEO of SAT Preparation Group, is here today with us. We're going to get into what a real customized prep looks like, why anxiety is a training problem, a lot like what we say as well, and what every parent of the digital SAT era student needs to know. Welcome back to the Supported Learning Podcast. I'm Dr. Joe Sebeshin. Families often ask me how to navigate the maze of college prep without wasting a ton of time and spending thousands of dollars. And the answer usually involves finding the people who have figured out the rules of the game that schools aren't telling you. So that's why I'm thrilled to have Steve here today. Again, he is the CEO of SAT Preparation Group, the one-on-one test practice based in Miami, Florida. And he specializes in diagnostic learning, advanced math instruction, and mental conditioning, what most SAT tutors get. His whole methodology is customized down to each student's pace, learning style, and psychology, not a one-size-all fit curriculum. We're going to dive into what real customized prep looks like, why anxiety is a training gap problem, another personality trait, and how the SAT, the digital version, has changed the game so every parent can go in informed. Steve, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Thanks for thanks for spending some time with us. I've given them the highlight reel, but I kind of want to hear from you the 60-second snapshot of like who you are and what specific problem in education learning you solve.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Well, I came into SAT prep from the corporate side of things, not the educational side of things. Okay as a as an engineer, strongly in the customer service-related business. And when I came into, I left the corporate world, came into SAT prep before I formally started my company, I started to recognize that most of the teaching that was being done was ineffective. Nobody was tracking results. They were giving kids tests in books with the answers in them. And it seemed to be more just going over a bunch of questions. And so as an engineer, I just decided I'd need to reinvent the wheel here a little bit and add my many years of personal development myself as a peak performance tool to help with the endurance of the test. And also include strategy that helped to improve brain function and recognize patterns and recognize material so that we could generate more right answers if you balance out those three things of knowledge, strategy, and peak performance.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

That's interesting. I don't hear a lot of that from a lot of people in the test frup industry, but it does make sense. And it sounds like it has to be very individualized, which is also opposite of how big companies scale. And I like to think that the things that we have done have been individualized around the learner, too. So, you know, I guess if you can, take me back to like what made you decide to break away from the corporate space and build a one-on-one practice instead of just scaling a big operation.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Well, it was just from being downsized four times and then scrambling for a new job in a number of occasions, and that's no fun with a family and new children back in the day that were very young. So I started both teaching um in the classroom and this simultaneously back in around 2000, 1999, teaching algebra, geometry. Didn't like it very much because of the wild nature of the classroom and trying to keep control. And uh and so fortunately my business was so flourishing even back then that I just decided to leave that and just go SAT prep, ACT prep. And that's what we've been doing for 25 years now, and evolving it, paying attention to the different revisions of tests from paper to digital, uh, the different ways they present things, the the cleverness of the questions and the difficulty of the test in general needed to be addressed instead of just sending the kids in with uh hardly any strategy.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, that's super impressive. Just, I mean, your devotion to this as well. Uh 20, basically 25, 26 years, that's awesome. Was there anything you were seeing in how test prep was being delivered back then that made you think there has to be a better way?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, well, a lot of the companies that I was involved with before I just went off on my own were mostly involved in group prep, which is, I found out to be mostly social time for the kids, and wasn't achieving very good results. There was no accountability, no assignments, very few practice tests, and a lot of theory with highly academic tutors that had trouble explaining how exactly to defeat some of those types of questions. And and so the kids continued to be frustrated when they showed up to the test. That's when the rubber met the road and the scores came in, and when they realized it didn't work. And so that's why I went in the direction of individual in-home SAT prep, which evolved into online and obviously in the digital world, and we've had customers all over the world and locally, and it's the same for both. And because we were able to provide that service and started, well, we started tracking results back in 2001. Back then, in the first or second year of the first revision of the SAT I was involved in, of the four since then, uh, it was about a 120-point increase in the first year compared to a 30-point college board average. So already we were getting really good results. And over time, until we got to the digital SAT, it kept growing to its current level of 308.8 per student because of the way we integrate things and explain things and keep it simple. Not a lot of moving parts, not a lot of quantity, more quality and understanding versus quick review. So we have a whole process we've developed that works, providing the student puts in the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, I mean, that's that's definitely key, especially when you're on an individualized plan like that. It's interesting because I think a lot of the just for context, we do a lot of one-on-one. We offer office hours. I've never gotten the group structure to work at scale because with AP, the pacing is different, literally across the entire country. It could be pacing different in every school. So kids are behind, kids are ahead. The skills, I'm sure, similar to SAT, they do cycle through. But I but there's the the group component always, I felt need to live in some kind of like just as an extra thing, where I think a lot of the test prep model from a business side has been built around that group structure because of profitability and structure like that. So it's interesting, it's interesting from that business standpoint that you did um build it around 101. Um, because a lot of people, a lot of business coaches would say it's not it's not scalable, it's not profitable. But I guess from an educational side, you've probably seen more consistent results, I'm just guessing. Like in terms of your able to more accurately predict what they're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Oh, yeah. Uh, because in the process, if we can get them to buy in, and most of the time you've got uh a high-end student with a good GPA, but they struggle because of the unfamiliarity of the test questions and they get anxious, and the the the tests are designed to produce more of that. It's almost like entering a Jumanji type scenario for a lot of the kids. Because when they see math word problems, for example, they are not used to it. They don't see any of that in school. And some of the English rules have been forgotten because of the style of reading through the schools. And so individually, we can better map out what the strengths and weaknesses are of a particular student. And once they buy in, sometimes it's sooner, sometimes it's later. They take practice tests under good conditions, they are consistent in their work, they are practicing the strategy of identifying information more completely. And on the digital test, it's much easier to track because I could see everything they're doing. In the old days, we didn't have that. They were just kind of on their own and they could go over time or whatever, or just do real quick. But it gives us good data so that when they arrive at the first tests, if they've improved their score, let's say, from an average score around a thousand to something over 1400 on a practice test, which is very common for us, they have motivation, they have momentum, they they have ability, they've been practicing, and it becomes second nature because what I found is the SAT and the ECT both, they have certain patterns of high frequency they keep asking over and over and over. Hard for an average person to identify on their own. But since I've been doing this so long, we've got the grammar rules down to five. There's only five things they have to know. Uh, and in the math, just a few things simplified, knowing what the words mean, continuous practice to see things from various vantage points. And so we had one student recently who started out in the 400s in the math and then suddenly had an epiphany and just scored 700 pluses from then on. It's it's she did the work, and and so that's what happens. They start to make the unfamiliar into the obvious, and they keep seeing the same thing over and over and over again, very cleverly, from different vantage points, but it's all the same thing. And they realize that after a while, and then they just take off.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

The framework you you have, at least up from my notes, is like about diagnostic learning analysis, right? That's where you start. What does that actually look like in practice? What are you diagnosing and how do you move a kid from that to achieving high on the SAT?

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Well, there's a huge gap between what's going on in school and dealing with a test like this in school, and we've all been there. So we know what the strategies are. But particularly lately, when kids are doing assignments these days, they're just looking for the answers. They're not really analyzing dependent clauses or possessives or transition words. They're just looking for A, B, C, D, fill in the blank, get my homework done so I can do something else or go on to the next assignment. And so as a result of that, and that it's not reinforced in school very well, at least around here, they have this only about 20% understanding of what they're reading at any point because of the quick and hasty and monotone and unemotional way they read. And it's just conditioning, it's not their fault. And then also this grammar blindness, not knowing what the punctuation rules are really, not understanding how possesses work or what a dependent clause is. I'm the one teaching them this, right? After all their schooling, it seems, right? But once they realize it's only five things and a few things in math and a reading strategy to upgrade them to 100% reading, adding a dynamic input and how they go about it, instead of just kind of staring at the words and rereading it three times and still not knowing what they're talking about, especially with these passages from the 1800s and the 15th century BC, and before their time, they don't know anything about these things. And it's like curveballs all over the place. And so the unsuspecting person is going to get slant and get a low score because they don't know how to handle it. It's nothing like school. So we, of course, upgrade their reading strategy using emphasis and intonation and stopping and analyzing as they go instead of just continuous reading and a monotone, adding inner voice usage so they can analyze and stop and question and stop and notice. They're not used to that. And then, of course, showing showing them the grammar rules in our sessions and in their assignments, which we give them, which take about an hour a day, that's all, but not a lot, just quality, not quantity, with tools out and untimed so they can understand uh what's happening with the new questions we're giving them online and on paper, and um practicing the strategies, writing things out in math, and not doing anything in their head to block their superconscious abilities. Most of the time they're overwhelmed because they are trying to absorb everything, and it it just gets uh uh very frustrating and blocked. Human beings can only handle so much at a time with their short-term memory. When you have a minute to answer a question from something you're unfamiliar about, you you have to have some training to deal with it. Just like an athlete for a sport and keep improving and look at successes. And so we can track their homework, we know what they're doing, we can see their percentages, we know their practice test scores, and of course, we share this with with them and their parents and try to build that momentum up to their first test and then work with them through multiple tests, not just one, because of the super scoring. It doesn't make sense to on a hard test like this, particularly the SAT, to just focus on one test. So we work in some ACTs and subsequent SATs, and it's good to have early retirement from the SATs, right? The other issue, uh, particularly in math, that we bring them up to the level of is they forget a lot of things from their math classes. I mean, who's having conversations about parabolas and functions and everyday conversation on texting and social media? No one. And so, whatever rules they might have learned and equations they might have learned, they only retain a small percentage of them. And then when they get to questions they've never seen before, levels beyond what they ever saw in school, that makes it even tougher because they don't know what to do, or they have to go backwards and get and get used to things and all the word problems, which they don't ever see. So we're continuously providing them with examples of the same thing over and over again. And in practice, they are working this so that the practice test ideally keeps raising in score until they get close to where they want. And we tell them the first test is really to take as much pressure off your shoulders as possible. So going forward, it gets easier and the scores can only go up versus struggling and having to wait for the next test to fix something. So diagnostically, we could see everything they're doing. Um and and then in their work and through our sessions individually, and yeah, every even a single student could have two completely different weeks of stuff we have to go over, and I'm fine with that. And then the other advantage of the in-home with the local clients, and to a degree online too, because we could see each other and you know, and so forth, is the rapport we build with our students. You know, we we get a lot of trust from them to buy into this, and uh, you know, I say to them all the time, you know, Kurt Signetti, for example, coach of Indiana football, has a process and it paid off big last year winning the national championship out of the blue. So if he were doing SAT prep, he would have the same process I would. It's very simple and it's very effective. And and with those ingredients plus the rapport, and we're building them up, we don't treat them like dictator teachers, like they get enough of that. So we treat them like people, and so there's a trust there, and even if they go backwards, we try to learn from it, not you know, give them a hard time. Uh, they're kids, they have a lot on their shoulders. So uh, you know, we're just tracking results, and when the scores come in from the actual test, we're keeping track of those. And we've had those spreadsheets now for 25 years. Every single student, and we have our entire population uh tracked for uh the score improvements, which is a very good leverage for parents to hear about, because you know, maybe a kid has been through a class or they took a test and they didn't do so well, and the score is like in the 900s or 800s, and the parents are panicking. So that's when that's when they you know call and that's when we can get into gear and fix it for them. Even if they had a couple of months of pre-prep before us, we get that a lot. And and and because of that rapport, we built our business on referrals through the years, up until a couple months ago when we started our YouTube channel. Now we have 32 videos up and every week adding more.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

It's grown that way as well. Yes. Yes. That's very impressive over the for a quarter of a century. You've actually talked about mental conditioning. You've treat I've heard you treat test anxiety as a training gap, not a personality treat. I want to know what you do on the psychological side with kids, because I often say testing, I don't actually believe in test anxiety, I believe in a lack of like practice with feedback. Because if you if you did enough reps to gain confidence that you can do it, there would be nothing to be nervous about. Right? So, like, so I guess where where is your method in that?

SPEAKER_00 21:47

All right. Well, to keep it simple, I mean, I I come back from the days of Tony Robbins and burning out all the cassette tapes after listening to them 20 plus times. And going to seminars, and not just him, but Brian Tracy and Earl Nightingale and all the successful people, Napoleon Hill, all the books, uh, and I get any program I can get my hands on, I did. And it was very helpful in the corporate world, but it had an application here too, in SAT prep. So, yeah, you gotta know what you're doing. Sure, of course. And you gotta get help with that because it's hard to like decipher what the college board or the ACT people are actually doing in their pattern creation. So you have to have the the you have to have the knowledge, the strategy too, and that's pretty simple stuff. But when I when I first started doing this, we had our students doing 20 minutes of light exercise before an actual test or practice tests. We had them eating certain foods, uh looking into making sure it's safe and appropriate, uh, certain supplements, certain uh fragrant oils like peppermint and lavender, which are very good for brain function and calming. We we have, you know, the ancient people from China and India, they knew things about the physiology of the body, breathing techniques. Even lately, the Hard Math Institute has ways to breathe to create coherence. They're flow states. We want to get the kids into a flow state on a 16-year-old level, Tom Brady mode, Scotty Scheffler, people who just zone in and are able to function excellently, no matter what, consistently. And so we have a process and a workbook for them when they take practice test. It's evolved into its modern form, but it's not that much different. And really, if you simplify it, it's just creating six neurotransmitters in the brain to get into this coherent state to be able to improve your brain function statistically by as much as 500%. And it shows in the results, and no one else is talking about this. Okay, competitive advantage, I suppose. Uh, but it really helps when you add that element to knowing what you're doing, having strategy to recognize information really well, to get to the extreme attention to detail, and also feeling comfortable and effortless, effective, and just the recall just becomes so much easier. It takes time to get to that point. And it's not perfect, like life. But having done it a few times before they go take the actual test with our practice test regimen before every session, it's the only way to measure how they're doing is to put them through this two and a half hour test. It used to be four or five-hour test, but they simplified it. But yeah. The peak performance is such an important element in everything. All successful people are doing it. I mean, I do three times as much as I tell them to do every day. That's how I keep my energy and reverse my aging, and uh and that, and that's why I got into wellness coaching and life coaching too, and add those elements into my prep, too, and future conversations about with these students about their whole their life and what's important. Sometimes we go off into those type of tangents, but yeah, we have a process that they learn about, and they know none of this from school, maybe if they're athletes, of course, but now we're applying it to keep that battery called the brain working at the optimal efficiency so that unless something goes terribly wrong, they're going to produce some tremendous results. And that's what we've seen. Does that answer the question?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

This episode is brought to you by Supported Tutoring, where we don't just help students get better grades, we help them become critical thinkers. Whether it's mastering AP exams, maximizing college applications, or building lifelong learning habits, our expert tutors focused on critical thinking, confidence, and real growth. Head to supported tutoring.com to find the support your student deserves. Yeah, I think pretty extensively, if you could then reverse engineer, I guess, break it down for a parent, a kid who is confident, knows everything or prepared, but still freezes come test day. What's happening there? What's the fix?

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Yeah, that's that what happens there is at so at certain points, and it happened to me too, it pretty much happens to a lot of people. At certain points in their academic career, probably, they've had a teacher, two, three, four, five of them who just went off on the class or went off on them. Like when my mother was in school and the teacher put her in the corner with a dunce cap. And so from then on, she was just afraid of math for her whole life. So, but when that happens, and the kids are in a classroom, they see the board, they see the teacher, they see the desks, and they associate that with these negative emotions that they're placed upon them. They don't know how to, they don't have the handbook of life to handle these things, right? So, and it gets reinforced. And so if a kid's already semi-nervous, or even if they're confident about their knowledge, and they walk into the classroom, just like that, they see the the the whiteboard, they see the desks, they see the teacher, and it anchors or triggers that negative emotion cocktail, and it just puts them into a fight or flight incoherence. And so we have strategies that can cure that very quickly. Erasure techniques, still, I use those from Tony Robbins from back in the day that I used to eliminate the bad habits I had or negative situations, uh, whatever they were back then. I don't really remember what I was, but I went through this process myself and it worked very effectively. Um, a lot of these things I added to my repertoire through the years, sometimes just to save my life in a health problem back in the day. And it was so effective that I had to add it to a process we we asked the students to research and uh engage in uh to be able to get the best score possible and to bridge that gap of potential that they don't yet have because of their lack of strategy or knowledge or or just how to take a test. And so the stress can be mitigated pretty easily by just giving them a few visualization techniques and reversing that process by completely, as Tony Robbins used to do, uh, completely erasing the C D or DVD, scratching it up so badly that it can't be seen the same ever again. So the result of this is instead of getting all tight and frustrated, they walk into the classroom the next time and they start giggling and laughing. That's how effective it is and how fast it is. No psychological, years-long analysis needed.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

I like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Hey, keep it simple.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah. For sure. Um, you know, a lot of people are worried about just if they're, you know, they're they're obviously it's high-stakes testing, college emissions gotten extremely competitive, people are hiring tutors, there's all kinds of different prep companies popping up. Um how do you how do you evaluate whether your kid's tutor is actually doing the right things? What should they be looking for?

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Well, yeah, well, if we talk to a parent, usually it's a referral from someone who did tremendously well. So it's it's not a challenge really in that situation. But sometimes they call us from for a free consultation or they find us on the internet, you know, that sort of thing. And you know, the first thing I gotta find out is do they have a willing student who wants to participate in this and has some goals? Yeah, because it's it's it's much more challenging to work with somebody who doesn't have these consistent, excellent habits. They're just kind of a flash in the pan and they're used to the process they're going through, and they just they find it painful or they don't think they need it, or it's more the parents. Right. So yeah, I will I want to make sure I'm working with someone who has some ability and and and and they want to exercise some new skills. Uh so when I talk to a parent, if I establish that, you know, I'm gonna find out what's important to them, what's most important to them, and provide a map to get there, and of course, share with them the results we've gotten, give them references. Um, you know, we we used to have a sales guy that goes to the house or online once we could do that, if it's somebody somewhat remote, to bring them through the process. But I find nowadays I could do it myself and through Zoom mostly, and it's been very effective. So we we we are able to capture a lot of business just by sharing what we've been honestly, truly doing over the past 25 years, and especially if they know somebody who's had results and they've spoken to them, it's pretty much gonna be a client. And we're gonna work very hard to get them the results and make sure they understand the big picture.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

AI is affecting everybody now, and it's obviously come creeped into the test prep industry and um AI tutors that claim, you know, that they're adaptive, diagnostic driven. I guess for families out there that is unsure, it seems like a lot of kids are starting to have some backlash against AI too. But where should students be using AI in their prep? And where does it become a liability?

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Well, they're using AI anyway, but the the the the challenge with AI, uh, and I use AI, I I use Claude and my wife use Claude and Chat GPT, and it's been very helpful, especially with the YouTube channel video scripts and choreography. And man, I just have to copy and paste it, and I'm cranking out um video scripts and posting them. So I get it. But the one of the challenges with AI is it doesn't right now do a great job of explaining the concepts or putting the patterns together. It knows how to answer a question. And we our kids have access to that in the solutions on the uh digital platform we use, in the solutions that are provided, but they're very complex. And the kids need simplicity. So I just do screenshots and give them keywords and phrases, what to look for, and send them a copy, and then they can review it. And it's much easier to conceive there. And what ends up happening, just like group classes or ineffective tutors who don't track results, which is one thing I tell parents to look for if they're looking around. Make sure you have asked uh the company do they have a spreadsheet of actual results from every student, not just their biggest wins. I mean, that to me would be the most important thing. Anyway. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Um I want to kind of end on uh rapid fire, just move into some questions that no explanation needed, just first thing that comes to mind if that's cool. Like our lightning route, we call it. Okay. All right. Okay. What's the most overrated SAT prep strategy?

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Overrated. Well, I'd say the most common is just sitting and going over questions. And uh, as I was saying before, like with AI, uh when the scores come in and they're low, that's when the parents really need to act. So, of course, we talked about groups. Because of course, you're always gonna have a bell curve of kids who get it and they're gonna do the work and they're gonna improve. But you're gonna have other people who are, you know, just saying they're doing things and don't score very well. And and and so those two things, and the fact that very few people are tracking results and are unable to share actual information. I think this should be prevalent in all industry. I think doctors should provide results. How many, how many cancer cures did you do? How many, how many things did you fix properly? How many times did you get sued, right? Lawyers too. You know, what kind of results are you getting? Teachers. So uh you know, I I I I typically don't pay much attention to our competition, if you want to call it that, because I I can just supersede that with how I explain what we do with the three cornerstones of peak performance, strategy, and knowledge, and just how we simplify it and make it easy for the kids to boom get the concept and turn their light on.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yeah. How about what's the most underrated SAT prep strategy?

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Underrated? Under. Well, I guess what I'm doing. I guess because no matter where I look, I can't really find anybody who's doing what we're doing. So I haven't really found anything out there that is in sync with the results. Because you could say anything you want on the internet that you get you're gonna get somebody to a 1500, but if they have a 750 to start with, it's kind of unrealistic to, you know, maybe a few people could do that. But it's it's it's extremely difficult to make that type of score in any case. But underrated. No, again, I don't really pay attention much to what our competition is doing, just sharing with people what we've done and how we're gonna get their college-bound student into the real world, basically, not just college.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

What about one thing parents overthink about test prep?

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Overthink about test prep. Well, I think they get too hyped up and try to be too much of a helicopter parent in a lot of cases, instead of just being a support structure. I have a lot of parents who are supportive and very cool, and that helps. But when you're getting to the conversations every night at dinner, what'd you score? And how'd you do? Did you do your homework? It sounds like the old days when my when the grandmothers would pinch my cheeks, you know, what'd you do in school today? Right. And if you too do that too much and get, you know, get on their case too much, it has a negative effect. They just kind of tune out. So we try to teach the parents to be support structures because they're part of the team. And if you have a calm household and just talking about successes and what you might have learned and how you attacked something versus the inquisitive, demanding type approach, it just works better.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

I love it. What about one thing parents underthink about SAT prep?

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Well, a lot of what they underthink is when, right? We have a lot of people we worked with who wait till the last minute. I'm sure I'm gonna get a few calls soon from seniors. And they cut you off after December, at least here in Florida, and probably most colleges, that it's gonna be really stressful to have school and do your applications and essays and do SAT or ACT prep at the last minute, trying to build your score in the middle of all that, not ideal. And you know, I I I it and because school some most of the time can't really be relied on for any of this, you're not gonna see any of this in your classes. It and if you do, you're lucky and it's not gonna be explained very well. So you can't rely on it. You have to have a toolbox, collect some things, keep them for a while, and then recall them when you need to under good conditions when you're taking these tests. So I right now I have I just started with a sophomore, and he's taking his November SAT. It doesn't matter when you take it. You could be an infant. And if you're smart and get a good score, they'll take it.

unknown 40:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

So the thing that they need to probably think about more is better timing. Start early, have a plan. Like if if if I could, and this is gonna be on my YouTube videos, but if I could tell them one thing, it would be like, do summer prep if you can.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Because then you don't have the school interference. We do all year round, but the summer students do better because there's no nine hours of homework a day, and plus being in the classroom. So think about how to do this so that it's it works for everybody. It doesn't over overwhelm the student too much because you have to think about that too. The kids are not just dealing with homework, but clubs and jobs and sports, and they've got practice for six hours three times a week, or band practice, or whatever. Sure. And you still got to work in an hour a day and take practice tests, yeah, it's a challenge, but they're not used to that in prioritizing and time management. Those are life skills that should be taught but aren't. So yeah, that get a handle on the timing so that you're done. And you could just go on with your life when the applications come in. That's it. You just do that and go to school. And then, you know, go visit places or whatever. But you don't have SAT A C T prep at the same time at the last minute.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Yeah. I like that. I like that. That's actually really good advice. I mean, parents sometimes don't know when was the best time to start. How about the best diagnostic question you should ask a student in your first session?

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Diagnostic question. Well, I want to get to know them first. Right? You know, and talk a little bit about what their interests are. You know, basic how to win friends and influence people. And I'm genuinely interested because I can use these analogies with them to help teach them. Uh so I want to know, and by the first practice test they take before we even meet, I can see their test questions. I can see if they're highlighting, I can see if they're having trouble at certain points, transition points. Are they running out of uh are they running out of brain power? Are are they having good points? You know, so I I have a map, so I'm gonna ask them about it. How did you go about this? How did you go about that? What did you think about here? And I already know the answers, like we talked about before. All right, but I want them to tell me. And then I go into what are the solutions and how we go about it and what our system is. It's pretty simple. It's one page, half a page, the system, right? So getting them to do it and get used to it, like old school writing things down, for example, is tough for them in the beginning. So, yeah, um, once I explain these things to them and they're off and running, we just start tracking it from there. And and and then each week we go through a diagnostic. And here's how you did here, how's he did there? Of course, on students who get it quickly and score in the 1400 and 1500s, you know, it's it's an easier time than if you have somebody in a 900, you've got to go over a lot of questions to make sure they understand. But uh it depends. So it it's kind of on the fly sometimes with these diagnostics.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

And if a parent could do one thing after listening to this, what should it be?

SPEAKER_00 44:35

Well, like I said, just get started sooner or later, get a plan, get someone who has done this and and and knows how to get results and knows how to inspire the kids to help them inspire themselves. Uh and and and and and be efficient with it so that it doesn't take up a whole year. Let's have a plan that takes three or four months, and you retire, and they don't need me anymore. That's fine. I don't want to linger forever because then I have to have new students. So, so yeah, get a plan. Don't hawk your kids so much. You know, try to support them more and try to be on the same page as them. And not just SAT prep with everything. Uh, because I didn't get that when I was growing up. I got the demanding, you know, finger pointing. So I don't want to do that to them. So we got to help the parents sometimes too to just make sure everybody's on the same page.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Got that. Steve, thank you so much for spending time here today. I really, really appreciate you kind of giving us the playbook and your background and experience with uh AT. So for everyone listening out there that wants to go deeper with you, learn more about what you have to offer, where should they, where's the best place to look for them to find you?

SPEAKER_00 45:59

Well, you can um go to our website, SATprepgroup.com. Um, we have a YouTube channel, SAT Prep Group. You can call our 800 number from anywhere um uh 866-872-8773. Uh, or you could just email us at info at satprepgroup.com.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

All right. We'll put all those links in the show notes and on the YouTube description. So our yeah, absolutely. So our viewers can use those links to find you. And thank you all again for joining us on the Supported Learning Podcast. Steve, thank you again. We'll see you next time. All right. Thanks for joining us on the Supported Learning Podcast. If today's conversation inspired you, challenged you, or sparked a new perspective, be sure to subscribe and share with a fellow change maker. We'll be back soon with more voices, more insight, and more ways to elevate the future of learning together. Until then, keep learning and keep pushing the conversation forward.