Revolution Prep’s Ivy League students bring affordable SAT test prep to San Francisco

by Iris Clayter

Revolution-Ivy, Revolution Prep’s Ivy League students bring affordable SAT test prep to San Francisco, Culture Currents San Francisco – To prep or not to prep? For a growing number of high school parents and students, that is the question. And with college admissions getting more competitive every year, many students have begun turning to a short list of pricey test prep companies to help them earn the scores they need to compete.

But the dominance of the old-school test prep giants may not be here to stay. At least that’s what five entrepreneurial college students are banking on.

This summer Iris Clayter, Sarah Roach, Ashley Bach, Mitou Nguyen and Michael Holper, student leaders at Stanford, UC Berkeley and Georgetown, have been selected to bring Revolution Prep’s Ivy Insiders programs to San Francisco. Revolution Prep, an innovative test prep company started in 2002, selects undergraduates from top colleges around the nation to run its Ivy Insiders programs during the summer.

“What excited me most about teaching with Revolution was the opportunity to offer financial aid and scholarships to students who need them,” says Clayter, who was hired to run Revolution’s Ivy Insiders programs based on her teaching experience and 97th percentile SAT scores. “My goal is that no student be turned away based on inability to pay.”

In the past nine years, Revolution’s Ivy Insiders programs have helped nearly 10,000 students raise their SAT scores by an average of almost 300 points – results that outpace most traditional test prep companies by a factor of two. According to Clayter, such unprecedented success can be traced to three unique features of Revolution’s Ivy Insiders programs: a focus on mentorship, a personalized learning approach for every student and an intensive three week delivery that allows students to escape the stresses of the school year.

“The reason Ivy Insiders has had so much success is that we take a student-centered approach to the test. We approach the SAT like a game to be beaten and expose students to some of its best players – Ivy League undergraduates who beat the exam themselves. By simplifying the test’s content, tailoring our instruction to individual students’ needs and focusing on results, we’ve been able to produce score jumps that are unprecedented,” says Sarah Roach, a freshman at Stanford. “It really is the full package: top instructors, the right approach, reasonable prices and of course, guaranteed results. I think the potential of this program is limitless.”

Revolution Prep will run Ivy Insiders courses and tutoring programs in San Francisco throughout this summer. For more information, contact Iris Clayter at iris_clayter@ivyinsiders.com and visit www.revolutionprep.com/ivyinsiders.