At Mathnasium, we’re consistently delighted by the tens of thousands of parent testimonials describing how we’re changing their children’s lives through math. Occasionally, one really astounds us, like the one that came through our math learning center in Centerville, Ohio, which is owned and operated by Glenn and Susie Mikaloff:
“Words can't describe how happy I am with the results Mathnasium has produced through my daughter's exposure to their processes! In addition to the regular weekly sessions, she also participated in the ACT/SAT prep workshops. After completing these workshops, my daughter almost DOUBLED her math score on her second attempt on the SAT. Yes, I said DOUBLED! To put that into perspective for the parents reading this comment, that new score increased her Merit Scholarship offered at the university she chose by $15k per year. Mathnasium literally saved me $60k of college expenses while providing my daughter with an increased confidence in her overall math knowledge. I highly recommend Mathnasium to all parents that recognize the importance of a solid foundation of a wide range of math skills for their children!”
—Chris Johns, 1/5/18
Wow. Doubling SAT scores? Sixty thousand dollars in scholarship? That really blew us away. Many parents don’t know that Mathnasium not only offers elementary math help and math for middle school, but we also help high school students with math tutoring classes. In addition to a proprietary curriculum that helps in school classes (algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus), we have a proprietary SAT and ACT program. But instead of teaching the “tricks” of test taking, we teach the math. And it works.
Clearly, no one should walk into Mathnasium expecting to double their college board scores, that’s an exceptional outcome. So we contacted Chris and his daughter, Emma, to learn how it happened and what they’re up to now.
A Rocky Start to College Boards
Taking the SAT or ACT is a rite of passage that most aspiring collegians dread. At the end of her junior year, Chris John’s eldest child Emma, took her first SAT, hoping to apply to her first-choice college, Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The test result was a bit of a shocker, and not in a good way.
“Her math score was in the 300s somewhere,” Johns said. “By first semester senior year, we were applying to a few colleges and realized that her SAT wasn’t going to cut it.”
“I wasn’t ready in the slightest,” said Emma. “I’ve never been good at math or test taking, but after we got the results back and saw that I did, in fact, do really bad on it, my dad and I decided that something needs to be done if I wanted to get into Xavier.”
Xavier students typically get between 520 and 610 on the math portion of the SAT, so the pressure was on.
https://blog.mathnasium.com/mathnasium-student-doubles-her-sat-score