Common questions
FAQ
We’re already scoring around 1400. What is left to gain?
Every SAT course teaches tricks: elimination, plugging in numbers, pacing rules. They matter, because without speed you run out of clock. But the test is engineered so that its hardest questions look like trick questions, then quietly break the pattern, and students who lean on shortcuts alone stall in the low 1400s. Getting past that is not a matter of sitting more papers. It is hours spent on genuinely difficult problems with a tutor who can see where the reasoning goes wrong as it happens, on a shared board, and stop it there. A 1500+ score comes from judgment: knowing when the fast route is safe, and recognising the moment a question demands real problem-solving instead.
Is the built-in Desmos calculator enough for the Math section?
No, and that is one of the clearest reasons able students stall below 1500. Desmos is built into Bluebook, it is excellent, and it will carry a student a long way, but a Desmos-only approach has a ceiling, because some questions cannot usefully be graphed at all and a student who never built the algebra has nothing to fall back on when one appears. So both routes get taught on the same question: the graph and the algebra behind it. The point is not that algebra is purer. Where both work, the graph is usually the better choice, because it is faster and harder to get wrong. The skill worth training is spotting, in seconds, the questions where it will not work.
What material do you teach from?
Preparation is anchored to official College Board material, with regular full-length timed mocks in Bluebook so nothing on test day is a surprise. Alongside it, Lewis brings his own bank of challenging problems, built for the current Digital SAT and kept up to date as the test changes. That means less of each lesson spent drilling questions a student already finds easy, and more on the harder problems that resist a memorised method, which is exactly where the points above 1500 are won.
How does payment work?
One rate, set out on the fee sheet. Take lessons as and when you need them, billed after each one has taken place, with no minimum commitment and nothing paid in advance. Payment is by card link or bank transfer, and there is nothing to pay before the free intro call and trial lesson.
What does the Digital SAT involve?
The SAT is now fully digital, taken in the Bluebook app at an approved test centre. It lasts about 2 hours 14 minutes and has two sections, Reading & Writing and Math, each split into two adaptive modules. Scores range from 400 to 1600, and a calculator is allowed throughout the Math section.
What equipment does the student need?
A laptop or tablet, a quiet hour, and a stable connection. An iPad with an Apple Pencil is strongly recommended, because it lets the student write directly on the shared whiteboard, which makes lessons far more interactive. A laptop works too.
How far ahead of the test should we start?
Twelve to sixteen weeks of weekly lessons is a comfortable runway for most students, and it is the most common choice. Students aiming above 1500 often start a full year out and meet weekly through the school year, which leaves room to cover every topic at every difficulty level rather than triage. At the other end, a concentrated two-month course with lessons more than once a week can move a score a long way when the date is already close. The SAT is offered on several international dates each year, so we plan backwards from the chosen sitting, leaving time for a retake before university deadlines if needed.
How much can a score move in a couple of months?
Around 200 points is a realistic aim for a student working intensively over two months and doing the practice set between lessons; one recent student went from 1200 to 1400 in a month. The gain comes from three things at once: covering every question type so nothing on the paper is a surprise, learning the methods that cut through the traps the test sets, and fixing pacing so the clock stops costing marks. Students starting from a lower base, or aiming past 1500, usually need longer than that.
Do you teach both sections?
Yes, both Math and Reading & Writing, by the same tutor. Reading & Writing is taught by a native English speaker, which matters on a section built around nuance in vocabulary, grammar and argument; the Math is taught by the same person, drawing on a Cambridge Chemical Engineering degree and over a decade of one-to-one teaching. One tutor across the whole test, so the verbal half is never handed to an associate. Many students weight their plan towards one section based on their diagnostic; that balance is reviewed after each mock.
Are parents kept in the loop?
Yes. Parents receive short progress updates after mocks, and are welcome to join a review call at any point. You will always know the current score, the target, and the plan to close the gap.
