“I am happy to provide a recommendation for Prepped and Polished, both for math tutoring and SSAT test prep tutoring.

Perhaps it would help to know first our circumstances.  My son also is in 8th grade and looking to apply to boarding schools.  We are New Yorkers (home in Manhattan) but due to my husband’s work have been living in Asia for almost 5 years (Singapore and Tokyo).   Prior to living in Asia my son attended a private school in Manhattan.

Our son has been working with Prepped and Polished since April/May 2013 via Skype.  Initially he did a two week cram session prior to his taking the SSAT the first time last April, 2013.  He has been doing weekly SSAT and Math tutoring since.  Our son is a strong student at school and gets consistently high grades.  Because our lives in the last five years have had much relocation and changing schools we found our son’s language arts and math curriculum to have fallen behind the levels being tested on the SSAT.

The preparation work has not only given him a big leg up curriculum-wise but has also made him more confident with taking the test.  Our son has taken the test twice and will take it at least once more (maybe twice depending on his scores).  From the first to second test he doubled his scores.  The biggest impact of the tutoring has been learning strategies, getting used to a very long and intensive test time as well as covering a lot of materials that is directly related to what will be on the test.

I can’t begin to tell you how much it helped to calm our son’s nerves his feeling more prepared for the 2nd test.  The math tutoring he is receiving has also helped with his math class this year at school even though they are covering different materials than his school class.

To date, we have had 3 different tutors from Prepped and Polished.  I am genuinely impressed with all of them.  These tutors keep the sessions moving and productive.  My son always has homework from the sessions and NEVER complains about either the homework or sessions. Rather he has asked for this support.

From my perspective, the fact that we’ve been able to work out the sessions via Skype half-way around the world is testament to the competency of the tutors and the flexibility of the overall management of Prepped and Polished.  They truly want what is best for each student to reach his or her best potential.

You can not begin to understand how wonderful it feels to have this kind of support from half way around the world! People in Asia (except Japan) sometimes do not understand client support/service the way we do in America. So to be able to have access to top notch tutors and people like yourself is like having a little bit of home with us here in Singapore.”