In June Bobby came to the Ridgewood, NJ Huntington seeking help for the Cooperative Admissions exam (COOP), in hopes that he would gain admission to Don Bosco Preparatory High School, a private, Catholic boy's high school. Test-taking was not one of Bobby's strengths. After much preparation and hard work, he scored well on the COOP and got into Don Bosco Prep.

In September 2009, his sophomore year, Bobby decided to get an early jump start on preparing for the SATs. He felt that Huntington Learning Center could help him achieve his goals and overcome his test-taking fear, and completed an initial evaluation. He got a 1350.

Bobby's confidence slowly grew after just a few months of attendance. He enjoyed coming to Huntington very much, which was obvious from the big smile he wore every time he walked through the door. However, when baseball season started, Bobby's schedule became busier and scheduling became a challenge. It was hard for Bobby to juggle his honors classes, baseball and SAT prep. Math was also starting to become difficult for Bobby. Since he was just a sophomore, we decided to put SAT prep on hold and switch to subject tutoring for math.

With the help of his math tutor, Bobby increased his math grades and his confidence seemed to grow. During the summer of 2010, Bobby returned to SAT prep, attending eight hours a week. His hard work was clearly paying off—his next practice test showed a big improvement with a composite score of 1540. After a few more practice tests, Bobby was ready for the real SAT in March 2011. He went into the test very confident and excited.

Bobby scored a 1500 out of 2400. He knew that he could do better, and decided to continue with SAT prep courses and retake the SAT in October. His next score was a 1650 (Critical Reading: 520, Math: 590, Writing: 540) on the October test, his highest score yet. Since then, Bobby has been coming back whenever he needs help with math (he's maintaining an A average). He was also very excited to tell us when he got his first college acceptance letter to Seton Hall University—and also received an $18,000/year academic scholarship. Bobby is still waiting on his first choice school, Fordham University, and we know we'll be one of his first phone calls when he hears from them. We are so proud of Bobby, a student that became a fixture here at the center these past four years.

FROM: Bobby