How do these potential delays affect my mentee? Updates to be aware of regarding possible deadlines Read more college admissions tips on our blog! Important Information Regarding May 1st Deadline Extensions! Because of what’s going on with FAFSA, students don’t yet have dependable information about financial aid from their schools. The Department of Education now anticipates beginning the release of 2024-25 FAFSA information to all colleges in batches, beginning in mid-March - but this will be a slow process with data initially only going to a few schools. Most colleges ..read more

  Take a look at this ED2 chart, including admissions info Watch my video for more insights and tips on early decision 2 Read about ED2 and more on our blog! Why is Early Decision 2 (ED2) right for you? “Why should I consider ED2?” Because you are so, so much more likely to get in when you apply Early Decision. Depending on the selectivity of the school, applying early can make it 5 times easier to get in. Take a look at these Ivy League ED/RD acceptance rate differences: Ivy League Colleges Overall Accept. Rate Regular Decision Accept. Rate Early Decision / Action Accept. Ra ..read more

   There are three methods of remembering: thinking, speaking, and writing. Writing is most effective because it’s the most permanent and it requires the most thought! Break down your schedule and work in manageable chunks! Find out more on our blog! How to Remember What You Learn: Writing and Chunking The three methods of remembering There are three methods of remembering: thinking, speaking, and writing. Writing is the strongest method of remembering. It’s fine to think about what you learn and it’s fine to talk about what you learn, but writing it down concretizes it the ..read more

   What is retention? Tip #1: show, don’t just tell. Find out more on our blog! How to Remember What You Learn: Modeling Retention is a cornerstone of our focus  we’re organizing our lessons and even when we’re thinking about structuring the questions that we’re asking during a lesson. It is one of our top priorities when it comes to providing the best education that we can. What is retention? Retention is the ability to hold onto information and I frequently say that, even if you knew all of the information in the world and the secret to happiness, what does it matter i ..read more

   We help our students connect what they know and see the big picture! True to our name, we lead our lessons with Socratic questions! Find out more on our blog! The More Students Think Critically, the More They Retain Critical thinking means seeing the big picture Critical thinking is one of the things that we care most about at SSA. There are a couple of ways to frame critical thinking. One is to zoom in and out, from the micro to the macro and back again. That way, for an idea, you're considering when you want to consider how it fits in the bigger picture and when you want ..read more

   We follow a 80/20 rule: teachers talk only 20% of the time, listen 80%! We ensure that, when our students are right, they know! Find out more on our blog! Talk as Little As Possible to Let Students More Actively Learn! The less teachers talk, the better! One key thing that I try to do: talk as little as possible. When I train new teachers, I talk about an 80/20 rule: the kids talk 80% of the time and I talk 20% of the time. Most of the time when I do talk, I’m saying: “Ok, what’s the next step? What’s the next thing we can do here?” So, I’m giving as little information as ..read more

   You have the knowledge; we’ll help you make connections! Our methods help to improve higher-order and critical thinking skills! Find out more on our blog! We encourage epiphanies in our students At SSA, we spend a lot of time trying to get kids to have an epiphany. So, assuming that they already know most of the things they’re going to need to know for the SAT (which they do!), our job is to help them figure out how to parlay those tools and how to understand them. Plato believed that all learning is remembering, that we already have all of the answers, but we have to disc ..read more

   We encourage a growth mindset! We focus on grit and resilience! To learn more, check out our blog! How Our Classroom Atmosphere Helps Students Learn One of the things that sets us apart is our belief in creating a positive learning space and the influence that that has on the quality of learning that kids are able to have. Negative thoughts and surroundings hinder the learning process of many students and actually make it harder for their brains to make new connections in the classroom; it inhibits learning! That is why we take extra care to make sure that our students bui ..read more

   We encourage two types of learning: Epiphany-Based and Exploratory-Based. Exploratory-Based Learning is about understanding when to use a given tool! Experientially-Based Learning is about understanding how tools are connected! Find out more on our blog! How to Remember What You Learn: Make Connections! Other cornerstones of SSA’s approach are experientially-based and exploratory-based learning. These sound like they’re similar (and they kind of are). Exploratory-based learning is all about discovering when a given skill is applicable, learning when a given tool will (an ..read more

   Check in with yourself and learn from each problem! Learn from your mistakes and prepare for future problems! Find out more on our blog! How to Remember What You Learn: Review and Go Back Checking in with yourself Another thing that’s important when solving a problem is to make sure that you leave time at the end to ask: What happened? What was hard? How is it different from other stuff you’ve done? How is it similar to other stuff you’ve done? What patterns do you see? What did you do here that we can apply to future problems? Looking ahead I always say that ..read more