Our Services

ACT & SAT Prep

We work with students to determine which test they perform better at naturally and then come up with a study plan. We recommend sticking to either the ACT or SAT and taking the exam twice during the middle and last half of Junior year. This allows students the option of taking the test again before their applications are due Senior year.

At Tete-a-Tete, we start by diagnosing areas for improvement by methodically reviewing practice test results. Once we know the types of problems that students struggle with, we fill in both gaps in knowledge and discuss strategies for improvement. We run pacing drills in session until students can intuit the time required so they don’t rely as much on “watching the clock” during their examinations.

Students we’ve worked with have gone on to attend UT-Austin, Harvard, Boston University, Connecticut College, and MIT, among other universities.

ISEE & SSAT Prep

Our approach to the ISEE and SSAT mirrors in many ways our approach to the ACT and SAT. We want students to, more than anything, feel completely comfortable with the structure of their chosen test. With these types of exams for younger students, as opposed to the ACT/SAT, there are content areas students have yet to be taught in school. We slow down around these areas (in Math or English) and go into full teacher mode, as opposed to review mode.

We also recommend students aim for taking the ISEE or SSAT twice if possible. The ISEE can only be taken once per “season”, so parents will need to look at application due dates and coordinate a good time for a second exam if they go that route. The SSAT is easier to retake quickly, so students who have test anxiety or are behind schedule might do better with that exam.

College Essay Writing

Admissions officers read essay after essay, rarely giving them more than five minutes of their time before coming to a judgement. We emphasize the need to not only display writing skills and precision with the writing sample, but the need to entertain. Drawing on our background in creative writing, we use different brainstorming exercises to focus in on what personal story students feel most drawn to and how to make that story compelling.

We guide students through exercises and by showing them other writing we admire, but we don’t inject our own writing into these pieces at any point and believe it’s best if parents also resist the temptation to heavily edit college essays. With precise feedback instead of micromanagement, students are able to develop honest essays completely unique to them.

Tete-a-Tete maintains a close working relationship with Write Well Brooklyn, run by novelist Ashleigh Pedersen, for college essay work.

We work with students on strengthening their writing not only in English class, but across humanities and social science courses as well. We teach students to become critical readers of the work of other authors and their own work. It’s important to emphasize to young writers that revision is a natural part of the process and that the more you revise, the better your first draft becomes the next time around.

Beyond working with students who need help with research papers or persuasive essay format, we also love to work with young authors looking for feedback on their fiction, poetry, or personal essays.

We’re available to help out students with Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus. We’re happy to prep students for their Calc AB and Calc BC AP exams. At Tete-a-Tete, we try, when time allows, to discuss the reasoning behind why a certain concept is true. This foundational support helps students connect concepts in one class to the next and provides a backbone when problems increase in difficulty from year to year.

Being teachers ourselves, we understand how hard it is for students to effectively plan out their school weeks as they’re asked to take on more and more work. For kids with ADHD/ADD this can be an especially daunting task. We work with students to break down assignments into smaller chunks, making them more manageable. We also help students develop strong study routines that they can rely on and teach them how to prioritize tasks in order of importance. Additionally, we often utilize color-coded schemes and work in more visual references for students who benefit from those study strategies.

While we’re happy to help with organization, prioritization, and planning, the social-emotional components associated with learning differences can often be best supported through therapy. Please reach out to us for recommendations for counselors