<p><a href=“Anthony Green Tutoring”>Anthony Green Tutoring;
<p>Where’s the level playing field?</p>
<p>Trophy wife. Trophy kids. Trophy tutor. Big Apple life. </p>
<p>.01 percent Big Apple Life!</p>
<p>I’m too kind of tired of this constant class warfare. So what if some one wants to spend $1000 hour for tutoring. Good for the tutor, not so much for the kid.</p>
<p>Hey if someone can pay $1k per hour for a fab tutor for their kid (and not miss the money), why should ANYONE care.</p>
<p>There will never be a level playing field…even when education is FREE, there are good and excellent teachers and sadly, there are lousy ones. The kids who luck out and get the excellent ones have a leg-up.</p>
<p>This shouldn’t annoy anyone. What about the thousands/millions of kids who have smart-educated parents who can provide free tutoring any day of the week?</p>
<p>While I think it’s rather foolish to spend that kind of money for tutoring, I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with it. So what if the wealthy want to throw exorbitant amounts of money at a tutor? It’s not like whatever he has to offer is not known to others. It’s possible for most kids to get some great tutoring or help for these tests without spending a lot of money. </p>
<p>My son taught test prep for Princeton Review. The example of the math problem given in the Business Insider is pretty standard test prep instruction. The journalist was not taught how to understand the math problem, she was taught a simple substitution strategy. That is, rather than using algebra to solve the equation, she was given the strategy of substituting a random integer for the equation, then using simple arithmetic to see which of the alternative multiple choice questions yielded a correct answer. Any basic test prep course will teach students when and how to use that strategy. It also can be found free on the internet in simple articles with basic tips (see tip #7)
<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;
<p>That’s not math, and it is not learning math. It won’t work in real life or in a college course because outside of the SAT, math problems are not solved by picking A, B, C, D, or “none of the above.” </p>
<p>It’s not in any way comparable to the Khan Academy problem or video the journalist chose to compare. You can see at a glance that the Khan Academy problem was far more complex, and the goal was different – teaching how to solve the problem, rather than how to quickly eliminate wrong answers on a timed, multiple choice exam. (On the exam, for most of the question, actually doing the math slows people down. </p>
<p>My guess is that Green’s business model is to sell books and software. He deliberately sets an exorbitant rate for himself because he doesn’t want to work directly with students – he wants people to buy his $300 on-line SAT prep course. See: <a href=“http://greensatsystem.com/order”>http://greensatsystem.com/order</a> </p>
<p>But setting a price that no one will pay is a great way to hype himself. He is “booked” 18 months in advance because he controls his calendar and availability - he certainly isn’t going to devote many hours a week of his own time to tutoring. He has essentially decided that he hates spending his time tutoring so much, that he isn’t willing to do it for any less than $1100 an hour. Then he puts a big banner his home page that says “sorry, I’m all booked up until 2015, but you can buy my course instead” – <a href=“http://www.newyorksbestsattutor.com/”>http://www.newyorksbestsattutor.com/</a> – </p>
<p>Smart marketing. Good hype for him. But who is actually buying his $1100/hour services? Obviously people who are extremely rich – possibly families who also come from a cultural background that is more susceptible of equating high cost with value. </p>
<p>But it’s doubtful that he’s offering much different what another parent might find hiring a $45/hour a tutor. His own web site says he teaches strategies and tricks – which is the model the other test prep outfits follow: <a href=“http://www.testprepauthority.com/guides/sat-prep-crash-course/math/”>http://www.testprepauthority.com/guides/sat-prep-crash-course/math/</a></p>
<p>The “stats” he hypes for himself (average improvement of his students) are impossible to verify but easy to manipulate given that he takes so few students – he’s in a position to screen carefully so that he only tutors the kids most likely to improve. </p>
<p>I would assume that the offspring of parents stupid enough to pay his prices may benefit from some tutoring, though perhaps critical thinking would be more valuable than test-prep. But I doubt there are very many of them. </p>
<p>My landlord in Brooklyn, a Harvard grad and also theater and music person, charges in the neighborhood of $400/hour (it was $250 but that was several years ago) for test prep tutoring, and he is booked up to the max. He didn’t even have a website until this year and has always had more work than he could handle, all generated by word of mouth.</p>
<p>When a woman we both know was setting up a college application essay writing advisory service, the above-mentioned guy told her that the more she charges, the more clients she’ll get, since that was his experience.</p>
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<p>It’s not in any way comparable to the Khan Academy problem or video the journalist chose to compare. You can see at a glance that the Khan Academy problem was far more complex, and the goal was different – teaching how to solve the problem, rather than how to quickly eliminate wrong answers on a timed, multiple choice exam. (On the exam, for most of the question, actually doing the math slows people down.<<<</p>
<p>All of that should be simple to anyone who understands that the SAT is NOT math test. It uses math (and English) to test … reasoning skills. And the CB says so in the latest iteration of the name of the test. </p>
<p>Solving the problem through mathematical acuity does take various routes. Some people like to call strategies … tricks or other pejorative terms. But again the test rewards logic, critical thinking, and concentration. </p>
<p>Despite the promise to align itself to the HS curriculum, the test will always remain a COMPLEMENT to the GPA and not a substitute. Hence its difference concept and application. </p>
<p>Fwiw, the Green guy seems to have done a great job at synthesizing the knowledge of many SAT experts and adding a PT Barnum twist worthy of the best marketers. He does seem to understand the test well and sell it to people who fall for the marketing BS. </p>
<p>There are NO secrets. </p>
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<p>That’s the reason that the playing field scoreboard isn’t level. </p>
<p>@oldmom4896 - you are right, that is standard marketing advice, up to a point. But I still think that Green’s availability is limited – based on his web site I’m guessing that at any given time he’s only got a couple of clients on his personal caseload. From his perspective, he can make a lot more money selling the online software. It is true that pretty much how high he goes, he’ll get business from the same kind of people who think nothing of adding another yacht to their personal fleet, or booking first class tickets to Paris for a weekend on a whim. If you’ve got money to burn, might as well go for the “designer” test prep. But if you think about it, the price set point for the online software is pretty low --priced under $300, which is about right to appeal to all the masses. Kaplan charges $299 for its online test prep package, so Green’s is clearly priced to compete. </p>
<p>I’m thinking that the downside for Green for selling software is lack of name recognition – why pay for the Green program when you can get the more well-established Kaplan for the same price? So Green creates hype for himself by making his fees into the story - but the net benefit is still marketing gimmick for the software. The guy isn’t booking a high volume of clients. Saying that one is booked up until 2015 isn’t going to address real need – that is, the parents of the high school junior with dismal PSAT scores can’t wait – they’ll call him and ask for a referral to another tutor. Who is going to book now for 2015? Maybe the same people who post at CC about getting their 6th grader into the advanced math track, except a whole lot richer? </p>
<p>calmom, in NY there are plenty–PLENTY–of people who will pay his price. Trust me on that. I think he is happy to take their money.</p>
<p>Yes, but my point is that if he is not “available” until 2015 that isn’t going to help the families who need the tutoring now. He says he is booked until 2015, but his web site actually shows an opening for this fall and two openings this coming spring. Also, he doesn’t really charge $1100 an hour – that’s his base hourly rate, but he only sells 21, 42, and 63 hour packages, and the rates are discounted with the packages. (He doesn’t say by how much, just that the more hours bought, the greater the discount). So that’s one more common marketing strategy – quote an inflated hourly rate, and then offer an attractive discount off that for the package. </p>
<p>He’s still probably going to net more money off the software package if he’s got a reasonable number of buyers. Let’s say the buzz from the Business Insider article yields 300 more signers, short term --that’s a pretty modest number of sales for the test-prep racket- and he’s probably already picked up a couple just off of readers lurking on this thread – that’s close to $90K in sales, no work for him. Of course that’s not net profit – he’s got the overhead entailed in hosting the software and someone to provide tech support- but the point is – that’s the money generator. </p>
<p>calmom, no doubt he does what he wants. I can tell you that I know some NYC parents that would definitely value his services more if they had to pay more. They wouldn’t bother asking for a discount; it’s chump change to them, and they figure that if they pay top dollar, the guy will be there for their kid when they need him to be there for their kid. That’s just how they are. (Not most of the NYC parents I know, but there are some that have crossed my path over the years!)</p>
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<p>For comparison’s sake, I then visit Khan Academy online and search for a problem with a similar level of difficulty: simplifying rational expressions. I click around and land on the following problem, with options on the right side for anyone needing hints.<<<</p>
<p>Fwiw, in case someone follows this part of the story, the advice of Green to the obviously clueless reporter is hardly a great one. Plugging numbers in this case is quite dumb and is a total waste of time. This is a straightforward problem, except for the confusing problem statement. It takes less than 10 seconds to solve and there is no need to test all five answers with an idiotic plugging in of an integer. </p>
<p>The example of Khan has absolutely NOTHING to do with the SAT problem. </p>
<p>I was told by a friend, that he has a friend who makes close to $1,000,000 a year tutoring the SAT to kids from wealthy parents.</p>
<p>I guess this person has a phenomenal reputation. </p>
<p>I was thinking of you xiggi when I heard the story. :)</p>
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I know plenty of really sharp kids who are natural high scorers w/o any prep or tutor. Maybe rich dumb kids need high-end tutoring to level the intellectual playing field. </p>
<p>“When a woman we both know was setting up a college application essay writing advisory service, the above-mentioned guy told her that the more she charges, the more clients she’ll get, since that was his experience.”</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I like that.</p>
<p>Good for the natural high scorers. Their parents don’t have to pay for $$$$ tutors, assuming they can pay for it.</p>
<p>My first reaction was; What a waste of an Ivy education? What happened to what he learned/majored at Columbia? I am sure that he got into Columbia helps him in his business. But the 4 years following the admission seem immaterial.</p>