TestMagic Classes

TestMagic believes that the ideal class will help the student succeed while actually making her smarter!

As you may know, when many students study for standardized tests, they study things that are not truly relevant to their studies or their lives--students typically memorize word lists or do hundreds or thousands of practice questions, none of which will directly help somebody to succeed after the test is finished.

This type of study, while fairly effective, is exceedingly boring and usually results only in a higher score on the test, but does NOT actually help the student to become much smarter or help her to actually acquire the relevant knowledge and skills that will enable her to excel in her classes in the future.

TestMagic teachers are all career teachers, true professionals. We believe that it is within our power to create lessons that will both help our students to reach their full potential on standardized tests AND help them to improve their critical thinking skills.

Read on to find how we do this...

TestMagic teachers work much like the most dedicated university and high school teachers: We constantly monitor and refine our curricula so that they best fit the needs of our students. The curriculum for each class is custom-designed for that class.

For our Summer English classes, we are preparing a wide variety of material based on some of the books most commonly assigned in U.S. high schools. Our teachers essentially read the book and write questions for this book, keeping the needs of our students in mind. For this class we are preparing questions related to critical thinking and reading, to formal writing, and to the SAT I and SAT II tests. In other words, our students will be raising their test scores by studying literature and will be better prepared for their English classes!

It is always best to learn in context. Preparing these lessons for our students takes much more work and time than does teaching more traditional test prep courses, but we know that for these students, this approach will be best in the long run.

To learn why this approach is best for these students, read more...

TestMagic works with a small group of highly motivated young students who have the highest academic goals. Most of these young achievers attend private schools, but some attend public schools. These students are very active in their extracurricular activities and participate in a wide variety of such activities as sports, music, academic competitions, and volunteer work. Many of our young students also attend summer academic programs at Stanford, Berkeley, or Johns Hopkins.

We typically coach these students over the course of several years, with many of our students studying with us regularly until they finish their last test and admissions essay for the university of their dreams. Some of the students in this class will be taking such standardized tests as the SSAT, ISEE, and SAT-9 for admission to the most academically demanding schools in San Francisco. This class is custom-designed to help them to excel on these tests while improving their critical thinking skills.

Founded in 1998, TestMagic is a young, thriving school. We are sending more and more young leaders to great schools every year, and our students' success continues to grow. Our commitment to our students is evidenced in our students' success and happiness, and in the long run, by their improved sense of achievement, of satisfaction, and of self.

In this class, we will use classic works of literature as the basis of a class that will both help our students to learn to think critically while also providing them with the skills necessary to reach their full potential on standardized tests. As mentioned above, some of the students in this class will be taking such standardized tests as the SSAT, ISEE, and SAT-9 for admission to the most academically demanding schools in San Francisco.

The curriculum for this class will include focus on reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary. In other words, the students will learn to critique works of literature, to write clearly to develop their thoughts, to refine their understanding of formal written English, and to boost their levels of vocabulary. Various homework tasks will be assigned, including writing essays, reading the texts, and doing some vocabulary-building exercises.

Please visit this link for more information.