November 30, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Hiller guarantees 200-point hike in SAT ‘game’
by LOU PERSEGHIN

J. Avery Snyder, founder of Educational Services in Wyndmoor, guarantees a substantial increase in any student’s score in the SAT “game.”

J. Avery Snyder, founder and director of Educational Services, doesn’t need a hook or shtick to draw in business. Only a few minutes after arriving at the Wyndmoor branch of the ES offices, this writer, who is certainly not a Ph.D. candidate in higher mathematics, was, under Snyder’s direction, solving the hardest-level SAT problems, and doing so with ease — and a few tricks.

(As for his problem solving methods, Snyder asked me to go off-the-record. He didn’t want to give too much away, I guess, despite the fact that the methods are mostly common sense.)

Since founding the test preparation service in 1979, Snyder has helped students from high school and beyond on their tests. He even guarantees results. The best advertisement we have is word of mouth,” explained Snyder. “We guarantee at least a 200-point increase [in SAT scores] and averaged a 241.1 point increase per student last year.”

Snyder sees the SAT system as a game, a necessary hurdle on the way to higher education, and revels in the knowledge that with his experience, and the experience of the instructors in the three Educational Services offices, kids can find success and move up.

“What interests me is getting people into school,” said Snyder. “It really isn’t academic; it’s a game. From the student’s point of view, it’s stressful and totally unfair. We try to make it easier for them, and anything we can do to raise scores, we will. We rarely strike out all together.”

Snyder has a wealth of tricks and experience to draw from, and many of his instructors are former students who, after finding success for themselves post-college, returned to help prepare other students for the SAT “game.” Activities such as the ‘not so scary vocabulary party,’ which Snyder hosts for his students and interested friends, reinforce in a group setting the things that students learn in the traditional one-on-one setting of ES.

The busiest time of year for Snyder and ES is from July through October, when high school juniors and seniors are looking to get a leg up on their SAT studying. ES helps all test-takers, though, so a constant stream of ACT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, SSAT and PSAT candidates makes ES a year-round business.

Snyder founded ES after leaving a job at the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont on the Main Line, teaching English Lit, Creative Writing, Algebra I & II and Geometry. He noticed a degree of improvement in the scores of students he tutored, and spun that tutoring into what has been a full-time business ever since. The main problem, said Snyder, is that people do not start studying for these tests early enough, often beginning to focus their energy after the winter break instead of during September or October.

“We suggest they come to us in the summer following their sophomore year,” said Snyder. “That way they can start early and do well on the PSATs and hopefully win a national merit scholarship.”

Generally, Snyder said, when PSAT scores come in, the phones start ringing, and students start coming in. He stressed that while the service is very expensive ($4,990 for 24 hours of instruction), the guaranteed 200-plus point improvement in score that accompanies course could conceivably have an effect on the amount of financial aid and scholarships a student receives when entering college. The 200-point guarantee is actually a minimum; in some cases even more of a point increase is guaranteed.

“It amazes me that a game that is this silly and can be learned this quickly has the amount of clout that it has, not just on admissions and financial aid, but on how a student feels about himself,” said Snyder.

Find Educational Services online at www.prepwithes.com. Their Wyndmoor office is located at 8200 Flourtown Ave. and is reachable by phone at 215-233-4555.