“When I first walked into Lee Academics, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I was failing math and all the other tutors I’d seen weren’t able to help me. I’ll admit: as I was going in, I didn’t have much confidence.

One year later, I am grateful every day that I took that leap of faith. Mamie is a godsend. There’s no other way to put it. I went from having a failing grade in my Algebra 2/Trigonometry class to receiving the highest grade on our final. Mamie’s effective methods of teaching and useful tricks pushed me to achieve. I could say that my favorite part of Mamie’s was the free food or joking around with friends, but that would be a lie. The best part of Lee Academics is Mamie herself. Not only is she an incredible teacher with a passion for the subjects she teaches, but she also is flexible with her timings, has just the right attitude for students, and incredibly intelligent.

Mamie’s amazing teachings not only led me back to her the following year but also for her SAT/ACT classes. While my friends were struggling to reach 1400’s and 30’s in their Elite and Excel classes, I was able to achieve a 35 on my first try on the ACT and 1520 on my first try for the SAT. Furthermore, the second time I took the SAT, with Mamie’s help, I only got two wrong on the whole test and achieved 1560, putting me in the top 99.8% in the world. To put this in perspective, I was in the top 3,000 test takers in the world, out of over 1.7 MILLION!

I am not an exceptionally smart or hardworking student. In fact, without Mamie’s guidance, I don’t know where my academic life would have taken me. But Mamie’s classes not only increased my scores; they increased my confidence. Mamie is the best teacher I’ve had, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have walked through her door on that chilly October night. Thanks to Mamie, I was able to focus some more time on my extracurriculars, leading me to achieve great things, including recognition as part of the top 100 speakers, writers, and activists in the world. In addition, I was top 30 in the nation for speech and debate. Most importantly, though, I was able to meet and interview former FLOTUS, Michelle Obama! If I hadn’t been taught by Mamie, I wouldn’t have had time to work on any of this. Thank you Mamie!”

The SAT and ACT were both daunting tests that (much like every other student in high school) I just wanted to get done and over with. My PSAT test scores weren’t promising and for the universities I wanted to attend, I wasn’t going to make the cut. Once I started attending Mamie’s classes, I found myself not only doing consistently better on the tests, but actually looking forward to the next class. I was improving in all areas of the SAT within the first couple of weeks of Mamie’s instruction. I was proud I was doing better and the SAT seemed a little less daunting. I would say the same about the ACT, and without the classes from Mamie, I don’t believe I would have been able to get a 35 or anything remotely close. I heard from my older cousins that their experiences with groups like Excel or Elite were extremely boring and lacked anything engaging. Mamie’s class was not only engaging, but entertaining and personal. Constantly, I found myself taking part in discussions about each test and learning more about how to take the SAT and the ACT. Lee Academics does not focus on memorization, but rather they strive on how to approach each question. The experience was world-changing for me: I could attend each class as it was built around the students’ availability, classes were not 5-hour death-marches only to forget it all at home, and the teachers are all fun and interactive. Lee Academics cares about how we do and strives constantly to better prepare us for these tests. Mamie’s two sons, Scott and Chris, both were enormously helpful too. My English skills were not the best going into these exams, but after my time with both of them, I wrote an ACT essay that was just shy of a perfect score. My sub-scores for English also increased dramatically. I honestly don’t know where I would be without this experience, Mamie’s class had taken me to a point where I have stopped worrying about the exams. Without a shadow of doubt, Lee Academics is the best possible place to go for SAT and ACT prep.

Our son, Geoffrey, attended Lee Academics the summer prior to his Junior year for SAT/ACT prep. He was not the kind of person who could have attended other SAT/ACT prep courses that were scheduled for 4 -5 hours every day. We knew this would have burned him out and it wasn’t a good balance for him throughout the summer. We chose Lee Academics because Mamie schedules her sessions around the students availability throughout the summer. Mamie is someone who teaches the students how to manage their time for the exam and to approach problems efficiently in math. She is focused, thorough and very even-keeled. She has a low stress style of teaching that benefits the students. Her two sons who are brilliant in the English/Reading/Writing portion of the SAT/ACT are entertaining and thorough in their lessons. Mamie slowly increases their stamina for focusing on the exams. By the time our son took the ACT in late August, he felt prepared. He scored a 35 out of 36 in his first take of the ACT. He jumped up by 200 points in his SAT  (based from his PSAT) and he was very happy with his results (his school makes them take the PSATs in 9th, 10th, 11th grade). His essay writing score which we, as parents, felt was his weakest section was just shy of a perfect score! We were truly surprised by the whole process and grateful to have found Lee Academics . Our son was actually happy throughout the summer while studying for his SAT/ACTs. He enjoyed attending the sessions. Lee Academics uses a critical thinking style more than rote memorization as an approach to taking the SAT/ACTs.

“I have been attending Mamie’s math tutoring for all my honors math courses from grades 9 through 12. High grades in math and science courses are important for applying to summer programs and internships. With her help in raising my math grades I was a better candidate for such programs, and during the summer between my junior and senior year, I landed a prestigious research internship at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA. Moreover, I am currently serving as Senior Class President at Mission San Jose High School and have several extracurricular commitments, so I really appreciate the flexible class timings Mamie offers in accordance with my busy schedule. Additionally, I attended Mamie’s SAT/ACT summer course during the summer before my junior year, and with her help I scored well above my goal scores in both the SAT and ACT. The main reason I would recommend Mamie’s course was because of the amount of personalized attention I received at Lee Academics. The small class sizes ensured every student received the attention they needed. Mamie spent time one- on-one with me and analyzed my mistakes and scores and gave helpful tips and tricks that I definitely used on the real SAT and ACT. With her years and years of knowledge about the SAT and ACT, her advice and guidance were extremely valuable to me. Moreover, Mamie was very helpful with keeping us on track in terms of completing the practice problems from our prep books, signing up on time for exams, and making use of her plethora of practice tests that she owns. With her thoroughly planned out timeline for us, we were completely prepared for the August SAT and September ACT, which took 2 things off my mind as I entered the hardest and most stressful year of high school, junior year. Above all, Mamie is a very kind and patient teacher who always put her students first, and I wholeheartedly recommend her math tutoring and SAT/ACT course.”

“When parents and students are choosing SAT prep classes, they generally consider larger prep companies’; courses, however, in my opinion, Mamie’s SAT/ACT class is superior to these classes for a few reasons.First, many prep classes have a 20-30:1 student-teacher ratio and students are confined to this classroom- like setting for 7 hours. Many students probably don’t like the idea of being in a school like environment for the entire summer, so they are probably less likely to learn to effectively, however with Mamie’s class, a smaller group of 10-15 students actively engage with Mamie/Scott, making it much easier to discuss tests and making it much more effective to learn. Also, since students are actively engaging with Mamie/Scott in this manner, Mamie/Scott are able to pinpoint student’s exact weaknesses whereas with prep companies students are forced to do 3 hours of math and 3 hours of English regardless of how strong a student is in each subject. Also, I personally feel that Mamie and Scott are more thorough with their test solutions. For example, when Mamie is going over the Math portion for the ACT, she frequently goes over 3 methods to solve a particular problem (eg. solving a problem with tricks, with a graphing calc, with school math, with calculus) and she engages with each student as it most relates with them. On the other hand, Scott makes his classes relevant by focusing on critical thinking in general, not memorizing countless words that students are almost certain to forget. Given the immense amount of work Mamie/Scott put into the SAT Class to personalize it for each student, it wasn’t surprising that my ACT jumped from a 27-35, and they were able to do this efficiently by being able to understand that Science was my weakest subject and as such directing me such that I improve my science score (I went from a 25-34), and not focus on the subjects I was already strong at (I went from a 35 in math to a 36.)”

“In the summer before my junior year, I enrolled in Mamie’s SAT/ACT summer course. Both of my older siblings had been in at least one of her classes, and they spoke very highly of her– after a few lessons, I understood why. Although I’ve never been in a prep class like Excel or Elite myself, I’ve heard stories from my friends. They told me it was very difficult to focus and enjoy learning when the classes were so boring and impersonal. By the end of it, they didn’t do as well on the SAT/ACT as they would have liked. In contrast, my experience with Mamie was nothing but delightful. I actually looked forward to going to her class. Both Mamie and Scott are good-humored and intelligent, and I really enjoyed attending their lessons because it isn’t just mindlessly listening to someone talk all the time; it’s more engaging and we actually have a laugh once in a while. Mamie has many tips and tricks to help you remember how to solve problems as quickly as possible, while Scott teaches the fundamentals of reading and writing, including grammar and comprehension. They know the subjects they teach like the back of their hand…Mamie and Scott will make sure you get all the help you need. After a proctored exam, they go through the test and always make sure everyone understands why they missed the questions that they missed. Scott and Chris go over students’ essays one-on-one, and give tailored advice on how to improve your writing and score higher on the essay. Everyone at this program really wants you to do the best you can do, and I am absolutely positive you will see results if you attend. On my first try at the ACT, I scored 35, but my SAT wasn’t as good. The summer before my senior year, Mamie offered me a spot as her academic intern and I took it. I went to classes for another summer while occasionally working alongside Mamie to teach the other students in small groups. I received a lot of help for interning for her, including feedback from Scott on my personal statements and a paid job that I could put on my college application. By the time I finished my second summer with Mamie, I had a 1540 on the new SAT and a very well rounded application. I applied to eight colleges (UCSD, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Berkeley, NYU, Hamilton, Williams, and Northwestern) and was accepted into all of them! Thanks to my academic record, I also got several rewards: UC Davis offered me a spot in their Honors Program, UCSD admitted me as a Regents Scholar, NYU invited me to join their Presidential Honors Scholars Program, and between the eight schools’ institutional aid, I was offered around $250,000. I really believe that all of this wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t met Mamie. She and Scott are great people and teachers that work extremely hard so that their students can thrive, and I highly recommend her for any of her classes!”

“Elite was very long sessions. Mine was during winter break 5 days of the week from 8 AM – 5:30 PM. In the morning I would take a full length SAT. Then took a break. Afterwards we would get our results back go over each problem that classmates got wrong that they needed help on. Then we would have lessons on math, grammar, reading, writing…The class was just cramming all the information in 2 weeks and I couldn’t really keep any information in. After class was over we had a lot of homework to for math, reading, grammar. The vocabulary we would get a giant packet and had to memorize 100 words or so and take a quiz the next day.

Mamie would break things down more and learn how to go about the problem. She taught us tricks and equations that would help. Also, telling us what types of problem will definitely be on the SAT. For the writing, Scott taught us what the basic outline how to write the essay. For vocabulary, he told us to break down the word and see what it sounded like and if it was in a negative, positive or neutral. For grammar, he told us to read the sentence out loud and put in the choices and see what sounded better. For reading, Scott taught us to think like he does. He had us read passages out loud and he explained what each part was. During the SAT test, I could hear Scott directing me as I read the passages.

For Elite, I only up my score 100 points than before and after I took Mamie’s SAT class I up my score an additional 200 points.”

“Lee Academics is truly one of the most helpful educational institutions I have been a part of. At first, I was reluctant to join, but I soon realized the error of that mentality. One main difference I noticed between Lee’s Academics and school/other preparatory classes is that the instructors don’t try to re-teach lessons- they find unique and special ways to understand concepts more efficiently. In their pre-calculus class, I was able to raise my grade significantly purely because of the methods I learned in Lee’s Academics. Mamie would literally tailor the lesson to my teacher’s exact curriculum. I also enrolled in the ACT/SAT course and Scott was stellar at explaining and guiding the students through problems. The critical thinking and logical reasoning skills I learned from these courses helped me in my college applications as well. Many of Lee’s Academics’ instructors have gone to top colleges, including Ivy League. I have to honestly say that a large part of my college application success is attributed to this institution. I have been accepted into Loyola Marymount for Economics, all the state schools, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and the University of Pacific with a $18,000 a year scholarship. I have already committed to attend UCLA in the fall in the major Pre- Business Economics. I strongly recommend Lee’s Academics to anyone who needs any sort of help in their studies.”

“Before my junior year in high school I was debating as to which SAT prep class to enroll in, which would be the best for me, as well as the most cost efficient. We’ve all heard of Elite, Excel and such but to be completely honest there’s a lot missing in those classes. Based on my experience with other test prep centers and Lee Academics’ SAT/ACT test prep sessions, I can strongly suggest why every student should enroll with Lee Academics. The biggest reasons are that the class sizes are significantly smaller with about 10-15 students per session (Usually morning and evening sessions). This way everyone is getting individualized attention. Along with this Scott always allocates time specifically for the English portions of the test. The second reason is thoroughness. Mamie goes through every problem with detail and a consistent procedure, where as other test prep centers will only hand you solution guides. The most important reason to consider Lee Academics’ Test Prep is because of the raw tricks and strategies. Mamie and Scott teach several methods useful in both the SAT and ACT tests. You will learn that every problem has a more time efficient and easier way to solve, in all sections of the test. Some tricks are as basic as process of elimination or more precise such as recognizing patterns in the test questions, which aren’t taught by other prep centers. I’m not an exceptionally bright student but in a matter of four months I was able to boost my SAT score from 1800’s to 2200’s range, and my ACT from high 20’s to a 34. With Mamie’s help you can do it too.”

“The summer before my junior year in high school, I attended a summer program with Excel for the SAT and ACT. I didn’t feel like I learned a lot from the program, seeing as the teacher for each lesson changed. The lessons were always 2 hours long, and most of the time was the teacher droning on about how to solve a specific problem. The lessons were held twice a week, and we would take a full-length SAT test over the weekend. We would get our results back, but we would never go over the problems that we missed or had trouble with. We went over all of the subjects in a span of 8 days, or 16 hours. Because the timing was so cramped, I never had a complete understanding of each topic. We were assigned homework after each lesson, but it was mostly for the vocabulary, which we had to memorize. After these lessons, I took the SAT and the ACT and ended with scores that I wasn’t proud of.

The following summer, I took the SAT and ACT class with Lee Academics. There are many significant differences between Excel and Mamie’s Boot Camp. For math, Mamie not only taught us how to solve certain problems, but some tricks to get to the solutions faster. She taught us how to think our way through the problem instead of just showing us how to do it. With Mamie, we would practice so many tests that at times it seemed boring and repetitive, but it really stuck with me.

While Mamie taught us math, her son Scott taught us English. We learned how to write our essays. The basic techniques and format for the essays, what to do and what not to do, and what the readers would want to see. For vocabulary, he had us break down the words instead of memorizing them. He would have us explain our thought process by asking us if we thought the word was positive, negative, or neutral. He would ask us if we knew any of the prefixes or suffixes and we would try and figure out what the word meant from what we already knew. For grammar, he taught us how to use process of elimination to get to the answer. For reading comprehension, Scott taught us to closely examine reading passages by looking at specific wording. And he advised us to read more.

At Mamie’s, we took a full-length SAT or ACT test every weekend. After getting our results back, we would actually go over the problems that we had and Mamie or Scott would help us through our confusion. Scott would sit with us one by one and look over our essays and tell us what we could improve on and what we shouldn’t do the next time.

After taking Mamie’s class, I took both tests again, and although my SAT score didn’t improve by much, my ACT score bumped up 5 points (335 SAT points), which is a huge improvement.”

I’m currently a senior in high school studying Multivariable Calculus. I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with my current workload if I didn’t have Mamie’s help in strengthening my foundation in BC Calculus. I started seeing Mamie during the final weeks of my first semester in junior year. I never had to use a tutor before, so I didn’t know what to expect or whether or not the tutoring would help. However, as after I attended the first few sessions, I began to understand concepts that I previously didn’t, through the power of repetition and tricks to prevent minor and major errors. Because of Mamie’s help and expertise, I was able to score improve from a low C to a B in the final weeks of the first semester, to an A in the last semester and a 5 on the AP test. During the summer of 2018, I also decided to attend her SAT and ACT class. Along with about 10 other students, I studied under the tutelage of Mamie for math, and her two sons, Chris and Scott for English and Science. What differentiates Mamie and her sons from teachers that I’ve had is that they actually care that you learn and get better scores. Whenever I would score lower on tests, Mamie would make herself more available so that I could come in for personalized help. She would advise when to take the SAT tests and how to take full advantage of the College Board systems regarding sending tests to colleges. Mamie goes above and beyond by using her expertise to both teach for the present and advise for the future.

“I took Mrs. Nicholson’s ACT prep class summer of senior year. I originally scored below average on my ACT, and I knew I had to shape up my score in order to be competitive for college admissions that upcoming fall. Not only did she improve my score drastically, but she taught me the ropes and ladders of the ACT. Mrs. Nicholson, along with her son who taught the English portion, provided me with a plethora of resources and was able to answer any question I brought to the table. Mrs. Nicholson knows all the tricks and tips of the ACT. I highly recommend her course as she knows exactly what content will be covered on the exam, as well as how to thoroughly explain the concepts.

So far, I have gotten into SJSU, UCI, UCD, UCSD, and UCLA. I couldn’t have gotten into these schools without Mrs. Nicholson!”

“Mamie and Scott’s ACT/SAT program has been one the best academic experiences I have gone through outside of school. To be quite honest, I have learned a lot more with them in the short span of time given than in the majority of the my public schooling classes comparatively. They are generally realist and will give any information you need directly instead of sugar coating or dancing around the solution, which is very helpful for absorbing whatever material you need as quickly as possible. A lot of skills they teach branch off to help in academia beyond standard testing in which I found that to be the most invaluable about the program. Mamie and Scott are also very understanding and empathetic towards students and this genuinely gave me a great environment to learn in.”

“I feel as though Lee Academics was the perfect balance for SAT/ACT prep. Unlike other programs which have 5 hour classes with practice tests each week, this program gave us more flexibility with a few shorter classes throughout the week with different focuses (math, English, writing, science, etc.). As a student athlete, this was very helpful for me. In addition, I appreciated the fact that we went through questions together, so we could ask for clarification when needed. With the help of this program, I was even more motivated to prep on my own as well which ultimately paid off since my ACT and SAT scores increased by quite a bit and I ended up getting into a variety of universities. I was accepted into the nursing program at SDSU (direct admission), CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, and SJSU. I was accepted into Azusa Pacific University with the presidents scholarship ($18,000/year), University of Nevada-Reno for nursing, University of Washington for nursing, and University of San Francisco for nursing with a $22,000/year scholarship. I was accepted into UC Davis for biological sciences, waitlisted at UCSD for human biology, and waitlisted at UCI for nursing. I’m very grateful for the help I received at Lee Academics!”