Summer term
June to August

Our SAT Critical Thinking course description: In this course, we will sharpen the essential reasoning skills that students need to succeed in high school and beyond. We will develop their abilities to read passages quickly and efficiently, identifying which parts are most important. We will also teach students to approach texts as critics, and not simply passive observers, showing them that understanding what an author is trying to do is only a starting point, and that true comprehension involves being able to identify the author’s successes and failures. We will place a heavy emphasis on logic and mathematical reasoning.

This description can be used for college applications and college summer programs. I routinely write letters of recommendation for students stating that they participated in a critical thinking course with Lee Academics. Our Critical Thinking Course will teach students to think with the medium of SAT questions.

Lee Academics SAT Critical Thinking Course (120 hours) includes:

  • 60+ instructional hours of lessons.
  • 36 office hours.
  • 8 proctored exams
  • Makeup lessons as needed
  • Access to 60+ real College Board SAT exams. It is highly advantageous to study many exams.
  • Access to 8 books of SAT questions from former released exams and practice questions.
    • 1 SAT Reading book with level 2, 3 and 4 passages – 68 passages, 200 pages
      Students can build reading skills with level 2 and 3 questions. When students are ready, they can go on to level 5 questions.

      • Science
      • Social science
      • History
      • literature
    • 1 SAT Writing and Language Use book of level 2, 3 and 5 passages – 57 passages, 204 pages
      • Informative
      • Narrative
      • argument
    • 2 SAT writing and language use books with questions by type (968 questions, 404 pages total)
    • 4 SAT math books by type – (1208 questions, 752 pages total)
      • The heart of algebra
      • Problem solving and data analysis
      • Passport to Advance math
      • Additional topics in math

Reading, English, Science

  • Critical reading section – introduction to and procedure for each of the segments
  • Critical reading (more in depth) – analyzing and deconstructing difficult passages with the intent of improving general critical reading skills as well as attempting to define words by context alone.
  • English section – grammar, rules and tips.
  • The test – How to read the test makers. Lee Academics teachers can answer questions on the SAT critical reading sections with more than 50% accuracy without reading the relevant passages. Our teachers can also get close to 50% correct without even reading the question based on certain tells.
  • Essential guessing and test taking strategies (no scoring penalty for the SAT).
  • Basic Introduction to the SAT – What it is, time periods, how it’s graded.
  • SAT science passage – How to analyze and interpret scientific passages, charts and graphs.

Lee Academics SAT Critical Thinking teachers:

  • Mamie Lee Nicholson: My math students will have the extreme advantage of working with me on the SAT math. I already know your math skill level. I know your school math books and teachers. I will know how to teach you the SAT math based on our math experience together and my vast experience with the local school districts books and teachers. Many of you are already familiar with my style of teaching. Some of the other prep companies have multiple math instructors teaching different topics in math. Learning various teaching styles can be confusing. As in my math tutoring prep courses, I have a plethora of material to draw from to teach students concepts for the SAT. Additionally, based on a student’s school, teacher and percent earned in the math class, I will know that student’s ability level. For 3 decades, I have taught students from many of the bay area tri-city schools and private schools. Additionally, Lee Academics has also taught SAT, ACT, math, philosophy courses and Pathways to College for the James Logan High School forensics team with Dr. Tommie Lindsey. I am so fortunate to do what I love every day. I love teaching math and talking about education. It is amazing to wake up each day and shine light to those in “math darkness,” to be able to build students minds, to promote education. I am so privileged to work with so many great students, parents and educators. Many of my students become my friends. Thanks for the great adventure.
  • Scott Nicholson: Scott started teaching SAT for Lee Academics as a sophomore in high school. Many of his SAT and ACT students attribute their success on the English, reading, writing and science to Scott’s teaching. Over his years of teaching, Scott has developed methods of teaching to make reading comprehension easier for students. Some students report being able to hear Scott as they take the SAT or ACT exams. Scott had a 4.7 GPA at James Logan High School. In Scott’s high school junior and senior years and as a Lee Academics instructor, Scott taught SAT/ACT at James Logan High School for Dr. Tommie Lindsey’s speech and debate team. Scott attended Rice University with a 4-year half tuition scholarship and a 2-year research fellowship before returning to California for medical reasons, finishing his degree at UC Davis. Scott is a National Merit Finalist and received many full-ride scholarship offers.
  • Chris Nicholson: Chris graduated from Yale Law School in 2013. He is currently a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, where he has taught several classes. In the 2017-2018 school year he took a break from his studies to serve as an instructor teaching philosophy and law at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Alabama; one of his students was recently accepted to Harvard Law School. Many credit him with improving their LSAT scores by several points, especially on the logic games section. Lee Academics is proud and fortunate to employ a highly skilled, trained and educated instructor. Our students will benefit from being taught by a graduate of top universities. Yale Law School enrolls 200 students annually and has been ranked number one every year by the US News and World Report. The University of Michigan’s philosophy graduate program is ranked fifth in the world by the Philosophical Gourmet Report and enrolls about five students each year. As a high school speech and debate competitor Chris won and placed highly at numerous tournaments, competing in parliamentary debate, public forum debate, extemporaneous speaking, and impromptu speaking. Chris coached for the James Logan Forensics Team for five years after high school. His students have won the California state championship and reached the final round of the national championship. As a Lee Academics instructor, Chris taught SAT/ACT and philosophy at James Logan. He has coached the Pioneer High School ethics bowl team in Ann Arbor for three years. His A team reached the quarterfinals of the Michigan state championship in February 2019. His B team defied expectations and went 7-0 to win the state championship.
  • Jessica Nicholson: Jessica graduated from UCLA. She was accepted into UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Davis and many top universities. Jessica received full ride offers and many great merit packages. Jessica taught math from age 13 and came up with “The Jessie trick” for graphing. She noticed a pattern while graphing and taught it to me. Jessica was using “a, h, k” transformations long before common core made is a part of many chapters. She did not graph with routine “T charting” until precalculus when her teacher required it. Jessica taught 2 groups of 6 physics and honors physics students while she was a junior in high school. Most of her students received A grades. As a Lee Academics instructor, Jessica taught at James Logan.

Advantages of SAT test prep with Lee Academics:

  • Our instructors will teach students to understand words. We teach students to break up words into components.
  • Students will learn how to analyze the meaning of these vocabulary words.
  • Most classes are 10-15 students
  • During some lessons, multiple teachers will with various individual students and/or small groups of students. A teacher will work one on one with a student, while second teacher works with the main group. A third teacher may work one on one with another student or with a small group, specially going over the students’ questions.
  • Our teachers will go over student’s mistakes so that they can learn the concepts missed. This will be done individually, small groups or with the main class.
  • We will use many practice SAT questions in our Critical Thinking Course. We will go over your questions. For the math, Mamie will teach you the background math of each problem. This will help students to do problems of similar topics.
  • Mamie has extremely detailed knowledge of the SAT. Mamie teaches all math/SAT/PSAT/ACT/AP calculus. Mamie is familiar with the teaching styles of many local math teachers. Based on who a student’s math teachers have been, Mamie will usually know about a student’s math knowledge level.
  • Mamie will teach tricks and shortcuts to make math problems easier.
  • Geometry is a foreign language to some students. Mamie will teach the geometry necessary for the SAT test.
  • Mamie will teach a math logic in class. Some SAT problems can be logic based.

Many of Lee Academics SAT students do very well on their first try at the SAT. Work hard. Aim high. We will help you to get the score of your dreams.

SAT Critical Thinking Course cost and discounts – Please email for details.
Group rates are offered for students registering for a SAT Critical Thinking Course with concurrent enrollment of students new to Lee Academics.

Sample homework and calendar email – Homework emails will be sent periodically with assignment.

SAT 2019 homework, week 4 and 5 assignment – sent on July 10, 2019

College Board book – Scan all tests answers from your bubble sheet onto the College Board website.

Here is the link for the bubble sheet. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat-practice-answer-sheet.pdf

Bring your Scantron to class and your phone if you need help inputting your Scantron on your phone for College Board to score. If College Board has scored your exam, mark the ones that you missed. Put your score on top for English and math. Bring a copy to leave at lessons. Your homework tests scores will be added to your personal Lee Academics scoring sheets that was emailed to each of you and your parents.

  • Chapters 20 and 21 – Due Wednesday, July 17 week 4. Do problems here: https://www.khanacademy.org/sat
    As you miss questions, Khan Academy will send you fresh problems like the ones that you miss. You want to keep
    practicing until you perfect a concept. You can do 20+ problems on a single problem type until mastery is achieved.
    Work on this for one to 2 hours a day as time permits. Many of the College Board math concepts are algebra 1
    based (in the algebra 2 book as well).
  • Chapters 6, 7, 8 – Do the practice problems online. (Assigned before week 1.)
  • Chapters 9 and 10 – Do these practice reading and writing test online. (Assigned before week 1.)
  • Test 3 pg 1081 – Due Monday, July 22 week 5. Do this exam is you have mastery on chapters 6-21 in the SAT book.
  • Test 8 and 9 from week 3

Released Exams assigned/covered so far:

College Board released tests

  • 2018 May Asia (proctored on 6-30-19)
  • 2017 April (proctored on 7-9-19)
  • 2016 March – in class work (reading)
  • Test 8, 9
  • SAT writing and language use by topic: book 1
  • SAT math book by topic: books 1 and 2

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