Degree
B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) in Theology, Georgetown University
Years Experience
Tutoring the SAT, ACT, PSAT, and SAT Math Subject Tests and providing academic writing coaching since 2012.
About Samuel
Samuel graduated cum laude from Georgetown University with a degree in Theology and completed a 120-page honors thesis about human flourishing that was awarded distinction. While at Georgetown, Samuel sought out multiple teaching and tutoring experiences: he taught SAT and ACT classes, co-lectured and graded student work as a Teaching Assistant for Georgetown physics classes, and helped undergraduate and graduate students with academic papers and job applications as a Writing Coach at the university writing center.
While in high school, Samuel was a National Merit Commended Scholar and an AP Scholar with Distinction. He earned a 5 on the AP exams for European History, U.S. History, English Language, Calculus AB, Psychology and English Language exams while scoring 4 on the AP exams for Calculus BC, Biology, English Literature, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.
Samuel has continued to sit for the official SAT in order to maintain the quality of his tutoring, scoring a 1570 and 1560 on the post-2016 SAT and a 2350 on the old 2400 exam. His high school ACT score was a 33, with a 35 on the ever-feared Science section. Throughout his career in test prep, Samuel has personally taught or tutored over 500 students and has overseen programs for an additional 500.
While tutoring, Samuel strives to make sessions as entertaining as test prep can reasonably be: he once rewarded students with donuts when they tweeted pictures of solved SAT problems with the label #hackthetest (his favorite hashtag). Beyond spicing sessions up, his main goal is to communicate to students that expertise in standardized testing is primarily a function of learning strategies and devoting time to practice — meaning that anybody can do it and students shouldn’t be intimidated. By demonstrating how to see through the exams’ tricks and #hackthetest, Samuel raises students’ confidence as he transfers skills and content, all while giving them a chance to poke fun at what most consider to be a lame hashtag.
Noteworthy Accomplishments
- Samuel has scored in 99th percentile on each section of the official SAT multiple times, and earned perfect scores in the Math and Writing sections of the test.
- Samuel previously worked as Hiring Director at a DC-area test prep company, where he hired and trained more than 60 SAT/ACT instructors.
Fun Facts
- Because his test prep schedules have overlapped with Halloween weekends, Samuel has taught SAT/ACT classes in costumes such as Superman, the wizard Gandalf, and Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.
- Although Samuel’s hometown of Huntington Beach, CA is “Surf City USA” (going so far as to sue for that copyright!), he fled to the East Coast and later to Europe without ever having surfed.