Two WHS Alumni Return to Teach SAT Prep

When Wakefield Memorial High School alums Katarina Ng (’08) and David Wilson (’10) graduated from WHS and attended Cornell and University of Chicago, they didn’t think they’d be back within a few short years.

“It feels weird to be back in high school and not sitting in the student seats,” said Ng, 21, “but I’m excited to be teaching at WHS because that’s where I was prepared to go to college.”

Ng and Wilson, 19, have returned to their alma mater through an internship program with Revolution Prep called Ivy Insiders that seeks to put students who were successful at the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) back in the classroom – this time, as teachers.

“I didn’t take a class myself, but I prepped so much on my own and learned so much about it that when I finished the test, I thought, “What am I going to do with all this knowledge?” said Wilson. “I really like working with kids who are just about to go through what I went through.”

Although both Ng and Wilson aren’t majoring in education in college - Ng is majoring in chemical engineering at Cornell, and Wilson is leaning towards an economics major at University of Chicago - both have experience in tutoring their peers from their high school years.

Ng said that because test scores are in part based on how many people you do better than, private schools that already have a culture to prepare intensely for the test may have an advantage from the get-go.

“Those people may not have any more merit than someone from Wakefield who has just never heard of prepping,” said Ng. “We want to show students that it really is possible to get into a good school and not settle for the score they get the first time.”

The Program
This particular program, which teaches the Revolution Prep material, boasts an average increase in score of 250 points on the max 2400 point test. The course consists of 11 days of instruction and testing – six classroom days and five practice tests, each from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., which runs at a cost of $599. There are also programs available with four additional private tutoring sessions for $899. However, scholarships and financial aid are available.

How to Sign Up
Two 11-day sessions remain this summer, with one running from August 1st to August 15th, and one from August 15th to August 29th. The pair will also be offering a free SAT workshop this Wednesday, July 27, from 1:30-2:30 p.m.  Students must register in advance for the free course.