Prior to meeting with Marlee, I had been belligerently convinced that I didn't need help with the Reading and Writing sections of the SAT. I had always been a "word kid" rather than a "math kid", and figured I would just figure it out on test day. However, I am so glad I decided to book
my first session with Marlee. At first I thought I would just be hearing the same things I have always heard: read the passage and write notes, study vocab, learn your grammar rules, etc., but I was very pleasantly surprised.
Marlee started our session with just getting to know me as a person and test-taker. Even after the first hour I felt comfortable enough with her to ask any question I needed to or to laugh about the (sometimes ridiculous) subject matter of reading passages. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Marlee's strategies and approaches were unique and could be tailored to fit me specifically. She was very honest and upfront about what I needed to do more of to be successful and what I could skimp on based on that.
She helped me have confidence in myself going into the Writing section, and after our last session before the test (we ended up having three or four) she gave me a straightforward plan for what I should be focusing on the most as the test approached. As for Reading, which I've had a slight penchant towards but have never been great at, (I got a 59 on the PSAT which is equivalent to a 590 on the real deal, and had been scoring pretty low 600's on practice tests) Marlee made sure that I knew I had potential and showed me exactly how to manifest it. Her strategy of reading-not-reading the passages, which I was at first a bit skeptical towards, ended up being my saving grace. When I mentioned it to my friends, they all haughtily remarked that it was ridiculous or risky...until
I ended up with an 800 on test day.
Overall, both my Writing and Reading scores are exactly where I needed to be, and despite what I initially thought, I definitely wouldn't have gotten there without Marlee. She was a great person to meet with and learn from, and I would recommend her to anybody who has even the slightest potential to score high in reading/writing (which is everyone).
Thank you so much
Wavelength and Marlee!