Students Get a Jump on College Testing with Alan Sheptin

Nervous teens and their parents were put at ease with Alan Sheptin's workshop introducing the PSAT, the SAT, and ACT.

"When some kids here the words ACT or SAT, they think it's this big mean machine," says Alan Sheptin, who founded of to a small group of John Jay High School students and parents at the Katonah Village Library Wednesday night.

Sheptin's presentation described the different aspects of all types of college testing, methods of preparing and even the college admission process.

The attendees, sophomores, juniors and their mothers, wrote down key points of Sheptin's presentation. Although it was early for the two younger girls to start the process, "it's a beautiful time to start easing into this," said Eileen McDonald, of Cross River, who attended with her daugher, Mallory, and incoming sophomore at

Sheptin, a Goldens Bridge resident, said what sets his tutoring sessions apart from other companies such as Kaplan or Princeton Review is the fact that whether he is teaching in a small group, a classroom session, or a private session, "we are very student-focused and student-centered."

Sheptin differentiates his groups of students based on ability. He strategically splits his SAT students into three categories of "2000 plus"— students looking to break the 2000 point mark; "maximizers"—students looking to generally increase their previous score and the "fundamentals," or students who need to understand the basics of the SATs. 

"There's no point teaching to the middle, when you have students at the top and students at the bottom," Sheptin said, adding that putting students in groups with similar academic abilities is more efficient. 

Sheptin holds his tutoring sessions in rooms of local churches and synagogues—which is economical for him and it is a way to revenue for local places. 

"It’s a way for us also to support the community," he said. 

However Sheptin's students are not all local by any means. The bulk of his clients are from schools in Northern Westchester like Fox Lane, John Jay, and Horace Greeley in Chappaqua, but Sheptin is receiving more students from Briarcliff and Yorktown, and even some as far as Putnam and Fairfield Counties.

With 14 tutors who are experts at teaching for the SATs, ACTs, NY Regents Exams or general help in classes, Sheptin said finding the right match between tutor and students is guaranteed.

At the end of the approximate hour and a half session, the parents of the John Jay students left feeling very relieved, with their questions answered.

"This was definitely a good start, I feel like I'm ready for the next step," said Regina Jones, of South Salem, next to her daughter Sarah, 15, who attends John Jay High School.

Sheptin works with students as early has 8th grade preparing for NY Regents Exam and as old as college graduates preparing for the GREs for graduate school.

Because two out of the three workshop attendees are repeat clients, Sheptin knows that he can help out his students in a different way then other tutoring companies by helping the nervous students feel comfortable with what they're doing. 

"As they work through the test and get more experience with someone calm, they feel like, 'Hey I can do this, I'm confident, I did my personal best,'" he said.