She's Helping Them 'Beat the Test'

Cailin Clements is working this summer to help Barrington High School juniors and seniors prepare for the SAT and ACT tests.

The 2010 Barrington High School graduate recently finished her first year at Cornell University – as in Ivy League. Now she is tutoring high school students and offering practice tests that, on average, “can raise SAT scores by 260 points,” she said. 

Clements, 19, led her first practice exam in the library on Wednesday afternoon. Others will follow. It’s part of a three-week package that can be done day or night. 

Clements is working for Revolution Prep’s “Ivy Insiders” summer program. The 10-year-old company competes with other well-known “test-prep” firms like Kaplan and Princeton Review. But it’s the only one to use Ivy League students as instructors.

Clements, a biology major, was selected to offer this program in Barrington because, well, she did very well on both the SAT and ACT tests while at the high school. She "beat the test" in other words.

“It brings top-notch college students back to their hometowns to start their own SAT prep and tutoring businesses,” said Clements, who learned about Ivy Insiders from her roommate.

She was selected to return home to Barrington to take the place of a Brown University student who did it last year. Then she went through an SAT “boot camp” to get her up to speed.

Clements will spend most of her time tutoring students one-on-one, she said.  Each student will have different skills or weaknesses that the program is designed to address. 

She starts off by giving a diagnostic test to create a starting point for each participant.

“I assign homework as well,” she said with a laugh – not the most popular part of the program.

Clements typically will meet with students in the library or at their homes. Individual sessions run from 60 to 90 minutes.

“It’s very flexible,” she said.

She can be reached at cmc349@cornell.edu or 401-215-3593.