FAQs

General

Education these days is intensely competitive. Student’s need top scores in standardized exams and gifted exams to get into top universities. Gifted exams (Olympiads, SHSAT, Hunter, etc) are just very hard and the material and techniques needed to do well in these exams are never covered in any regular school, and hence all students need test prep for these exams. While standardized exams are lot more easier than gifted exams, even smart students need test prep for standardized exams (SAT, ACT, SAT Subject, AP, SSAT, etc) to ace them. We have had many smart students who took standardized exams preparing by themselves and scored only in the 80-90th percentile range. However, after prepping with ClarityEd these same students took the exam second time, and they now scored in the 99th percentile. What changed? Given sufficient time, may be few years, smart students can ace the standardized exam. Unfortunately, the school system and social environment make smart students extremely busy and doesn’t give them this kind of time. ClarityEd PhD faculty have spent decades dissecting the exams, understanding the types of questions being asked, tabulating the frequency of question types and developing strategies to solve questions at lightning speed. We have refined the methods for managing short exam times and stress level. Also, we teach techniques necessary to memorize complicated formulas, avoid careless mistakes, and much more. When students join our program, they get all these benefits in just few months of time with us, and as a result they achieve top scores.

Ask them the following questions and see their response, you will be surprised!

  • What is Noether theorem?
  • What are Quaternions and how are they related to Pauli matrices?
  • What is the relation between Eucledian geometry, affine geometry, inversive geometry and projective geometry?
  • Is \( \sqrt{(1)^2}= 1\) ? Is \( \sqrt{(-1)^2}=-1 \) ? \( \sqrt{(1)^2} = \sqrt{1} = \sqrt{(-1)^2} \), so 1 = -1. Is that right?
  • Prove that \( e \) is transcendental?
  • How are real numbers defined?
  • What is the value of \( i ^ i \)? What is the value of \( i ^ {\sqrt{2}}\)?
  • Explain Lebesque integration / measure theory to a smart grade 10 student?
  • What is the volume of a sphere in a n-dimensional world?
  • What are Godel incompleteness theorems?
  • Calculate \( \sqrt{32041} \) without using a calculator or guessing? We teach our grade 7 kids this method!
  • What is Feynman-Kac formula and how is it related to financial derivatives pricing?
  • What is Hamilton Jacobi Bellman equation?
  • What is the Green’s function for the heat equation in 1D?
  • Write down the Einstein’s field equations and an exact black hole solution of it?
  • Derive the shapes of orbitals (s, p, d, f) of hydrogen atom from quantum mechanical Schrodinger equation?
  • Write the structure of D-glyceraldehyde?
  • How many chiral centers are present in tetracycline?
  • If I had had enough money, I would have gone to Paris. Is this sentence wrong and why?
  • What are gerunds and infinitives?

Most test prep company founders have minimal or no academic qualifications, have at the best a masters degree and/or are graduates of second-rated universities. ClarityEd is founded by a professional academician who is #1 university graduate, PhD and top university professor. For more details, please see ClarityEd Leadership.

The earlier the child starts the better the results will be. Unless the foundations are built strong, the child cannot do well later, as in math and science everything is progressive and builds on the last concept. We recommend starting in grade 3 or even earlier.

Our rates are very competitive and have the lowest P/Q (price/quality) ratio. Pricing depends on class level (school, college or university), level of difficulty of the material, time frame of commitment, faculty experience level, effort involved, class size, economic factors and others. We also offer pricing based on base fee + performance fee. The latter is tied to improvement in a student’s score. This is basically a “short call option” for you, to those of you who understand finance.

Private High Schools: Loomis Chaffee school, Westminister school, East Catholic high school, Northwest Catholic school, Cedarhurst school, Hotchkiss school, Avon Old Farms school, Salisbury school, Ethel Walker school, Choate Rosemary hall, Pomfret school, Watkinson school, Greenwich county day school, Suffield academy, etc

Public High Schools: Longmeadow high school, East Longmeadow high school, Simsbury high school, West Hartford high schools, East Granby high school, Granby memorial high school, Windsor high school, Enfield high school, Enrico Fermi high school, Farmington high school, Glastonbury high school, Avon high school, Manchester high school, Manchester regional academy, etc

Colleges and Universities: Yale, UConn, Univ of New Haven, Brown, CCSU, MCC, Trinity, St Joseph, Univ of Rhode Island, Babson, UMass, Dartmouth, Duke, Columbia, Stanford, NYU, SUNY, Princeton, UMCP, George Mason, Rutgers, Tufts, George Washington, etc

Harvard, Wharton, Kellog, Insead, London School of Economics, MIT Sloan, Stanford, Cornell, JHU, Princeton, Yale, Brown, NYU, Columbia, UC Berkley, UMich, Dartmouth, etc

At the beginning of each class students take a quiz on the material that is covered in the previous class. This is followed by students submitting homework assigned in previous class and then collecting the graded homework that they submitted in previous class. The students then ask the faculty questions that they may have from previous classes and clear up confusing issues. The faculty then teaches new topics and works out few sample problems. The students then do additional sample problems as classwork. At the end of class, faculty assigns homework. During the last week, we have full week of mock exams and discussions. Each day, the mock exam is in the morning and the discussion is in the afternoon.

Yes, we do offer online live meetings in 1-1, small group and classroom settings. Please see Online Meetings >

For ELA & Math and ESL classes we give diagnostic test to place the student in a class that is at their intellectual level. For other classes, SAT, SHSAT, Hunter, AP, etc, we do not give a diagnostic exam , but the students take a short quiz or answer few questions at the beginning to give faculty an idea of the pace he/she needs to teach at. The faculty starts teaching from scratch.

Each format’s features are listed below. Please select the appropriate format that best fits your preparation needs.

feature ExpressiExpressCompleteiCompletePrem.iPrem.Pvt.iPvt.
fast
detailed
small group
no travel
individual
customized
flexible times
score guarantee
* Some of the above class formats may not be available for some exams. Please check.

Students don’t need to purchase any books. All books and materials will be provided by ClarityEd at no additional cost. For SAT class, the materials are around 3000 pages.

Usual acceptable methods: cash, check, online bank transfer, PayPal, debit card, credit card and ClarityEd gift card. More details about the available payment options are provided during the billing step of checkout. We provide zero interest financing, in eligible cases.

Our classes are reasonably sized and will facilitate good interaction between student and faculty. The faculty knows the students by their first names, answers all the student’s questions and takes personal interest in the progress of each student.

Learning and exam scores depend on many factors beyond the test preparation or tutoring period, and all these factors are not in ClarityEd’s control. Those factors that are in ClarityEd’s control, ClarityEd will guarantee results. That is, if the student attended all the classes punctually, has not been late to any class, if Private or iPrivate program has not cancelled or rescheduled any class, attended each class completely, paid full attention during each of the class lectures, cleared up confusing topics, finished all the homeworks and exams assigned to the student by the requested time, has been in good health, has no mental or family problems, if Private or iPrivate program has worked with ClarityEd for at least 20 hours, the exam was of usual difficulty level, took the exam to the best of his/her ability, took the standardized official exam within 30 days of finishing the classes with ClarityEd, and still the student’s score/performance on the official exam has not been higher than the student’s score/performance on the same official exam, most recent, before joining ClarityEd, ClarityEd will refund the full money paid or let the student retake the same class with ClarityEd at no cost to the student whatsoever. For the guarantee to apply, the student must provide official proof for each of the above things and request for a refund in writing within 7 days, that is, ClarityEd must receive within 7 days, after the exam result has been announced.

Yes, if needed. We charge for the travel time.

Please check your spam folder, as some email clients software may erroneously send legitimate emails to spam.

Testimonials from our past clients can be found here (Read Testimonials >). Because of the work and time involved in doing this–you, we and our past clients are all busy–references are provided with a nominal application fee of 100$ per reference. References can be contacted via the phone. For long term contract (at least a year and 2 hours per week), references are provided for free, meaning the application fee paid will be used towards the tuition of the client’s last class with ClarityEd.

All of our faculty are extremely qualified and lot of them have PhD degrees from top ranking universities. Our faculty are very busy, and don’t have the time to talk on the phone with every prospective new client. If you still want to talk to a faculty, we provide 15 minute phone consulting for 100$. If you visit one of our physical locations, you may be able to talk to them in between the classes for free.

The logistics involved and the busy schedules of our faculty will not permit that. If you want, you can pay a fee and sit in one of the class, assuming there is space left.

In the past, if you like answering concise and precise math questions, then SAT is better. If you like reading graphs, tables and more descriptive science questions, then ACT is better. After the recent 2016 changes in SAT, there is almost no difference between SAT and ACT.

For Express, Complete, Premium and iPremium products, go to the respective test prep exam or tutoring page, add the product to the shopping basket and checkout online. For Private or iPrivate products, please fill eForm or call us, as they involve custom variables. We will setup the program and email you the details shortly. Enroll Now >

7 AM to 11:59 PM. If needed, any time of the day too (24 hours).

Money paid cannot be refunded, unless we cancel the class.

All our courses must meet a minimum enrollment to be offered. Courses that do not meet minimum enrollment number will be cancelled or rescheduled to a later date. If, for any reason, a course is rescheduled, you have the option to either receive a 100% refund of your course fee or take the same course at a nearby location.

During the school year, it is hard to find a big chunks of time to prepare for the standardized exam, as the student will be busy with homework, exams, sports, club activities, etc. The best strategy is to prepare in the summer and take the exam in the summer or beginning of the fall. The next best time is after the Christmas holidays. So, start in summer of Sophomore year and take exams in fall or/and winter Junior year. The student should plan to finish all the exams by the summer of junior year.

It depends on the exam, score you are aiming at and how busy your schedule is. We recommend start preparing 12 months to 2 months ahead of the official exam date: SAT and ACT (at least 2 months), SAT Subject Tests (at least 2 months), AP Exams (at least 6 months) and Olympiad Exams (at least 12 months). Note that any amount of prepping is better than not prepping at all.

Our top faculty are booked well in advance. We take reservations up to 1 year in advance and we recommend booking one year in advance. Once you get a confirmation from us, you are assured of the time slot with the faculty.

We provide need-based scholarships to students from low-income families that are highly promising to attend our test prep classes. The student must submit a copy of his most recent grade card, an essay (200 words limit) on why he/she deserves the scholarship and contact details. We may ask for additional things. You should email them to ClarityEd Scholarships well in advance (Contact Us >). The scholarship is solely based on our judgement.

 

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