Pilot offers SAT tutoring for 10

Attention all high school seniors:

If you are already chewing your nails over the idea of taking the

SAT this year, keep reading, because I may be giving you the best

news you’ve heard in a long time.

How would you like to be tutored in how to improve your SAT

scores, by a top-flight instructor, for free?

I thought so.

So keep reading -- which, by the way, is something you’re going to

need to get used to doing anyway if you want to pass high school and

go on to college.

With this column, the Daily Pilot officially launches a

back-to-school feature, in which we will offer free SAT training for

10 Newport-Mesa kids, two from each of the four public high schools

-- Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor, Costa Mesa and Estancia -- and two

from Sage Hill.

Here’s what you need to do to be considered:

E-mail to [email protected] f7a one-page essay about

yourself and your academic achievements. The first 20 students from

each of the five high schools who e-mail us between now and next

Friday, Aug. 19, will be thrown into a pool of participants.

Once we identify you as one of the first 20 students, we will then

ask for three more things:

1. A signed parental consent form (provided by us).

2. Proof of your most recent GPA.

3. A copy of your SAT scores from last summer.

Using these materials and the essays, we will then choose the two

students from each school who will get free SAT tutoring leading up

to testing in this fall.

So what’s in it for us, you ask?

In exchange for the free tutoring, we will ask the 10 participants

to agree to be interviewed for a front-page story and to write

weekly essays about their experiences. The essays will appear in the

newspaper, along with the students’ photos, each Tuesday for about

eight weeks.

We will follow your progress with stories and pictures from week

to week with the hope that in the end, your SAT scores will improve

from last year.

It’s as simple as that.

Who will be tutoring the students, you ask?

Joe Betance of Undergrad Industries will do the job.

As a freshman at UCI in 1994, Betance began working for the

Princeton Review, one of the top SAT preparation programs in the

country. He quickly climbed the ranks, according to his bio, and

became not only a tutor to the students but a teacher of tutors.

He’s now branched out on his own with Undergrad Industries, which

you can read more about ato7 www.undergradindustries.comf7.

So what are you waiting for?

Get those essays written now and e-mail them to

[email protected] f7by Aug. 19.

It’ll be fun and educational at the same time.

Really.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He may be reached at (714) 966-4608

or by e-mail at [email protected].