Elite Educational Institute of San Francisco

Great teaching! All the instructors are very serious about their teaching. My daughter has learned a lot from taking both the SAT bootcamp and private tutoring for subject test. David is great and so is Jeff.

I’m writing this as a junior at Brown University, having learning through Elite in high school. I had a wonderful experience. The methodology is effective because they create very short feedback loops between simulating a real test every week, and learning from your mistakes. Randolf is a great advisor– truly passionate about what he does and high quality and on top of the game (as were many of the other teachers– Jeff and Rada in particular!).

Whether it be tutoring, learnin’ SAT, or just plain studyin’ ELITE is the place for you! They don’t teach you gimmicks here like they do at Test Magic down the street, they teach you to fully understand the problem so you will do well on the real SAT. But its not all about sitting and learning, they try to make it fun and engaging so your not completely bored out of your mind and staring at the wall. Instead, you get to play lots of games (educational, of course) and actually have fun playing it. Obviously, if you don’t put some effort into ELITE, then your score isn’t going to jump that high but then again, no amount of SAT class ANYWHERE in the city will help you if your lazy (mines jumped around 300 points, and that was with medium effort – imagine what could happen if you put all your effort into it!).
Your going to need to do the homework they give you, and actually study it (not cheat off your friend 5 minutes before class) and listen in class. They give you quizes to make sure your doing well, and if you dont, then you’ll be sent off to Randolph. He might be intimidating at first, but he’s a good person who just wants to help everyone get into a good college. All the teachers are nice and teach with humor so its easy to relate to them. People just want to help you here, so don’t be afraid to ask them questions after class. If you come in the summer, they even have themed weekends where kids can show up in PJs or in costume. What other center has teachers that bake goodies for the kids (YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM).
If I had to go back to the beginning of my SAT PREP search (trust me, I researched ALOT on this stuff!), there would be no doubt that I would choose Elite again.

My stepson is a Jr in HS and we decided to register him in last summer’s SAT prep classes. He attended Saturdays for 8 weeks. In the first half of the day, he would take the SAT diagnostic test and after lunch, they would have the actual classes.
After the summer program was over, we re-​enrolled him until the October SAT exam.
When he first took the diagnostic exam, he scored in the low 1400s. By the end, he scored above 2000.
Throughout the summer program, his weakest area seemed to be his essays, sometimes scoring a 3 or 4 out of 12.
I’m proud to say, that in the actual SAT, he scored a perfect 12.
I was so impressed by his steady improvement in the program. It boosted his self esteem and he actually began to enjoy going to the classes to see how well he was doing.
I highly recommend this prep school.

Note: This review is based on the Elite Educational Institute located on Fillmore, when I took it back in ²⁰⁰⁵⁄₂₀₀₆. Apparently, they’ve relocated on Irving.
I’ve taken classes in the summer, fall, and spring of junior year. Skipped winter because I needed a break. Overall, I improved about 300 points from the first practice test to the final official one. Anyway, I like the format Elite uses. They give a full-​length practice test, minus that experimental section. Then they grade them, give them back to you before your individual section meetings with your instructors, and then the instructors go over the exam and a new lesson plan. They’re fast-​paced lessons, but helpful and you have to do your part of outside studying and the optional homework. Weekly quizzes in math and critical reading also push you to study more.
Oh what fun it was taking those exams on a Friday evening, in the cold classrooms, and listening to all the loud rap and hip-​hop music coming from the cars down Fillmore and in the Safeway parking lot nearby. I listen to hip-​hop and some rap, but preferably, not when I’m taking an exam as important as the SAT, even if it is just a practice.
SAT prep doesn’t come cheap. So make sure you get in and out as quickly as you can, while learning all the possible things you need to know before taking the real exam. Plus, Elite reused lesson plans when I was there — the lessons in the spring were the same as those in the summer. So don’t stay too long there, or with big gaps either.