To the Dark Side

I went in under the most noble of pretenses. It was for you, dear reader, that I drove over to the local Chyten test prep center to be able to report first-hand just what distinguishes them from all the other centers out there. Since I had yet to visit the other places, I had no benchmarks against which to measure the answers to my questions. This information will likely be more helpful later, once I can compare with Princeton Review and Kaplan, but for now, here’s what the good folks at Chyten have to say for themselves:

• Chyten tutors are oh-so-smart. All have masters degrees. All have teaching experience. All are trained in the Chyten methodology.
• For an additional price (roughly an additional $40 per 60-minute session, and $80 per 90-minute session) students can work with a Chyten senior tutor. Senior tutors work with Chyten full time, and have logged more than 2,000 tutoring hours.
• Tutoring takes place in Chyten offices, rather than in students’ homes. The thinking is that being outside the home environment helps the students to focus, and take the experience more seriously. It also has the added benefit of keeping tutor turn-over low, as they avoid the hassles driving to and from private homes.
• Pricing as of this writing: 60-minute private session: $145.00. 60-minute semi-private session: $100. (For rates for senior tutors, add price increases mentioned earlier in this post.)

Even though I just went in to Chyten to gather information, I feel myself starting to weaken. There is a reason my husband doesn’t let me near those “free” weekend time-sharing events. He knows that no matter how much I protest that I’d just go for the gratis vacation/dinner/microwave or whatever happens to be on offer, I’d wind up signing on the dotted line and telling him with shining eyes just how much we’ll enjoy an annual August getaway to the deep south.

To my credit (and my husband’s disbelief), I managed to leave without signing anything. I carried with me a handful of pamphlets and client testimonials and the caution that no matter how well A. did on the PSAT, the writing portion of the SAT could be a real stumper.