About Coleman

I love math. I always have. Tie that together with how much I enjoy working with students and how I really like to figure things out and you have the perfect recipe for someone who finds a lot of satisfaction helping students figure out how to succeed on the math portions of the SAT and ACT.

As a middle and high school math teacher, I was always the one who, after my lesson, would immediately sit down and revise what I'd done based on the experience of my students. What worked? What didn't? My fellow teachers would laugh at me when I provided them with a revised copy in the afternoon of a worksheet I had created the day before. "What’s wrong with the one you gave us earlier?" "Nothing, but a couple of students were confused a bit by this, and I think this makes more sense here, so I think this version will result in greater understanding by more students. Let me know."

This has carried over to my tutoring and this website. What have I learned from working with students, and taking these tests myself, that works? What’s required to maximize the chances for a particular score?

Am I a huge fan of the SAT or ACT? No, not really, though I am a fan of some sort of standardized measurement in general (if it can't be measured, it can't be improved), and I certainly understand why many colleges use them. What I do like is that success on either of these tests is possible for any student if they have the necessary test-taking skills and are willing to practice and learn from their mistakes.

Let's see, what else:

• My BA (Economics) was earned at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and my MEd at Marymount University in Arlington, VA.
• I achieved National Board Certification (www.nbpts.org) in Early Adolescence Mathematics in 1999. When I moved back to Connecticut in 2003, I was the only one in the state with this certification.
• I've taught math in Virginia, North Carolina, and Connecticut.
• My SAT math scores when I was in high school were 630, 640, and 690. (I didn’t take the ACT.) As an adult, I've taken the SAT twice (750 and 740) and the ACT twice (32 and 35). You can read about my experiences taking these tests as an adult on my Blog.
• I thoroughly enjoy the fact that I learn something from each and every student I work with. It's amazing to me the different perspectives and ideas that students can have for a single math problem.
• In my spare time, you'll most likely find me outside: biking, running, and hiking when it's warm; cross-country skiing or snowshoeing when there's snow on the ground. I'm taking up triathlons with the goal of completing an Ironman someday.