What it costs · Palo Alto, since 1997
$400 a session, billed after it happens.
Stated plainly, because you should be able to work out whether this is for you before you pick up the phone.
Before any of it, a free two-hour session
A diagnostic plus time to see how your student works, then a call with you both. You will get a written proposal with a real number for your student — and you can stop there.
Book the free diagnosticor call (650) 575-5867
The rate
$400
per two-hour session, billed after the session happens
Most students work through about ten sessions. The written proposal you get after the diagnostic names a number for your student rather than an average — and that number is a ceiling, not a price. Finish in seven and the last three were never bought. Reach the ceiling without reaching the result and the sessions carry on, unbilled.
There is one rate. A‑Game Access™, the tactics, the frameworks and the score guarantee are inside it, not sold alongside it.
The guarantee
The ceiling works in both directions
Your written proposal names a number of sessions. You can pay less than it — sessions are billed one at a time, after each one happens, so finishing early simply stops the billing. You cannot pay more than it: reach the ceiling without reaching your result and the weekly sessions carry on at no additional charge.
It is not a refund and there is no claims process. Nobody rules on whether you were satisfied; you say so, or you keep coming.
The reasoning behind it — and why there is no homework requirement attached — is on the overview page.
What you are not asked to do
Most of what makes test prep expensive is the commitment structure, not the teaching.
- No package purchased up front. You are not buying twenty sessions in March to be used by June.
- No obligation after the free diagnostic. Take the two hours, take the written proposal, and decide.
- No charge before the work. Each session is billed after it has happened.
- No homework, ever. The work happens in the room where it can be watched.
- No handoff. The person you speak to is the person who teaches every session.
Questions parents ask about cost
Why two-hour sessions rather than one?
Because the patterns that decide a score — pace, second-guessing, the last twenty minutes — do not appear in fifty minutes. There has to be enough time under the clock for the real problem to show itself.
Is there a discount for booking a block?
No, and deliberately. Block pricing exists to lock families in before they know whether it is working. You are billed for what you use, after you use it.
What if we need to stop partway?
Then you stop. There is nothing purchased in advance to unwind.
How does the guarantee actually work in practice?
The diagnostic and the written proposal establish what you are both aiming at, and the session count in it is a ceiling. Get there early and you stop paying. Run out of sessions before you get there and they continue at no additional charge. It is a conversation, not a claims process.
Start with the free session
Two hours, no charge, no obligation afterwards — a diagnostic test plus time to see how your student works, live on Zoom. Then a separate call with you both to go through the results.
Book the free diagnostic