Tutors: High Test Scores High Fees

New York Times: "A slender fellow with a goatee and a mass of curly hair, Mr. Fisher, 34, still tutors students. Only today his students are seeking higher test scores - and his tutorials cost $375 to $425 an hour. Mr. Fisher is among about 100 tutors working for Advantage Testing Inc., an Upper East Side test preparation firm. He joined nine years ago, with no formal teaching experience but a master's degree in music from Juilliard and a Harvard physics degree, and is now one of the firm's most senior tutors...

Steve Feldman, a 23-year-old Manhattan resident, said that the three months Mr. Fisher tutored him for the law school exam prepared him well for the mental rigors of the law. Originally scoring in the 16th percentile, Mr. Feldman ended up in the 85th percentile. He was accepted to his first-choice school, Tulane University, and credits much of his success to his tutor's method and disposition...

"He knows the LSAT inside and out," Mr. Feldman said. "He would sit and watch me take a practice test and figure out, just by watching me, what I was having trouble with. Then we'd work on that until I had it down."
Though Mr. Feldman estimates that his two months of tutoring twice a week cost him "three-quarters of a year's tuition" (Tulane Law charges $33,000 a year in tuition and fees), it was worth it, he said.
"This was an investment in my future."